Astro UBL - 12 12"s in a Clamshell Wall

[Colin - STAPUFT]

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Let's shed some light on a few things.... shall we?

And again, let me say: HYPER LEDs!!!!!!

For now, the Cool-White Hyper LED under-body lights are wired to the same switch as the Blue Interior LEDs. There is so much blue interior light that it can be seen from some distance at night- even with the doors closed and headlights on, so I figured why not put them both on the same switch. If I would get in trouble for one of them, I would get in trouble for both, so...

I'm not quite sure how many amps the under-body lights pull, but just for a bit of redundancy, they are run off of their own fused power and have a relay. ...I know they don't pull much, but during initial testing, they would make a small spark when I connected the Positive & Negative up. I am guessing this is around 25' or so under the van.

As you guys can see, they are bright. Crazy bright. LOL. I mean seriously- look at how bright they are in comparison to the HIDs! I mean- even when looking the HIDs straight on, you can still see the LEDs under the van. Madness! haha

Thanks for looking guys.

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[Colin - STAPUFT]

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Been tinkering around with some stuff.

Bits of wire I have hoarded up. This is what you find when you actually clean up and put everything in one place I guess:


This guy was hanging on the side of my charger:


The new OLD toy:

Installed:

^ Old School Cerwin-Vega DB-10c "Bass Turbocharger" lol. I like it- it has its old school charm and I got it for nearly free. From what I can find, this thing is late 80s, early 90s. It is very hard to find any paperwork on it online, but I believe it is a Bass Box of sorts that has a Butterworth Filter. It has a 5db and 10db boost setting that I believe is centered at 30 hz. Back in the day when tape decks ruled, bass could get pretty washed out. This was designed to bring it back. Well, thank goodness for O-Scopes, because this thing is dangerous. LOL.
Anyway, I hooked it up and adjusted everything down stream where there was no clipping even with it set to 10db- then did some listening. Pretty cool little box, especially considering when it was made (it only has a power and ground wire, no remote turn on). It works very well when everything is set properly- all the regular bass is still there (and clean- I was afraid it would make it sound baaaad) but subsonics just woke up! And the strange thing is- the subs aren't flopping around any more than they were before. Strange for as much low end extension this thing adds.

And:

^ Le Battery Box.

FINALLY! I have the batteries installed too. It pretty much sucked because I had to re-wire everything from the fuses back. But now I have a pretty battery box that is secured to the enclosure. More batteries meant more fuses, more wire, new circuit breakers, bla bla bla.

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[Colin - STAPUFT]

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More pics of the same old stuff- just with battery box installed and power and ground wiring redone:

These batteries are getting a bit up there in age, but let me tell you, they are strong! LOL Something like 62 lbs each. The system gets on up now. While running, I have not seen below 13.2 volts with these hooked up. Before if I pushed it hard, I would see 10.9 volts. The difference is like night and day.

I know it isn't pretty, but it is safe. 5 runs of 4awg from the front of the van, each with an 80 amp fuse at each end. From there, they run into 3 250 amp circuit breakers. Those circuit breakers are between the amps and everything else. Each of the 3 250 amp circuit breakers gets one run of 4awg from the secondary battery bank. The battery bank can be isolated from the front battery and from the rear amps by another 300 amp circuit breaker. ...I know, 3 runs of 4awg for the entire battery bank? Yes. This isn't a competition vehicle and I am not chasing that 0.1 db. It works like a champ for what it is. ....I SHOULD have designed room for a battery bank in the very back when I began the build, but oh well. Front battery is lead acid (floats at 12.5 volts) and rear batteries are AGM (float at 12.6 volts). Yet another reason to be able to easily isolate them from one another for when the van sits for long periods of time. I do have a Battery Tender that will hold all three at 13.2 ish though.

Clearances between battery box and the subs and middle seat.

Yep- pretty sure I am out of room.

I also re-wired my 8"s in the doors into an active xover along with the MTX 5000 silk dome tweets. 200 watts RMS on that component set. Oh my- it woke those up too. I adjusted my xover points on the head unit and turned off ALL time alignment. I don't think this thing has ever sounded so good. Now: if I can pretty things up and leave crap alone, all will be well with the world. lol

Thanks for checking in guys.

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[Colin - STAPUFT]

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^ this has got to be the worst video I've made ever.

BUT- a video none the less. It gives a run-down of the whole system (at current) and then a bit of bass at the end.

There is a show coming up in Meridian, MS at Hi-Fi Crusin' on Saturday, August 3rd starting at noon. Anyone who is close should go. It is only a 1x points event (doesn't matter to me- just figured I would put that out there) but they are having an SQ and SPL comp. On the TL.

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[Colin - STAPUFT]

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Great Show at Hi Fi Cruisin' in Meridian, MS on Saturday, August 3rd. They put on a really chill show with a good turn out. The little RF demo van was fun too. That was an assault on the senses for sure. Met some really good folks and got some good demos. It is always fun to get the flavor of what everyone else is doing and to see all sorts of installs. A good number of youngsters with pretty nice systems- built not bought. It is always fun to see the next generation of bass heads. The van was fun to show to everyone. Lots of old timers recognized lots of the equipment and lots of people a bit taken back by the look of the wall. I gave more demos than I can remember- it was a party. Also got to meet some pretty heavy hitters in person that I've only seen in the forums and on YouTube. Hung with Mr. "SUPADAVE" Wilson too. Man is a class act and an absolute riot.

I pulled out a first place in SB4 (only 2 people in my class- but hey, who cares). I was second loudest at the show of 40 competitors, but more importantly- this happened:

WOOO! First time in the 150s! It started out at 151 and by the end of the 30 second Street Beat run the old girl pulled out a 150.3
This is one happy country boy. 150.3 in Street Beat with subs that are older than some of the people at the show in a C-Pillar wall??? I will take it.

SUPADAVE is a class act and a great competitor:

Woot:

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[Colin - STAPUFT]

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Moving around speaker wiring again....

One of my 200x2s that died finally got replaced today. Now I have 200x2 on my 8"s and Tweets, & 200x2 on my front 4"s and Tweets. ...that also freed up another amp so I am working on a super tweeter project to see how that will turn out. Once done, there should be well over 1000 watts rms at 4 ohms on the front stage alone. hehe

Pictures!

My finger on the input RCAs. The seller said it worked great, but you had to wedge the RCAs for it to work. ...oh I know how to fix this.

You see that TINY break in the copper under the RCAs close to the board? Yeah- that is the ground. So, a tiny bit of solder and we are off to the races.

Of course it had to be the amp on the bottom... so, out with the good one on top and out with the bad one on the bottom.

The 2 good ones on the ground and baddie on the rack. I have another bad one in a box in the house. Time to take them to a Mekanic. ;D

Chive on Fools!

mmmm

And back together.

Again.

So yeah, that's a lot of power for mids and tweets, but everything is turned down and way on the safe side with the O-Scope. Headroom is good.

Oh no.... "super tweeters"

I couldn't help myself. I had an amp that was open, some tweeters laying around, and I was getting the itch to do something. My wife was just shaking her head- "So, you are going to put those down there by my feet so I won't have ANY room, right?" - "yep." was my answer. lol

--- On a complete side note: You know your build log is old when your current camera phone takes better pictures than you first digital camera you used on the build. That is all.

PICKTUUREZ!

For now they are crossed over at around 3,800k at -6db with some caps I had laying around. I plan on getting some better quality capacitors and crossing these over somewhere between 6,000-8,000 hz. That is where they start to shine anyway. One would think that these would bring the soundstage down, but they don't. These are aimed on-axis (or as best I could considering foot room, e-brake pedals, and air ducting).

I have them wired at 8 ohms per side and each side is wired bridged to the front and rear half of a 4 channel amp. So- I can adjust my Left and Right gains on these independently, which is nice. It is quite evident that I will have to get to the EQ and cut a good bit of the higher frequencies down. These scream even with the gains all the way down- well below clipped signal. Lord- I don't want to think about that. Brr.

SUUPATWEEEETAAAAZ!!!!

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[Colin - STAPUFT]

Yeah... all of these are bad. Hopefully there is a guy that can fix them for me without breaking the bank.

I brings home dah' 1st in SB4 again!
At "Rollin Thru The Park" show in Pearl, MS on September 14th....

A pitiful 149.7 (I think- can't remember) with a 150.8 start. ...I forgot that I needed to watch my voltage... lolz. Oops.

Got to spend some fun show time with the wifey, met some great folks, got some great demos, and got some fun reactions when demoing the van. Oh yeah- and (more or less) nothing broke. It was a good day.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

[Colin - STAPUFT]

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More amps! I got tha' fever baby! And the only cure... is more Amplifiers. I gotta' have more amplifiers baby!

^ these two are happy campers. Today was unbox some of the hoard and clean it up day. It was also diagnose day for my other 3 just like this and prep for the final one I have coming.

Oh my- I wonder what I could do with 12 subs and 6 "600 watt" amps? Muwahahaha! These amps are VERY similar to the the one that BigDWiz tested on the Amp Dyno a bit back:

Mine are a bit newer than that one and rated at 200x2 or 600x1 at 4 ohms with 12.5 volts. I hope to get all of these going and run my subs in 6 sets at 8 ohms each. That would give them at least 250 watts RMS each. ...then make myself a little switching system with some evil relays that will *at the press of a button* change them from series to parallel for 2 ohm loads- that would give them about 600-700 watts dynamic for the quick braap braap.

I got plans... slow moving plans.



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[Colin - STAPUFT]

Had a really fun time in Meridian, MS at Hi-Fi Cruisin's Summer Bash this year. Good car show and USACi show. Ran the van again in Street Beat 4 and pulled out a 150.6 on track 7 (iirc that is 46 hz). Pretty happy that she's still got it in her and that she held the number. That's 0.3 more than last year and I haven't changed anything. Could have been the difference in the track or the weather, who knows. ...I might have been turning the knobs further to the right too. First in SB4 and First in Sq Rookie 1. Fun times.

Got some Plaques, but I can't find my USB right now.