goldfish914

so i have a pair of subs hooked up with my amp and i followed a diagram from rockfordfosgate on how to put a power acoustik capacitor into my system. it works and i charged it beforehand but the only thing is it keeps charging after my car is off and it drains my battery. i have a feeling its because i used the power source from my battery instead of my cigarette lighter fuse (both of which are going to my amp) im kind've a noob w/ audio i can hook it up and thats about it im not sure why there are two (+) wires going to my amp and i just followed directions. any help with connecting my capacitor correctly?

WhiteA32

iTrader: (20)

A cap is like a band aid it just hides the underlying problem which in this case is your ground. Get rid of your cap and search for "The Big Three" and do that.

And how many watts are you running anyways....

tong

iTrader: (4)

um yeah. one + is for constant power (meaning directly to the battery) the other is the remote turn on, a source of power that only turn on when the stereo is on, --- POWER ANTENNA is a perfect one for this, that way your amp shuts off when your car is off, that's y your battery has been draining. Hope this helps.

Oh how did you charge the cap b4 hand?

goldfish914

the capacitor can handle the watts im not sure how many off hand b/c i bought it all 2gether but i charged it w/ the resistor in place of the fuse until it reached my car battery's volts. do i want to use the other power source which would be the power source from my cig lighter? this is controlled by a kill switch by my feet.

spark plugs.

iTrader: (3)

power antenna isn't always the best remote turn on b/c some head units turn off the power antenna once you stop using the radio and switch to another source, i.e. cd.

spark plugs.

iTrader: (3)

here's a quick sketch of how to quickly wire up your system with a cap.
there shouldn't be two power wires going to your amp.

maximal

iTrader: (4)

actually, some of my fosgate amps have 2 power inputs...you could either connect both from the battery, or one from the battery and one from a cap.

viperxiv

There's a blue wire coming out of your wiring harness behind your CD deck, that's a good remote wire.

spark plugs.

iTrader: (3)

huh...didn't know that. you learn something everyday

goldfish914

i used that same wiring diagram and there is only one (+) supply 2 the cap which acts as the output too... how do i make the capacitor shut off when my cars not on?

jkmay01

iTrader: (3)

the caps main purpose is to supply a instant source of current to demanding amps. specifically sub amps since they generally have large current draw. the cap as spark splug's diagram indicates is correct. your cap only charges until it is full then waits to discharge when that deep bass hits and quickly re-charges for the next current demand. it wont pull voltage unless your radio and amps are still on.