Power cleanup help needed. Pic supplied!
Thread Starter
50 Watt CAFz'r
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 82
Power cleanup help needed. Pic supplied!
Hey Everyone!
For my spring cleanup project, I plan on beefing up my car's power layout and fusing.
The attached image shows the current layout as well as the orange parts are where I think I should add or change.
First off a few details for clarity.
Gear: 2 x JL 500/1
1 x JL 300/4
1 x Audio Control EQS
-This was a multistage project hence the somewhat mish-mash of wire gauges
-The EQS has an in-line fuse.
-The remote wire is essentially daisy chained across the devices.
-2 AWG power from the front, 0 AWG ground from the front.
-Kinetik HC600 is the battery in the rear. Great for this system, nothing more needed.
-If anyone is going to suggest connecting the 2 gauge +'ve from the front to the HC600, it won't happen.. it's too short now.
GOALS:
1.Safety, no stone left unturned.
2.IASCA like rules and measures is what I'm going for.
3. The least amount of changes made to the current wiring to make sure I don't have to re-run anything big. I'd rather add distros and small 0AWG and 4AWG runs.
Questions:
1. The current distro is sending a 4AWg to the 300/4 and a 4AWG to the HC600. I would think I should really have a 0AWG in, 3x4AWG out distro and run a pair of these 4AWG's to the HC600 correct? This way the HC600 has double 4AWG going to it since it's 1000WRMS out of the two 500/1's.?
2. There should really be fuses between the 500/1's and the HC600 right?
3. Relays / Remote fuses? currently my remote wire is playing the daisy-chain game and i'm thinking this is probably not the best idea.
If anyone can make some suggestions, that'd be great. Would love to redo the distros and fuses (not the engine 150A but everything else) with gear from the same brand rather than a mishmash.
Thanks!
For my spring cleanup project, I plan on beefing up my car's power layout and fusing.
The attached image shows the current layout as well as the orange parts are where I think I should add or change.
First off a few details for clarity.
Gear: 2 x JL 500/1
1 x JL 300/4
1 x Audio Control EQS
-This was a multistage project hence the somewhat mish-mash of wire gauges
-The EQS has an in-line fuse.
-The remote wire is essentially daisy chained across the devices.
-2 AWG power from the front, 0 AWG ground from the front.
-Kinetik HC600 is the battery in the rear. Great for this system, nothing more needed.
-If anyone is going to suggest connecting the 2 gauge +'ve from the front to the HC600, it won't happen.. it's too short now.
GOALS:
1.Safety, no stone left unturned.
2.IASCA like rules and measures is what I'm going for.
3. The least amount of changes made to the current wiring to make sure I don't have to re-run anything big. I'd rather add distros and small 0AWG and 4AWG runs.
Questions:
1. The current distro is sending a 4AWg to the 300/4 and a 4AWG to the HC600. I would think I should really have a 0AWG in, 3x4AWG out distro and run a pair of these 4AWG's to the HC600 correct? This way the HC600 has double 4AWG going to it since it's 1000WRMS out of the two 500/1's.?
2. There should really be fuses between the 500/1's and the HC600 right?
3. Relays / Remote fuses? currently my remote wire is playing the daisy-chain game and i'm thinking this is probably not the best idea.
If anyone can make some suggestions, that'd be great. Would love to redo the distros and fuses (not the engine 150A but everything else) with gear from the same brand rather than a mishmash.
Thanks!
You may not like the look of it, but I don't see anything electrically wrong with what you've done.....
The shorter lengths of 4ga will carry enough current for the amps you have, upgrading the 2ga power to match the 0ga ground would keep that part of it consistent.
Having said that, I would suggest a relay to drive your remote string.......the momentary current draw from 4 units turning on could cause problems for the chip that drives the signal in your deck. My personal rule of thumb is 2 max. off the deck, 3 or more it's relay time.....
HTH
The shorter lengths of 4ga will carry enough current for the amps you have, upgrading the 2ga power to match the 0ga ground would keep that part of it consistent.
Having said that, I would suggest a relay to drive your remote string.......the momentary current draw from 4 units turning on could cause problems for the chip that drives the signal in your deck. My personal rule of thumb is 2 max. off the deck, 3 or more it's relay time.....
HTH
Why are you not using the chassis for your ground?
Unless of course you just didn't know theres a quicker way to show grounds.
Are you trying to impress yourself or someone else?
If your runs are short enough, then you don't need heavy guage wiring. So if all that 4 guage is in the trunk, then you're more than fine with keeping it.
Another thing to consider is average draw. I highly doubt you need a 150 A fuse... your alternator is probably fused for less.
To answer 2) There should be a fuse within 18 inches of every positive power source, so yes, there should be a fuse between them, preferably as close to the battery as possible.
To answer 1) Whats the point? Those amps are class D so lets guestimate 80% efficiency which means if those two amps are putting out 500 watts RMS, then they're drawing a total of 1250 watts.
Note... thats not realistic at all because I highly doubt you listen to sine waves all day.
The main issue in your system is getting the voltage from the alt, to the primary battery and back to the trunk where I assume the amps are located.
Some guidelines for that : http://www.the12volt.com/info/recwirsz.asp
Since you havn't blown your 150 A fuse, its safe to say you don't use enough power to even be concerned with the guage of any of your wires.
3) whats the maximum amperage your HU can handle in terms of its remote on?
Unless of course you just didn't know theres a quicker way to show grounds.
Are you trying to impress yourself or someone else?
If your runs are short enough, then you don't need heavy guage wiring. So if all that 4 guage is in the trunk, then you're more than fine with keeping it.
Another thing to consider is average draw. I highly doubt you need a 150 A fuse... your alternator is probably fused for less.
To answer 2) There should be a fuse within 18 inches of every positive power source, so yes, there should be a fuse between them, preferably as close to the battery as possible.
To answer 1) Whats the point? Those amps are class D so lets guestimate 80% efficiency which means if those two amps are putting out 500 watts RMS, then they're drawing a total of 1250 watts.
Note... thats not realistic at all because I highly doubt you listen to sine waves all day.
The main issue in your system is getting the voltage from the alt, to the primary battery and back to the trunk where I assume the amps are located.
Some guidelines for that : http://www.the12volt.com/info/recwirsz.asp
Since you havn't blown your 150 A fuse, its safe to say you don't use enough power to even be concerned with the guage of any of your wires.
3) whats the maximum amperage your HU can handle in terms of its remote on?
only b/c a fuse isnt blow doesnt mean he's not using enough power. a fuse can "not" blow for a variety of reasons. one being the wire is too small to draw enough current (amps) to blow the fuse. So he might actually benefit from bigger wire.
the bottle neck of the whole set up is the 4 gauge wire.
u should also have direct ground connection between the two batts. and you should do a big 3.
Last edited by Father Yuli; Jan 17, 2010 at 08:49 PM.
Thread Starter
50 Watt CAFz'r
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 82
Thanks Yuli, when I Rama ground directly from the starter battery to te same ground lug everything else shares I figured I'd be negating any an all loss that a normal "through te chassis only" grounding would exhibit. Matt, this info was from 12volt. Yuli, I also have done two of the big three, engineto chasis (doubled up with the factory ground which was a woven style ground,) and the battery to chassis ground Which appeared thin enough to be 10 to 8 awg originally. I could do alt positive because the alt has a oem connector. The alt is rated for 110amps, and as I'm not runnin full tilt often I figured the cell would cushion the load. I have zero dimming currently so I feel I've done the best I could.
The reason for posting this I after researching and reading here about the remote wire concern I had as well as i feel I could clean up the whole wiring and also fuse better by buying the right blocks and either reusing my current runs or adding some cuts to redo them, particularily where the power splits. I figure if I bought a 1-2awg input/3 4awg output block and fused it correctly i'd have the positive side covered. If I bought the right distro, I might even be able to feed a relay too.
I guess I could really use someone who knows streetwirez or stinger products to help with a shopping list.
Yuli, if you have some time, I'd love to throwbuou a few bucks to have a look at my system and help build a shopping list for the bits I need.
Feel free to pm me.
Cheers
d
The reason for posting this I after researching and reading here about the remote wire concern I had as well as i feel I could clean up the whole wiring and also fuse better by buying the right blocks and either reusing my current runs or adding some cuts to redo them, particularily where the power splits. I figure if I bought a 1-2awg input/3 4awg output block and fused it correctly i'd have the positive side covered. If I bought the right distro, I might even be able to feed a relay too.
I guess I could really use someone who knows streetwirez or stinger products to help with a shopping list.
Yuli, if you have some time, I'd love to throwbuou a few bucks to have a look at my system and help build a shopping list for the bits I need.
Feel free to pm me.
Cheers
d
You're good... if you'd bother to add up the current draw in his system, you'd see he'd probably be sitting somewhere around 110-120 amps at full tilt.
Something to consider... if his voltage never drops, then he's not using NEARLY 100 amps of power because most factory alts are capable of around 110-130 amps. Less than that at idle as well.
4 guage can't be a bottleneck if the wire is only going four feet. He could run his entire system off of one 4 foot section of 4 guage and have no real issues.
Something to consider... if his voltage never drops, then he's not using NEARLY 100 amps of power because most factory alts are capable of around 110-130 amps. Less than that at idle as well.
4 guage can't be a bottleneck if the wire is only going four feet. He could run his entire system off of one 4 foot section of 4 guage and have no real issues.
going from the JL Audio website spec, the draw in his set up is 140 amps. then you minus the efficiency, what do you get?
but u see, he's not running the system of a 4 foot section of 4 gauge.
Last edited by Father Yuli; Jan 17, 2010 at 09:20 PM.
Thanks Yuli, when I Rama ground directly from the starter battery to te same ground lug everything else shares I figured I'd be negating any an all loss that a normal "through te chassis only" grounding would exhibit. Matt, this info was from 12volt. Yuli, I also have done two of the big three, engineto chasis (doubled up with the factory ground which was a woven style ground,) and the battery to chassis ground Which appeared thin enough to be 10 to 8 awg originally. I could do alt positive because the alt has a oem connector. The alt is rated for 110amps, and as I'm not runnin full tilt often I figured the cell would cushion the load. I have zero dimming currently so I feel I've done the best I could.
The reason for posting this I after researching and reading here about the remote wire concern I had as well as i feel I could clean up the whole wiring and also fuse better by buying the right blocks and either reusing my current runs or adding some cuts to redo them, particularily where the power splits. I figure if I bought a 1-2awg input/3 4awg output block and fused it correctly i'd have the positive side covered. If I bought the right distro, I might even be able to feed a relay too.
I guess I could really use someone who knows streetwirez or stinger products to help with a shopping list.
Yuli, if you have some time, I'd love to throwbuou a few bucks to have a look at my system and help build a shopping list for the bits I need.
Feel free to pm me.
Cheers
d
The reason for posting this I after researching and reading here about the remote wire concern I had as well as i feel I could clean up the whole wiring and also fuse better by buying the right blocks and either reusing my current runs or adding some cuts to redo them, particularily where the power splits. I figure if I bought a 1-2awg input/3 4awg output block and fused it correctly i'd have the positive side covered. If I bought the right distro, I might even be able to feed a relay too.
I guess I could really use someone who knows streetwirez or stinger products to help with a shopping list.
Yuli, if you have some time, I'd love to throwbuou a few bucks to have a look at my system and help build a shopping list for the bits I need.
Feel free to pm me.
Cheers
d
you might want to fuse the cell. another thing to consider is maybe larger fuses, 200 amps?
