Alex's Silverado

[C1500martin 10+ year member]

Gain is now at half, and I can go to volume 33 at idle before I drop to less than 13v. It does seem a little louder too
For those who will say to "turn the gain up a bit, 12.9v is nothing", I'm babying this amp, haha. Cost me way too much and I'm going to add another alternator before I drop it down to .47 nominal. Right now I'm at about 1 ohm nominal (1.05, but who cares)

Just went to Kmart and got some more liquid nails and some sand paper. About to add some port length

I dont turn my volume past 22 and sub at +4, 27 used to be my "full tilt" with sub vol at 8. Im also babying my stuff plus my mids cant keep up so i dont bump its embarrasing lol. 23,24,25,26 are REALLY big jumps in lpudness for me idk why. Is yours the same?

 

[djr4x4]

Off subject. Haven't heard Kmart in years nor have I seen one in years.. They all closed around here years ago.....

 

[mazdakid 5,000+ posts]

You guys don't use +15 on your alpine head units for the sub out?

Turn your gains down some and use your volume knob a little bit.

 

[los33 10+ year member]

Set gain by ear (yeah, I know). I have a scope, but didn't feel like fuckin' with it last night out in the cold.
Also, when I set my M4a with the scope, I was able to adjust it higher later and still stay below clipping after I got a feel for the limits of my system. I don't like that the TFE doesn't have a clipping indicator :/

Yes, Alpine headunit

Ok, I think I'm going to turn the gain down a bit and listen at a higher headunit volume

Damn

Yeah, completely seperate from stock and has a 2 pin connector

Then how does a 2 pin connector work? It just has a hot wire and switched source, right? This confuses me

Ok, I can try turning gain down and headunit volume up more, thanks.

What volume do you normally listen at?

Does your truck not have a battery sensor?

Sent from my Z970 using Tapatalk

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

I dont turn my volume past 22 and sub at +4, 27 used to be my "full tilt" with sub vol at 8. Im also babying my stuff plus my mids cant keep up so i dont bump its embarrasing lol. 23,24,25,26 are REALLY big jumps in lpudness for me idk why. Is yours the same?

22-23 used to be my max listening volume with my last setup and I had the sub level all they way up

Now, when listening in the 30's, my mids/highs amp gain is set all the way to minimum. That's still too much for my tweeters, so I think I'm going to turn the "treble" down on the headunit.

Off subject. Haven't heard Kmart in years nor have I seen one in years.. They all closed around here years ago.....

The one in Ames closed down iirc, so I can't work there in college

Our Kmart is actually one of the more profitable ones. It will be the last one in central Illinois to close down when it eventually goes under

You guys don't use +15 on your alpine head units for the sub out?Turn your gains down some and use your volume knob a little bit.

That's what I have it set to now. +15 out of 15

Yes, that did help, thanks

Does your truck not have a battery sensor?
Sent from my Z970 using Tapatalk

I don't think so. I've never seen a battery light come on when I start it up.

 

[ChaseinBass]

Does your truck not have a battery sensor?
Sent from my Z970 using Tapatalk

The battery sensor is the wire you have hooked to output post on alt its voltage sensing and thats why the diode works, the voltage drop across diode .6 so turn on point for alt is sooner and max output is sooner. Why yours isnt doing that I dont know ? Did you check to see if diode was backwards ?

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

i've seen people set it up so that they have their oscope on all the time watching the signal, considering you already have your sub wires run from the bed i dont think itd be too hard to hook up your oscope when you want to watch your gain. i dont blame you on dropping below 12.9 or so, no point if you dont need to. id start watching your idle rpm though lol mine drops to about 350 on long notes im worried itll stall the engine.

btw have you had the chance to clamp it at all

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

The battery sensor is the wire you have hooked to output post on alt its voltage sensing and thats why the diode works, the voltage drop across diode .6 so turn on point for alt is sooner and max output is sooner. Why yours isnt doing that I dont know ? Did you check to see if diode was backwards ?

Have had other stuff going on, and haven't checked the diode direction

i've seen people set it up so that they have their oscope on all the time watching the signal, considering you already have your sub wires run from the bed i dont think itd be too hard to hook up your oscope when you want to watch your gain. i dont blame you on dropping below 12.9 or so, no point if you dont need to. id start watching your idle rpm though lol mine drops to about 350 on long notes im worried itll stall the engine.
btw have you had the chance to clamp it at all

My scope isn't auto-ranging, so I wouldn't be able to keep the wave in the frame, since music is so dynamic

My RPM doesn't dip hardly at all. I've got a 5.3L v8. Do you have a smaller engine? My car's RPM dipped when the alt was loaded down

No, haven't had time to clamp it

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

Have had other stuff going on, and haven't checked the diode direction


My scope isn't auto-ranging, so I wouldn't be able to keep the wave in the frame, since music is so dynamic

My RPM doesn't dip hardly at all. I've got a 5.3L v8. Do you have a smaller engine? My car's RPM dipped when the alt was loaded down

No, haven't had time to clamp it

Yeah V8 5.3 too, same engine no doubt. Who knows your PCM might idle differently my truck is tuned. Don't need to keep the wave in frame man only matters when you're maxed out

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Yeah V8 5.3 too, same engine no doubt. Who knows your PCM might idle differently my truck is tuned. Don't need to keep the wave in frame man only matters when you're maxed out

Ok, mine idles around 700

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

Ok, mine idles around 700

that's gotta be it, plus my alts are one wire not two or three, even though they use a 4 pin plug lol. i idle around 500-600, your truck is quite a bit newer although they look similar so the PCM is no doubt different

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

For now, I just took the diode out. Sits at 13.6v (even cold) :/

On the plus side, it seems different today! I can wang at idle and get the doors flopping without dropping past 13v.

I feel better about it

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

*Oh, and the diode was pointed the right way

I didn't check to make sure it was the correct wire though, like Jeff suggested on CACO.

I can't seem to get the plug back out of the alt, and really don't want to have to un-bolt it :/

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

*Oh, and the diode was pointed the right way
I didn't check to make sure it was the correct wire though, like Jeff suggested on CACO.

I can't seem to get the plug back out of the alt, and really don't want to have to un-bolt it :/

what type of plug is it, there's a plastic tab you have to pull up on the back of it just get your finger behind and down

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

what type of plug is it, there's a plastic tab you have to pull up on the back of it just get your finger behind and down

Yeah, I just can't seem to get it because of the angle. I'll try again some other time