thermal shut down

[1rockford1 5,000+ posts]

hey guys i have a questions for ya .after playing a few songs at 48 out of 62 on my deck i think im geting some kind of thermal shut down. my subs are seeing 500 watts at 1 ohm they can take 1200-1600rms or so at 1. i have no electrical issue and my subs dont get hot. i did not have a chance to check to see if the protect light comes on cuz it happens well im driving. i got home a few min ago checked my subs there fine checked my back battery its still charged up. i checked by the amp , i felt it and it was kinda warm but not to bad. i then leaned in to check the wires and there was this kinda like not burnt electrical smell but like melting metal or so smell hard to describe. i get the smell here and there its not my subs i know that for sure. so is it thermal shut down ? if so i just need a bigger amp right ? oh yea no bass boost ,no level boost no sub boost on my deck all left at 0. gain is like 90 on my amp

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[1rockford1 5,000+ posts]

befor i go and yank my chain bump.

 

[1rockford1 5,000+ posts]

well last night i had a few songs on and my amp just went off. i waited like 30 sec and put on a song and it started to play so i gess thats thermal shut down. i would need a new amp right cuz it cant power my subs .

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

Amps go into thermal shutdown because they get hot, they get hot 99% of the time because of user error. Your probably clipping the hell out of that amp.

 

[1rockford1 5,000+ posts]

Amps go into thermal shutdown because they get hot, they get hot 99% of the time because of user error. Your probably clipping the hell out of that amp.

its at 1 ohm and its 1 ohm stable i have no bass boost on and there is no level boost nothing like that all my setings are flat. this happens after 12min of 48/62 . i have my gain up kinda high, i doubt its cuz im doin somthing wrong its like when some one demos and after like 20min they start to smell there coils a tad. im my case yea my amp gets a tad hot, i just think its cuz the gain is on the higher side. i have only 80rms to each of my subs. so i just need a amp that will do like 1200-1600 @ 1 ohm?

 

[JuicyJeff 10+ year member]

Do you have a loose ground? Check em

 

[1rockford1 5,000+ posts]

Do you have a loose ground? Check em

i will do that i checked my voltage the othere night at my back battery and all was good. i have the amp grounded at the back battery. i doubt my ground from the battery to the fram came loose.

 

[JuicyJeff 10+ year member]

have you tried grounding it the the trunkfloor? Sometimes a battery ground isn't always the best if that battery is poorly grounded

 

[1rockford1 5,000+ posts]

have you tried grounding it the the trunkfloor? Sometimes a battery ground isn't always the best if that battery is poorly grounded

no i have not done that tbh, i think its the fact that the gain is up to like 90% and i have been playing things at a higher lvl due to the fact i need more power. i dont get bad voltage drops and i know my battery in the back is charging just fine . if i go with a bigger amp and send my subs there rated power do you guys think that should work? this is a older kenwood amp that is 1 ohm stable but has 40 amps worth of fusing but says it will put out 500 @ 1 ohm.

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

no i have not done that tbh, i think its the fact that the gain is up to like 90% and i have been playing things at a higher lvl due to the fact i need more power. i dont get bad voltage drops and i know my battery in the back is charging just fine . if i go with a bigger amp and send my subs there rated power do you guys think that should work? this is a older kenwood amp that is 1 ohm stable but has 40 amps worth of fusing but says it will put out 500 @ 1 ohm.

Jesus Christ this is EXACTLY what I said...USER ERROR, The gain is not a volume knob. Your clipping the hell out of the amp, set your gains properly and I can **** near guarantee your problem will go away.

 

[1rockford1 5,000+ posts]

Jesus Christ this is EXACTLY what I said...USER ERROR, The gain is not a volume knob. Your clipping the hell out of the amp, set your gains properly and I can **** near guarantee your problem will go away.

i got the heads up with the amp i have i could run it close to full tilt. i know its not a volume knob, i just think there is no need to use a dmm when im no where near the power i need for my subs. i had the amp in my car for like a month now . i will lower the gain and go from there tell i get a new amp.

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

i got the heads up with the amp i have i could run it close to full tilt. i know its not a volume knob, i just think there is no need to use a dmm when im no where near the power i need for my subs. i had the amp in my car for like a month now . i will lower the gain and go from there tell i get a new amp.

...you realize "full tilt" could be turned up to 50.. It is dependent on your ohm load and you input. Set it "correctly" and see if your problem goes away. Don't keep complaining about your amp going into protect and not look into the most obvious solution.

 

[kr15 5,000+ posts]

gain is up to like 90%

im gonna overgeneralize a bit here, but 90% will clip just about any amp in the world unless your rca outputs are like 0.2v

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

Turn the gain down. You have such a lack of power- that's why your subs aren't getting too warm off clipped power. Hot amps tend not to last too long //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

i got the heads up with the amp i have i could run it close to full tilt. i know its not a volume knob, i just think there is no need to use a dmm when im no where near the power i need for my subs. i had the amp in my car for like a month now . i will lower the gain and go from there tell i get a new amp.

Seriously man, you have no clue as to what the gain knob actually does. It is NOT a direct 1 to 1 relationship with out how much power you get out of the amp, max gain does NOT mean max power, it's possible to get max power out of your amp with the gain at 1% if you have high enough input voltage. The gain is there to match the input voltage, which in this case is your HU's pre-out voltage. Not every HU is the same so they have to allow the end user to adjust it. Having a 2V input requires more amplification then an 8V input, but if you have your gain set higher then it needs to be, it's going to clip the hell out of the signal, resulting in a lot of extra heat, and in the long term it will destroy something. Now regardless of how hard you think your driving your subs, set your **** gains the right way.