Noooo! After 2 weeks of work I just blew one amp, maybe 2

[XanderMoser 10+ year member]

I finally got everything hooked up this morning. I had all the wires connected, remotes, powers, grounds, everything. I turned the car on and my sub amp started to smoke. My HU was not on, so no remote signal...yet it only started smoking after I turned the car on! I'm very confused.The amp is an old school Orion Hott Setup 2.125. I had it bridged for up to 500 watts for my sub.

So I took the sub off the amp and tested the resistance. 3.6 ohms, just like it should be. So I put the sub on the rear channels of my 4 channel amp, bridged. I can't get anything from the sub at all. However, previously I had my bass shakers bridged on the rear channels of the amp and it worked fine! I've used the sub before I got this new setup, it worked just fine. And it has perfect resistance. I'm so freaking confused.

So took my bass shakers off of my 3rd amp (cheap walmart amp at 150 watts rms), and put my sub on that. I still get nothing. I tested the resistance again...but the sub was still hooked up to the amp...and I think I shorted the amp because the protection light stays red now //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/*******.gif.a649d21efc0d1fd4890a6428166586c1.gif

I have to leave tomorrow morning at 7 and all I have is front speakers //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

Help?

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[Twistid 5,000+ posts]

have someone else install your equipment

 

[regal8r 5,000+ posts]

did you hook up the amp backwards?

 

[XanderMoser 10+ year member]

have someone else install your equipment

I know what I'm doing...for the most part. I just didn't think reading resistance with a DMM on a sub hooked up to an amp would hurt it. I guess I learned my lesson there. But I know how to do everything.

did you hook up the amp backwards?

Backwards as in...power/ground? I checked that about 20 times. It's correct. Unless the company used a red wire coming from the amp for ground and black for power. That'd be annoying. The sub terminals don't matter. That just switches the phase 180 degrees.

Okay, I removed my sub from the enclosure and found why it wasn't working...the coils were in parallel but the + was on the - and the - was on the +. I guess I put it back together in too much of a hurry yesterday after mounting the sub box.

[edited for stupidity] I was having trouble bridging...it was a bad RCA.

 

[JonJT 10+ year member]

I know what I'm doing...for the most part. I just didn't think reading resistance with a DMM on a sub hooked up to an amp would hurt it. I guess I learned my lesson there. But I know how to do everything.


Backwards as in...power/ground? I checked that about 20 times. It's correct. Unless the company used a red wire coming from the amp for ground and black for power. That'd be annoying. The sub terminals don't matter. That just switches the phase 180 degrees.

Okay, I removed my sub from the enclosure and found why it wasn't working...the coils were in parallel but the + was on the - and the - was on the +. I guess I put it back together in too much of a hurry yesterday after mounting the sub box.

[edited for stupidity] I was having trouble bridging...it was a bad RCA.

Reading the DC resistance of a sub with an amp hooked up to it won't make the amp start to smoke.

Are you saying you had the coils wired out of phase with each other? If your not playing any music that wouldn't matter. And even if you were, it wouldn't make the amp smoke up like it did. The woofer would get very hot from the coils fighting each other and you'd know there was somethign wrong before anything broke.

I think you need to check all your wiring VERY carefully. It sounds to me like you had a huge current bridge and shorted something and you got quite a bit of current flowing directly to ground in that amp.

 

[XanderMoser 10+ year member]

Reading the DC resistance of a sub with an amp hooked up to it won't make the amp start to smoke.
Are you saying you had the coils wired out of phase with each other? If your not playing any music that wouldn't matter. And even if you were, it wouldn't make the amp smoke up like it did. The woofer would get very hot from the coils fighting each other and you'd know there was somethign wrong before anything broke.

I think you need to check all your wiring VERY carefully. It sounds to me like you had a huge current bridge and shorted something and you got quite a bit of current flowing directly to ground in that amp.

Sorry for the confusion. There were two amps. One started to smoke when I turned the car on...but the HU was not one, so no signal telling it to turn on. So I don't know why it only smoked when the car was turned on.

The second amp went into protect some time when I was putting the sub on it and taking the bass shakers off. I may have shorted it with wire in the process, but I didn't think so. I guess I did. But the good news it that that amp works now. For some odd reason.

Yeah, I had one of the coils out of phase. I know that would not smoke the amp. It just took me a while to realize that that was the reason that the sub was not making sound, but still had the correct DC resistance.

Right now I have one 4 channel amp running the fronts and the sub, with 2 channels bridged. Sub sounds decent for now off of ~150 watts. Gains are very low, less than 1/4.

I'll check all of the wiring carefully again, looking for shorts. I'm also going to take apart the Orion amp, the one that smoked. I'll check to see what was burning. My dad actually knows a lot about amps, so I'll have take a look at it.

Thanks for the advice though, I appreciate it.

 

[Hintzyboy 5,000+ posts]

Hey man, where are you in Wisconsin? If you're close enough, I could help you go over everything.

 

[XanderMoser 10+ year member]

Hey man, where are you in Wisconsin? If you're close enough, I could help you go over everything.

Well, I'm good now except for the one amp. The Orion HS 2.125 that smoked. I'm going to take it apart and check it out to see what smoked. Everything else is working fine. I know hot to set gains by ear and listen for distortion and everything. I run concerts for a job, so I know plenty about audio. I live in the country near the Wausau area, but just this morning I drove to Menomonie. I'm living here for the summer, working.

 

[Hintzyboy 5,000+ posts]

Well, I'm good now except for the one amp. The Orion HS 2.125 that smoked. I'm going to take it apart and check it out to see what smoked. Everything else is working fine. I know hot to set gains by ear and listen for distortion and everything. I run concerts for a job, so I know plenty about audio. I live in the country near the Wausau area, but just this morning I drove to Menomonie. I'm living here for the summer, working.

Yeah, I wouldn't be driving way up there. If you ever need any help, you're welcome to come down to the Dells.

 

[XanderMoser 10+ year member]

Yeah, I wouldn't be driving way up there. If you ever need any help, you're welcome to come down to the Dells.

One of my friends wanted a buch of us to get together this summer. She suggested the Dells, so if I end up going down there I'll let you know. I'd like some opinions on my system from people who actually have experience. Seriously, no one I know around here does car audio.

 

[Hintzyboy 5,000+ posts]

Yeah man, let me know. I should have my install done in a couple weeks once I get the final pieces (RCAs need to be ordered and I'm trading my 12 for 4 8s). I'll probably start tearing everything up next week sometime.