Ok so for the past few months I have been having a little issue with my Kicker KX600.1 amp. A few months ago I noticed that the amp would click off after a a few minutes of use, then it would turn back on and be fine a few weeks, then it would do it again. So I figured that maybe the setting were set to high, so I adjusted them, but still the samething. My next thought was maybe it is over heating because it is summer, so I put a fan on it , and still nothing. Well flash forward to yesterday morning. I get in my car start driving, amp is fine, then out of the clear blue my sub stops working. I figured it would come back on in a few seconds, but to my surprise it didnt turn back on at all.

I get home to see if maybe there is a loose wire somewhere, but nothing still dead . Next I unplug the sub and remote wire to see if maybe the wires were bad, nothing, but I did notice something odd. On the side of the amp there is 2 LEDS one green and one red that light up when the amp is hooked up, on, and powered properly. I noticed that if I unhook the sub and hook the remote wire up, the Red LED lights up faintly then goes out. I have no clue what could have happened. Today Im going to take it all apart to check all my wires and test the amp, but before I do that I was wondering if anyone could chime in and help me out with what could possibly be wrong? Oh this amp was made in 2002 and has a12" Eclipse 8122DVC Aluminum hooked up to it and has 0 gauge wire. I already checked all the fuses on the amp and the main lead fuse and they are fine.


I took it apart to see if I could see andy burn marks anywhere, but nothing, so now Im not sure where to start testing parts, any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Did you test voltage with a DMM at the +12,ground, and remote? Also check the impedence of the sub to make sure its not blown.

If this is all good take a photo of the circuit board and post it. For now I am interested in the photo near the large inductor and capacitors.

These amps are junk by the way IMO anyways.

 

Here a picture of the board with the fan removed. If you would like different pictures I will get some more.

 

For now I am just concerned with the right side of the amp in that picture.

Dont try to run this amp with the plates that hold the transistors against the heatsink off. Make sure they are on before you apply power.

First we are going to check the power supply. Can you give me the numbers to the transistors on the lower right there is 6 of them. Then also the upper right 2. Read the numbers off the transistors.

This looks like a class D amplifier with that extra inductor over there to the left yes/no.


Modified by nsxxtreme at 4:05 PM 12/23/2005

 

Ok the 2 at the top right are YG225D2

The 6 on the bottom right are IRF3205 (236K)


on the ones at the top there is a small 33 printed on them


Hey for some reason It keeps saying I cant post more than 4 post in a 24 hour period. Do you have AIM? If so I can respond to you that way my name is Tidalwavetiburon


Modified by sup2jzgte at 4:43 PM 12/23/2005

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sup2jzgte &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yes it is a class D amp, damn your good and know you stuff </TD></TR></TABLE>The other give away was the very small power supply

Measure the gate of the IRF3205 it should be switching at about 40kHz.

The gate would be the pin closest to the DC connector.

Then measure the Drain which is the middle pin, then the source. Tell me what you get.

 

No put the negative to ground which is the negative terminal comming into the amp.

Then connect the red cable to the pin closest to the dc connector.

What kind of DMM do you have?
What are you using for a power supply? You can use a small supply with no load this amp will pull maybe 1-2 amps.

Since you have a DMM and it doesn't know anything about duty cycle you will measure approx half the real voltage.

The gate I'm guessing should measure approx 5v which would really be 10 volts with a 50% duty cycle.

The Drain which is the center pin should measure about 14.4 volts which is really 25v with a 50% duty cycle.


Modified by nsxxtreme at 6:07 PM 12/23/2005

 

46kHz? that sounds ok

Whats the voltage levels? You want to measure AC voltage not DC.

 

Also check the two lonely transistors in the upper right corner.

Tell me the voltage. The middle pin will be DC and should be between 20-40V. The left and right pin will be the same as the middle pin but will be measured in AC.

 

OK I have an AC-DC converter for my power supply. I When I test it as DC I get 13.7 volts, when I test it under AC I get a readinf of .20 on all six, but I cant get at the other top 2 with the heat sink on. What would happen if I took the heat sink off and powered it?

I noticed something, when I touch any of the caps I dont get a shock, now Im not sure if thats normal or not, but everything else I fixed in my time I always got shocked when I tooked the caps while there is was power going to it. Im not sure if it is different with amps or not

Modified by sup2jzgte at 7:01 PM 12/23/2005


Modified by sup2jzgte at 7:03 PM 12/23/2005

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sup2jzgte &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">OK I have an AC-DC converter for my power supply. I When I test it as DC I get 13.7 volts, when I test it under AC I get a readinf of .20 on all six, but I cant get at the other top 2 with the heat sink on. What would happen if I took the heat sink off and powered it?[/i]</TD></TR></TABLE>

Can you limit current on your power supply?

When you test what?
Lets start calling the pins what they are
Gate&gt;pin closest to DC connector.
Drain&gt; Middle pin
Source&gt; left over pin.

The gate should measure about 5VAC it will also measure about 5VDC.
The Drain should measure about 14VAC or DC
Both the gate and drain ar AC signals, you will get close by measuring DC.

The Source should measure 0V.

 

This is what those signals really look like

Drain
Link removed to save bandwidth

Gate
link removed to save bandwidth

You should measure somewhere around half these voltage levels with your DMM.


Modified by nsxxtreme at 7:38 PM 12/23/2005

 

Ok here we go

Drain is 13.97 VDC

Gate is .20 on both VDC and AC, but it drops to zero after a few seconds

source is 0v


My power supply isnt adjustable

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sup2jzgte &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I noticed something, when I touch any of the caps I dont get a shock, now Im not sure if thats normal or not, but everything else I fixed in my time I always got shocked when I tooked the caps while there is was power going to it. Im not sure if it is different with amps or not</TD></TR></TABLE>

LOL no you wont get shocked you have to have enough voltage first. Anything over 33V is usually what they consider dangerous and you can be shocked by.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sup2jzgte &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ok here we go

Drain is 13.97 VDC

Gate is .20 on both VDC and AC, but it drops to zero after a few seconds

source is 0v


My power supply isnt adjustable</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sounds like the amp isn't switching something is pulling the gate to ground.

One problem though you shouldn't have been able to measure 46kHz if the amp wasn't switching. Go through and double check your measurements.

Now with the amp removed from the DC supply Short the +12,remote, and ground together. This will remove any stored charge from the capacitors. Then remove the short.

Now place the red lead on the drain and the black lead on the gate and measure the resistance. They should all be around 1k-.5M or 1000-500k ohm.

See those resistors by the transistor those are gate resistors.
Whats the numbers on the top of those resistors?
Try this measure the voltage on both sides of those resistors.


Modified by nsxxtreme at 12:54 PM 12/26/2005

 

Can you limit current an easy way to tell which part is bad limit the current to 300mA.
Then remove the amplifier from the heatsink. Make sure there is no input or output attached.
Now turn it on the bad transistor should get hotter then the other ones.
Got to go xmas shopping now so try what I have listed and make sure you double check those measurements.

From whta you posted just sounds like you need to replace those 6 transistors. Try http://www.digikey.com I'll check back here later for your progress.

You could put a 40 ohm 4watt resistor in series with the supply and it would limit your current to 300mA

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you had a great Christmas :0) Well I had a chance to do what you said and I rechecked the readings and they all came out the same. Today I dropped the voltage to 300ma and took the heatsinks off, then I touched each transistor and none of them were even warm. I figured it had to stay on for a while I let it sit there powered for 20minutes then went back and tested it and still none of them were warm. Later today Im going triple check the readings again.

 

Well if the gate is shorted to ground in one of those transistors it might not get to hot. Gate drive current is usually fairly low.

Did you measure the resistance as I mentioned?

You will also want to measure gate to source resistance.

All of those transistors are in parallel, so you can start removing them and the amp will still work. Remove one by one then retest and see if that changes anything.

What I am interested in is Gate-source and gate-drain resistance.
I'm also interested in knowing if you still get 46kHz.
Also measure the DC voltage at the middle pin of the two upper right transistors. This is your rail voltage.