Amp keeps going into protection
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Feb 2006
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From: Bellville OH
St. Jude Donor '06
Amp keeps going into protection
Ok I have been trouble shooting this for a month, got a new amp (1200 watt class D mono block)
The Amp is fine, but as soon as any bass hits it bumps once then amp goes into protection. After a sec it comes out of protection, hits once than back in.
I unplug one of the RCA cable it will hit a few times but with much less power obviously
This is the amp http://www.bossaudio.com/main/818
I have two Alpine X Serious 10 Sub with dual voice coils. wired in series like in this link
http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/ca/...4-ohm_mono.jpg
These are the speakers http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/prod...odel=SWX-1043D
I did an Ohm test at the leads that go into the sub enclosure and got 4 Ohms, so the subs should be wired correctly?
Is there an easy way to test the RCA cables? could them being bad cause this issue?
all power cables have good connections, I replaced the fuse.
I have narrowed it down to one of two things, bad RCA cables, or incorrect wiring of the subs
The Amp is fine, but as soon as any bass hits it bumps once then amp goes into protection. After a sec it comes out of protection, hits once than back in.
I unplug one of the RCA cable it will hit a few times but with much less power obviously
This is the amp http://www.bossaudio.com/main/818
I have two Alpine X Serious 10 Sub with dual voice coils. wired in series like in this link
http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/ca/...4-ohm_mono.jpg
These are the speakers http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/prod...odel=SWX-1043D
I did an Ohm test at the leads that go into the sub enclosure and got 4 Ohms, so the subs should be wired correctly?
Is there an easy way to test the RCA cables? could them being bad cause this issue?
all power cables have good connections, I replaced the fuse.
I have narrowed it down to one of two things, bad RCA cables, or incorrect wiring of the subs
Last edited by Joe0121; Aug 3, 2009 at 09:59 PM.
Drifting
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 1,630
Likes: 3
From: Aiea Hi.
First off all, you should only have one of the two RCA's plugged into your amp. You can get a y jack so that you can hook them both up for balance/fade. That could be part of the issue.
Second, if you have an Ipod, buy a RCA to Mini, and plug that into your amp and see if the problem persists. That way you can rule out signal, or bad RCA. Do you know how many volts your deck is putting out? You may have gone over the allowable voltage, and your amp may be severely clipping, sending it into protection mode.
At 4 ohms, you should be very safe..... You may want to make sure you have good ground, and that your 12v power is connected solid.
Check your connections first, then test your signal as noted above and report back. Could be just a bum amp.
Good luck bruh man!
Second, if you have an Ipod, buy a RCA to Mini, and plug that into your amp and see if the problem persists. That way you can rule out signal, or bad RCA. Do you know how many volts your deck is putting out? You may have gone over the allowable voltage, and your amp may be severely clipping, sending it into protection mode.
At 4 ohms, you should be very safe..... You may want to make sure you have good ground, and that your 12v power is connected solid.
Check your connections first, then test your signal as noted above and report back. Could be just a bum amp.
Good luck bruh man!
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 10,336
Likes: 14
From: Bellville OH
St. Jude Donor '06
First off all, you should only have one of the two RCA's plugged into your amp. You can get a y jack so that you can hook them both up for balance/fade. That could be part of the issue.
Second, if you have an Ipod, buy a RCA to Mini, and plug that into your amp and see if the problem persists. That way you can rule out signal, or bad RCA. Do you know how many volts your deck is putting out? You may have gone over the allowable voltage, and your amp may be severely clipping, sending it into protection mode.
At 4 ohms, you should be very safe..... You may want to make sure you have good ground, and that your 12v power is connected solid.
Check your connections first, then test your signal as noted above and report back. Could be just a bum amp.
Good luck bruh man!
Second, if you have an Ipod, buy a RCA to Mini, and plug that into your amp and see if the problem persists. That way you can rule out signal, or bad RCA. Do you know how many volts your deck is putting out? You may have gone over the allowable voltage, and your amp may be severely clipping, sending it into protection mode.
At 4 ohms, you should be very safe..... You may want to make sure you have good ground, and that your 12v power is connected solid.
Check your connections first, then test your signal as noted above and report back. Could be just a bum amp.
Good luck bruh man!
So if I go into a "Y" which side do I go in to?
I had this set up and it worked great for years. I made a 26 hour road trip and about 14 hours into it, this issue started up with the old Amp. So I bought a new one and the same issue
I downloaded the owners manual for the subs and I don't have them wired how they want so I will pull them out (those suckers have to be 40 pounds a piece) and re wire them correctly and see what happens. Its raining here in the morning so hopefully the weather clears. Thanks for the help ill get back asap.
Tech Contributor
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 7,035
Likes: 134
From: North Augusta, SC
Maybe one of your speakers developed a short. If you can't easily get to the terminals on each speaker, just disconnect the wires at the amp and check for 4 ohms to see if there's an obvious problem. If it is a bad coil, it may only be shorting out when it's under high current, so it may be best to try connecting only one coil at a time to see if any cause the same problem individually (if using a meter on the individual coils doesn't show any obvious problems).
Please let us know what you find, and good luck
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 10,336
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From: Bellville OH
St. Jude Donor '06
Just from that statement alone, it makes me think the problem doesn't have anything to do with the amp itself or the way anything is wired. If it just suddenly started to happen after working fine, then continued with a new amp that is connected in the same way, it has to be a result of something that hasn't changed. That leaves the HU and speakers. Can HU's suddenly start putting out too much voltage on the line out wires?
Maybe one of your speakers developed a short. If you can't easily get to the terminals on each speaker, just disconnect the wires at the amp and check for 4 ohms to see if there's an obvious problem. If it is a bad coil, it may only be shorting out when it's under high current, so it may be best to try connecting only one coil at a time to see if any cause the same problem individually (if using a meter on the individual coils doesn't show any obvious problems).
Please let us know what you find, and good luck
Maybe one of your speakers developed a short. If you can't easily get to the terminals on each speaker, just disconnect the wires at the amp and check for 4 ohms to see if there's an obvious problem. If it is a bad coil, it may only be shorting out when it's under high current, so it may be best to try connecting only one coil at a time to see if any cause the same problem individually (if using a meter on the individual coils doesn't show any obvious problems).
Please let us know what you find, and good luck
At this point I am ready to just rip it all out and live with the factory 6X9's.
Also The speakers are in a sealed enclosure, and I think the internal volume is a bit small, and it always seemed like it didn't bump as hard as it should for the equipment i had (3000 watt 1k RMS Amp and 1.2 farad capacitor)
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Feb 2006
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From: Bellville OH
St. Jude Donor '06
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Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 10,336
Likes: 14
From: Bellville OH
St. Jude Donor '06
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 10,336
Likes: 14
From: Bellville OH
St. Jude Donor '06
Ok well tried one of the subs and it works fine at low volume, but crank it any same story as before. I am really vexed at this moment only thing I can think is the RCA cables or head unit are bad?
Tech Contributor
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 7,035
Likes: 134
From: North Augusta, SC
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 10,336
Likes: 14
From: Bellville OH
St. Jude Donor '06
Drifting
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 1,630
Likes: 3
From: Aiea Hi.
Start with one component, then move to the next, one by one until you find the issue.
There is a ton of information listed, and your fix can be found in one of them 95% guaranteed.
1. Go to radio shack, buy the 5 dollar RCA to mini and try an Ipod, or cd player to check the head unit or RCA cable.
2. Try another RCA set, that would be one of the fastest & cheapest way to go.
3. Ohm your speakers to make sure that they aren't blown.
4. Check your wires to make sure something isn't loose, or damaged.
5. Check your ground and make sure it's solid.
If you've tried two amps, and the problem continues, it more than likely isn't the amp....
I forget, did you have a BOSE system? If so, did you bypass the BOSE.
Oh, I think the single signal cable goes into the White input, but it will only work in one or the other....
How many volts does your system draw? You may be asking too much of your alternator. That's kind of a stretch as you run a cap... DING! is your capacitor wired correctly?
It may be cheaper to take your ride down to the stereo shop and pay 60.00 to trouble shoot it for an hour.
Good luck!
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 10,336
Likes: 14
From: Bellville OH
St. Jude Donor '06
Custom car audio can be frustrating, but don't loose heart... It's all worth it when your system sound like a million dollars.
Start with one component, then move to the next, one by one until you find the issue.
There is a ton of information listed, and your fix can be found in one of them 95% guaranteed.
1. Go to radio shack, buy the 5 dollar RCA to mini and try an Ipod, or cd player to check the head unit or RCA cable.
2. Try another RCA set, that would be one of the fastest & cheapest way to go.
3. Ohm your speakers to make sure that they aren't blown.
4. Check your wires to make sure something isn't loose, or damaged.
5. Check your ground and make sure it's solid.
If you've tried two amps, and the problem continues, it more than likely isn't the amp....
I forget, did you have a BOSE system? If so, did you bypass the BOSE.
Oh, I think the single signal cable goes into the White input, but it will only work in one or the other....
How many volts does your system draw? You may be asking too much of your alternator. That's kind of a stretch as you run a cap... DING! is your capacitor wired correctly?
It may be cheaper to take your ride down to the stereo shop and pay 60.00 to trouble shoot it for an hour.
Good luck!
Start with one component, then move to the next, one by one until you find the issue.
There is a ton of information listed, and your fix can be found in one of them 95% guaranteed.
1. Go to radio shack, buy the 5 dollar RCA to mini and try an Ipod, or cd player to check the head unit or RCA cable.
2. Try another RCA set, that would be one of the fastest & cheapest way to go.
3. Ohm your speakers to make sure that they aren't blown.
4. Check your wires to make sure something isn't loose, or damaged.
5. Check your ground and make sure it's solid.
If you've tried two amps, and the problem continues, it more than likely isn't the amp....
I forget, did you have a BOSE system? If so, did you bypass the BOSE.
Oh, I think the single signal cable goes into the White input, but it will only work in one or the other....
How many volts does your system draw? You may be asking too much of your alternator. That's kind of a stretch as you run a cap... DING! is your capacitor wired correctly?
It may be cheaper to take your ride down to the stereo shop and pay 60.00 to trouble shoot it for an hour.
Good luck!
I check the ground and it was good, but just to be sure I re-did it and got 14.3 volts at the amp and 13.3 at the battery with the car running.
These speaker have like a jumper deal between the voice coils. And depending on your set up you wire them different and use the jumper in a different slot. I'm thinking I need to remove it and ohm each voice coil and should get in the neighbor hood of 4 ohms?
How else do you check to see if a speaker is bad?
Drifting
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,484
Likes: 27
From: Torrance Calif
You check a speaker by running an oscillator through and sweeping the frequency range to see if it rattles or binds.
When the amp "cuts out" does it feel warm?
That would be an indication of the protection circuitry working.
If not, maybe your loading the amp incorrectly.
Try connecting up one speaker at a time to the amplifier and see if it cuts out when you run it.
If it still does, substitute another speaker although I doubt you blew both drivers.
If it still cuts out, I would venture to say an amp problem, but I would want to bench test it since you say it works at low levels.
Unless it is DC coupled and your feeding a DC offset into it, I don't see how your head unit or RCA cables are at fault.
Some head units use a pusedo differential (not ground referenced) for the output and they don't like one side of the cable grounded (as RCA are) and you may need to make sure the shields of the outputs don't touch each other.
My AVIC N4 is like this and I had to make sure the metal jackets on the RCA plugs (extensions to the amp) didn't touch each other or the chassis ground.
PITA but if I didn't, I got all kinds of noise out of the amp.
When the amp "cuts out" does it feel warm?
That would be an indication of the protection circuitry working.
If not, maybe your loading the amp incorrectly.
Try connecting up one speaker at a time to the amplifier and see if it cuts out when you run it.
If it still does, substitute another speaker although I doubt you blew both drivers.
If it still cuts out, I would venture to say an amp problem, but I would want to bench test it since you say it works at low levels.
Unless it is DC coupled and your feeding a DC offset into it, I don't see how your head unit or RCA cables are at fault.
Some head units use a pusedo differential (not ground referenced) for the output and they don't like one side of the cable grounded (as RCA are) and you may need to make sure the shields of the outputs don't touch each other.
My AVIC N4 is like this and I had to make sure the metal jackets on the RCA plugs (extensions to the amp) didn't touch each other or the chassis ground.
PITA but if I didn't, I got all kinds of noise out of the amp.
Last edited by heavymetals; Aug 5, 2009 at 12:42 PM.
Drifting
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 1,630
Likes: 3
From: Aiea Hi.
You check a speaker by running an oscillator through and sweeping the frequency range to see if it rattles or binds.
When the amp "cuts out" does it feel warm?
That would be an indication of the protection circuitry working.
If not, maybe your loading the amp incorrectly.
Try connecting up one speaker at a time to the amplifier and see if it cuts out when you run it.
If it still does, substitute another speaker although I doubt you blew both drivers.
If it still cuts out, I would venture to say an amp problem, but I would want to bench test it since you say it works at low levels.
Unless it is DC coupled and your feeding a DC offset into it, I don't see how your head unit or RCA cables are at fault.
Some head units use a pusedo differential (not ground referenced) for the output and they don't like one side of the cable grounded (as RCA are) and you may need to make sure the shields of the outputs don't touch each other.
My AVIC N4 is like this and I had to make sure the metal jackets on the RCA plugs (extensions to the amp) didn't touch each other or the chassis ground.
PITA but if I didn't, I got all kinds of noise out of the amp.
When the amp "cuts out" does it feel warm?
That would be an indication of the protection circuitry working.
If not, maybe your loading the amp incorrectly.
Try connecting up one speaker at a time to the amplifier and see if it cuts out when you run it.
If it still does, substitute another speaker although I doubt you blew both drivers.
If it still cuts out, I would venture to say an amp problem, but I would want to bench test it since you say it works at low levels.
Unless it is DC coupled and your feeding a DC offset into it, I don't see how your head unit or RCA cables are at fault.
Some head units use a pusedo differential (not ground referenced) for the output and they don't like one side of the cable grounded (as RCA are) and you may need to make sure the shields of the outputs don't touch each other.
My AVIC N4 is like this and I had to make sure the metal jackets on the RCA plugs (extensions to the amp) didn't touch each other or the chassis ground.
PITA but if I didn't, I got all kinds of noise out of the amp.
Solid advice above, but unless you have an oscilloscope , you may be out of luck. Typically, if you ohm the speaker, and it shows a 4 ohm load, and you can compress the cone back & forth with no resistance meaning it doesn't feel like there is sand in it or it's binding, it's probably good. Move on to the next thing.
Check the list above, one by one. Pay particular attention to the one input RCA to your mono block, and that your RCA's aren't grounded. It should be an easy fix with no more than a couple hours of trouble shooting. Double check your connections, including your wiring at the head unit to make sure you've got everything the way it should be.
You may want to verify that your HU voltage does not exceed your amps max.
