Through all my years of installing audio i have never installed a cap that you can adjust the voltage....

Well i was installing a kole audio 20 farad cap and when i turned on the system hardly any sound was coming from the bass amp. .. so i started going through seeing what was wrong .... and some how came across a voltage adjuster... it was all the way down.... once turned up the bass got louder.... my questions is....


What voltage should this be set at ..... i turned it all the way up and it read 16.3..... but i guess i can adjust it any where from 11 volts to 16.3.... it is set at 14.4 right now ... but not sure where i should leave it so it does not blow the amp.


Any body ever seen or installed one of these... ?

 

Not sure either never had an adjustable one... but my thought is to run it at the output of the car.. I wouldnt think that a cap can up the voltage of the car. But hey just my thoughts.

 

any more feedback...

 

caps are useless..

i have one in my car and i will be the first to tell you that they are useless

 

i agree i hate them .... but i need to know what to do about this for the install....

 

well in this situation i would check the amp specs to see what the normal operating voltage is.. most amps operate at 14.4 volts.. but double check for sure

 

yeah thats why i set it at 14.4 for now ...

 

bump for more help/....

 

Didn't this cap come with some instructions? What about trying to contact the manufacturer. If this Kole Audio doesn't offer some kind of support, I would return it and go for one made by a reputable company that does.

Also, you say you know that caps are useless......so why are you installing one?

 

wow arent you quite the smart ***.......

first off its not my car .... im installing it in another persons z..... he wants it for show purposes because it has Voltage and Amp readings on it ...

so unless you have something use full to contribute how about um.... well stfu....

 

Dude, ******* relax...........wasn't trying to be a smart a$$. I was really asking what your reason for installing it was. Now that you explained it, I understand.

And as for my other comment, I am also being serious. If you can't get it to work, and the company doesn't offer support, I would look into another manufacturer's product.....like Stinger, or Lightning Audio.

Christ, who pissed in your Cheerios this morning.

 

I did i thought his calcium could use some protein

 

Dude, seriously: Got Stress?

Xanax is your friend, think about it.

Oh, and I'd recommend www.amazon.com . Search "Dale Carnegie". He's got lots of good reading.

 

just tired of people responding with worthless **** ... ie the last guy ...


i would rather get no responses then people who are just trying to get there post counts up ...

 

Hey, I understand your frustration. Please understand I am not one of those people trying to get my post count up. I could care less about post count.

On a serious note, a cap is nothing more than a storage device. I looked at a pic of this Kole Audio 20 farad cap and it's in a glorified casing, but I can't seem to find any kind of specifics on its functions, nor any mention of any kind of voltage adjustment. That being said it might be some kind of voltage regulator.

You said the output of the sub is increased as you turn this **** up. Does it continue to get louder all the way up to the max (16.3v), or did it stop getting louder around 14.4v?

I doubt highly that you can do any damage by having this adjustment turned all the way up, as the sheer physics of a cap (if wired properly) can not cause any damage to the components in an amplifier.

 

Fair enough, but if you post here in the audio section for very long you'll quickly see that the guy you exploded on is, in general, a pretty decent guy and always helpful.

Ok, you want help? Here's help.

If your sub amp's power supply is unregulated on the input side? Jack that ***** up. (The output voltage on the cap, that is) Amps that are unregulated on the input power will generally (to a point in line with the laws of physics, lol) continue making more output power as you feed them more in.

If you sub amp's power supply is regulated on the input side? Just set the cap at 14.4v and be done. An amp with a regulated power supply isn't going to make any more power at 16v than at 14.4.

Problem solved.

 

Thanks clarkemtp.

And good point about the regulated amp power supply. Although judging by the fact he said when he turned this ****, the output increased, I'm guessing it's an unregulated amp power supply.

 

thanks guys for the great responses ... sorry for the response earlier ....


any ways back to the question .... for reference information ...... here is a back ground of the system.... well the bass part of it ....


the amp is a MB Quart PAB1200.1D amp and the subs are MB Quart 10" Premium sub (2) ....


My main concern is similar to what was mentioned in the last two posts.... the amps safety with a power increase.....

Example being ...... when it was turned all the way down slight sound was coming out of the sub..... When turned to 14.4 the amp increased in sound tremendously..... Granted these are running at 1ohm load.....

So I guess my main question would be will it be louder if turned up to 16.3v....or is it risking the safety of the amp along with discharging quicker and draining the cap.....

The reason why i can not really adjust it is because of where it is going to be mounted once final install is done .... the know will not be as accessible to get to ...

 

I wouldn't worry about feeding too much voltage to that amp. That amp has a PWM power supply. The PWM keeps the voltage from dipping and spiking too much.

Here's some good reading:
http://www.bcae1.com/pwmps.htm

A passage from the link:
"In many electronic circuits the range of voltage must remain within a 3-5% window. In a PWMPS, the transformer IS wound with a ratio higher than is needed. But... as in op amps, there is a feedback circuit. Using the feedback loop, the control chip reduces the duty cycle as far as is needed to prevent an overvoltage condition. When the current draw increases, the duty cycle is increased to maintain a proper output voltage. This allows it to maintain a proper output voltage with a wide range of current draw situations. It also allows the power supply to produce a constant rail voltage with a relatively wide range of input voltage from the vehicle's charging system."

 

cool thanks...