port to big

[bopo668 10+ year member]

ok when i first couldent get my amp to power on witch was when i had it on the seat latch i touched the ground on the amp to the body of my truck and it was a 4 volt drop so i figured that was the problem so i sanded off some paint on my truck and dropped a bolt threw it and now it was getting a 1.5 drop.i cant run a wire right now because i dont have any thing bigger than 16 gage unless i could run the 16 gage off the ground on my body to the bat would that work

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

ok when i first couldent get my amp to power on witch was when i had it on the seat latch i touched the ground on the amp to the body of my truck and it was a 4 volt drop so i figured that was the problem so i sanded off some paint on my truck and dropped a bolt threw it and now it was getting a 1.5 drop.i cant run a wire right now because i dont have any thing bigger than 16 gage unless i could run the 16 gage off the ground on my body to the bat would that work

well a 1.5 volt drop is still pretty serious.

do you have alligator clips on for your dmm probes? if so

1) disconnect the battery ground to the chassis, from the negative battery terminal.

2) set the dmm to read ohms, and connect the 16g wire to the battery to chassis ground and the other end of the 16g wire to 1 alligator clip on the dmm

3) then use the other dmm probe to probe around on the metal parts of the car that you deem fit to be used as a ground.

you want the dmm to read the same exact value as when you touch the two dmm probes together. so say if the dmm reads .2 ohms when the leads touch together, you want your grounding point to the battery to chassis ground to read no more than .2 ohms. this will basically tell you what is and what isnt a good ground. you might not need to run a dedicated ground to the front, if you can find a good one in the back. let me know if this even made sense to you.

 

[bopo668 10+ year member]

ok i under stand i guess i will do it this weekend because my buddy has the meter. but idk if your really answer my question could i run the 16 gage wire from the ground spot on my amp to the bat and have a good ground because its grounded to the body with a 16 gage going to the bat

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

ok i under stand i guess i will do it this weekend because my buddy has the meter. but idk if your really answer my question could i run the 16 gage wire from the ground spot on my amp to the bat and have a good ground because its grounded to the body with a 16 gage going to the bat

the 16g is really too small to be used as a ground in this case.

 

[bopo668 10+ year member]

yeah then i will go pick up some 4 gage or somthing bigger this weekend and just run a strait gound from amp to bat then it should be perfect right

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

yeah then i will go pick up some 4 gage or somthing bigger this weekend and just run a strait gound from amp to bat then it should be perfect right

that will be a good ground for sure.

im not saying it will fix the issue your having with the type r ( i dont see anything else wrong though. just seems either an amp setting, HU settings, or sub woofer wiring issue), but the if you don't fix your grounding issue your at risk of burning up that amp real quick.

while your at it this weekend, i suggest using a dmm and a -6 db 50hz test tone to set the gain correctly, and also check if your sub is wired correctly with the dmm

 

[bopo668 10+ year member]

yeah when i was testing i noticed it was getting hot like i could smell hot like stinky after 10 mins of testing so that would be a ground issue.i was thinking it was getting hot because it was a poorly mad amp

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

yeah when i was testing i noticed it was getting hot like i could smell hot after 10 mins of testing so that would be a ground issue.i was thinking it was getting hot because it was a poorly mad amp

well less voltage, needs to be made up with more current. current leads to heat. not safe for the amp.

i cant say whether the amp is or isnt poorly made, as i have no experience with them.

never really had an amp get stinky though. sure it wasnt the sub?

 

[bopo668 10+ year member]

it could have been the sub (do subs tend to smell when first used also its my first ported box)but i smelled around the port and i just smelt mdf and glue and the amp seamed to emit the smell.and what do you mean by less voltage kinda noob

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

it could have been the sub (do subs tend to smell when first used also its my first ported box)but i smelled around the port and i just smelt mdf and glue and the amp seamed to emit the smell.and what do you mean by less voltage kinda noob

hmm well if you didnt smell it around the port then it probably wasnt the sub.

for the voltage comment. i mean that the amp has to try to make that power. a bad ground that leads to a voltage drop will lead to the amp being starved for voltage. theres more to it and ohms law shows that resistance, current, voltage are all related and have an influence on each other.

amps are basically low current, high voltage, and run cooler. or high current low voltage, and run hotter. your amp is being starved for voltage and the extra current is causing it to run hotter. if you dont have undervoltage protection (like some memphis amps) you will fry the amp for this reason.

this is a real simplified way of thinking about it, but i think this might be easiest to understand.

 

[bopo668 10+ year member]

yeah i get what your saying.well i will do the ground thing and see how it goes