What did I do wrong?

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

K guys, up until 1 hour my system was sounding fantastic. I even installed a borrow amp and installed my sub, and it sounded great (minus the rattles)

So I decided to tune my system (specifically my sub) so that I would not damage my driver. So I follow the Jl Tutorial to the dot, but I could not for the life of me get the DMM to pull ANY voltage. In fact, the DMM was putting the amp into protect mode everytime I tried it.

I then tried something I had heard someone say earlier, and touch the ground to the chassis, and the power to the red DMM stick (All on the sub amp, not touching the multichannel.). I get a HUGE static noise through the Mid ranges (and tweets I guess) even though I was only working with the Subwoofer amp.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/uhoh.gif.c07307dd22ee7e63e22fc8e9c614d1fd.gif

Now, even with the Sub amp and ground COMPLETELY removed from the car, I have a huge engine whine (attributed to ground loop isolation usually) and now the tracks blip/thud whenever I change them, even when the same tracks did not before.

Only way I can stop the whine is if I shut the HU off.

So did I kill the Deck? The RCA's? Or the Amp? I'm really really pissed right now and frustrated at the same time.

Please help.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

Click to read more...

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

Ohh ya, I pulled the top off of the amp and didn't see anything out of the usual, and it sounds fine, no noises. Fan runs fine.

My ground and all wiring is EXACTLY where they were before I installed the Subwoofer amp. Nothing is different. Yet I have this new noise.

 

[NebBlackshirts 10+ year member]

you better take it out, its gunna blow!

 

[enzowho 10+ year member]

So I follow the Jl Tutorial to the dot, but I could not for the life of me get the DMM to pull ANY voltage. In fact, the DMM was putting the amp into protect mode everytime I tried it.

Probably had it plugged into the wrong port or reading current. You want it switched to the AC voltage setting and the probes plugged into the voltage input.

I then tried something I had heard someone say earlier, and touch the ground to the chassis, and the power to the red DMM stick (All on the sub amp, not touching the multichannel.)

I assume you did this to insure you were getting power into your amplifier? That is if I'm reading it right. Did you test your supply voltage or the output voltage?

I get a HUGE static noise through the Mid ranges (and tweets I guess) even though I was only working with the Subwoofer amp

I have no idea why this would happen. Did you disconnect your component amp (is that the one you opened up)? How far have you gone in debugging your system? Do your drivers make noise when you disconnect the RCA's? Does the noise change when you move stuff around your RCA's (aka induced noise). Hopefully somebody can help you get this figured out...

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

Probably had it plugged into the wrong port or reading current. You want it switched to the AC voltage setting and the probes plugged into the voltage input.
A: I have a digital display, I tried both AC and DC. WHat irks me is why did it throw the amp into preotect? Also, it is not possible to have the prong leads wrong, the dial is hooked into a safety...it acts sort of like the top of the Kraft Parmesan Cheese, it will only allow you to do certain things when the dial is in a given spot.

I assume you did this to insure you were getting power into your amplifier? That is if I'm reading it right. Did you test your supply voltage or the output voltage?

A: I did it to see if I could find a reading on the DMM. I knew the amp had power (light). I was testing the output terminals on the amp that I plug the sub into, as per what JL specifies.

I have no idea why this would happen. Did you disconnect your component amp (is that the one you opened up)? How far have you gone in debugging your system? Do your drivers make noise when you disconnect the RCA's? Does the noise change when you move stuff around your RCA's (aka induced noise). Hopefully somebody can help you get this figured out...

A: I disconnected the component amp after I started having issues. It was working with both amps before without noise issues, now it won't even work with one, and the noise is REALLY loud. As far as debugging, I've tried new ground, completely removed sub and amp, new ground wire, and that is all.

The ground is to the same exact ground that BOTH amps were doing fin one before, which largely leads me to believe it is the amp, RCA or deck itself.

Why would it now make pop noises everytime I switch on the Component amp, and change songs? It never did this before (except when playing test tones, and even then it was minimal)

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/mad.gif.c18f003ab0ef8a0d9c27ca78d77a6392.gif

 

[NoviceGuru]

i think it sounds like you RCA's went kaput. if your deck ran fine with both subs out then i think your deck is still in the safe zone.

as far as amps i hope you have a warrenty if replacing your RCA's doesn't work

 

[enzowho 10+ year member]

A: I have a digital display, I tried both AC and DC. WHat irks me is why did it throw the amp into preotect? Also, it is not possible to have the prong leads wrong, the dial is hooked into a safety...it acts sort of like the top of the Kraft Parmesan Cheese, it will only allow you to do certain things when the dial is in a given spot.

I don't understand why it would go into protection mode. Its like your multimeter was acting as a short circuit. That shouldn't happen when you are checking voltages, that's for sure....

I then tried something I had heard someone say earlier, and touch the ground to the chassis, and the power to the red DMM stick (All on the sub amp, not touching the multichannel.).

So you didn't do anything with the negative output? You just sampled your voltage during the positive half cycle of the sine wave with reference to ground? That shouldn't have caused problems, unless your DMM was acting as a short circuit...

(the positive half cycle is the positive portion of the following sine wave)

http://www.circuit-magic.com/sinewave.gif

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

I don't understand why it would go into protection mode. Its like your multimeter was acting as a short circuit. That shouldn't happen when you are checking voltages, that's for sure....

I agree, i was a little worried...still am.

So you didn't do anything with the negative output? You just sampled your voltage during the positive half cycle of the sine wave with reference to ground? That shouldn't have caused problems, unless your DMM was acting as a short circuit...

All I did with the negative output at any time was touch the negative DMM stick to it when I was trying to read voltage. other than that, nothing.

As for the testing positive sine, if that is what the JL tutorial teaches to do, then yes, that is all I was doing.

As far as warranty, I got the amp from Millionbuy.com, I'd only have factory warranty left, and I'd doubt they'd honor this.

Do you guys think that best Buy or Tweeter would be willing to check it for cheap or even free? I just need someone to plug their RCA's in and play music through the amp. That way I can eliminate 1 of 3 items. I was also told that if the Deck plays fine, I probably didn't damage it.

Well, it does play fine, but it is popping every time I switch songs. Is that a deck issue or does that sound like it could be RCA related?

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

i think it sounds like you RCA's went kaput. if your deck ran fine with both subs out then i think your deck is still in the safe zone.
as far as amps i hope you have a warrenty if replacing your RCA's doesn't work

What do you mean by this?

My multichannel is what I am concerned with. It now has a high whine where it did not before.

The sub and subwoofer amp arent even in the car anymore, and it still whines. 1 ground, the same one it had before everything went wrong. Everything is the same as when I first installed it trouble free.

Any ideas?

P>S: For future reference, what is the correct and safe way to hook up and unhook each amp? Maybe I disconnected **** and fried the RCAs that way. I don't know, I'm going to try to get an inside guy at Best buy to play with it tomorrow, see if they can do it fopr free or something.

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

I got a bud with a Pioneer Hu and an Infinity amp that had no problems. We're gonna plug and play tomorrow and see if we cannot narrow it down to just the RCAs.

*RCA's* please.........*crosses fingers*.......

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

Bump for any ideas.

 

[60ndown 10+ year member]

its your head unit.pioneer have a fuse inside the hu, i know because i blew mine in a similar way recently and had similar whine and bumping on track change.im gonna say you have to send the hu in and get it repaired.

or

search for a thread (pioneer/hu whine or ground or something)where there is a pic of a pioneer hu with a figure 8 of wires 'grounding' wrapped around the rca outputs. try touching the rca outputs to a ground and see if it helps, it did with mine but not perfect so i paid $145 to get my 880 repaired.

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

its your head unit.pioneer have a fuse inside the hu, i know because i blew mine in a similar way recently and had similar whine and bumping on track change.im gonna say you have to send the hu in and get it repaired.
or

search for a thread (pioneer/hu whine or ground or something)where there is a pic of a pioneer hu with a figure 8 of wires 'grounding' wrapped around the rca outputs. try touching the rca outputs to a ground and see if it helps, it did with mine but not perfect so i paid $145 to get my 880 repaired.

145$ to get it changed... yay. If I'm gonna do that, I'll just sell this thing and get the 980 instead.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/yumyum.gif.0556df42231b304b9c995aefd13928a8.gif

We'll see if I cannot fix it via amplifier or HU change today. I'll have an update on this in about 3 hours.

*crosses fingers*

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

Well, it was the head unit. We tried using a new amp, same issue. We then tried a set of RCAs with a ground inline. Same thing without the ground touching the RCA's, but when it did touch, it reduced it dramatically, but not eliminate the issue.

Hopefully Pioneer will warranty it, I got it less than a year ago through Best Buy.

~Levi

 

[Frankensuby 10+ year member]

Update: The head unit got back in last night and I installed it this morning.

Still bad.

I'm looking into having Best Buy swap me a new unit. I doubt they will go for it but my buddy is co-manager in customer service, so I'll ask him to dig.

I have to try one more thing I just thought of, but if that is a bust, I'm going to cry I think //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif