Im currently running a 600watt bridged AMP two 12" SUBS and my problem is the AMP keeps kicking off when the subs are blasting then they will turn back on. What can cause this problem my?

 

Ground wire not be a good enough ground, causing your amp to go into auto-protect mode. You might have your subs hooked up wrong lowering the impedance which can cause the amp to go into thermal-protect mode. Also possible that your voltage is dropping below 8V causing the amp to go into protect mode.

How's it all wired up? Give details on installation of wires from battery and your ground wires. How are the subs hooked up? What subs are they?

 

The subs are 12" PIONEERS IMPP's not sure on the rating. I also thought it was a ground problem. At first it was a 10 gauge ground wire I replaced it with an 8 gauge gound wire. Still does the same. The AMP kit i used was a Tsunami AMP kit I bought it at Circuit City. The power Wire is 8 gauge ran it from the battery all the way to the power on the AMP yes i added the FUSE that came with the kit about 2' away from the battery. Ran the remote Wire to the radio. Ran the RCA cables to the radio. I grounded the AMP wire to the bracket that holds my seat down wrapped the wire around the bolt and tightend the nut. My battery gauge does move back and forth with every THUMP id say it goes from 12v to 9v. If i turn the bass down it runs with no problem. Im thinking battery or Alternator or even both.

 

last night my amp was shutting of just like this, come to find it was my in-line fuse wasnt tight. i would also check to make sure all of the paint was ground off of wherever u grounded it

Matt

 

at 600 watts 8 guage should be enough, but mabey the amp is not getting enough power.... mabey a 4 guage kit is in line?

Matt

 

Sounds like alternator is going, mine did that when my alt was going out.

 

Your problem is that your amp is working to hard to power your subs especially since you say you have it bridged...If you feel your amp when the subs kick off it is most likely really hot...Try unbridging your amp this should help otherwise you may need to get a bigger amp.

 

First and formost i would like to thank everybody who helped me with this problem. Ranger_113 that was the problem my subs are rated 450Watts each so i guess bridging them was way too much for the 600Watt AMP to handle. I unbridged them and the AMP doesnt kick off and doesnt even get hot anymore.

Thanks Bro

 

Good to hear your system is up and going

 

OK guys, let's start out with a little test. If I were to ask you what an "ohm" is, what would you say? If you think it's something that monks like to chant, then you better read this column before you start installing your system. That funny little word is the key to matching your subwoofer with your sub amp -- and it's really important to get it right. Ask any audio engineer what happens when it's wrong, and he'll tell you about "letting the smoke out." If you smoke out of your amp, then it basically becomes an expensive paperweight. I haven't seen a smoke replacement kit on the market yet, so be forewarned: it's gonna cost you. Fortunately, this nasty scenario can be easily avoided with a little knowledge, so let's learn about ohms so we can keep the smoke in. When we talk about ohms, it's really just electrical resistance, also known as impedance. Basically, more ohms equal more impedance, or resistance to electrical flow. If all other things are equal, a circuit with higher impedance will allow less power to travel through it than one with lower impedance. OK, now substitute the word "circuit" with the word "subwoofer" and you'll see how this relates to our topic. A sub with higher impedance will allow less power to flow through it than one with lower impedance.

I know what you're thinking: why would I want less power to go to my sub? I'll just get the lowest impedance subs I can find, and that way I'll get the most power. Hey, what's that smell? There goes the smoke, no more bass for you!

The key is to match your subs with your amplifiers to get the best performance out of both parts of the system. First, look at the capabilities of your amplifier. Every amp has a minimum impedance at which it can run before shutting down or blowing up. The idea is to stay at or above this impedance when choosing your sub system. A common scenario is a big, two-channel amp running a couple of subwoofers. Let's say that each channel can handle a 2-ohm-minimum load, which is pretty common. That means that you can't put less than that on each channel -- if you do, the amp will sound bad, shut down, get hot, and maybe even destroy itself trying to drive the low impedance load. If you decide to bridge the amp, you have to be even more careful. Bridging, or combining, two channels of an amp will make the amp "see" half the impedance of your sub system. So if you have your 2-ohm-stable, two-channel amp bridged, you can't put anything lower than a 4-ohm sub setup on the bridged single channel. The most important thing is to know the capabilities of your amp, so ask the manufacturer before you install it. Find out at what impedance the amp will produce its maximum power reliably, and then design your system around it.

Now you know what impedance your amp can drive. The next step is to figure out what impedance your sub setup is providing. Let's start with a basic example. If you have one 4-ohm sub, then obviously your impedance is 4 ohms, simple as that. Let's say that you want to add another 4-ohm sub to your system. What happens to your impedance? Well, it depends on how you hook it up. You have two options when connecting subwoofers: series or parallel. If you connect the two subs in series, you simply add up each sub's impedance to get the total impedance load. With two 4-ohm subs, you would have 8 ohms of total impedance with a series connection. To connect two subs in series, you would first connect one wire from the positive output of the amp to the positive terminal on the first sub. Then, connect another wire from the negative terminal of the first sub to the positive terminal of the second sub. Finally, hook another wire from the negative terminal of the second sub back to the negative terminal of the amp.

Your other option for subwoofer connection is parallel. This one gets a little more complex to figure out, but it's not too difficult. To calculate impedance with a parallel connection, take the impedance of each sub and divide it by the number of subs in your system. For example, if you have two 4-ohm subs in parallel, you would divide 4 by 2, to get 2 ohms. If you have three 4-ohm subs in parallel, just divide 4 by 3, to get 1.3 ohms. To wire two subs in parallel, you simply connect the positive and negative wires from the amp to the terminals on the first sub, then connect two more wires from the terminals on the first sub to the terminals on the second sub (and it's important to make sure that positive and negative are wired the same on both).

What happens if you have dual voice coil subs? These are very popular because they can be configured in several different ways to work with your system. Basically, a dual voice coil sub can be thought of as two separate subs when you calculate your impedance. That means a dual 4-ohm sub can be set up as a 2-ohm sub (when wired in parallel) or an 8-ohm sub (if wired in series). If you have two subs with dual 4-ohm voice coils, you could have a 1-ohm load if both woofers were wired in parallel, or a 4-ohm load if a series-parallel connection is used. That's right -- you can mix and match series and parallel to get the optimum load. In this case, each sub would be wired in series (for an 8-ohm load), then both 8-ohm woofers would be connected in parallel to arrive at 4 ohms. As you can see, this can get confusing very quickly, so it's best to draw out a diagram before you wire it all up.

 

yep, i explained this as simple as possible in my amp install directions.

Matt

p.s. it took ksu a semester to teach this in ee210, lol