serious voltage drop and dimming

[bigchevyboy 10+ year member]

someone suggested that I use a double alternator, what do yall think? they say its cheaper but does the same thing

 

[dyohn 10+ year member]

Dual alts are MUCH harder to install, but if you have the skills go for it. You can get 300a in a full-sized GM case rather readily.

 

[dyohn 10+ year member]

Electrons have a mass asociated to them. Regardless of the size alternator, if the bateries and cap are topped off, current flow within the wire has slowed to a crawl. When the amplifier hits, first the current comes from its own capacitor bank. Next it would come from an external cap or battery installed nearby. By then this has created a demand for power, a negative pressure if you will through the 15 feet of wire to the cars alternator and other battery. This process takes time, like starting a river to flow from a standstill. Just cause your alternator is cranking, it doesn't mean you have a continuous flow of its max amp output flowing through your wire at all times. If it did, you would blow fuses and create a high flowing whirlpool of wasted energy. Also, theres a reason that capacitors operate at a higher voltage. Lower resistance+ higher voltage equals a much faster discharge. And I dont care if you had an infinite amount of batteries in parrallel. In theory the resistance would drop down to zero, which would equate to almost instantaneous delivery, but in practice, even in that infinite aray, if you replaced a single battery with a capacitor, it would beat them all to the punch. A capacitor doesnt really on chemical reactions, it delivers current through a faster process at a higher voltage, it suplements speed of delivery. If you had an alternator which could increase its output voltage instantaneously in unison with an amplifiers demands, then it could possibly beat the battery and capacitor to the punch.

Wow. There are so many things wrong with this post... hey, if you can figure out how to make electrons "slow to a crawl" then let's patent it and be the first to prove Einstein wrong, OK? We'll be ba-f**king-zillion-aires. And we can sell those high-flowing wasted energy whirlpools to the NFL. Just the thing to get sprained knees back on the field.

While you have some ideas correct (like the tendency for caps to resist voltage changes through nearly instantaneous discharging of its plates) your application knowledge is lacking. No cap can produce power: it can only serve as a very small storage device and is intended to help maintain amplifier rail voltage during a musical transient, not to sustain system power with an insufficient alternator.

"bigbangs," huh? Is this the same "bigbangs" that used to preach the gospel of caps on the12volt?

 

[Qbenjamin 10+ year member]

TO the OP, you need a HO alt very badly with the electrical that you are running. Also, your amps puts out a lot more power @ 14v than it does @ 12v, so you should notice the difference that the ho alt will provide. I have a little dimming myself, and I can tell when my amp is only seeing around 12v's, for me there is a noticeable (audible) difference.

 

[bigchevyboy 10+ year member]

anyone have a mean green or other HO for sale that will fit my car? theres a guy in my city that says he can beef up my factory alt, is there any truth that this can be done?

 

[bigbang 10+ year member]

Electrons are in a constant state of being exited, spining around in radom orbits. If you take a small length of wire, electrons are inside of it spinning about. Its not until you create a circuit and a voltage that they start to travel down a given path. An electron is always in movement, I just meant that you don't have the full rating of the alternator constantly flowing down a wire until there is a demand for it. And this is where the resistance of the wire over a length factors in. I am just sick of people saying they serve no purpose. They will not magically create extra power substituting an alternator. All I am trying to say, as many people know, is that they help your sytem on transients, before everything else kicks in. If you want the best sounding system, initial delivery speed and then shear quantity are a factor. They dont hold alot of electricity, thats not the point.

 

[bigchevyboy 10+ year member]

anyone have a mean green or other HO for sale that will fit my car? theres a guy in my city that says he can beef up my factory alt, is there any truth that this can be done?

can someone answer this and not debate over electrons and neutrons

 

[05gliguy 10+ year member]

It is possible to beef up the alt you have. They rewind your alt you put out more amps.

 

[dyohn 10+ year member]

bigchevyboy, contact Ohio Generator and get a quote for your vehicle. Best HO alts I have ever used. http://www.ohiogen.com/html/contact_us.html

 

[Arawak420 10+ year member]

car is a 1996 chevy caprice system consists of jensen 9411 head unit infinity 4x6 plates in front with 1 pair soundstream tweets all pushed by a kicker kx350.4. rear fill is 4 infinity 6x9's pushed by another kx350.4. 4 diamond audio d9 12's pushed by a RFt30001db. all 1/0 wiring with big 3 and 2 red tops alt is stock.

4 diamond audio d9 12's pushed by a RFt30001db. that is your problem that is a lot of power on a stock alternator a whole lot. i run 2x d6 12's on a t1000.1bd and it dimms my lights occasionly whne rela loud on certain beats. i have a 120amp alternator.

but yeah 4 DA d9's and a t3000. **** i bet your gas mileage is killed... **** thats a lot of power and sound... get a 300amp alt. should be good to go..

 

[bigchevyboy 10+ year member]

4 diamond audio d9 12's pushed by a RFt30001db. that is your problem that is a lot of power on a stock alternator a whole lot. i run 2x d6 12's on a t1000.1bd and it dimms my lights occasionly whne rela loud on certain beats. i have a 120amp alternator.

but yeah 4 DA d9's and a t3000. **** i bet your gas mileage is killed... **** thats a lot of power and sound... get a 300amp alt. should be good to go..

what my gas mileage have to do with anyting? and yes these Diamonds beat the paint of my car literally! can someone tell me how to upload a video so yal can see me beat?

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

anyone have a mean green or other HO for sale that will fit my car? theres a guy in my city that says he can beef up my factory alt, is there any truth that this can be done?

I wouldn't. Get something done the right way the first time.

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

And for those of you arguing about Capacitors, this should /thread http://forum.realmofexcursion.com/showthread.php?t=17970

 

[bigbang 10+ year member]

Lakota, great link on capacitors, I'll have to read it a couple more times though. My only questions at this point are what does the capacitors working voltage (16 for mine), and surge voltage (18 for mine) have to do with anything? And the thread doesn't account for a voltage loss for a length of wire going to the battery at high current draws, which I assume can be anywhere from a volt to more when drawing hundreds of amps. Also when the amplifier hits, the voltage demand won't instantaneosly reach the alt, battery, and cap at the same time, it will reach the cap first, so woulden't it do its job because it will be charged to the highest voltage in the sytem, about 14.8 volts, same at the alternator. vs the battery at about 12.8 volts. Also the cap does have a lower ESR than the battery, and it experiences the first drop in voltage brought about by the amplifier. And if the cap only can provide amounts of power reserve equal to a nine volt battery, it doesn't matter when the point is to deliver 1372 joules in say a tenth of a second, which would be 13'720 watts. Even if you lose half this to heat, its still 6860 watts (for a 14 farad capacitor). And even still, if you lose half of this because the cap only drops by a couple volts to that of the battery, it will still output 3430 watts. And this is for a tenth of a second, I'm assuming it is even less than that between cap and battery, but the biggest time unit will be battery to alternator because the voltage has to drop, alternator has to regulate its voltage, than its sudden higher output will have to travel to the trunk lossing voltage in the process through resistance in the wire. If a cap truely does nothing then how come my lights just dim intstead of flickering like a stobe light?