problems with remote turn on

[funkyab 10+ year member]

Hey all,,

im having a couple of problems with al the wiring in my new install.

I have 4 amps on the new install. I have one remote turn on from my head unit.. and i have the wire split to go go to all amps..

The 2 amps closest to the HU power up fine.

On the 2 that are 20 feet away from the HU, one does not power on at all, and the other (hifonics) parely powers up,,, just a light light glow from the letters.... which is weird. (how is this even possible?)

If i un do the split, and just hook up one of those 2 amps, they power on fine. This says to me,, that the remote turn on wore from the amp simply cant provide enough voltage for all of the amps.

With only ONE of the "far amps" connected,, i tested the voltage at rem/neg and i had about 7 volts.. Should I have 12?

Is it ok to just use a 12 volt wire from my battery and switch it, so i can manually turn on and off my amps? It is fine to power the remote with 12 volts right? I could use a relay,,, buy i would rather use an extrenal wire and switch as i have an available switch on my drivers console which would be nice to keep everything really clean.

Please let me know.

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[Max_Power 10+ year member]

I heard of someone once using a small cap to turn on mutiple amps. I think there should be a accessories fuse in your fuse box, this should turn on the amps anytime the car is on though.

I dont know about running a wire from the batt, seems like it would work, but wait for others to confirm it.

 

[inapontiac 10+ year member]

I really cannot tell you whats going on with your setup. You know you repeat words a lot? I would recommend swapping amps around to see if it actually is the remote wire. You want to use the remote wire coming from the head unit, not connected to the battery. Also, the amp would not light up at all if the remote wire didn't work. Check RCAs.

 

[funkyab 10+ year member]

Sorry about repeating the words.. See what happens whan i am in a hurry!

Yes, like i mentioned, I tried swapping the amps around. The 2 amps right next to the head unit stay powered on fine from the existing remote. The 2 that are 20 feet away, will not both power on using the same remote wire, although the hifinics emits just a timy glow, but we all know lcds take nothing to power up.

When i unsplit the remote wire and only send the the voltage to ONE of the 2 amps in question the amp powers on (with 7 volts at the remote terminal) Both amps respond the same, so the only culprit could be the wire.

 

[jrz126 10+ year member]

Could be a bad ground on the 2 amps that wont power up. Or you could be drawing too much power on the remote wire...but it sounds like the hifonics is trying to power up.

2 things to try:

1. try disconnecting the remote wire from the 2 amps that do power up. If the amps in the back power up, then you are pulling too much current on your remote wire and you need to use a relay on it.

2. try cleaning up the ground. If the amps power up after this then you should be ok.

 

[funkyab 10+ year member]

Could be a bad ground on the 2 amps that wont power up. Or you could be drawing too much power on the remote wire...but it sounds like the hifonics is trying to power up.
2 things to try:

1. try disconnecting the remote wire from the 2 amps that do power up. If the amps in the back power up, then you are pulling too much current on your remote wire and you need to use a relay on it.

2. try cleaning up the ground. If the amps power up after this then you should be ok.

Ok,

Ground is not an issue.. I PROMISE. Everything is 1/0 direct to my batteries. It is a boat so this is how i have to ground.

Think of it like this. When i send the remote wire to any 1, 2 or 3 of the amps, they power up fine. When i try to send the same remote signal to all 4 of the amps at the same time. the 2 fatherst away from the HU will not power up.

 

[funkyab 10+ year member]

so since it seems i am drawing more power on my remote wire than it is capable of supplying, i come back to the question,

can i just use a switched 12 source into my remote inputs to power on my amps on the far side of the boat?

 

[funkyab 10+ year member]

^^^

 

[spoonraker 10+ year member]

Any low amperage 12 volt source will work fine for remote turn on. You can use your head unit's remote wire, the ignition wire, you can wire it directly to your ignition column, cigarette lighter, a lot of things are 12v switched. Obviously your head unit's remote signal just isn't quite giving you enough juice.

I would just run a switched 14ga or so wire from your battery's positive terminal to a distro block and then run 18-22ga to each amp. It only has to be powerful enough to trip a relay, so that should be more than enough.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Yep, wire in a relay and you'll be set...

 

[spoonraker 10+ year member]

Actually what I meant by my last statement was that the remote signal only has to be powerful enough to trip a relay inside of each amp to turn it on....but....what you said is also true. You could maintain key turn-on/off functionality by running your actual remote wire to trip a relay which then allows current from a constant 12V source straight from your battery (the 14ga to a distro I talked about) to pass through

 

[Kriszilla 10+ year member]

Like the other two stated, using a relay is exactly what you need. A single remote line isn't enough to turn on that many components.

 

[jmoreno150 10+ year member]

remote wire to 86 terminal groung the 85 12v to 30 and 87 to ur amps or anything tha needs remote turnon

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Actually my excelon HU is powering 4 amps with no relay. Guess I got lucky....

 

[funkyab 10+ year member]

yea,, i actually had one more amp on my last setup and the single remote turned on all 5 amps..

What i am going to do is,, keep 2 amps running off the existing remote and wire the remote to the other 2 from a 12 volt switch that already exists on my driver panel. This will also be nice because if i start having voltage drops,, i can turn off my sub and tower speaker amps and leave the normal internal speakers running.