I have a 1200Watt Amp and right now it's hooked up to my cars battery, but I have a digital capacitor but I don't know how to hook it up.

I looked everywhere and they all say the following:

+ Car Battery to + Capacitor to + Amp
- Capacitor to ground
- Amp to ground

It's pretty simple to setup, but I'm having issues. When I hook up the power to my capacitor there is a red light inside the top part of it that stays on. The digital read-out has never turned on.

When I have everything hooked up like in the list above, my amp gets power. But even when my car is completely off and the deck isn't even on, my amp is still on and pulling power. Why is this and why isn't my capacitor's digital read-out working?

I hope this isn't a stupid question. Thanks.

 

I don't know why your amp is staying on, is the remote wire connected properly?

The capacitor however may have to be charged first with a resistor. Normally if you didn't do this and tried to connect your battery, it would instantly blow the fuse, because the capacitor will draw an insane amount of current when it is at zero volts. Infact, if you hooked your power wire direct without a fuse it would likely burn the wire and/or the cap would explode. Given this it sounds like your cap must have a protection circuit (which would be a nice touch) and maybe that is what the red light means. The display might not be reading anything because it is sitting at zero volts because the protection circuit is open.

Try to find some info on charging it. What make/model is it?

BTW don't just grab any old resistor to try and charge it either, get one with the proper value.

Lyle

 

Assuming that you already have the cap hooked up ... it's already charged. Probably a pretty big spark... The display might need the remote turn on line (blue/white wire on back of radio, also known as amp turn on wire) to be connected. Some caps monitor the line voltage others use the amp turn on line.

Not sure about the amp always being on. Sounds like the remote line (amp turn on wire) is not hooked up properly. This needs to be connected to the back of your radios blue/white wire. If your using a factory deck just locate a switched source (12V with engine running & accessories).

HTH

 

Sounds like you need to take your car to the pros. Given that at this time you do not understand these basics you really need a hand from someone also to check your install and make sure it's up to fire code.