I am pretty sure i need a Capacitor...the headlights dim and stuff at night when the bass hits...will a Capacitor fix this?...and if so...what kind??


heres what i am running..

Infinitity Kappa perfect 12vq 12 inch sub, specs are below

Dual Voice Coil Yes
Impedance 4 ohms
RMS Power Handling 400 watts
Peak Power Handling 1600 watts

Amp- Sony Xplod XM-2002GTR...specs below

1 x 500 watts RMS at 4 ohms
1200w Max output

 

What kinda car do you have all this installed in? How old is your battery?

 

1995 acura integra...and i think the battery is about 3 years old ...i have a load tester and tested it before installing the system and it says its still good....

 

It depends on what you mean by "dim" if your lights dim and stay dim then NO it wont help if your lights flicker it will help.

I only recommend Stinger caps. I've heard good things about alumipro but have no personel experience with them. You want something with a low ESR. Getting the ESR rating is like getting a wattage rating for an amplifier. It's the reason I only recommend Stinger, others you just never know what your getting.

 

what guage power and ground wire did you run? Is your ground wire fairly short (i.e. grounded somewhere in the trunk)? Have you upgraded battery wire guage or is it stock, and your alternator may be going bad check to make sure you have ~14.4 volts when running at the battery...

 

I agree with all the above^^^

What I do notice is you have a 400W continuous DVC 4 ohm sub, [wired in parallel it would be a 2ohm load]
You have a 2x200W RMS into 4 ohms or 1x500W RMS into 4 ohm amp, it is not stable below 4 ohms when bridged into mono, if speakers VCs are wired in parallel it would be a 2 ohm load, and amp would be drawing a lot of current and running into clipping constantly, [and over-heating] 94

 

the starter wire is stock...as is the ground...its 4 gauage wire both Postive and ground running the amp...and the fuse is right next to the battery...i plan on upgrading the battery and starter wires soon tho....and the ground run from the amp is at the most two feet long...i doubt its even that tho...it grounds right there to the seat belt bolt...

 

upgrade your cars stock wiring first.

Current start and stops in the same place, you must always be able to complete the loop back where you started. Meaning: Current flows out of the + terminal of your battery, then through your 4 guage power wire out the negative terminal of your amp and through the frame. It then travels up through the oem ground wire back to the battery. Then through the battery back to the + terminal(Which is why the ESR of your battery matters). It always travels in a loops. If any wire in that loop is not of the proper guage to carry the load then your electrical system will suffer.

Also upgrade the wires from the engine to chasis. Once the alternator kicks on your loop switches to the alternator wires.

 

but isnt a capacitor still something good to have?...most of my friends who have this stuff installed all have one...and i am running more rms and max power then they are...and the integra battery is tiny...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tegraracer90 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">but isnt a capacitor still something good to have?...most of my friends who have this stuff installed all have one...and i am running more rms and max power then they are...and the integra battery is tiny...</TD></TR></TABLE>

No cap made will help you if you have a crappy electrical system to start with. A cap only stores energy it doesn't create it. If you have a problem with the generation and distribution of your energy a cap won't do anything.

Caps for -&gt; short burst of dynamic power
Battery, alternator -&gt; static power
Wiring-&gt;distributes energy

They all work together. If one is hosed then others will suffer.

You should easily be able to power a 500w sony amplifier with your current setup. I had a 98 Integra with a stock alternator running a 1000w soundstream sub amp running 1/2 ohm bridged and a 400w soundstream mid amp. My only upgrades were 2 guage wire,stinger dry cell battery, stinger cap.


Modified by nsxxtreme at 3:45 PM 6/19/2008

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxxtreme &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Caps for -&gt; short burst of dynamic power

Modified by nsxxtreme at 3:45 PM 6/19/2008</TD></TR></TABLE>


then that means a cap would help...cause the lights only flicker when the bass hits hard..they dont stay dim...they just dim when amp pulls alot for a second while the bass is pulling....

 

bump!

 

go for it, get yourself an electrolytic cap with a DVM on it so you can see what your potential dips down to when the lights dim

 

Doesnt current flow from the negative terminal to the positive?? Electrons are negative therefore they would flow from the negative to the posotive??

 

Oh and the DVM's on most caps do dont keep up with the voltage drop, I tested my stinger cap back in the day with a fluke multimeter and the one on the cap and the one on the cap was about a half second slow and at least a volt off...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DDEVIANT1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Doesnt current flow from the negative terminal to the positive?? Electrons are negative therefore they would flow from the negative to the posotive??</TD></TR></TABLE>

Electrons do flow from negative to positive. Current flow is the opposite of electron flow, hence from positive to negative.

 

I didn't realize that electron flow and current flow were different?? Oh well I learned something new today

 

i hate to burst your bubble bout caps....but they're worthless...serious...

a cap is only meant for a back up source of power and even then so it doesnt store a very good charge.

have you upgraded your big 3 wiring?? if you have then you dont have to worry bout too much. i would actually replace the battery and do the big 3. then go from there. and if its still doing it. then go grab yourself a high output alt..

caps are crap and useless. i have yet to find a legit reasonable answer from someone that they are good.

if you need me to back up my explanation i am more than happy to.

 

A cap is good at fast discharge and that is it, they are a bandaid solution and that is pretty much it.

They are good for SPL competition where you have large quick bursts of energy required, and are also good for stabilizing the voltage slightly...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xTimmyx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> if you need me to back up my explanation i am more than happy to. </TD></TR></TABLE>
What "explanation"?

All I see is "worthless", "crap" and "useless", not really an explanation.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xTimmyx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> i have yet to find a legit reasonable answer from someone that they are good. </TD></TR></TABLE>

What would you need for you to believe it was a "legit" and "reasonable" answer?
How about, I have been installing them on car audio systems for more then 25 years, long before anybody wrapped them with a brand name logo or stuck a "pimp my ride" DVM on the top and sold them for 4x what they are really worth.

Every one of them did, or is still doing, what it was intended to do.

As has been mentioned a cap does work, for it to work it must be installed properly, the rest of the batt./charging system must be up to par and obviously, used for what it can do, it can be very effective where power consumption by to audio system is generally well below the charging systems capacity but will overload it when system is "cranked", during those very short duration peaks in current draw the cap will "shoulder the load" and that's a lot easier on the alt.
A cap is also good for SQ, when an amp tries to draws more current then is avalable everything else starves for current at the same time, like dimming head light and any other amp, every time the bass hits all amps starve for current and SQ suffers, install a cap, SQ improves.

The debate about caps has gone on for a long time and will continue I'm sure, you just picked the wrong side of the debate Timmy, suck it up and move on. 94

 

http://forum.realmofexcursion....17970

/end thread

but its your choice man..its your system. that link is a good link on capacitors and stuff.

i would still upgrade the big 3 though first. and then go from there good luck and i hope everything turns out great for ya bud

 

First it's not my system.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xTimmyx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i would still upgrade the big 3 though first. and then go from there </TD></TR></TABLE> I guess you missed the part about doing that... "the rest of the batt./charging system must be up to par"

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xTimmyx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">that link is a good link on capacitors and stuff. </TD></TR></TABLE> Yes it is, just not in this case and for this kind of application. 94

 

I don't argue with these people because the read something by Richard and even though they dont understand it it's the holy grail on every single cap ever made.

Let's look at a statement from that website linked to.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">And now for the homework. Last night we learned that if 100 amps flows through .017 ohms there will be a voltage drop of 1.7 volts. And if the amp flow increases to 300 amps the voltage drop will increase to 5.1 volts.</TD></TR></TABLE> Now for the technically challenged this means he was testing a specific cap. His results hold for that cap and that cap only. ESR varies widely not every cap made has the same ESR. ESR=equivalent series resistance.

Now lets look at a published ESR value by stinger http://www.stingerelectronics....n.pdf
page 5 .0016 ohms. What's the voltage drop at 100 amps .16V WHAT! but I thought Richard said it was 1.7V and caps are worthless. hmmm.... what the hell how can his math be wrong? Its not, its a lack of understanding on the readers part. His math hold for a cap with an ESR of .017 ohms ONLY

This is a classic case of people having no idea what they are doing reading some crap on the internet they dont understand by someone that does know what they are doing and applying it incorrectly.

also have a problem with this statement.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This is because the ESR that is in series with the output stays constant regardless of the load.</TD></TR></TABLE> INCORRECT!! ESR varies with frequency. Which is exactly why every reported ESR value is given with a frequency. This is the ESR of the cap when measure at x frequency.

I don't need to read further because I know that this ridiculous case doesn't apply. People that link to that crap as proof that ALL caps don't work only show there own stupidity.blaah enjoy being clueless.

An equivalent BS statement would be civics are slow so every car made must be slow.


Modified by nsxxtreme at 7:24 PM 6/25/2008

 

^^^^ 94

 

i(t) = c dv(t)/dt

holy shoot i never realized caps were so worthless after reading this article. Slap a cap in that bad boy for looks get one with the freakin LEDs all over it as well