Need Help with wiring sound system capacitor

[patmckinneyracing]

I just bought a brand new road rage capacitor rated for 1 farred 20/24. I bought it because my system would kick off once I used my headlights or turned up to a certain volume. The system consists of 2 12in. dual subs with a Rockford Fosgate 2400w Punch amp (2 channel). Technically the amp only puts out 800w on one channel and 400w to each one of my subs. Problem is I have no idea on what gauge wire to use and how to wire it up. The ground is simple, its trying to wire up the main power line to the capacitor is what I can't figure out. The wiring diagram says "run a wire directly from the battery to the positive terminal of the capacitor then run a second wire from the terminal of the capacitor to the amp". Question is how do you rig up two wires like that and am I supposed to use 4 gauge wire like I have throughout the system?

 

[XbeasleyX]

Nothing fancy. 4 gauge wire from + side of battery, thru firewall then attach to Capacitor. Then another separate wire from other terminal on Cap to + side of amp.

 

[patmckinneyracing]

So there's supposed to be two wires placed on the + terminal of the capacitor? There's only a + and a - terminal. And at the moment I'm letting the capacitor charge off the battery.

 

[84GP455]

OK.... run a 4 gauge wire from your battery to the trunk (or wherever you are putting the capacitor) with an inline fuse between the battery and the 4 gauge wire, , then get yourself a power block, or distribution block which is a square block with connectors (usually gold plated) which has an input to run the 4 gauge into, and then from the distribution block on the output side (there are usually 4 outputs) you run another red wire usually 8 gauge to the positive terminal on the capacitor. Then run another red 8 gauge wire from the positive terminal on the capacitor to your amp(s) use gold ring terminals. Then run a 8 gauge black wire from the negative ground terminal on the capacitor to a good ground source. make sure to ground your amp to a good metal spot somewhere on your cars metal. Good luck, Rock 'n' Roll :wink:

 

[patmckinneyracing]

Damn that guy lied to me then. I asked him if I was going to need anything else besides the capacitor. Now I have to go get a power block and more wire.

 

[84GP455]

So there's supposed to be two wires placed on the + terminal of the capacitor? There's only a + and a - terminal. And at the moment I'm letting the capacitor charge off the battery.

It only takes seconds to charge the cap off your battery, but be careful because it takes forever to slowly discharge by itself, when not connected. Be careful because even if you disconnect the cap,,, it's still fully charged unless you discharge it with a resistor. So remember that it is fully charged now so before you connect your wires again you should discharge it first.

 

[patmckinneyracing]

Cause right now the digital volt meter is flashing 00.0 and the blue LED's on the top are flashing as well. Is this the signal telling me its charged?

 

[84GP455]

Cause right now the digital volt meter is flashing 00.0 and the blue LED's on the top are flashing as well. Is this the signal telling me its charged?

If the voltmeter says 00 then it isn't charged then.

 

[worms442]

hey, capacitors really dont make a big difference in making your lights dim. You would be better off adding a second battery wired parallel to make your car start quick and have less voltage drops.


Here is a Diagram i made if it is not hooked up like this then that is one of the reasons why your capacitor is not reading 12.00-14.7 Volts on the screen.

FUSE IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT should be as closest to battery incase your power wire touches ground the fuse will pop and keep your wire from heating up and melting your car down.
Red is Constant +12Volts. (Keep the 4Gauge wire throught your entire system the bigger the wire the more power can go through.)
Black is Ground.(Grounds should be as short as possible and sand off any paint on the ground which can prevent from making actual contact.)


Also if you have the model numbers of your Amplifier, Speakers I can show you how to wire your speakers so that your ohm levels aren't to low; which causes the dimming lights and over powers your amp(Heat).


Hope this helps.

 

[shotgun]

First this is in the spirit of learning.

I don't believe that diagram is correct. I may be wrong since I use the capacitors to power aftermarket ignitions, but the principles should be the same.

Here is how I wire capacitors

The + come right from a battery source and right to the cap, then on to whatever you are powering. The "old school " way was just to stripe the insulation off a section of the wire, wrap it around the terminal and keep going.

I use ring connectors that are soldered and heatshrink sealed. Also put a light coat of Noalox on for a better connection.

In this case, the ignition has a internal relay, tripped by a signal wire, so it does not stay on all the time. Don't know if amps have this feature?

The - also comes direct from the battery.

If you use a chassis as a ground you defeat one of the benefits of a capacitor, it filters electrical noise.

Here is a shot of my race cars ignition. Every car that has left my shop is done this way without a failure or issue.