High gain on amp causes computer to reboot

[stingerman1]

I've run into an issue where if I turn the gain up on the sub of the wetsounds amp, it causes the computer to reboot. I would have to believe that when engineering the boat, loud music (yes, I have it cranked, but not to the point of distorting) would have been taken into consideration.

1. Has anyone else experienced this?
2. Am I expecting too much?
3. Would the addition of a power cap assist with this.

I'm pretty satisfied with the wet sounds gear overall, but hope I can overcome this particular issue.

[chpthril]

What amp model and woofer model are we talking about and what computer is rebooting? Yes, excessive gain can cause an amp to go into protect mode, which is a self preservation mode. No, gain is not a volume dial. Correctly setting the gain will likely stop the amp from wanting to save itself.

[KoolAid]

Maybe the battery is going bad or it doesn't have a high enough discharge rate. What year and model is your boat?

[stingerman1]

I get the gain is not a volume knob, but when you need a little extra low end, need to bump it up a little. As far as make/model of AMP, don't know other than its wetsounds it isn't clearly listed anywhere that I can easily see. What I can say is its definitely not putting the amp into protection mode. When I took delivery of the boat the AMP would go into protection mode almost instantly. Tested out the sub and found that it was showing 1 ohm. Hmmm.. seems a little odd. After some digging, found the negative leads for the sub and another channel were swapped making things unhappy. I was really pleased with the sound after that, until of course I started noticing the boats touch screen rebooting (not the amp).

2015 Z1

Seems a little soon for batteries to go bad, but then again anything is possible. I figured these boats were designed to crank up the audio, after all we're not dealing with low end gear.

Just over 100 hours on it so its pretty clean still.

[surfsup]

I get the gain is not a volume knob, but when you need a little extra low end, need to bump it up a little.

Amp gain level is a set it and forget it. Once its set correctly, you dont adjust back and forth from song to song.

When I took delivery of the boat the AMP would go into protection mode almost instantly. Tested out the sub and found that it was showing 1 ohm. Hmmm.. seems a little odd.

Ys it is odd as the OEM woofer is 4 ohm. If its measuring 1 ohm, the woofer is bad. Now, regardless of how the woofer is wired to the amp, its nominal impedance will not change, its still a 4 ohm woofer. However, taking this measurement with the woofer wired to the amp and the amp powered up, can result in a false reading.

After some digging, found the negative leads for the sub and another channel were swapped making things unhappy.

Sounds like you are describing that the woofer was wired in bridge mode across two corresponding amp chnls. This would be the correct wiring configuration. Changing it would result in a power reduction to the woofer of 3-4 times. In this scenario, one might see a need to turn the gain up in order to compensate for the power reduction. This can cause power draw of the amp to go up. This is hard on the amp, hard on the woofer and could result in a voltage sag at the helm.

I suggest having the woofer properly tested, have the amp gain tuned properly and then inspect the battery and charging system.