Is the a Watt Measurer??

[Donks 10+ year member]

I know they have a dB measures so you can see what dB's you hit, but do they have a Watt measurer so you can see you how many watts your getting out of your AMP??

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[Pl8er 5,000+ posts]

Yes, there is an equation and you need a DMM to figure out if your hitting it correctly.

Sqrt(Desired wattage*Ohm) = what your dmm should read.

So, for example if I had a sub and wanted to run 600 watts at 2 ohm this is what I would do:

Sqrt(600*2)= 34.64

That is what your DMM should be reading.

Hrm...I just realized that I read this whole thing wrong. Your wanting maximum power out of the amp, I am saying how to set the amp to a certain power....sorry //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif Some shops can bench the amp for you. Just have to ask around. I am not sure if you can do this yourself. Perhaps reverse the equation, but it would take a ton of testing to find where the amp goes to without clipping.

I spy devil driver, he may be able to give a good idea of how.

 

[BassAddictJ 5,000+ posts]

i smell hardcore flamming about to occur

 

[Atimm693 10+ year member]

I think you need a clamp meter to measure amperage and a DMM to measure voltage.

Volts*amps=watts IIRC.

 

[Bigrick31 10+ year member]

ohms law P/IxE or E/IxR those 2 formulas will allow you to figure out anything in an electrical circuit p= power I=current E= voltage R= resistance for watts or power you multiply your cuttent or amperage by the supply voltage. to obtain a current reading you will either need a clamp on type meter or you will have to put a regular meter in series with your amp.

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

ohms law P/IxE or E/IxR those 2 formulas will allow you to figure out anything in an electrical circuit p= power I=current E= voltage R= resistance for watts or power you multiply your cuttent or amperage by the supply voltage. to obtain a current reading you will either need a clamp on type meter or you will have to put a regular meter in series with your amp.

except for wattage in an AC electrical circuit.

you have to account for power factor once you use ohms law to get a figure.

 

[Bigrick31 10+ year member]

except for wattage in an AC electrical circuit.
you have to account for power factor once you use ohms law to get a figure.

true that is why most things are rated in va or volt amps and not watts because when products are made they can not estimate the power factor of where it will be installed.

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

Yes there are watt meters... and they are generally quite expensive... otherwise as posted you need an RMS current clamp and an RMS voltmeter....

To consider powerfactor you will need an LCR meter to find the inductance/capacitance of your load.. but for bench testing you would generally use a non inductive 'dummy' load...

 

[Jmac 10+ year member]

You can bench test the amplifier yourself with an oscilloscope, a volt meter, a clamp meter, a static load, a signal source, and a sine wave recorded onto media (i.e. CD). However, to actually buy all that stuff is fairly expensive, so if you really want to know, your best bet is to take it to a shop and have them bench it for you.

Of course, this information is almost completely useless as your speaker does not present a static load to the amplifier, so the potential maximum clean power output will change w/ frequency ... If you have a decent amplifier brand and set the gain using your ears or using a digital multimeter (or an oscilloscope, if you have access to one), you'll be fine.

BTW, what the hell were you thinking when you made this in the off-topic section of the forum instead of the amplifier section or general car audio discussion ?