TonyD'Amore

Be sure to check out Video 6 if you want to understand AC power and why clamping method does not work. It is uploading now, should be ready in about 9 hours. http://damoreengineering.com/freeeducation.html

yes

Correct email is [email protected] also our warranty contact information is in the owners manual. What type of issue are you having?

Thank you very much. Look for Videos 6 and 7 coming as soon as I can make them. They will describe the power measuring process well.

The AD-1 Amp Dyno will test an amplifier on a bench or in a car to the amplifier's absolute limits and will measure true power either continuous to 1% THD, or to clipping. It can also measure dynamic burst power per industry standard procedures. All while monitoring the voltage at the amplifier. The AMM-1 Multimeter can measure many things, True Power is one of them. It measures true power into a dynamic reactive load (your speakers) and measures until clipping. This will not tell you what your amp is capable of quite like the AD-1 will, but it will tell you exactly what you are getting out of your amplifier and into your speakers at any frequency between 20-500Hz. Like Steve said, video on its way with more details.

Yikes, that's scarry!!! Crazy how when the wire gets warm/hot, the voltage drop increases and the resistance so the wire just starts to self destruct in a way!!! Insane. Full copper for my build, I'm sold Yep, that is called thermal runaway

lol yeah somehow "subsonic" was used somewhere in audio and just stuck. Kind of like "Watts RMS", that also isn't correct. We are just trying to educate and keep our sport legit. I'm sure I'll get to all of this stuff in future videos, because once we are done learning about basic electricity we are going to dive in to audio. But for now: Supersonic = faster than 768 miles per hour Subsonic = slower than 768 miles per hour Ultrasonic = Higher than 20,000 Hz Infrasonic = Lower than 20 Hz -Tony

Hmm.... Videos 1, 2 and 3 were DC voltage videos, Video 4 is the intro to AC. Video 4 has very little views! wth? Shouldn't the AC videos be just as relavent to what we do in car audio?? If you don't know, the cable from your battery to the amplifier B+ terminal is where the DC voltage stops in audio. It is all AC voltage from that point until it hits your ear drums. So if you haven't watched Video 4, you should before watching Video 5. That being said, Video 5, RMS and Clipping has been posted! http://damoreengineering.com/freeeducation.html

Nice work! I know for question A you meant 12.6V - (0.004 ohms x 200A).

Video 4: Intro to AC has been uploaded!

Video 3 posted!

Great feedback, thank you. We can do that

Video 2: DC Circuits and Power is up. Contains solution to homework problem from Video 1 http://damoreengineering.com/freeeducation.html

This is correct

Thank you for doing those tests and sharing the results

that last sentence fucking EXACTLY. its not like CCA takes 10 seconds to start to heat up to the point of raising the resistance of the wire run because of the current flowing through it...it takes a long ass time. the more you demo, the longer those hundreds of amps are flowing through that wire. and the higher the wire temps, the more resistance the wire gains. burps are pointless as shit to compare CCA and OFC. you need long periods of current draw to see the results. not a few seconds. The resistance of both OFC and CCA increases linearly with temperature at approx the same rate with temperature. Both cables same temp increase = same percentage of resistance rise. So the CCA would continue to have the same disadvantage no matter what the temp, if both were the same temp. BUT in reality, CCA is going to lose again because Aluminum has less capacity for heat than copper. Meaning take the same size blocks of both aluminum and copper, put exactly the same amount of heat into them for exactly the same time. Now measure the temp of the two metals, the aluminum will be hotter. So in the real world the longer you play it the worse the CCA will be. This is why expensive audio amplifiers use copper heatsinks, as do computer parts.

There are so many factors that can affect an spl score that there is no way you could use two scores to compare one element of the system. That is not engineering, that is guessing. We are talking voice coil temp, ambient temp, barometric pressure, altitude (absolute pressure), humidity, how hot the FETs in your amp are, how hot the torids in your amp are, etc, all can affect an SPL score. That being said the only way to determine the REAL WORLD difference between two cables would be to run an amplifier on the dyno with each kind of cable; while controlling amplifier temperature and battery voltage. When you remove the subwoofers and the microphone from the equation you eliminate all variables besides battery voltage and amplifier temp.

Wow... of ALL the topics I said I was going to talk about, this is the one that got you guys all fired up? Oh man.... just wait until we talk about clamps and how AC power is measured. Let me get something out of the way, when I said it CCA is "not okay", I am not saying your car is going to burn to the ground like all of the houses built in the 70s that used aluminum wire. I'm saying it is one more thing in our hobby that we don't need. Here is the indisputable fact, not opinion: You need roughly twice as much CCA and it costs roughly 1/2 as much, and gives you twice the number of terminations (which is CCAs downfall). So what is the point? Why it is "not okay": It is not okay because IMO you are getting ripped off. Same problem I have with overrated equipment. CCA costs roughly 1/2 of OFC, yet aluminum costs 4 times less than copper. Hmmmm. Someone please explain to me how that math works out. Yes someone is cashing out at your expense, and since the manufactures of this wire (China) are ca$hing out, of course they look for ways to cash out even more. Example: Once I was asked, at a previous employer, to test 3 different CCA cables all 1/0 AWG. 1 of them was the current one we were selling, the other 2 were cost saving versions. What? Isn't CCA, CCA? Nope. Of the 3 I tested, the worst one had DOUBLE the resistance of the best one, and saved us 30% on cost. Can you guess which one that company started to sell? The numbers I used in Video 1: DC, were numbers I looked up for "standard", "legit" CCA, not numbers I tested. The worse of the 3 I tested had double the industry standard resistance. That being said I'm guessing the situation is even worse that what I said. But I only talk fact, so I used the industry standard resistances. Don't worry real testing is coming, I'm just waiting for the cable I ordered to arrive. Side note: the "lanes" are not a magical place, and I have been in the lanes plenty of times myself. I'm not sure everyone is understanding the conservation of energy here. If you lose 500 watts in a cable, that's it, it's lost, gone. Well where did it come from? Your alternator(s)... and 500 watts/14V = 35.7 amps. So if you are cool with losing 35 amps per each run of cable that is losing 500W, then ok. Fine with me. Seems like you probably spent some hard earned cash on those high output alts to just throw away 35 amps, but whatever makes you happy. I know the guys "in the lanes" do some extreme work to their vehicles. I've been there, I've done the 3 AM builds the night before. Some of these extreme vehicles use multiple high output alts, custom built mountings, 1000s of pounds of MDF, metal, batteries, etc. You guys go ALL OUT on these vehicles. It's awesome. But then you don't on the wire? Ok 5 runs of CCA is less resistance than 2 or 3 runs of OFC. But 5 runs of OFC is way better. I just don't get it. Let us also note that less than 1% of people with systems compete. So what about the other 99%? I am going to try to hide 2 or 3 runs of CCA under the carpet of my Jeep when I could use 1 run of OFC? Hell no. You already bought a mile of CCA and you are running it? That's fine, it works. Make sure it's terminated good and run it. It's just not as good as it could be, and it is just one more thing in our industry that has gone the way of quantity vs quality; and that is the most disturbing part for me.

Thanks. We are going to try for at least 1 per week

You are close on the LED, off by 1 decimal point. Should be 0.020W or 20mW On the resistor you also have the decimal problem, and other problem.

We will be getting to that too!

The 1st installment of the Free Education series of videos is now up for your viewing pleasure. http://damoreengineering.com/freeeducation.html

Do tell Im doing over a 56 and all the runs from my front batt to back batts are cca..... Maybe you should change it and run a 57?

-Resistance is NOT Impedance. -Volts * Amps does NOT equal Watts in AC land -You can NOT use an AC voltmeter and AC current meter to get true power unless you are powering a resistor and are using a scope or clipping detection device. I don't care what your friend the "electrician" said. -You can NOT use a DMM to measure impedance -Clipping is NOT DC -There is NO SUCH THING as Watts RMS (though we use it in audio) -WTH is "Box Rise" -The word "subsonic" to describe low frequency audio is TOTALLY incorrect -CCA wire is NOT OK -Class D is not better, it's cheaper WTH is Class D? D'Amore Engineering will be launching a FREE education section on it's website in the next few days. There will be a series of videos and demonstrations to prove all of the above statements and more. This sport is more full of bad information than the gossip mags at the checkout stand. Something needs to be done. This bad information continues to get passed on, and our hobby continues to be degraded. I'm still paying on my student loans, but it doesn't mean you have to. Stop by www.DAmoreEngineering.com soon, watch some vids, buy a t-shirt.

AD-1 Amplifier Dyno owner's manual has been uploaded to our website for your viewing pleas-zure http://www.damoreengineering.com/ad-1.html