237 Volts with 6 15" SSA Evils and Taramps

[sencheezy]

I've put in a lot of thought on this, and it leaves me to question.

Why are people scared of High Voltage, low amperage, but deem it perfectly normal to have 12v and 6,000 amps (low v high a)?

I'm not an expert on this stuff, but my understanding is low voltage is safe regardless of the amperage capacity because it takes a certain amount of voltage to be able to overcome the electrical resistance of flesh. The generally accepted safe voltage is anything below 45 volts. Above that and your body will start to pass dangerous levels of current. The higher the voltage the more current gets passed. Its takes less than an amp of current to kill you. So your ~240 volt battery bank could turn you into a very crispy critter if you gave it the chance.

That is kinda what I thought. You can touch the terminals of a battery and not feel anything, or a tiny tiny prick that is almost unnoticeable. Even though the car audio system is low voltage, high amperage, our bodies have a high resistance, so our bodies dont see high amerage in low voltage. They only get it when the voltage is enough to move across you.

Ok cool, that's the exact explanation I was looking for haha.

[sencheezy]

That is kinda what I thought. You can touch the terminals of a battery and not feel anything, or a tiny tiny prick that is almost unnoticeable. Even though the car audio system is low voltage, high amperage, our bodies have a high resistance, so our bodies dont see high amerage in low voltage. They only get it when the voltage is enough to move across you.

Yup, amperage = voltage / resistance. So as long as resistance is really high and/or voltage is really low the amperage will be low. I imagine most of us have been shocked by 120v wall socket voltage at some point. The reason that doesn't kill more people (it certainly can) is usually because people are really poorly grounded (fortunately).

Yea, I accidentally shocked myself with my old taramps 6500 and my right arm was numb for like 2 minutes.

On the output section right? It's the same feeling with HV power side.

[Guest]

horrible background music

id like to see this with the original audio

also I suppose your interior is factory

meaning its how it was before the factory added all the things that have falled apart in front of your sunroof and are now dangling

[sencheezy]

horrible background music

id like to see this with the original audio

also I suppose your interior is factory

meaning its how it was before the factory added all the things that have falled apart in front of your sunroof and are now dangling

Recorded by a Drone, no original audio

And yes, lots of dangling LOL

[Kyblack76]

beast bro...... well done.

[Triticum Agricolam]

But that's the thing, on several occasions, I have touched both pos and neg of the 240 system, and I feel normal. It feels like a really sharp sting, and lasts for a good bit. Imagine having the funny bone feeling but not as severe, and last a few minutes instead of instantly going away.

Do I recommend people to touch both ends, of course not. But is it going to kill you, no.

The most recent time, and the most painful, was the week of Slamology. I was moving some wire around, and my left hand crossed the pos block and neg block. Like I said, painful sure, but no where near deadly.

Depends on where you are coming in contact with the voltage. Between the battery posts the voltage is going to be low, but the leads coming from the battery bank going into the amp and going to be full voltage.

How much resistance there is to current depends on a lot of factors. Humidity, how sweaty your skin is, if you wearing gloves, etc. Let me assure you that your battery bank ABSOLUTELY has the capacity to kill you, just because you got a little shock once and nothing bad happened that time doesn't mean that's what will happen next time. Its your system and your safety, so do what you think is best, but if it were me I would have a switch wired inline with one (or both) of the leads going from the battery bank to the amp and I'd be turning that switch off before I touched any wiring.

Here is a example I was given at an electrical safety meeting one time to put it in perspective. Imagine you have an angle grinder with a crappy cord on it that has an exposed wire. In one scenario you are wearing leather gloves, leather boots, and are standing on a dry concrete slab while using the grinder and your gloved hand touches the exposed wire in the cord. You probably wouldn't get a shock at all. In the second scenario you have bare hands, its hot and humid out and you are sweaty. You are using the grinder while laying on the ground and it rained the night before. When your hand touches the exposed wire you would be dead before you could drop the grinder. And that's just with 120 volt power.

[sencheezy]

But that's the thing, on several occasions, I have touched both pos and neg of the 240 system, and I feel normal. It feels like a really sharp sting, and lasts for a good bit. Imagine having the funny bone feeling but not as severe, and last a few minutes instead of instantly going away.

Do I recommend people to touch both ends, of course not. But is it going to kill you, no.

The most recent time, and the most painful, was the week of Slamology. I was moving some wire around, and my left hand crossed the pos block and neg block. Like I said, painful sure, but no where near deadly.

Depends on where you are coming in contact with the voltage. Between the battery posts the voltage is going to be low, but the leads coming from the battery bank going into the amp and going to be full voltage.

How much resistance there is to current depends on a lot of factors. Humidity, how sweaty your skin is, if you wearing gloves, etc. Let me assure you that your battery bank ABSOLUTELY has the capacity to kill you, just because you got a little shock once and nothing bad happened that time doesn't mean that's what will happen next time. Its your system and your safety, so do what you think is best, but if it were me I would have a switch wired inline with one (or both) of the leads going from the battery bank to the amp and I'd be turning that switch off before I touched any wiring.

Here is a example I was given at an electrical safety meeting one time to put it in perspective. Imagine you have an angle grinder with a crappy cord on it that has an exposed wire. In one scenario you are wearing leather gloves, leather boots, and are standing on a dry concrete slab while using the grinder and your gloved hand touches the exposed wire in the cord. You probably wouldn't get a shock at all. In the second scenario you have bare hands, its hot and humid out and you are sweaty. You are using the grinder while laying on the ground and it rained the night before. When your hand touches the exposed wire you would be dead before you could drop the grinder. And that's just with 120 volt power.

I think I'm going to install this HV solenoid switch in that power line, that way I can turn the HV down during maintenance.

And interesting point you made, that the full HV is at the amp, but prob not at the blocks. Never thought about that.

[mrd6]

People are apprehensive about HV in a car because under the right conditions your 240V DC system could kill you if you touch it in a way that passes current through your heart (I.e. one hand + and the other -. Or less obviously, a bare leg on a grounded portion of the vehicle while trying to adjust a 240v positive connection).

Its pretty simple math really.

Ohms Law: V=IR

V = 240v

The resistance of the human body can vary drastically up to 100,000 ohms when really dry, but as low as 1000-300 ohms with wet to or damaged skin.

It can take as little as .1 to .2 amps to kill a person.

So lets assume .2 amps is what it takes to put you into cardiac arrest.

240v=.2R

R = 1200 ohms

If your contact to contact resistance was ever 1200 ohms or below when you touched both + and - ...you could be dead.

I wouldn't say its likely to happen but you should know, IT IS POSSIBLE and it will not feel the same every time. If you wear gloves and don't work on it in the rain you should be safe from shocks, then it is just a fire danger to mitigate lol...

FYI, sweaty skin drops skin resistance a TON as well.

Not trying to discourage you, just want you to be educated. Maybe convince you to take a few less risks experimenting on yourself lol

[ShadeTreeMechanic]

I would install manual disconnects at each bank to make any one bank less than 50 volts for maintenance. There is another hazard called arc flash. A dropped tool or something shorting across the bus will possibly explode and spray molten conductor at you. Please google it. Stay safe.

[sencheezy]

Thanks guys for the safety tips