Remote wire votalge

[Loaked 10+ year member]

I have a Lexus IS250 that has a stock amp in the trunk. There is a wire that you tap on to from the stock amp to use as a remote wire to power an aftermarket amp. The only problem is that the remote wire from the stock amp only feeds 6.5volts, which is enough to turn on some amps.

I had a Mmats 1500w amp I hooked up and it wont even turn on, goes into protect moede, and when it did turn on it cut in and out.

I have a Nakamichi 2ch amp bridged running a dual 2 ohm sub wired to 4ohms. It turns on and works, but gets hot instantly and shuts off after a while. Im wondering if this is becauase of the remote wires low votalge??

Any nifty little gadget that could boost the voltage on the remote wire? Any other thoughts?

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[ropuma]

use a relay 86=amp.wire from radio, 85=ground, 87=12v, 30=triger new amp.

 

[Loaked 10+ year member]

Nice man, I heard a relay would work, but I didnt know how to wire one up. Is there a specific kind of relay? Are they all basically the same?

 

[titanle 10+ year member]

Nice man, I heard a relay would work, but I didnt know how to wire one up. Is there a specific kind of relay? Are they all basically the same?

try a bosch automotive relay

 

[BoomBoomBoy 10+ year member]

use a relay 86=amp.wire from radio, 85=ground, 87=12v, 30=triger new amp.

If he's only getting 6.5V at the remote, I relay isn't going to help. If Mmats are like any other amps, their turn on circuitry requires a minimum voltage to energize the circuit.

You need to find a switched +12V power source and run a wire from that to the amp's remote..

Another option would be to use a single pole, single throw switch and run a constant +12V power source to the remote terminal on the Mmats. If you did it this way, you'll need to remember to turn off the switch when you're done listening or your amp will continue to idle and drain your battery overnight.

Sorry but I didn't notice if you're running your stock head unit or not. If you have an aftermarket h/u use the blue white wire from it's harness to the remote on the Mmats. That would be the best solution.

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

this is not a remote wire issue.

amps don't need much voltage to turn on from your remote. most head unit remote lead out isn't even near 6v

you could run 2-3 amps off a remote turn on before wanting to up it to 12v using a relay.

as for your amps turning off and on, the one that overheats, how do you have the gains set? are they set high? do oyu have the bass boost turned all the way up? where do you have the grounds located? did you sand off the paint?

as for the mmats amp are the wires clean and no stray wires tapping into each other? are your speaker wires pinched? it is possible that the amp could be blown since it's going into protect, or even a speaker is shorted out and causing it to go into protect.

you need to trouble shoot your amps.

unhook everything

plug in the power, remote, then the ground.

turn on car/head unit. if both amps turn on your good.

turn off car/head unit, plug in rcas.

turn on car/head unit, if everything turns on again then your good.

turn off car/head unit, plug in speaker wires

turn on car/head unit, if an amp shuts off then something is wired incorrectly or you have a short.

 

[djman37 5,000+ posts]

parts express sells them with wiring harnesses and instructions.

A relay can be triggered with an electrical pulse as small as 150 milliamps.

^^^they don't mention voltage though...I've seen some with low voltage triggers, maybe mouser?

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?DID=7&PartNumber=330-073

diagrams

http://www.partsexpress.com/resources/relays.html

 

[BoomBoomBoy 10+ year member]

this is not a remote wire issue.amps don't need much voltage to turn on from your remote. most head unit remote lead out isn't even near 6v

What? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif Are you kidding me? Have you ever measured the voltage off of your headunit's remote wire? I've owned Alpine, Pioneer, and Kenwood, and I've never seen anything less than 11.5 volts come off of a remote wire when installed in a car. You may be confusing the headunits pre-out voltage with the remote turn on voltage?//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

I've even tested my system using a variable voltage power supply and my current Alpine won't even turn on my amps with less than 10.8 volts

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

What? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif Are you kidding me? Have you ever measured the voltage off of your headunit's remote wire? I've owned Alpine, Pioneer, and Kenwood, and I've never seen anything less than 11.5 volts come off of a remote wire when installed in a car. You may be confusing the headunits pre-out voltage with the remote turn on voltage?//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif
I've even tested my system using a variable voltage power supply and my current Alpine won't even turn on my amps with less than 10.8 volts

yeah i confused myself with amperage draw.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[GMCJimmyslt2000 10+ year member]

what size wire are u running.

to test ur amps, jump ur remote wire to the batt terminal of ur amp. This will show u if the amp is shot or ur remote isnt feeding enough voltage to ur amp.

U can tap into ur cig lighter( if it turns on and off with ur car), usually it is easy to tap into.

 

[Loaked 10+ year member]

Ok what I ended up doing is just running the remote wire from a fuse box under the glove box that had 12 volts and the mmats amp worked perfectly.

Its a 1500 @2ohm, going to a dual 2 ohm P3 rockford 12". So the amp is running half power until I swap it for a dual 4 ohm.

Its hooking up to a stock lexus amp, and there is only 1 wire with switched power to the stock amp and its 6.5Volts. So I just said screw it and ran it off a switch fuse.

I think the Nakamichi amp was shutting off becuase I did have it turned up pretty far, as well as the bass boost on it, but I have done this before with other amps never had them shut off. The Nakamichi amp got hot almost instantly, so I still think the low voltage remote wire had to be messing with is some how, maybe not. Maybe the amp was bad, I dont know. But I've been pounding on the mmats amp, its turned complety up all the way and sounds wonderful, and doesnt get hot, although it is at half power...

 

[Loaked 10+ year member]

I am running 4 guage wire, ground wire is maybe 15-18" long, and i dremmel'd all the paint off where I screwed it down to. I've been doing installs for years, and just never ran into anything like this. I was told by an installer buddy a relay would work, i just didnt want to take the car apart again running a remote wire from the front, Lexus' arent the easiest thing to work on.

I may still try out a relay though. I just feel wierd running the remote wire off the same fuse thats runs the whole Navagation system, I dont want anything crazy to happen to that. But I guess there isnt much that could happen, but still.