Power Problems

[gxjane]

my car is a 98 ford windstar, i have 2 kenwood kfc w3011 and a kenwood kac 9103d amp and a 6 ferrid kole audio cap.

My problems is that for some reason i keep blowing out my two 30 amp fuses. im not exactly sure why it is doing that. right when i blew out the fuses i went and got more at a local auto zone i got like 6 for 2 bucks. when i got home i removed and replaced the blown fuses. my amp powered up, but i played one song and blew the fuses right away. i thought i was my cap so i disconnected it, but what happened now is that my amp will just turn off and then just power back up. i think its going into circuitry protection mode but im not sure. dose anyone have any idea what i can do so my amp wont just randomly die and so i dont have to spend billions of dollars in fuses every day.

[dmanson]

my car is a 98 ford windstar, i have 2 kenwood kfc w3011 and a kenwood kac 9103d amp and a 6 ferrid kole audio cap.

My problems is that for some reason i keep blowing out my two 30 amp fuses. im not exactly sure why it is doing that. right when i blew out the fuses i went and got more at a local auto zone i got like 6 for 2 bucks. when i got home i removed and replaced the blown fuses. my amp powered up, but i played one song and blew the fuses right away. i thought i was my cap so i disconnected it, but what happened now is that my amp will just turn off and then just power back up. i think its going into circuitry protection mode but im not sure. dose anyone have any idea what i can do so my amp wont just randomly die and so i dont have to spend billions of dollars in fuses every day.

okay let's start with ............ what size power wire do you have and what size fuse do you have underhood? check to make sure no wires are touching each other.

[gxjane]

lets see i got a 80 anp anl fuse under my hood with 2 gauge power and ground. my amp is fused at 60. i know under the hood should be lower but i blew my old fuse and this is all i got.

[audiofanaticz]

what ohm are your subs?

Nevermind

I looked them up and they are 12s Im guess.

Single 4 ohm coils.

400 watts rms, 1200 watts peak.

Your amp is

500watts rms by 1 channel at 4 ohms

900watts rms by 1 channel at 2 ohms

1800watts peak. (which is very doubtful that you WILL NOT get that kind of power from that amp unless lightning strikes it).

The amp is fused at 60 amps stock from the factory.

900 watts out of a 60 amp fusing is kind of hard to believe, and that maybe 1 of your problems. you need to be running at 15 volts about to get 900 watts rms out of 60 amps of fusing which aint happening.

Im assuming your subs are running the amp at 2 ohms which should be stable.

So my next thing brings me to your gain/input sensitvity setting. Im sure it is set incorrectly and or very high, and maybe your bass boost too. You dont want those things maxed out. In most cases your amp gain/sensitivity should never be higher then half way up, but there are some factors that will change that like how much bass boost your running, your head unit pre amp voltage etc.

You can try putting in two 40 amp fuses (I think they are orange colored) with 80 amps of fusing you will be fused for ruffly 800 watts give or take, but if you fry them Im going to have to go and say that you are clipping your amp by having the gain and or bass boost set to high, because it "sounds" louder but in reality you are clipping your amp and the power your subs are getting is dirty and will either fry your subs, rip the tinsel leads, burn the coil, or fry your amp.

Edited November 18, 2007 by audiofanaticz

[gxjane]

ok, i know i had the bass up high, but not all the way. i had the gain up just a little over half. i was planning to reset everything. i actually did already but didnt tune it tonight because it got to late, but i can tommorrow. how should i adjust the gain. ive seen the previous postings. but it tells me to set the bass boost and all the other things all the way down but they never say when i should turn up the bass boost. also should my gain match my pre amp voltage, is it ok if i go over alittle? if so by how much. my current voltage for my pre amp is 2.2

second if my amp is fused at 60 amps shouldnt i just stick with two 30s? if it is fused at that wont it make the amp unsafe and possibly fry my amp?

[audiofanaticz]

Your amp has a 60 amp fuse rating, and with your two 30 amp fuses in, it is a 60 amp fuse rating.

For setting your gain follow these directions.

Your amp is running at 2 ohms I assume correct?

if so you want to match your gain so that your amp is putting out max rms wattage which is 900 watts rms at 2 ohms.

Your going to need a DMM (digital multimeter) if you dont have one you can buy a cheap one from walmart for under 10 bucks, use it one time and return it :)

You are going to want to set bass/treble/midrange on your cd player all to 0 (or flat. no added sound inhancements).

You want to disconnect your subwoofers from the amp also.

Turn down your gain/bassboost all the way.

Hook up the dmm too your speaker outputs on your amp (as if it was a sub). Have the dmm on the voltage setting.

Your going to need to use a test tone for the best result since the frequencys on normal music contstantly change. A 50 hertz test tone is usally the best to use. you can download testtone tracks on ROE.

Turn your stereo on, put the volume up 3/4 the way.

Play the test tone (put it on repeat if you can, otherwise just burn the tone a few times over on the cd since its only 10 seconds long).

then start turn the gain up on your amp til you get to your target voltage. your target voltage for your amp would be 42.4 volts. once you see that on the dmm your good.

Now if your running bass boost, you are going to want to turn that up a little bit probolly before turning up the gain.

I for sure wouldnt go past 45 volts on the dmm. that will be ruffly 1000 watts.

It shouldnt hurt the amp to clip it a little bit, but too much is bad for it.

After you got your gain all set. go back in and reset your bass and treble on the cd player as needed.

[gxjane]

should i be checking for AC or DC? dosent matter. i tried both of them and i got like in the 28 volts. when i tried to turn up the gain the voltage barely changed. maybe it was just me being dumb because i tried doing it before i had to go to work. but ill try after work. as of right now my bass boost is at half and my bass boost is more than 1.

[audiofanaticz]

you need it set at dc voltage. sorry I didnt specify before

[+ZER0Hz+]

this fuse blowing problem has been happening since the beginning. that and the amp keeps shutting off in the middle of a song (if you wait a few seconds, it turns back on)

Could this have anything to do with it? ^^

[audiofanaticz]

Most likely the amp is going into some sort of protection.

Both reasons (amp turning off, and blowing fuses) is mostly cause by the amp being pushed too hard. The amp is most likely making clipped power, which causes the amp to run hotter then normal.

Set the gain and bass boost correctly.