Remote has not enough juice??

[CAT]

Hey everyone. First of all I would like to say great forums, lots of nice systems and plenty of knowledge and good sense! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Ok, I drive a 1984 Oldsmobile Delta 88, and I recently installed a Scosche amp kit for up to a max of 550 Watts. This is what I am running right now.

Panasonic Deck, 50 X 4, MP3/WMA support

Alpine 6 x 9's

Factory front speakers

Alpine 3555 Amplifier ( it is about 9 years old!) (50 x 4 RMS - bridged right now at 100 X 1 RMS)

12 Inch JL Audio 12W0 Sub

I installed the amp kit myself and i hooked everything up to is corresponding spots on the amp, but what's this, the amp wont turn on. I test it in the trunk, with a circuit tester, and i used the ground for the amp, which is bolted to my wheel well bracket, and i poked the end of the wire, and it lights up, ok, there is power there. So I checked the line for piercings of the wire, none. Checked the decks remote wire with the circuit tester light comes on, power here.

Still nothing

So I decided to try something, I took a little piece of speaker wire, 2 inches long, stripped about half an inch of casing off each end, bent it into a U shape, and hooked it from the BATT spot on the amp, to the RMT spot on the amp, and then bam, the amp fires up and starts kicking like it should! I couldve left it like this, but the problem is everytime i shut the car off I would have to pull the wire out so it wouldnt drain the battery, so that wasnt an option.

Is it possible that I didnt crimp the wire into the butt connector under the dash far enough? Like i didnt put it far enough in and maybe only 2 or 3 strands are actually making contact with the remote wire coming off the deck, which isnt able to delivery enough power to turn the amp on??

When I crank the music to like volume 20 or so, then the amp will turn on and off, it has a status light, and it flickers with the beat of the music, so whenever u get strong signals like bass or whatever, itll power it up, but if u turn it down, itll immediatly stop doing it. Any idea whats wrong?? Thanks everyone!

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[squeak12 10+ year member]

You can put a switch on the wire from the positive to remote sections. The problem with the light flickering, etc. is probably the internals of the amp sensing a clipped signal and shutting off before you damage the speaker or amp, to fix it you need to adjust the gains or a bigger amp will work since it wont be clipping to get the power you want.

 

[CAT]

But why would I need a bigger amp? The amp is only pumping out 125 Watts RMS or so, maybe 100 Watts RMS, and the sub is 150 Watts RMS, needs 70 watts to run, so everything should be ok. Only thing I can figure out is that maybe the remote wire isnt crimped into the connector on the deck far enough, isnt in all the way, tight spot to get into. Any thoughts??

 

[Goldenknob 10+ year member]

do you have a volt meter?.. or just a tester? if a volt meter check the remote wire when everything is hooked up and see what draw you have.. you may be correct in that it dosn't have enought power, through the resistance of the length of the wire to keep the amp powered when the bass hits.

you could hook up a switch for the remote wire and just manually turn the amp on and off yourself when you are done listening.. like squeak mentioned

 

[jsloan10 10+ year member]

Use a relay, problem solved.

There actually really easy to install and use.

 

[Decipha 10+ year member]

i used a relay to turn my EQ on and off with my HU works like a charm and was only 3 wires to hook up