Stereo install woes

[spharis]

Looks like you are close to solving it, but I will interject a couple of points.

1. The West Marine relay you are using has a 30A rating on each circuit.
2. Buss-bars suck, go to the battery or add a distribution point. Even a lug would be better.
3. Never use the remote antenna (usually blue w/stripe) if you have a dedicated turn-on as it more than likely will turn off when you put a cd in.
4. Remote turn-on leads (usually blue, no stripe) are very low amperage. If driving more than 2 turn on circuits, use a relay.
5. Try to be sure if you have to cross your signal leads with power leads, you do so at 90's. This will prevent most interference.
6. On a run of 4-6 feet, you could ue 8AWG and be fine. 8AWG can carry 200A safely (~380MAX) at 5ft.
7. Use as short of wire as possible. Using 4AWG at a short run will cause more interference than using 8AWG for a similar length. The larger the cable, more resistance there is, and the more apt to absorb interference as well.
7. Run your battery turn on and main power lead on seperate wire entirely if possible. I have had issues with ground loop using the same wire.

[jleger98]

Actually the 4g wire I have that I planned all along to use from the batt is actually from a pair of jumper cables that I found on sale. Very weatherproof, stranded cable. That should work nicely.

[akdoc]

Wow, this is a long post. I will also say to not run anything to your ACC switch, you are going to get a ton of interference once you get the boat running. I made the mistake of doing that and had to rewire the amps. Use the remote turn on from the head unit. Also, as suggested somewhere in this post ground your head unit back to the battery, that is another source of interference. Good luck.

[philwsailz]

On my boat, the batteries are only about 4 or 5 feet from the amps on the port side in the storage compartment.

As far as where I get the wire, Lowes is close, and they have a huge variety. If its rubber coated, stranded, and big enough, I'm not sure its a big deal.

For that short a run, pull wire for each amp separate; less connections that way...


I hope we figured this one out!!!!!!

If not, you know how to get in touch...

[jleger98]

How far is the battery from the amps?

On my boat, the batteries are only about 4 or 5 feet from the amps on the port side in the storage compartment.

As far as where I get the wire, Lowes is close, and they have a huge variety. If its rubber coated, stranded, and big enough, I'm not sure its a big deal.

[philwsailz]

Then the one I'm thinking of is correct. Its blue with a white stripe.
Is there any issue with the HU switch wearing out? I think I read that could happen.

Not really; that is the correct way to do it, regardless...

[philwsailz]

Where did you find that? as mine were factory refurbs they didn't come with a manual.

www.kicker.com

There is a good owner's manual section there:
go to SUPPORT
then TECHNICAL SUPPORT
then MANUALS
Pick your amp series, and then the language you prefer to read the manual in, then the specific amp you are curious about It will open as a .PDF file.

[philwsailz]

All this certainly could explain the issue.

Yeah, maybe so, the voltage is showing up, so the amps are not turning off, but you are severly curent limited in the relay.


As for the question re: buss bar vus. distribution block: I do not know the answer totally for sure, not without being able to take a look athe buss bar and it's capabilities, when compared with a distribution block.

The nice thing about distribution blocks is that when properly assembled and utilized, most are pretty insulated from short circuit possibilities; a lot of buss bars I have been around are not. that is fine really for the ground side, but definitely a no-no on the power side, (sorry Steven, you can't convince me otherwise).

How far is the battery from the amps? Wait, I remember, the batteries on a Tige are to port in the engine comnpartment. Hmmm... The wing nut at the battery is attached to a pretty good distribution lug; it is called the battery post. If you insist on using wire from your home supply center, it might be easier to find 4AWG than 0AWG there too... Despite the fact that the stuff you are buying there is not really what you ought to be using... If you wanted to completely remove the distribution block from the equation, just use option 1 above and pull unique power and gronds for both amplifiers back to the battery, each with its own fuse.

[jleger98]

Get to your owner's manual, and determine which wire is the remote turn on lead; really, you should have one and it is probably blue.

Then the one I'm thinking of is correct. Its blue with a white stripe.
Is there any issue with the HU switch wearing out? I think I read that could happen.

That is the wire which should be connected to the tiny lug between the power and ground connections on the amplifiers.
I am going to try to post a pic from the 650.4 owner's manual:

Where did you find that? as mine were factory refurbs they didn't come with a manual.

[dogbert]

Just for the record, I used a premium Rockford Fosgate wiring kit. The power/ground was 2/0. The ground was only like 1' long, so I had to get a 2/0 battery cable made.

Better safe than sorry with electricity.

[philwsailz]

The remote wire on the stereo should be blue, or blue with a white stripe. Some radios (SONY) have a remote turn on lead AND a power antenna lead. In the old days these were interchangeable, but with SONY, occasionally I get to hear of stereos working fine with the radio on, but when a CD is inserted, the amplifier(s) shut off.

Get to your owner's manual, and determine which wire is the remote turn on lead; really, you should have one and it is probably blue.

That is the wire which should be connected to the tiny lug between the power and ground connections on the amplifiers.

I am going to try to post a pic from the 650.4 owner's manual:

[Razzman]

Let me throw this into the mix if i may and whether or not it helps i haven't a clue but i'm wired 4g off of the battery to the dist block and 8g to the amps. The two channel Orion has one 30amp fuse and the four channel Orion has dual 30amp fuses. The system sounds awesome without power issues or noise at all, running or not.

[jleger98]

OKAY...

ZX650.4 pulls 80A and is to be wired with a min. of 4AWG
ZX400.1 pulls 40A and is to be wired with a min. of 4AWG

Two options:
option 1:
Pull TWO positive power wires and TWO ground wires, ALL 4AWG from the amps to the battery. Use a 100A fuse for the 650.4 and a 50A fuse for the 400.1

option 2:
Pull one 2AWG or 0AWG power wire and one ground wire the same size. Fuse the power wire at 150A right next to the battery. Use two distribution blocks, one for the power and one for the ground to split the large primary power and ground wires down to 4AWG.

HOLY CRAP!! I didn't think there was that much power running to them things. I guess I need to revisit the wiring section at Lowe's eh? Is the dist block even neccessary then? Could the same be acheived with a connecting post? (assuming an inline fuse)

The routing through the relay is certainly part of the problem, maybe not all, but a large chunk of the problem. Get that thing completely out of the power wiring; it is just a fire waiting to happen... If youi want to use it for the remote lead, that is fine, but it has no business in the primary electrical circuit...

That thing is gone.

All this certainly could explain the issue.

[jleger98]

Two comments:

1. I have the same setup, but my HU has an additional output for turning on the amps, so I don't have to wire the amps to my accessory switch. I'd be worried about the switch being able to handle the amps your amplifiers will draw.

2. So, if you can do the same thing with your Kickers, I'd say no.

I'm not sure if my HU has that or not, I'll have to look. It has a "remote" wire, but I figured that was for a wired remote. Either way, that would have to run to the relay still, right?

Still a little lite. The guy I bought the amp from told me that I needed to make sure the ground is substantial enough to avoid noise. I'd match the cable you used to power the amps, of course, if you're still running all power from your ACC switch and you haven't upgraded the + from the battery, you have other problems.

Keep in mind that you want as little resistance as possible. Skimping on power/ground wires is silly, especially given the $$ you spent on the components. IMHO.

I'll have to revisit this.

Just curious, what guage wire are you using in your diagram?

I believe 8, maybe 10g.

[philwsailz]

OKAY...

ZX650.4 pulls 80A and is to be wired with a min. of 4AWG
ZX400.1 pulls 40A and is to be wired with a min. of 4AWG

Two options:
option 1:
Pull TWO positive power wires and TWO ground wires, ALL 4AWG from the amps to the battery. Use a 100A fuse for the 650.4 and a 50A fuse for the 400.1

option 2:
Pull one 2AWG or 0AWG power wire and one ground wire the same size. Fuse the power wire at 150A right next to the battery. Use two distribution blocks, one for the power and one for the ground to split the large primary power and ground wires down to 4AWG.

The routing through the relay is certainly part of the problem, maybe not all, but a large chunk of the problem. Get that thing completely out of the power wiring; it is just a fire waiting to happen... If youi want to use it for the remote lead, that is fine, but it has no business in the primary electrical circuit...