2MuchMAX4U

iTrader: (7)

Ok, I've read up on everything regarding installation, other posts, etc. about installing Caps and I still have some questions. I have never installed one but I feel confident that I can do this. Here's my setup:

I have my main 4 GA power from the battery going into a distribution block where both my amps are connected to. My two amps are grounded to the same spot and I have read that the cap should also be grounded to the spot where the amp is grounded.

My "new" cap is a 1 farad Rockford Fosgate: Now I got this from a friend, just the cap nothing else, although I know it works and was in his car a few months ago.

So here are the questions...

1. Charging the CAP... I don't have the device that charges, but I multimeter reads ~8 Volts from the cap. Is that enough to install and allow my electrical system to complete the charge? Or should do something else to complete the charge prior to installation? Can I make a charger if necessary?

2. Installing the cap... I assume going to my distribution block for + and I'm not 100% on grounding, because is it ok for grounding 2 amps and a cap on one ground?

Also any pointers or installation tips to assist me could give me would be appreciated

friendhasmax

Well installing a CAP isn't hard at all. U should charge the cap before installing it. U do not need a special charger for it although they are pretty handy to have around. All you need to charge the cap is a resistor (25 ohms, 1/2 watt), and a volt meter. what you do is this: put the resistor in series with the power coming from the battery and the positive post on the cap, so that the resistor is in between the power cable and the positive terminal on the cap, then u connect the cap to ground. place the volt meter across the the positive and negative terminals of the cap and wait for the voltage to reach around 13.8 or so volts, do this with the car on beacause the cap will drain the battery if the alternator is not running. remember you are taking close to 1 farad worth of electrons from ur battery if u neglect to turn ur car on during charging. now the reasoning behind using a resistor to charge a cap is this: a capacitor will quickly drain all the current from ur battery in very little time, this caould blow a lot of fuses and or overcharge the cap causing it to explode or leak electrolytes, the resistor maintains a correct flow of electrons. lots of interesting mathematics behind this but i wont go into it. now as foar as installation, you can ground it to the same point as the amplifiers as this would decrease the likelyhood of introducing noise into the system. this is becuae if all components share the same ground there is going to be nearly the same resistance in the ground connection between the components. if u ground to different locations then there is a slight chance of one groung connection having a higher resistance than the other, therefore introducing noise. also with differences in resistance of grounding points there will be a voltage drop going according to ohm's law. lower voltages have a higher tendency to pick up noise in the signal, therefore good grounding at a single point will avoid this..just remembver that the higher the voltage, the less likely you will have nooise in the system. this is why you see head units that boast high level pre amp outpus ...
as far as the power connection goes it is as follows: take a power lead coming from you distribution block and connect that to ur poitive terminal on ur cap. take another power cable(new cable not from distribution block) and connect that to the same positive terminal on the cap and connect it to the amp so that u have 2 connections at the positive terminal on the cap (one from the distribution block, and one going to the amp)....its pretty straight foward...another way to charge the ca if u do not have the resistor is to use a 12v automotive light in place of the resistor. just put the bulb inline ith the power from battery and the positive from cap and ground the cap, the cap is done carging when the light stops shining

and further questions ask away brotha