jbeez

About to install a Sony 9500ES hu and maestro RR. anyone know if i can reuse the factory antennas instead of using the ones that will come with the sirius kit(satellite) and the headunit(gps)? thanks

DD1 is checking the electrical signal, your DSP adjustments are to change the behavior of the physical signal leaving the speakers which aren't being measured by the DD1, that's picked up on your measurement mic. You should set your gains with everything flat using the dd1 and no speakers hooked up, then go back through and do your EQ measurements with your mic and make sure it still behaves properly, the level is changing so it may need a little adjustment but the curve should be generally the same. So at the end of the day after you flat everything for your gains and restore your eq settings, you'll probably still have a -6dB at 1000Hz or if the gains were way off it might be even steeper cut

i dunno...ill let you know in about 5 or 10 years. lol. Did you see what WAS there? it will be fine. HUGE improvement over what was there in terms of capacity and looks. I was just picking your brain, I'm sure you do way more installs in a month than I would probably do in my entire lifetime. Are you having issues with the charging? Someone mentioned something. If you have a new F150 I think they have the ford BMS like my Taurus does, factory amp clamps to tell the pcm the draw so it can ramp up the alternator output. When I upgraded my factory ground up front my voltage dropped, I had to fish the ground from batter to fender through the amp clamp to restore the charging function properly, and I had to let it sit for several hours completely untouched so the BMS would do a "reset"

What are your thoughts on using bare copper crimp lugs on something that may see the elements vs a tinned copper lug?

They can be horrible, check this out for a great example of what happens https://youtu.be/Enlri-V9in4

I've been wrestling with my setup for a little while, half of the system is a mystery because of the limited tools I have access to. I have a '14 ford taurus SHO with the ford mytouch system. Some functions of the vehicle happen to be controlled through the factory headunit and no where else, so I can't easily get rid of it. So what I have right now is this, Factory Sony DSP front door speakers+tweeter outputs to highlevel input of a Helix DSP Helix DSP 4 chans of RCA out to a rockford fosgate 800a4 for highs Helix DSP 2 chans of RCA out to zapco c2k 9.0xd 4 kenetik hc800 batteries in trunk 2 PSI Platform 2 HD subs in 4.3cu/ft sealed box tuned to 29hz system is not completed, I haven't installed any highs, I haven't even ran the factory highs to the RF amp(not sure if i'll do this or swap the speakers first). Anyway, I was getting some serious issues with the c2k cutting off, obviously gain issues are going on, but where? I was a little concerned with the oem sony DSP output level. I got my DD1+ about 2hrs ago. Went out to my car and started the procedure, I have soldered all my factory dsp plug wires to some computer molex extension cords so I can easily hook and unhook things, so for this i unhooked all the factory speakers, and then I unscrewed the psi sub speaker wire terminals on the c2k. Playing the test disc I measured the sony output not connected to the helix, I was alittle concerned as max undistorted VOLTAGE was showing 17v for 40hz sine test track 1 at 1 click under the 5th(out of 6) large vol setting line on factory headunit. The helix is specced for highlevel input from 5-11v, I was a little concerned. However after hooking it upto the helix itself and measuring it while it was plugged into the unit(which shows a 30ohm load to the dsp) the output voltage had dropped to 12v, and the light on the helix was still green, so good! Now I got into the helix software and bypassed all the EQ settings(my oem headunit was already set to 0 for everything). When I measured the output RCAs on this, I was a little surprised. The sub channel at 40hz sine was only doing 3.4v, and thats after I cranked the output gain to full +5db in the helix software. Basically my sub out signal was softer than caitlyn jenner. I was over driving my deck into distortion, as I thought the 5th large vol was safe, obviously not. I had way too low signal coming out of helix, so I was feeding it a distorted signal, then sending out a very soft distorted signal, then my c2k 9.0 was amplifying that trash and.... well you know what happens then. My prior voltage measured on the output of the zapco was around 107-110v and it was still shutting itself off. I just tested it with a 5db overlap on the 40hz i was getting 125v out bridged, and no shutdown when I cranked it =) I'll have to do some more testing of course but seems like I'm in way better shape so far! Oh, and the highs amp? While I'm not 100% ready to use it yet I decided to set the gains while I was doing all this, I found out one channel is slightly louder than the other, I was able to spot this bc the dd1+ gain overlap showed different readings per channel, so I was able to go in my helix and drop one side -0.25db to even them out after I set the gains. Super handy, and let me finally clean this mess up. So thanks again SM & D for making my life way easier

me and a friend from tech school in '98 put my single 12" polk db sub in his hyundai accent for lows, powered by one side of a radio shack amp I cant recall where we appropriated that from, the highs were from 2 15" electrovoice? guitar speakers and 2 piezo electric tweeters. our source was a aiwa walkman with a 3 position EQ slider on the front of it. pretty ghetto but a 12" polk sealed box in a hatch back put out a surprisingly loud sound to us at the time. I've come a long ways from that heh

Thanks so much Steve, I got the wire today, and the DD1 I ordered so I cant stop lugging that huge oscope out just for gain setting lol

I just wanted to post an update, got my VM1 and I love it. The worst part about it is trying to pick a place to mount it in my interior! It's already helped me immensely. I was able to monitor my voltage from the front seat while I articulated the volume and song selections and from that I was able to figure out voltage drop wasn't my issue. I've been fighting this system for the last year, I finally got my oscope out and checked my levels and gains, ended up pulling a pc of gear out of the signal path, and the final hurdle I have now is that the PSI subs I ordered 2yrs ago with 1ohm coils actually have .7ohm coils and they keep tripping my amp in protect mode. I'm about to ship them back to get true 1ohm coils swapped in on a rebuild and hopefully that will fix me up. btw, anyone know where to get some of that 3 conductor wire that the vm1 uses? Or where do you guys generally get stuff like that?

you wouldn't need the pcm repgrommed. What vehicle do you have? I've never heard of a Ford vehicle having the ground loop thing like GM vehicles. its a 2014 ford taurus SHO Here is a pic of the loop right near the front engine battery https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/euyhRKjyVIACo2WZuOd17gC2Nfjx-Z44SwkgaQcRpco=w614-h347-no

I did look into alternators, I didn't find much for my vehicle TBH. I can buy a factory 200amp version that is the same size, but even then I'm not sure if I need to have my PCM reprogrammed. It seems ford has tied fuel economy in with the alt output. Infact when I first grounded my factory battery to the chassis I didn't run it through that ring and I was having crazy voltage fluctuations. Once I took that off the car ran way way better and voltage was stable and higher. Then I ran that 4awg through the ring(might even be an 8 i forget now) and that helped a little bit. Basically I can't find anyone that knows much about this alternator setup so I'm leery of changing that, and I'm trying to just do everything I can do right now with the alternator I have.

I'm having some voltage drop issues I believe, so I actually just ordered one of these meters. My question is, do I wire it right where the power goes into my amp?(zapco c2k 9.0xd) or should I wire it to a battery bank thats in my spare tire well about 2-3ft away from my amp? https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-p2osXMW3eA0/U__i3Uy0slI/AAAAAAAAB2o/lmBb5eS4dhI/w1183-h669-no/IMAG0442.jpg I have knu kollosus 0awg from front car battery('14 taurus SHO factory 650cca group65 batt) to the bank in the back there, it actually goes to the stinger relay. I have a 0awg ground cable coming in there that I ran upto the front alternator casing, 0awg from alt case to front subframe(175a factory alt), 4awg front batter to chassis ground(had to squeeze it in a factory amp ring https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-GmHXiix2cbc/U_n_y8gugKI/AAAAAAAAB0E/0EjrrHXXkME/w1183-h669-no/IMAG0440.jpg ) and 0awg power from alt to front battery connects to the same spot the 0awg running to the trunk power is. I only had 2 of these little kinetik hc800s at first, but it wasn't nearly enough, so i added the other 2 i made room for you see in the first pic https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-jvnxbZzunaQ/U1haQyO1fAI/AAAAAAAAA3o/ztka2Wj7xdc/w1183-h669-no/IMAG0187.jpg I'm thinking of putting a D6500 xs power battery up front next, but I want to get this voltage gauge installed so I can know when to stop turning it up before it cuts off, plus always good to keep an eye on things.

Do you use specific software to design the boxes or do you just do it by hand with some math you have?

Just finished this up, I might have to redo the connection to the front frame as I don't think it was ground down good and I forgot to bring my star washers so it doesn't even have that on it. positive ring terminal grinded to fit ford alternator positive plastic shroud https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1VbLIdns-nw/U3QQkR-VNnI/AAAAAAAABLg/zpzijMjTw1g/w356-h630-no/IMAG0245.jpg grounds through frame rail https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QRpLL0o2ljQ/U3QQpaofzjI/AAAAAAAABMQ/mQggZUdOd7U/w356-h630-no/IMAG0249.jpg factory welded nut in frame rail attached alt ground to. (need to take this off, ground paint, and put star washer on) https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QHGGCSAXfSw/U3QQqlea0zI/AAAAAAAABMc/yMVOBFXQnes/w356-h630-no/IMAG0250.jpg I also ran a 0awg from the alt casing to the trunk batts.

My big 3, the alt power cable to the battery factory goes to a starter solenoid and not directly to the battery. Should I lay a supplemental 0awg from the alt + to the battery or the starter terminal?

So would it be better to goto this shock tower even though the cable would be longer? https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-scbzn07ba7A/U2q_oZKH-4I/AAAAAAAABFY/gy67pSUgUqk/w390-h689-no/IMAG0230.jpg Are you just going to one of the existing shock tower bolts? Don't those need to be torqued down to a specific ft/lb rating?

right now the battery bank is grounded to behind the rear seats. I'll be running a 0awg from the batts ground to the front alternator bracket hopefully friday. I'll also be grounding from that alt case to the front chassis, and I already have a 0awg ground from battery to chassis up front(which I'll be redoing b/c I got real terminals in to recrimp on that wire) https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-inhk7Nn8-CA/U2VJJ4UpL0I/AAAAAAAABCs/fWXQO-mUV0w/w351-h620-no/IMAG0220.jpg I can probably shorten it a wee bit too. I got some nice heavy duty crimp lugs from waytek this week for all the runs I have to do.

Kind of related, since you mentioned good connections to power and grounds. What do you suggest for the ground terminal to the chassis, do you use anything like dielectric grease or a connection grease of some sort?

I put my kline multimeter on the zapco power inputs and it drops pretty good and then just goes to protect mode, iirc it went from 14 to the 12s in seconds playing some protohype(dubstep) edit: btw I do have 2 batts back there, they're supposedly 35AH each. I want to supplement them up front after I do the big three if im still having issues. And if I still have issues after adding front batt I'll either add 2 more of those or replace them if I can fit a bigger battery under my sub box. I need to worry about height because of how they sit: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-iow8GE8U0Q0/U1V2-ouDaiI/AAAAAAAAAz0/mA5EOh4wDKA/w948-h536-no/IMAG0178.jpg as you can see here, the sub box sits over them: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A-yjy6sUPn8/U1x9zLyw-vI/AAAAAAAAA5s/fjvRDt_WMJs/w948-h536-no/IMAG0191.jpg (2 12" psi platform 2 w/ HD option in 4.3 cu/ft internal tuned somewhere between 28-31hz I can't recall exactly what I settled on atm)

I'm wondering how this would work. I have a 2014 Taurus SHO and I'm researching electrical upgrades b/c im getting my amp to protect mode from voltage drop. I was thinking of replacing the stock battery with a 6500(should fit they're both group 65BCI). I have a zapco c2k 9.0XD rated for 2200w RMS I believe, and an RF 800a4. So I'm rounding my power needs to about 3000w for the car audio side. I have no idea what my stock car electrical requires to run, but it has a ton of gadgets in it. The factory alternator itself is 175a. I don't know the output curve, what its capable of at idle, or how it would handle charging a car audio battery upfront vs the factory battery. Factory batt is a BXT-65-650 which is 650CCA ford pn. This week I should be finishing the big3 w/ 0awg knu ofc and also running a 0awg from alt housing to trunk, where I have 2 small (no boos!) kinetik batteries. I may replace those, but I'm specifically looking for an XSPower D6500 for the front. I guess my big question is, will the pcm know how to charge one of these batteries vs the factory battery? I read somewhere(cant find it now) that the battery is a calcium battery and also the ford pcm uses battery temp to partially determine output voltage. This is all new to me.