I just got a Rockford Capacitor and I wanted to know how to hook it up?....
All you have to do is connect the POS from the battery to the CAP and then the POS to the amp and then hook up the groung from the amp to the NEG of the CAP ground the the CAP???

I heard that you have to "charge" the CAP first? how do you do that??


Thank You For Your Help
CF

 

Rockford caps come with a little circuit board piece that has a red and green l.e.d on it. It's just a resistor. Hook the resistor to 12V and it will charge the cap very slowly, about 1 v every 30sec or so. You need to do this because if you were to just hook it up to 12v without charging it, you would be sending a surge of power into the cap which can,(but unlikely) cause the cap to explode. By the way, don't send the ground wire of the amp to the cap, just ground it to the chassis of your car. Only the pos side of the cap will have 2 wires hooked to it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by teamxtant &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Rockford caps come with a little circuit board piece that has a red and green l.e.d on it. It's just a resistor. Hook the resistor to 12V and it will charge the cap very slowly, about 1 v every 30sec or so. You need to do this because if you were to just hook it up to 12v without charging it, you would be sending a surge of power into the cap which can,(but unlikely) cause the cap to explode. By the way, don't send the ground wire of the amp to the cap, just ground it to the chassis of your car. Only the pos side of the cap will have 2 wires hooked to it.</TD></TR></TABLE> Dito that. 94

 

I bought the CAP used for 5 bucks and it didnt come with the resistor....all i got was the CAP it self...how would I go about charging it?

Thank You For Your HELP

CF04

 

just hook the cap up to your battery with some power wire. You'll have a nice spark but it will be topped off for sure.

 

You can use a 12V light bulb to charge the capacitor properly. At the begining it will light up high, then it'll dim slowly indicating the cap is charged. Light bulbs are resistors too and they can be used to charge a capacitor safely.

You don't want sparks at the terminal of a discharged capacitor. This will shorten the life of the capacitor or cause some trouble.

Eric

 

"You can use a 12V light bulb to charge the capacitor properly"
Where do I get a 12v light bulb...radio shack ? and how do I hook up the light bulb and CAP to the BATT.?

CF04

 

When I went to the car aduio shop they told me that that I can charge it by just using power wire and it will work fine?.....(no light blub or resister)
any truth to this?


CF04

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ChronicFrogs2004 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When I went to the car aduio shop they told me that that I can charge it by just using power wire and it will work fine?.....(no light blub or resister)
any truth to this?


CF04</TD></TR></TABLE>Yes you can charge it that way, but it will not be fine, I have seen caps with the side blown out when charged that way,DON'T DO IT, if you dont have the resister use a 12v light bulb there a lot of them in your car.

the lightbulb gos in series with power wire to cap, just pull fuse at battery,hook batt. up and connect bulb [in series] at the fuse holder, when light gos out,cap is charged. 94

 

Basically all the circuit board that comes with the rockford cap is a resistor much like a light bulb is. I HIGHLY recommend you go to Radio shack and get a 1.5K ohm resistor. Hook up the ground wire to your cap, then hook one side of the resistor to your cap. The other side of your cap will be hooked up to your battery. This will allow for a slow charge. What your goal is in doing this is to bring the voltage of your cap to around the same voltage of your battery. Putting a wire from your battery to your cap will only work if your cap is around the same volts already. Im assuming the the shop you went to is thinking this. But if your cap has been discharged, FCM is right, you can blow the cap up. Call Rockford at 480-967-3565 and they can tell you how to charge it properly if you're still not sure.

 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP...... I understand how to do it now.

CF04