Stereo install woes

[jleger98]

The relay contacts may weld together or burn up and not make good contact if over-loaded.

That would not be cool

The relay can handle far more current than the switch, but may be over-loaded as it is wired know.

Now that you mention in, when I had it set up in the house, the amps were wires direct to the batt.

Why do you have 2 +'s running to the amps, one constant, one switched and what gauge wire?

One is for the main power, and one is a remote power. I guess its kickers way of allowing you to turn the power on. You need to have power to both for the amp to turn on. I believe its 8g. I'd have to look to be sure.

Also, and I'm not sure what this is worth, the bigger of the two amps has dual 40Amp fuses built into it.

[jleger98]

HOLY COW!!!!!!!

The amps shoudl be wired directly to the battery. 30A is nowhere near enough current!!!! If you want to be cute and use a relay, use it between the remote turn-on lead of the HU amd the amp's remote sensing leads...

I may edit this in a minute; let me study things more closely in your diagram.

heh, no kidding. That may the the problem right there.

[dogbert]

If I have the entire setup running via the Acc switch, do I even need the relay?

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.

On a side note, I have 4gthat I will use when I permanantly install this.

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.

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

[chpthril]

OOOOOH, you might be onto something. The relay that I picked up is a 30A relay. I wonder if the amp is not being allowed to pull the amps it needs through the relay?? Possible???

If I have the entire setup running via the Acc switch, do I even need the relay?

On a side note, I have 4g that I will use when I permanantly install this.

The relay contacts may weld together or burn up and not make good contact if over-loaded.

The relay can handle far more current than the switch, but may be over-loaded as it is wired know.

Why do you have 2 +'s running to the amps, one constant, one switched and what gauge wire?

[philwsailz]

OOOOOH, you might be onto something. The relay that I picked up is a 30A relay. I wonder if the amp is not being allowed to pull the amps it needs through the relay?? Possible???

If I have the entire setup running via the Acc switch, do I even need the relay?

On a side note, I have 4g that I will use when I permanantly install this.

HOLY COW!!!!!!!

The amps shoudl be wired directly to the battery. 30A is nowhere near enough current!!!! If you want to be cute and use a relay, use it between the remote turn-on lead of the HU amd the amp's remote sensing leads...

I may edit this in a minute; let me study things more closely in your diagram.

[jleger98]

How many amps are your amps pulling? 8g seems a little lite. For comparison, I have a Kenwood 7202 150W per channel RMS amp that draws 40amps.

OOOOOH, you might be onto something. The relay that I picked up is a 30A relay. I wonder if the amp is not being allowed to pull the amps it needs through the relay?? Possible???

If I have the entire setup running via the Acc switch, do I even need the relay?

On a side note, I have 4g that I will use when I permanantly install this.

[dogbert]

This might be an issue. I'll have to dbl check, but I think I have a 8g wire from the neg of the battery, but it goes through the relay ( the relay needs a gound) It might be teed off before the relay though.


Yesterday, for testing, I simply had the battery sitting right there, so the run was may 4 feet.

How many amps are your amps pulling? 8g seems a little lite. For comparison, I have a Kenwood 7202 150W per channel RMS amp that draws 40amps.

[jleger98]

Based on the diag, it looks like the HU ground is "switched" by the relay. If so, I would recommend a "clean" ground right to the battery and use the relay to control the POS.

I made some changes to your drawing, hope that is ok. Thought it would be easier to show than try to explain.

I think I left something out. The relay has a constant (+) as per the diagram that came with it.

As for the (-) its not switched, its a "T" only becasue the relay needs it. Like I said, I'm not good at wiriing diagrams.

Here is an updated drawing. Sorry for the dbl image Matt

[jleger98]

Ok, if I read this correctly, your fuse block is on the ground for your amps?

The fuse block is one of those that has a single + and a single - in, and then multiple outs for each. This is it here: http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...allpartial/0/0

Also, you have a powerbar (not sure what you mean by this) for your amps, but not for your head unit?

This is basically the same thing, only it has a single + in and 5 un-fused outs. Basically a piece of metal with some screws on it.

What I was talking about was making sure that the ground was uninterrupted between the the amps and the head unit (and your iPod if it is also powered by your boat). If you don't, you risk noise build up.

This might be an issue. I'll have to dbl check, but I think I have a 8g wire from the neg of the battery, but it goes through the relay ( the relay needs a gound) It might be teed off before the relay though.

Another thing to check is to make sure your ground is beefy enough. I ended up using the 2/0 battery cable for my ground. It's important because of the length you're probably having to run for the ground (mine was 16').

Yesterday, for testing, I simply had the battery sitting right there, so the run was may 4 feet.

[dogbert]

Ok, if I read this correctly, your fuse block is on the ground for your amps? Also, you have a powerbar (not sure what you mean by this) for your amps, but not for your head unit?

What I was talking about was making sure that the ground was uninterrupted between the the amps and the head unit (and your iPod if it is also powered by your boat). If you don't, you risk noise build up.

Another thing to check is to make sure your ground is beefy enough. I ended up using the 2/0 battery cable for my ground. It's important because of the length you're probably having to run for the ground (mine was 16').

[chpthril]

Here is a diagram of what I've done. Maybe there is something obvious here.

And yes, I SUCK at wiring diagrams. Hopefully this won't confuse more than it helps. I left out a few non-powered things, like speakers, some IP-Bus stuff etc but all the power stuff is here.

Based on the diag, it looks like the HU ground is "switched" by the relay. If so, I would recommend a "clean" ground right to the battery and use the relay to control the POS.

I made some changes to your drawing, hope that is ok. Thought it would be easier to show than try to explain.

[jleger98]

Here is a diagram of what I've done. Maybe there is something obvious here.

And yes, I SUCK at wiring diagrams. Hopefully this won't confuse more than it helps. I left out a few non-powered things, like speakers, some IP-Bus stuff etc but all the power stuff is here.

[dogbert]

It sounds to me like you have a grounding problem and that there's voltage building up that results in the static noise. Make sure *ALL* of your units are grounded to the same ground. If that doesn't help, try adding a noise filter between your head unit and your amps. It takes care of this type of issue.

[jleger98]

but the outputs are not powered by the 50w channel.

Good point.

But I was referring to on headunits the non expensive kind tend to run not as much power through the outputs of the RCA's

Its not a ultra-high end HU, but its not a cheapo either. and as I said, it worked fine in the house.

[jleger98]

What source unit do you have?
How long are your RCAs?
Are you using a seperate wire, or an integrated wire in the RCAs to turn on the amps?
Are you using RCAs, ad not speaker leads to send signal to the amp?
Did you at any point have the HU on while plugging or unplugging RCAs?

Here is what I have.

I have a Pioneer DEH-P6800MP HU with ip-bus iPod adapter
Kicker KX650.4 4 Channel Car Audio Amp Amplifier
Kicker KX400.1 Mono Class D Amp Car Audio Amplifier
Kicker 05C10-4 subwoofer
4 Polk Audio 6.5" speakers (don't recall the model#)
Pioneer transom remote with ip-bus

I am using RCA's to the amps. Regarding power, I have a switch (the ACC) which hits a relay. That relay in turn powers a fuse-block which is what the amps are powered from. The RCA's are all 4-6 feet long cables. I hooked everything up before applying power to the system, and shut off the ACC switch before removing anything.