I just bought a Power Wave 1.0 farad cap from a friend. I'm curious why the cap needs to be charged manually. Ummm, shouldn't the damn thing charge the first time you turn on your car after it is installed? Hence the whole reason for getting a cap in the first place and installing it inline between your battery and amp?

One reason I'm asking is because the directions to charge it aren't too specific.

Thanks,

Leif

 

I want to know if you need to recharge the cap after you disconnect the battery.

 

You pre-charge the cap in order to prep it for the system...otherwise its gonna put a huge drain on ur audio set-up while ur car is trying to power the cars accessories, the audio system, and charging a cap..thus defeating its purpose. when u pre charge it u releive this stress and it will continuously charge and re-charge once in the audio system.
as far as charging goes....
use the supplied resistor..and make sure u get polarity right and connect the wires up to ur battery or a battery charger. leave it on until the indicator light goes out or comes one (however ur resistor card is set up from the cap's manufacturer). if u dont have an indicator light..keep it on the battery/charger for approximately 10 to 15 sec

hope this helps and its to the best of my understanding

 

So basically connect the positive on the cap to the positive on the battery using the little resistor for charging? Do you need to ground the cap?

Thanks for the explaination.

Leif

 

I want to know if you need to recharge the cap after you disconnect the battery.

yes

Do you need to ground the cap?

Yes

and make sure u get polarity right

This can't be overstressed, if you hook it up backwards you have a bomb run!!!!!!!!

 

when you say "polarity" do you mean getting the positive terminal on the cap matched up w/ the positive terminal on the battery, etc? Soooo.... since you need to ground the cap do you secure the ground terminal on the cap to the car ground and then just touch the resistor between the battery and cap positives until it reaches a full charge? This just seems odd to me. You just pop the hood and go for it?

Thanks for the help w/ this remedial material. I really do appreciate it.

Leif

 

I don't understand why you would need to recharge the cap everytime you disconnect the battery. if you loose your charge when the battery becomes disconnected wouldn't you loose your charge after you finish charging the cap and then remove the resistor to hook it up permanently?

Thanks,

Leif

 

yes, you beat me to it Teken

Even when you disconnect the battery there is still a load on your elctrical system. (clock, memory for your stereo, ect) Your electrical system will use up all the enrgy it can find, this includes the energy in the cap.

NO, there is no load across the cap to discharge it.

Think of it like a battery(this is a horrible analogy) when you charge a battery then disconnect it you still have power correct. Its there until it gets used up. I don't know how else to explain this to you.

 

Ahhh, nice. It is becoming clear. Thanks guys. I guess I still don't see why I can't just hook it up and turn my car on w/ my system turned off and all my car accssories turned off to charge it up. But if that doesn't work than i guess it just doesn't work and I'll charge it the way you have described. But those last few posts have been VERY helpful. Thank you very much.

Leif