PG Tantrum is acting weird.

[Trancer 10+ year member]

Well I first thought my Rockford Fosgate 3ixty.1 was jacked up. I swapped it out with another one I have here. Still no go. I thought I blew my amp... Took the tester light to it, and it was blinking with the beat. Ok, so I ruled out my Tantrum. Took my subs out, tested them on my home theater system, they were fine. Hooked everything back up, started my truck, heard the "Thump" from my subs like I normally do. Nothing from the subs.

Dug into it further. It seems as if the negative post for the speaker wire hook up arent working. I touched the negative speaker wire to my negative ground for my amp and the positive to the amp, and my subs work. I tried both negatives on my positive speaker post, but once I touch the neg speaker wire to any ground, the subs start playing. Anyone have any idea whats going on with my amp? They are pretty durable amps so Im confused as heck

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[dragonrage 10+ year member]

That's what you get for buying an amp called "tantrum." //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

When you tested them on the home audio system, were they in the same box?

 

[Trancer 10+ year member]

That's what you get for buying an amp called "tantrum." //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Really? The Tantrums are really good amps. You must not know much about amplifiers

And no, they werent in the same box. I had the subs free air. I wasnt sending it many watts. The subs and enclosure arent the problem though.

 

[akheathen Premium Member]

yes, the tantrums were actually pretty good. used to have a couple. they do run them selves up to the limit, though. anyways, unplug the rca's and see if it still works. the mp3 player as a source is a good way to rule those out. it does sound like you have a blown output rail problem, but from what you say, it is a problem that is not resolved by changing amps. you really need to ditch the test light for a dmm, and check for good ground, good rca continuity with ground, output voltage and rest, rca input ground continuity, etc.... i have also seen sub wiring and coil shorting/intermittent shorting blow more than one amp unit before. a simple ohms check usually shows that right away, too.

 

[Shinju 10+ year member]

Are you running a stock system with that Fogate 3ixty? Why dont you bypass that thing and hook something direct up to the amp like a ipod with earphone to RCA cord and see what happens.

 

[Trancer 10+ year member]

yes, the tantrums were actually pretty good. used to have a couple. they do run them selves up to the limit, though. anyways, unplug the rca's and see if it still works. the mp3 player as a source is a good way to rule those out. it does sound like you have a blown output rail problem, but from what you say, it is a problem that is not resolved by changing amps. you really need to ditch the test light for a dmm, and check for good ground, good rca continuity with ground, output voltage and rest, rca input ground continuity, etc.... i have also seen sub wiring and coil shorting/intermittent shorting blow more than one amp unit before. a simple ohms check usually shows that right away, too.

I wish I could go buy a DMM right now, but I cant because I'm in between jobs right now. I have to use what I got currently. I have the negative speaker wires running to my ground distribution block. Its grounded very well with a 4 guage and a 1/0 awg cable. Its playing with the negative speaker wire running that way. I havent turned it up very loud at all so I dont know if it will work temporarily like that or if its even a good idea. I just did it so I could troubleshoot it. I will dig into it a little further tomorrow. I might take the amp out and crack the case open to see if anything needs to be re-soldered or not. I think you are right on point with the output rail being blown. I'm not exactly sure what that is, but I think I get it.

Are you running a stock system with that Fogate 3ixty? Why dont you bypass that thing and hook something direct up to the amp like a ipod with earphone to RCA cord and see what happens.

Stock system? You mean my stock cd player? Yes, I am running my stock cd player. The new Sierra and Silverado's cd player is built in pretty well in the dash and I didnt want to mess up with how smooth it looks with it as it is. I'll hook up my phone to the amp with my headphone to rca cable that I have. But I dont think the DSP or the signal going to the amp is the problem. Its playing with the negative signal cable grounded. I switched the subwoofer wires from the 1200.1 without it playing then I immediately hooked it up to my 500.2 and the subs worked. I switched this up like 5 times and its pretty clear that it has to do with something the amp's negative speaker terminal not working.

 

[akheathen Premium Member]

oh, i get it, you have an amp that works when hooked up. i thought putting a different amp didn't fix the problem, lol. anyways, go ahead and open it up and see if there is a burned pathway or the metal rods loose that jump across the the board. of course, look for burned transistors on the other side from the terminals. be carefull not to pull on the cable too hard. it is on the other side of the board from the terminals, so you are going to want to open it like a clam-shell. you may have to slide it first to get it loose clear on that side. nothing should force apart. and, don't keep running it with the speakers connected to ground, or power. that can damage things. the outputs of your amp are converted to an isolated ac power circuit, isolated from your cars' 12v system, not part of it.

 

[Trancer 10+ year member]

Sorry, I probably wasn't very clear when I typed that all out. Ill unhook it from my amp. Thanks for giving me a heads up on that. Ill crack it open and see if there are any burn marks or anything odd going on with it. My last two amps don't work and I opened them up and from looking at them, I didn't see anything wrong with them from my eyes. I had few other amps that it was clear it was toast. Hopefully its an easy fix with my soldering iron or a transistor that still has its color coding lines still on it so I can run up to RadioShack and get the correct one(s) to replace. Ill try to tomorrow. Im tired of driving around with just my component speakers. They aren't meant to reproduce the low notes. Plus the crossovers wont allow it.

 

[smgreen20 10+ year member]

A Tuntrum 1200.1 you say? I love them, never had one, but the raw power that the 1200.1 can produce....

Sorry to inform you, not saying it is the problem, but the Tuntrim 1200.1's have a Tri-path chip in them that go bad for whatever reason. Hope this isn't the case as the Tri-path chips don't exist anymore.