lol my ground wire had almost jumped out from the amp.. what could had happened?

[pintich]

Just now when i took a look in my trunk i saw that the ground cable was almost out from the mid + high's amp... it had only like 2-4 coppar string on the turminal. and i havent had any problem's when i have heard to music and driving. So my question is what would have had to happen if it had jumped out completely? And shoud i notice something like this when i am hear to music?

[HatersGonnaHate]

When it completely jumps out, your mids and highs will most likely stop playing, or if it pops out but still makes contact with that ground terminal, your mids and highs will cut in and out due to the amp losing power and getting it back. If it completely pops out, there is a chance that it can make contact with the positive terminal/wire on the amp and cause some serious damage.

[pintich]

When it completely jumps out, your mids and highs will most likely stop playing, or if it pops out but still makes contact with that ground terminal, your mids and highs will cut in and out due to the amp losing power and getting it back. If it completely pops out, there is a chance that it can make contact with the positive terminal/wire on the amp and cause some serious damage.

Thanks for the info, And the ground wire is pretty close the the positive terminal, but its like ~1cm going to get it fixed in about 15min (dad's car is in the garage so have to wait on him to move it...)

[8ight]

You never want to have B+ connected to an ungrounded amplifier. Electricity will look for a path to ground, depending on the amp it will find ground via your RCAs should the chassis ground be removed. This can lead to damage to your amplifier and head unit.

[Wicks]

^^^ As said above, a floating cable in your trunk is very bad news.

Even if you're fused correctly, that loose wire could potentially make contact with a live wire before the fuse.

I don't know your equipment, but chances are that you have a single-ended unbalanced connection between your HU and amp(s).

That means your HU and amps are all grounded together through the RCA cable.

Handy when you're trying to filter out signal noise, but guess what happens when your amp loses its main ground connection?

It's still going to want to draw power and it still conveniently sees a ground connection (through your RCAs).

So it will try and pull its main current through your RCAs which were not designed to handle large currents.

If this happens, you would most definitely damage the RCA cables, HU and possibly the amp depending on how long the RCAs survive.

This is probably one of the main reasons why audio companies put "pico" fuses on the ground connection of their HU outputs.

At the first sign of a heavy current draw, the pico fuse will pop and cut that final ground connection to the amp.

Moral of the story........verify all your connections.

When you're done.......verify them again.

.....Ninja'd by 8ight

[8ight]

^^^ As said above, a floating cable in your trunk is very bad news.

Even if you're fused correctly, that loose wire could potentially make contact with a live wire before the fuse.

I don't know your equipment, but chances are that you have a single-ended unbalanced connection between your HU and amp(s).

That means your HU and amps are all grounded together through the RCA cable.

Handy when you're trying to filter out signal noise, but guess what happens when your amp loses its main ground connection?

It's still going to want to draw power and it still conveniently sees a ground connection (through your RCAs).

So it will try and pull its main current through your RCAs which were not designed to handle large currents.

If this happens, you would most definitely damage the RCA cables, HU and possibly the amp depending on how long the RCAs survive.

This is probably one of the main reasons why audio companies put "pico" fuses on the ground connection of their HU outputs.

At the first sign of a heavy current draw, the pico fuse will pop and cut that final ground connection to the amp.

Moral of the story........verify all your connections.

When you're done.......verify them again.

.....Ninja'd by 8ight

Happy someone else brought it up. Nobody has an un-blown pico fuse and nobody has any clue why either, while I'm just over here like: "Current kills!"

[pintich]

Thanks! and That is realy good explanation on how it exactly works

[Migz]

When i first started out in sound systems about 2 years ago i found my earth cable completely disconnected not touching anything, yet amp was still playing, luckily rather then draw earth through the RCA it actually did it through the seat. As the amp was screwed to the back of the seat which actually has a metal plate in it which is then connected to the chassis at some point.

[8ight]

When i first started out in sound systems about 2 years ago i found my earth cable completely disconnected not touching anything, yet amp was still playing, luckily rather then draw earth through the RCA it actually did it through the seat. As the amp was screwed to the back of the seat which actually has a metal plate in it which is then connected to the chassis at some point.

Lots of people with interference issues have created ground loops by securing their amps to such things or using metal screws going into grounded material.

[pintich]

When i first started out in sound systems about 2 years ago i found my earth cable completely disconnected not touching anything, yet amp was still playing, luckily rather then draw earth through the RCA it actually did it through the seat. As the amp was screwed to the back of the seat which actually has a metal plate in it which is then connected to the chassis at some point.

Lots of people with interference issues have created ground loops by securing their amps to such things or using metal screws going into grounded material.

I have actually mounted that amp to the back of the rear seat's and it was some sort of metal (coulden use "normal" screws) so i am using some sort of self drilling screws that's metal. So will that help the amp to get an better ground when i am using a ground wire to?