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lowcel
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- #77
Big jobs for the day complete. First I removed the MS-8 from the vehicle and packed it up to ship.
Next I undertook the big job of placing a temporary voltage meter in the lighter. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif
Next I undertook the big job of placing a temporary voltage meter in the lighter. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif
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lowcel
10+ year member
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- #78
I'm working on my system description for the install competition. This will be a lot to remember and I'm sure I'm forgetting some things.
1/0 Power wire from front to back, fused well under 18” from the battery. The power wire goes through the firewall through a rubber plug from the factory, there is no chance of the wire being cut and grounding out. From there the wire runs along the passenger side in a factory channel to a distribution block behind the rear seat which then goes to one of two fuse blocks via 1/0 wire. The first fuse is a single ANL fuse block using 1/0 wire and it goes to the P1000.1 sub amp. The second fuse block has four outputs and uses mini ANL fuses. The first is a 4 gauge wire which goes to the P900.4 amp which powers the PPI 2.5” midrange speakers and tweeters. The second is an 8 gauge wire that provides power to the P600.2 amp which powers the PPI 6.5” door speakers. The third is an 8 gauge wire that provides power to a terminal block which provides power to the LED lights, the temperature controller and fans, as well as the Helix DSP. All items have individual inline fuses. The system is grounded via a factory bolt intended for the child restraint point. All grounds are the same size as the power wires. All wires are covered in tech flex. All wire 8 gauge and up is from Skyhigh Audio.
The remote turn on lead goes from the head unit to a terminal block behind the passenger side rear seat. It is covered in split flex loom. It goes from the terminal block to the temperature controller turn on and to the Helix DSP. The DSP then provides a turn on signal that is sent to each amp.
The RCA’s are run from the Kenwood DDX372bt head unit down the driver’s side in a factory channel. I ran three RCA’s so that I can easily expand the system if I so choose. I am currently only using one RCA cable from the head unit to the processor. The RCA wires are protected by split techflex. The RCA’s are marked with either yellow, orange, or black electrical tape at approximately 1 foot intervals for identification purposes.
All of the speaker wire is Sky High 14 gauge wire with the exception of the sub wiring. The sub wire is Sky High 12 gauge wire. The speaker wire runs from the amps to terminal blocks located behind the driver’s side rear seat. From there the speaker wires run along the sides of the vehicle to the front of the vehicle. On the passenger side I ran the wires on the outside of the channel to give them some distance away from the power wire to avoid noise. Once the wires reach the kick panels they split off to their individual speakers. The wires on each side of the vehicle are ran together in 3/8” techflex until they reach the kickpanels. At that point I went with a smaller size techflex for the individual pairs of wires. All wires are covered in techflex from the rear of the vehicle to the front. All speaker connections are soldered with heat shrink or connected via push terminals. All speaker wires are labeled via electrical tape. The Techflex is labeled via techflex indicating right or left sides. I have a “cheat sheet” with all wire color codes. The sub wires are all terminated inside the box with crimp rings and bolted together giving a total ohm load of approximately 1.333 ohms.
The 17 foot NVX RCA cable goes from the head unit to the Helix DSP sound processor. From there four three foot Sky High RCA cables go from the DSP to the three amps. Everything is run active.
All amps are PPI Phantom series amps.
The P1000.1 mono amp is running at approximately 1.333 ohms and providing each of the three JL Audio 12W3 amps approximately 300 watts. This is right at the sweet spot that JL recommends. The subs are in a 3.6 cubic foot birch enclosure. The birch was ordered through a local cabinet shop for $88 a sheet. I went with the ¾” birch to save a little weight while not losing any performance compared to ¾” MDF. The enclosure is built with brad’s and wood glue. It is braced between the subs. The front baffle is made of two layers of ¾” birch. The 12 gauge speaker wire runs through the box and is sealed with silicone.
The P900.4 amp powers 2/3’s of the PPI 65c3 component set. The amp is providing approximately 145 watts to each speaker. Two of the channels power the PPI AMT tweeters running at 4,500 hz and up. The tweeters are in custom fiberglass a-pillars that I built and are running off-axis. The a-pillars are covered in factory match vinyl purchased from MiamiCorp out of Ohio (as was all of the vinyl). The other two channels power the PPI 2.5” full range speakers located in the factory locations at the end of the dash. The 2.5” speakers are crossed over at 80hz and 4500hz. These speakers are surrounded by denim insulation and topped off with weather stripping to separate the back waves from the front waves. The speakers are then covered by the factory grills.
The P600.2 amp powers the 6.5” mid-bass speaker from the PPI P65c3 component set. They are crossed over at 80hz. The amp provides each speaker approximately 190 watts. The mid-bass speakers are located in the front doors in the factory locations. The doors are sound deadened with industrial butyl sound deadening. The door panels are deadened with KnuKoncepts sound deadening.
The alarm is a factory alarm with remote and flashing led in the dash.
The front half of the system was built to appear factory to most people walking by or riding in the vehicle. The headunit is mounted in a Scosche mounting kit that matches the OEM radio. The wiring for the head-unit is all soldered with heat shrink protecting the wires. The factory camera was replaced with a Pioneer camera located directly above the Reese hitch which does a great job of protecting it from tire spray. I was able to integrate the factory steering wheel controls using an Axxess ASWC-1 interface. I covered the a-pillars in factory matched vinyl so most people will never even notice that they are custom.
The rear half of the system I wanted to have a little more fun with. It is far from factory appearance however most people walking by will never notice due to the dark window tint. When you open up the hatch you immediately notice the three 12” JL Audio 12W3 subs. When you look down you see the three PPI amps and the Helix DSP relaxing under ¼” clear acrylic. I used color matching vinyl for both the black and the beige vinyl to help it flow with the rest of the vehicle. For mounting hardware I used T-nuts and hex security screws to mount the subs. For the amps and processor I used threaded inserts and hex security screws. The false floor under everything is mounted to the vehicle using rivet nuts and bolts. The sub box is mounted to the false floor and covers the mounting screws. This makes it so that the subs would have to be removed from the enclosure, followed by the enclosure being removed from the false floor in order to remove the false floor. Everything in the back is highlighted with LED’s purchased from Parts Express. The cover panels for the amps can be removed in less than a minute to allow adjustments to be made.
Behind the seat you will notice a power distribution / fuse area and a speaker wire terminal block and SMD temperature controller. These are very easy to access for both safety and convenience. Behind the cover panels on the driver’s side there are terminal blocks for remote, ground, and power. These panels were covered in carpet to match the rear seat and floor.
Everything in the vehicle was installed by myself to meet all class requirements found in the rule book.
1/0 Power wire from front to back, fused well under 18” from the battery. The power wire goes through the firewall through a rubber plug from the factory, there is no chance of the wire being cut and grounding out. From there the wire runs along the passenger side in a factory channel to a distribution block behind the rear seat which then goes to one of two fuse blocks via 1/0 wire. The first fuse is a single ANL fuse block using 1/0 wire and it goes to the P1000.1 sub amp. The second fuse block has four outputs and uses mini ANL fuses. The first is a 4 gauge wire which goes to the P900.4 amp which powers the PPI 2.5” midrange speakers and tweeters. The second is an 8 gauge wire that provides power to the P600.2 amp which powers the PPI 6.5” door speakers. The third is an 8 gauge wire that provides power to a terminal block which provides power to the LED lights, the temperature controller and fans, as well as the Helix DSP. All items have individual inline fuses. The system is grounded via a factory bolt intended for the child restraint point. All grounds are the same size as the power wires. All wires are covered in tech flex. All wire 8 gauge and up is from Skyhigh Audio.
The remote turn on lead goes from the head unit to a terminal block behind the passenger side rear seat. It is covered in split flex loom. It goes from the terminal block to the temperature controller turn on and to the Helix DSP. The DSP then provides a turn on signal that is sent to each amp.
The RCA’s are run from the Kenwood DDX372bt head unit down the driver’s side in a factory channel. I ran three RCA’s so that I can easily expand the system if I so choose. I am currently only using one RCA cable from the head unit to the processor. The RCA wires are protected by split techflex. The RCA’s are marked with either yellow, orange, or black electrical tape at approximately 1 foot intervals for identification purposes.
All of the speaker wire is Sky High 14 gauge wire with the exception of the sub wiring. The sub wire is Sky High 12 gauge wire. The speaker wire runs from the amps to terminal blocks located behind the driver’s side rear seat. From there the speaker wires run along the sides of the vehicle to the front of the vehicle. On the passenger side I ran the wires on the outside of the channel to give them some distance away from the power wire to avoid noise. Once the wires reach the kick panels they split off to their individual speakers. The wires on each side of the vehicle are ran together in 3/8” techflex until they reach the kickpanels. At that point I went with a smaller size techflex for the individual pairs of wires. All wires are covered in techflex from the rear of the vehicle to the front. All speaker connections are soldered with heat shrink or connected via push terminals. All speaker wires are labeled via electrical tape. The Techflex is labeled via techflex indicating right or left sides. I have a “cheat sheet” with all wire color codes. The sub wires are all terminated inside the box with crimp rings and bolted together giving a total ohm load of approximately 1.333 ohms.
The 17 foot NVX RCA cable goes from the head unit to the Helix DSP sound processor. From there four three foot Sky High RCA cables go from the DSP to the three amps. Everything is run active.
All amps are PPI Phantom series amps.
The P1000.1 mono amp is running at approximately 1.333 ohms and providing each of the three JL Audio 12W3 amps approximately 300 watts. This is right at the sweet spot that JL recommends. The subs are in a 3.6 cubic foot birch enclosure. The birch was ordered through a local cabinet shop for $88 a sheet. I went with the ¾” birch to save a little weight while not losing any performance compared to ¾” MDF. The enclosure is built with brad’s and wood glue. It is braced between the subs. The front baffle is made of two layers of ¾” birch. The 12 gauge speaker wire runs through the box and is sealed with silicone.
The P900.4 amp powers 2/3’s of the PPI 65c3 component set. The amp is providing approximately 145 watts to each speaker. Two of the channels power the PPI AMT tweeters running at 4,500 hz and up. The tweeters are in custom fiberglass a-pillars that I built and are running off-axis. The a-pillars are covered in factory match vinyl purchased from MiamiCorp out of Ohio (as was all of the vinyl). The other two channels power the PPI 2.5” full range speakers located in the factory locations at the end of the dash. The 2.5” speakers are crossed over at 80hz and 4500hz. These speakers are surrounded by denim insulation and topped off with weather stripping to separate the back waves from the front waves. The speakers are then covered by the factory grills.
The P600.2 amp powers the 6.5” mid-bass speaker from the PPI P65c3 component set. They are crossed over at 80hz. The amp provides each speaker approximately 190 watts. The mid-bass speakers are located in the front doors in the factory locations. The doors are sound deadened with industrial butyl sound deadening. The door panels are deadened with KnuKoncepts sound deadening.
The alarm is a factory alarm with remote and flashing led in the dash.
The front half of the system was built to appear factory to most people walking by or riding in the vehicle. The headunit is mounted in a Scosche mounting kit that matches the OEM radio. The wiring for the head-unit is all soldered with heat shrink protecting the wires. The factory camera was replaced with a Pioneer camera located directly above the Reese hitch which does a great job of protecting it from tire spray. I was able to integrate the factory steering wheel controls using an Axxess ASWC-1 interface. I covered the a-pillars in factory matched vinyl so most people will never even notice that they are custom.
The rear half of the system I wanted to have a little more fun with. It is far from factory appearance however most people walking by will never notice due to the dark window tint. When you open up the hatch you immediately notice the three 12” JL Audio 12W3 subs. When you look down you see the three PPI amps and the Helix DSP relaxing under ¼” clear acrylic. I used color matching vinyl for both the black and the beige vinyl to help it flow with the rest of the vehicle. For mounting hardware I used T-nuts and hex security screws to mount the subs. For the amps and processor I used threaded inserts and hex security screws. The false floor under everything is mounted to the vehicle using rivet nuts and bolts. The sub box is mounted to the false floor and covers the mounting screws. This makes it so that the subs would have to be removed from the enclosure, followed by the enclosure being removed from the false floor in order to remove the false floor. Everything in the back is highlighted with LED’s purchased from Parts Express. The cover panels for the amps can be removed in less than a minute to allow adjustments to be made.
Behind the seat you will notice a power distribution / fuse area and a speaker wire terminal block and SMD temperature controller. These are very easy to access for both safety and convenience. Behind the cover panels on the driver’s side there are terminal blocks for remote, ground, and power. These panels were covered in carpet to match the rear seat and floor.
Everything in the vehicle was installed by myself to meet all class requirements found in the rule book.
Massive spl
Banned
That's longer then any book I've ever read^ I ain't reading that lol
Lol sounds good to me sir, sounds like you have a real intimate relationship with your system lol good job good read.
Very well done man! It was easy to follow and understand.
But man am I glad I'm just an SPL guy. SQL seems too complicated for me. My description would be "there is a whole bunch of **** and it gets fairly loud" hahaha
Good luck at the shows!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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lowcel
10+ year member
Senior VIP Member
- Thread Starter
- #84
Thank you. For the actual SQ part I can pretty much give the same description as you. "There is a whole bunch of ****, all controlled by the buttons on the steering wheel". //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif The installation class is where it gets tricky. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif
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lowcel
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- #87
A lot of people compete in just the SQ class that don't really care about their install being "pretty". In the old days when I used to be involved they were all tied together. Sound Quality included sound quality, spl (points up to 130 db), rta, and install. Now you have to enter four classes to have all four judged.
So there is a SQL class?
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lowcel
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- #89
Yes there is, here is a link to the classes and rules. SQL General Rules – MECA – Mobile Electronics Competition Association
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lowcel
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- Thread Starter
- #90
I managed to install the Helix today. Install was easy, figuring out the software is above my paygrade. I also tested out the subs for my first time today, they get pretty **** loud!
I also took some pictures of the threaded inserts and security screws holding the processor and amps in place.
I also took some pictures of the threaded inserts and security screws holding the processor and amps in place.
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