twalker182 Posted November 16, 2016 Report Posted November 16, 2016 I have roughly 1500 watts RMS in my car. Big 3 with 1/0 OFC wire and a XS D3400R under the hood. Headlights dim pretty noticeably when i'm playing loud. Debating on HO alt or 2nd battery. If money is no issue....and I don't compete.....is the HO alt a no-brainer? I know this question has been asked ad nauseam but it seems like every post concludes with a different answer. I guess what is confusing me is that i'm not running a super high wattage system and XS' literature claimed the D3400R was good for 2500 watts. 2010 Accord Sedan XS D3400R Clarion HU Sundown mids and highs Incriminator amps Incriminator Lethal Injection 12"
RooTxBeeR Posted November 16, 2016 Report Posted November 16, 2016 Do you have any way of monitoring your voltage during use? The dimming your seeing is because the alternator cannot supply what is being demanded. Your battery most definitely can. If you plan to keep a sound system and possibly upgrade down the road, hell yeah get a HO alt. On 11/20/2012 at 8:54 PM, AMI CUSTOMS said: Turned mine up today at a light, guy next to me his steering wheel started moving and he looked over at me like I was a magician lol. On 5/9/2012 at 8:45 PM, skittlesRgood said: fuck the plating. look at what the main metal used is. you could buy unicorn blood plated terminals but if its just covering up dog shit, whats the point On 4/10/2013 at 12:26 PM, mrd6 said: I'll admit, half way through sanding that fiberglass in the rain and cold while I was all itchy I was definitely starting to question why i was doing this haha Soon To Be '04 Ford Escape US Alternator 280A Hairpin D4800 Under the Hood (6) XP3000's in Rear 1/0 SHCA & XS Power 4 runs to back TORK2 kit from Tony @ CE Auto Supply Pioneer DEH-80PRS DD AW6.5 (2) per door *Tweeter Unkown* DD SS4a & C3d (2) SCV4000 @ .5Ohm (2) 15" Sundown Zv5
twalker182 Posted November 16, 2016 Author Report Posted November 16, 2016 I'm currently not using an in-car voltmeter but plan on installing one soon. What is the best place to tap the power off of......my sub amp? The alt not keeping up with the battery makes sense. I never thought of it like that. 2010 Accord Sedan XS D3400R Clarion HU Sundown mids and highs Incriminator amps Incriminator Lethal Injection 12"
RooTxBeeR Posted November 16, 2016 Report Posted November 16, 2016 I'm currently not using an in-car voltmeter but plan on installing one soon. What is the best place to tap the power off of......my sub amp? The alt not keeping up with the battery makes sense. I never thought of it like that. Yeah you would want it on the amp so the voltage your seeing is what the amp sees. I had an issue in the past were I had 14v up front, but 11v in back. Turns out I had a power wire eroding away that caused all that. Unless you have HID lights. Every other kind's brightness is based on the voltage. So if you have a 80a alt and have a draw of 160a, your alt is only meeting half of that, rest comes from your battery so your amp is being powered closer to 12v. If you have a 200a alt however, you would hold in the high 13's/14's and still more than likely see some sort of dimming. I have a 280A US alternators hairpin alt and a brand new regular battery with 1/0 OFC all around. Still get dimming. It's an old car to as well as an unattractive, dirty suv, so I am not going to spend the money on HID's. On 11/20/2012 at 8:54 PM, AMI CUSTOMS said: Turned mine up today at a light, guy next to me his steering wheel started moving and he looked over at me like I was a magician lol. On 5/9/2012 at 8:45 PM, skittlesRgood said: fuck the plating. look at what the main metal used is. you could buy unicorn blood plated terminals but if its just covering up dog shit, whats the point On 4/10/2013 at 12:26 PM, mrd6 said: I'll admit, half way through sanding that fiberglass in the rain and cold while I was all itchy I was definitely starting to question why i was doing this haha Soon To Be '04 Ford Escape US Alternator 280A Hairpin D4800 Under the Hood (6) XP3000's in Rear 1/0 SHCA & XS Power 4 runs to back TORK2 kit from Tony @ CE Auto Supply Pioneer DEH-80PRS DD AW6.5 (2) per door *Tweeter Unkown* DD SS4a & C3d (2) SCV4000 @ .5Ohm (2) 15" Sundown Zv5
twalker182 Posted November 16, 2016 Author Report Posted November 16, 2016 I'm going to check the voltage at the amps for the time being and see what kind of voltage drop i'm getting. From your last post it sounds like headlight dimming is NOT the definitive measure of whether a HO alternator is needed (since you upgraded your alt and are still getting dimming). 2010 Accord Sedan XS D3400R Clarion HU Sundown mids and highs Incriminator amps Incriminator Lethal Injection 12"
twalker182 Posted November 17, 2016 Author Report Posted November 17, 2016 Last night I checked my voltage at the amps.....14 volts. I can't test under load due to neighbors who love calling the police. A) How do I even test under load? Just play a bass heavy song? Test tone? Should I cut on other accessories (seat heaters, defrost)? C) What's the lowest I want the voltage to be.....12V? 2010 Accord Sedan XS D3400R Clarion HU Sundown mids and highs Incriminator amps Incriminator Lethal Injection 12"
RooTxBeeR Posted November 17, 2016 Report Posted November 17, 2016 Last night I checked my voltage at the amps.....14 volts. I can't test under load due to neighbors who love calling the police. A) How do I even test under load? Just play a bass heavy song? Test tone? Should I cut on other accessories (seat heaters, defrost)? C) What's the lowest I want the voltage to be.....12V? Best way to test is a bass heavy song or a tone, both will make your amp pull a lot of power. Find a forest preserve near you and bring your DMM. Back when I had 2 oldschool jbl 10's on 100w I would test at my house. But once I moved up to real gear, being a 15 and an aq750 lol, I started going to open forest preserves to test my shit out. As far as voltage goes, a lot of amps are rated at 12v, not 14v. Me personally, I don't want to see below 11v. I try not to get into 11v. I have seen plenty of stories of people playing down to 10v, 9v. But that is just me. I don't want to risk ANYTHING so I will keep it 11v+. Every amp can run at 12v however, different amps react differently though once you start getting much lower than that. On 11/20/2012 at 8:54 PM, AMI CUSTOMS said: Turned mine up today at a light, guy next to me his steering wheel started moving and he looked over at me like I was a magician lol. On 5/9/2012 at 8:45 PM, skittlesRgood said: fuck the plating. look at what the main metal used is. you could buy unicorn blood plated terminals but if its just covering up dog shit, whats the point On 4/10/2013 at 12:26 PM, mrd6 said: I'll admit, half way through sanding that fiberglass in the rain and cold while I was all itchy I was definitely starting to question why i was doing this haha Soon To Be '04 Ford Escape US Alternator 280A Hairpin D4800 Under the Hood (6) XP3000's in Rear 1/0 SHCA & XS Power 4 runs to back TORK2 kit from Tony @ CE Auto Supply Pioneer DEH-80PRS DD AW6.5 (2) per door *Tweeter Unkown* DD SS4a & C3d (2) SCV4000 @ .5Ohm (2) 15" Sundown Zv5
reedal Posted November 17, 2016 Report Posted November 17, 2016 You will experience headlights dimming with even a couple tenths of voltage drop. it's an unfortunate side effect of the lag time of an alternator when it is presented with a load. Depending on the output of your current alt, an upgrade may help, but you may not rid yourself of dimming lights completely, just because of that small lag time. A secondary battery located close to your amps would be beneficial in adding capacitance to the circuit, and more likely to reduce or get rid of the dimming lights. The negative of that is your alt may not have enough output to charge two batteries if they are being drained because your alt is too small for the current your after market equipment demands. SMD Tool Map https://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/193176-smd-tool-map-new-november-2014/ Build log https://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/197217-reeds-03-tahoe-hat-sqaq-singer-xs-shca-cockbox-80prs/?page=32
twalker182 Posted November 17, 2016 Author Report Posted November 17, 2016 Thank you sir. I have a buddy who lives in the "country". I'll go over there this weekend. Daylights savings ending suuuuuuuuucks. 2010 Accord Sedan XS D3400R Clarion HU Sundown mids and highs Incriminator amps Incriminator Lethal Injection 12"
twalker182 Posted November 17, 2016 Author Report Posted November 17, 2016 The dimming lights don't bother me personally...it's just that I want to make sure i'm properly powering my amps and not damaging them. I read on another post where audiofanaticz said that under powering amps is bad on the amp's power supply. I had never really thought about it from that perspective. In the end, I just want everything "right". 2010 Accord Sedan XS D3400R Clarion HU Sundown mids and highs Incriminator amps Incriminator Lethal Injection 12"
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