CarAudioFabrication so when I’m playing my music with my car on and running when I hold the rpms over 2000 it keeps the amps on when it drops below it cuts them off two 300 watt amps running of off 4gauge wire each amp powers a q power 15 please help
samuel purvis Is your wire OFC?? Using ofc vs CCA can definitely cure this issue. Check for corrosion at the terminal connections. At the battery, and at ground. Could be an issue. Not having a rock solid connection can be it.
@@jordanlara751 wrap one end around the positive test lead of your multimeter. (Be sure to check the resistance between the speaker wire) Then stick the other end of the wire on the positive terminal of your battery. Now use the negative lead to test your ground.
oh man how many times am i gonna say this.. you are just a HUUUUUGE source of good information and a very good teacher.. i didn't even know small things like these matter so much.. i have so much respect for you buddy.. literally the best audio system channel out here..
This video should be required viewing for every tech touching automotive electrical components, whether handling installs, retrofits or forensics. Serious value here. Thank you!
Very well done. I like that you took the time to explain that voltage drop measurements are to be taken while the system is UNDER LOAD. I will say that the voltage drop measurement you are taking is proportional to the current of the load. Therefore the voltage drop will be higher when you turn up the volume (Vdrop = I_load x R_wire/connections). To add further information, you are testing the voltage drop due to the electrical connections and NOT the system drawing more current than the alternator is capable of providing (therefore resulting in the voltage dropping to battery voltage). You should do a separate video explaining that the alternator can only provide the current it is designed to and that adding extra batteries is not going to solve voltage drop issues. In order to maintain 14.4V+ you need to have an alternator capable of the system demands (or multiple alternators).
kyle3420 thanks for explaining in full what should have been included in this video ... Lots of ppl including myself were confused like how are u dropping .05 volts full tilt .. now I understand better thanks
Man I Appreciate your Clear speaking of words & Exact process of the issue at hand. Your videos are Top-Notch and have Evolved my car audio knowledge. Thanks
There's one thing you failed to mention in the video that I noticed Oh by the way excellent informational video, when you're describing testing the resistance the positive lead goes to check your possible ground locations the negative leave goes where to the battery or to the battery cable it's never specified where it goes. Lot of folks wouldn't know, either way excellent work thanks for the information got a good thing going keep it up
Used voltage drops for years and would make one small comment on checking your grounds. The body grounds are usually much small than the power side. This one area is easily overlooked when you see a large power cable going to the engine block followed by a tiny wire going to the body. And you have a excellent series of videos didn't start using plastic until I viewed your site.
Love this. Thank you. Thank You. You speak so clearly, Not too fast, Not too slow; just perfect. Don’t add any life stories or personal things, Straight to the point. God Bless. Definitely learning car audio here. I’m not big on car audio. Ratio(Handling/Engine/Audio) Car wise is (50/40/10)..... so less is more for me. What’s a good small amp to control 2-4 speakers and maybe a small sub. Toyota MR2 (SW20) 1991 version.
Awesome vid Mark! I recently needed to test for voltage drop, the ultimate problem being with my fuse block. Accidentally installed a washer between the fuse and block, which caused a high resistance failure point. The fuse for the subwoofer amp began to melt during some serious hip-hop bass segment, but never went full-blown. Won't be making that mistake ever again. I get less than .1 volt drop after getting a new fuse block. The factory amplifier ground points under the seats were never used, and gave me a great grounding spot! I was aware of the resistance test but never load tested a ground point before, that's a great test!
i used my seatbelt bolt in the back, sanded the heck out of it and put washers on both sides with a locking screw and it’s worked better than grounding to my battery
Haha, I performed my car audio instalation in my backyard, so I'm not a proffessional audio installer, but I do have 14,20 V at the battery and 14.15 at the amplifier... so thanks Matt for clearing things up !
Wow testing resistance on my ground location…I should know better. Gonna do it now. Also measuring voltage drop, too. Great information well explained.
i am putting a 600 rms system i was goin to go with a orion 4 gauge amp kit but after watching your vid i aid the extra $4 and got the knukoncepts ampkit and am so glad i did thanks CAF!!
I didn't have any voltage drop when I checked the other day but I rewired some speakers and now I have a ton of noise weird things going on I'm going to redo them and check my grounds. Thanks for the video
the ground that you tested in the bottom with the 0.03, is that a frame bolt installed? i do not have this bolt in my jeep. Just wanting to know about the install of this ground bolt.
hi my twin victrons are only giving out 10amps max at moment.18a and 30amp parallel dc chargers.i have 10amps at starter battery my alternator was upgraded couple years ago 140amps i think.i still have my old 12amp charger running agm battery also separate circuit .the victrons supply 105ah lifepo4.have to top up lifepo4 with mains charger every few days but on weekends away need that extra power
Any idea what would cause small popping noises in a stock stereo system. I have a 2021 Audi A7 with a stock Bang and Olufsen. The pops vary in intensity but are not super loud and I hear them coming from all the speakers but not at the same time. I'll hear them from one speaker then another. This a common issue as I have found many forums of complaints. Audi calls this normal behavior which is rediculous. They tried replacing the amp which did nothing. Thanks.
this was interesting, i just tried all these. My audio battery and car battery are in the trunk. rest voltage was 12.7 volt across anywhere i tried .. resistance from all my wiring was 0.00 including my earth points (rear folding centre seat mounts) i'm using 2/0 ofc for everything.. The engine bay fuse/relay box has 2 positives one from the alternator both show 12.67volts (i realized after my interior lights were on if that makes much difference) the only thing i couldn't test was the resistance from fuse/relay box positive to my trunk glad i found this it helped alot since i am adding a 8k rms amp soon and i am pretty positive now my electrical is looking healthy... only thing i have to do is beef up my 140amp alternator
I am going to try this on my 36 foot motorhome. The battery is in the back and amp in the front. I was concerned about v drop Kenwood advised 4AWG for the 400W amp over that distance. I thought it would have been 2 or 0 over that distance. Dumb question, would a capacitor before the amp in the front help with voltage drop? If Kenwood was in error new cable is going to be much more expensive than a capacitor
So I had 2 15 inch subs installed in my Yukon in a custom box. It was a big job so I went professional. Bought equipment and he installed himself. He is extremely knowledgeable and did a great job installing it. The thing is, it's been 3 or 4 months now and I swear I've lost some power sometime recently? What could it be? I know everything is the right size and it's all obviously connected properly. So with that being said, and me making no other changes to my vehicle, what could have happened?
Stock alternator 2015 corolla and have a -1/0 ofc power ground and big three plus couple extra block to body grounds because unibody crap, 400$ in copper so far. I have a 1500 watt rms amp on a 1-12” dvc 2 olm wired 1 olm amp is happy at 1 giving average 1800 to 2000 max, now also have 3,5 farat cap, do i need a big alternator????? Thanks awesome videos
So I just purchased a skar 1200.1 monoblock. I’m having a issue when I turn my amp up with the bass knob sometimes my subs beat without having music sent to them. Plus the speaker output has 1 ac volt without sending any signal to the amp?
In order to test for ground on certain metal parts of the car, can I use the jump starter wires as extensions? Because, I don’t have an extension lead for my Digital Multimeter
I saw when finding the grounding points one side of the lead coming from the multimeter was used to find the ground points but the other was connected to the battery negative ground. Is there another way to test, like connecting the negative to a seperate ground block then testing. The issue I have I am trying to find a long cable that twill go from the front to trunk for ground points. By the way, excellent video!!!
When testing voltage drop while playing test tone.. Can I disconnect the speaker wire from subwoofer. So I don't have a 40hz tone booming in my neighborhood
I installed a kicker KX 400.4 amp and upgraded all 4 speakers and tweeters in my truck. Everything worked when I started my truck up but today was the first time I actually drove my truck, once I started to drive I had no sound, the must have shutoff. Come to a complete stop put the truck in park amp work. I rethinking that my grounds are not that great. To have it work in park and not in drive.
Question, if an amp installed worked perfectly for a month and then just stopped and the green on light dims out on the amp when turned on what could be the issue? Voltage at start is 13.3v from the battery and 12v from the remote, but when the ignition/car is turned on the hot power voltage drops to 2.3v where the remote stays constant 12v. When the car is turned off the voltage slowly comes back up on the amp. Is this a bad amp?
@CAF - I just installed a coustom box in my sons 2008 Infinity G-37S and the only way I could built it to get his 2 Duel 2 ohm Skar Audio DDX12’s and Skar 2,000 watt amp in the SMALL trunk was to put the subs facing up with them mounted on top of the box. My question is.., why does it hit harder when the trunk is open? 🤔 I always had my subs facing to the front or back in my younger days of systems. Lol. I feel like I’m not getting the full effect out of the subs. 🤔🤷🏼♂️ Thanks!
I want to get a clamp meter that I can test the current of my main power wire. I went to a few stores and from what I read on the packaging it doesn't go over like 10 amps DC. It'll do AC just fine but I can't find the right meter to go high enough on DC voltage. I just want to find out how much I'm really pulling through my power wire.
thanx man i have a jeep wrangler and my ground is on the cargo bolt and ive been feeling as though i have not been getting the best performance out my system glad i stumbled across this video thanx man
Is it ok if im take the power 12v wire to power wire of headunit? im using compact active subwoofer blaupunkt gtr 130a. The audio shop install like that. Just wierd why not use the power wire direct to battery but take from the headunit.
Hi, so to check the OM I need to put the black wire of the avometer to the disconnected minus cable from the battery and the red wire on the chassis? Thanks
I’m running 1/0 ofc wiring for my amp during a certain song when the bass note hits the amp shuts off and will not turn back on until I shut the car off and restart the car I then lower the volume by 5 (from volume 30 to 25) and it doesn’t cut off. It doesn’t cut off on any other song either
hello Mark,a huge thanks for being my mentor,i m geting toghether all the parts and tools i need to instal my sound system.i have a huge space where the spare wheel goes 60 cm x90 cm
This is why I say car audio is mathematical people don't believe it 14.4 volt with 1 volt drop can lose 100 watts out put... 14.4 volts ×100 amp= 1.440 watts 1 volt drop 13.4 × 100amps =1.340 watts. Then have resistance of The Wire that alone can cost you up to one volt depending on the length of the wire and size ? Just say. Good vid mark keep it real
You can treat wire as resistor and calculate power on it, for your example you have 1v on it when 100A is passing through it, that makes it 1V/100A=0.01Ohm (10miliohm), also power can be calculated 1V*100A=100W. Since wire is in series with load (using kirchoffs law) you have to get total power by adding power on wire/resistor and amplifier on this example, so 1440W=1340+100W
Also your amplifier will most likely produce more power at 14.4V than it would at 13.4V so most likely you are gonna get more than 100W just by upgrading wire.
Cekpi7 Measure the voltage with the car on and the system playing at whatever volume you normally play. When the bass hits your gonna see the voltage decrease. The best bet to get all the voltage you can is upgrade the alternator, run over sized quality wire, and add batteries. That’s the biggest problem when people add systems to their cars they don’t think of upgrading the electrical. Stock alternators only have a little head room and can’t keep up the the demand of a big amplifier.
I was wondering your thoughts on a problem that I have. When turn up my system to volume 38 which is my set point. There are times when my system is very loud and times when it is not. All speakers are ran off of 2 amplifier (75×4 and 1500x1) I am losing volume from all speakers in car. 1/0 power wire/200amp fuse, checked speaker polarity, XSd480 under hood, 2 kinetic batteries in the back, Stock Alt. Double checked all connections. Seems to me like power loss because it is both amplifier. Any thoughts would be great Thanks
I learned back in the 80s using an opened box for subs allows woofers to travel as though they are in a lot huger box. Then on one woofer reversing polarity each woofer no longer cancels each other out. Using seas foreign 13 inch woofers sounds great. Music used to test Patrick O’hear David Helping examples shows the highs and lows better than like rap 60 db bass. Give me comments what you think. I love learning.
I have a 2017 Toyota Highlander and the battery is in the trunk, right next to where the amps will go. Would it be best to direct connect the amps ground to the ground of the battery or the chassis?
Please help.. I know how to check ohms(impedance) when subwoofers are Not in box..but how do you check when they are mounted..and enclosed? Do speaker jacks change ohms?
I got an alpine stereo its been acting up it won't turn on. So I checked all my fuses they are fine. I checked my power on the harness, both the key and the regular power wire to the stereo have power. I'm not sure if the multimeter is reading the ground it's not beeping. or if I'm doing it right... Would say the ground is the problem or something else? Because it blew fuses on my amp last time I fixed it. I changed them last time and it turned right on
That explains alot of my voltage drop, I have 4v of drop under heavy load at specific frequencys and this helped me realize I had to small of a ground wire or cca and not ofc got it fixed now thank you so much
so with 4 volts and a added amp will sound better than a line converter because you can set the gain lower on amplifier. Will allow you to go full volume more likely?
Hey mark. Thanks for all your videos. I realize this one is a bit old. I I'm looking for a good ground on the same vehicle. I assume you drilled into the body for that location? I also used that cargo hold down is a ground on my previous amp which died after a year in this vehicle. I don't know if it was because of a bad ground or because it was 20 plus years old 😢. Thanks again!
Mark in some of these new vehicles the ground in the rear is poor everywhere u look. What would u do to overcome a poor ground that is poor through out the vehicle.
Run appropriately sized wire through the body panel and attach to nearest good ground, which may be the frame of vehicle. Make sure to use a grommet when passing wires through any panel.
Rear seat mounting bolts, seat belt mounting bolts, or rear strut bolt. I have had good luck with these in the past. Clean the paint in the area you choose with sand paper or a wire wheel, and test your connection.
What I did is add an extra battery to the rear of my 08 Durango and just did a run of 1/0 power and ground strait to the alt. Eliminated all of those pesky grounding problems.
Question: I'm a budget bass-head and recently started a budget build 4x4... So...I already had a small system installed by an audio shop... It was good but I wanted MORE... So ordered a 15,(had an older amp and box given to me already for the 15)... So...im almost positive my Sub is under powered but will this stop it from working under loads 🤷🏼♂️ meaning after a while of jammies I loose sound to just the one bridge amp...is this from lack of power you think 🤔🤔 Because my concern is that I'm using the same ground as the other amp and it's a tedious process to get back to where it is as ive built enclosure of sorts 🤦🏼♂️ Is it a bad idea to use the same ground 🤷🏼♂️ Both amps are different as are the subs...one is dvc and the other not etc...ohms if each sub is different as well...
Hey bro. I pulled my carpet out of my trunk and ground the paint off. Done the big 3 upgrade with 0 gauge. I put in my new amp and it was getting hot easily. Plus it isn't hitting nearly like I wanted. Figured my ground was fine. Broke out the multi meter and tested multiple spots in trunk. They all show 3 ohms of resistance. Would that much resistance impact my amps performance? Thank you. I'm severely frustrated
If my volts are going from like 14.7 down to 11-12 volts when under power. Is it from a bad ground or needing more power. I have 2 sundown sa 10s v2 so 1,000 watts rms with a jp-2300 amp. My amp will get hot and turn off when playing loyd music for 5 mins. The only electrical upgrades is my main battery which is xs power d3400 and big 3 kit. But stock alternator. Was buying a alternator Wednesday but thought it might be possible it’s my ground what do you think? Using ofc wiring kit for my amp and the ground is on a seat bolt and I cleaned off to bare metal
Take note! He's playing a sine wave while doing the voltage drop test. Cannot tell you how many people I see just measuring DC voltage at the amplifier without anything playing. Without a load, you're not going to see significant results. So play a sine wave, crank that volume.
I have a question. I just installed a new battery on my 2018 ford f150 and now when I accelerate my voltage drops from 14.5 to 11.9. When I cold start the truck it will stay at 14 even if I play my system. But once I start moving I’m having voltage drop issues. All my wiring is good, have a new alternator. I removed the fuses from my system to see if it was my amp or sub and it still had the same issue. Any idea what could be wrong?
Nice setup. On the sub amp in the video. Wasn't bridge right it needs to be as is shown on the outside of the amp itself why was that not bridge properly to the sub? 🤔
Probably a dumb question and I feel it might have to do with grounding but I’m running a 3k rms amp with 0g ofc kit but my 0g wire keeps melting at the in-line fuse by the battery. How or what should I do to help. (Wire burns after a couple days of playing at decent bass range)
Love your videos they actually do help determine alot of people's, I'm having an issue myself, I purchased a pair of 10 inch DB Drive G2s 4 ohm and I'm wired at 1 ohm but when I turn my gain up to halfway I get popping noise, not really clipping but I know there's not to much power I'm literally right at RMS power rating on amp to subs, I've checked all grounds and power and even speaker wire it's 12 gauge, using 1/0 gauge for amp and subs it's just at high volumes I get 1 or 2 popping sounds but I'm at only 80% power as far as reaching RMS power. Any ideas?
Hi I was curious on how I could run a 5 channel with all my speakers being component speakers on my 2010 Volkswagen Tiguan( LOL I have more of a mechanic background than an electrical background) but I’m getting infinity kappa 60.11 cs for all four doors and they come with passive crossovers for each woofer and tweeter so how would I go about parallel wiring each front and back speakers to get 1 ohm each because my Kenwood amp is rated for 2 ohm speaker.( I’m sorry for wording this probably wrong but I have no ideal what I’m doing)
You have 1/20 volt drop with a 0db 40hz sine tone playing at max volume ( full tilt ) before clipping? Or you just have that voltage drop in the wire runs with no music or tones playing?
guy_incognito no way ... a 1500 watt amp playing at 40 Hz sine wave at max volume, with one battery, no high output alt, 1 power and ground, should drop way more than 1/20 of a volt unless he is literally getting no power out of the amp and has a SQ setup where the sub is wired to 4 ohm, or there is not tone playing. It’s DC voltage in regards to this 12V system. I understand he is applying a “ constant load “ but a sine wave is AC voltage so again he either left out some info or I am over thinking. I have a 240 HO alt , 1 60 AH, 1400 CCA AGM battery & a 2000 W bass amp. The alt does like 150 amps at idle and at “ max volume no clipping “ some bass notes an pull the voltage down on my front battery to low 13 sometimes 12.8. When I check voltage at my battery and then at the amp there is hardly any voltage loss, like 1/20 of a volt so that’s why this video confuses me
Run a separate ground will eliminate all this work! It also eliminates any future issues with the ground. Sure it cost more but you have to run the hot why not run the ground at the same time? Been doing this since I have been driving way back in the 80s when cars were simple!
Ken Richner I was running 0 awg wire back in 1987 from negative terminal to a distribution block since I was around 14-15 years old. They all told me I was an idiot. Lol. Never had any issues. Zero pops zero engine noise. Now it seems they have all followed lol
Well usually the chassis ground will have a much lower resistance than ~0ga all the way back to the battery... and it’s the common ground so on top of keeping the impedance minimal, it should also help minimize system phase issues while keeping cost low (ofc ain’t cheap ya know.) so use that bucket of saved money to further enhance your system by acoustic treatment, add or upgrade your dsp, add loudspeaker horns on the roof for hollering at bitches etc.. you know .. things that really matter
The frame and body also act as a buffer against voltage spikes from amp, you can fry your battery and or alternator doing this which is why most amp manuals say to ground to chassis.
I have a question. I have 2 15s in a Saturn in a ported box with the subs facing up and port facing the rear. My backseat fold down and I was wondering would I get more bass /flex if I have the port facing the cab of the car unstead of the rear
@@eikuz great job smart guy!!! Yeah I could've used a math equation to say that too!!! Now show me something in a vehicle that produces or uses 44v like I stated in my original post....🤦♂️
So I have done all of this and got a ground with 0 resistance and my voltage drop is roughly .1v and my headlights still flicker slightly on 600 watts rms should I do big 3 ho alternator or better battery
the word is conductor you want it to conduct, the ground needs to be conducting electricity, paint is not conductive... connecting to a painted surface is not conductive, you want a large surface area to conduct a lot of electricity only measurable when under load, use encapsulating dielectric grease to protect the connection
Sir I'm confused maybe u can help what makes a amp go into protection mode with my car in acc right before start yet when I start the car it turns off ?
Would having insufficient power from the alternator create a bass fade issue? My woofer pumps for like ten seconds and fades to a softer tone and will not boom as hard. I'm running NVX 500.1 to one 10in woofer in my 2016 Jeep Wrangler. I used all of the wiring you used and followed your install guide.
Help please- So I go and test my grounds. Had to improvise with my limited supplies. Had some leftover 16 guage speaker wire (ofc of course😎) and had to separate the two wires and connect them to make a jumper for my ground off the battery. So I got one running from ground up front to back seat of my crewcab and connected to one probe. Using the other to touch ground locations. Touching both probes it jumps around once or twice but measures 0 ohms. Also this is just the cheap multi meter from Walmart for 10 bucks. So I check amp ground and does the jumping around for a sec but reads 0. Terminal on amp reads 0 . Tried a few random locations back there under seat that would be feasible for grounding and all 0s. I either got 0 reading, or the 'oL' on the screen when its not touching anything. I never could find any resistance anywhere. Under my hood I checked alternator casing ground strap on hood, even the frame where i ran one of my big 3 and another on back of the truck that's just a factory spot. Should they all be reading 0? No resistance anywhere? Now I did just rescrape and clean every ground on the truck plus did big 3, but I know myself well enough to know i highly doubt I did it all perfect. I'm a novice at electrical so im guessing I had to have done something wrong
Hi i need some help!!!!!. so i got everything and it was playing and after a while i put in some speakers whit a nother amp and the ground wier poped out of the subwoer amp but i put it in the apm again and now it is playing a lithle while and then dies and some time maxes it self out and cant get the base to play so lout. if you re seing this and now how to fix it i would be greatfull of you help!!!!!.
How do you dyno test the performance of an amplifier to verify if it really pushes the RMS watts the manufacturer claims? I want to feed at least 1000 watts to my Crystal Mobile Sound CMPx2 2ohm dvc 15 inch subwoofer that is rated 1600 watts RMS. Is there an amplifier you recommend?
Hey dudes! Who already knew about this test? Who didn't?
There's no shame in learning something new! What else would you like to learn?
CarAudioFabrication so when I’m playing my music with my car on and running when I hold the rpms over 2000 it keeps the amps on when it drops below it cuts them off two 300 watt amps running of off 4gauge wire each amp powers a q power 15 please help
How do you know how much your stock vehicle alternator amperage could handle including accessories + amplifier?
samuel purvis
Is your wire OFC?? Using ofc vs CCA can definitely cure this issue.
Check for corrosion at the terminal connections. At the battery, and at ground. Could be an issue. Not having a rock solid connection can be it.
I didn't know you could read voltage on the same polarity. Learn something new everyday.
Is it best to run ground to a 2nd battery or on the frame
If u don't want to buy extension leads use speaker wire and do the same thing to measure resistance it works well
How would you use speaker wire?
@@jordanlara751 wrap one end around the positive test lead of your multimeter. (Be sure to check the resistance between the speaker wire) Then stick the other end of the wire on the positive terminal of your battery. Now use the negative lead to test your ground.
Any wire you just need to minus the resistance of the wire and leads.
Thanks for this! I bought extensions and they won’t work! I was racking my brain on how to fix this issue. This helped me a lot! Now I can test
Can I use the jump start wires as extensions? It has the negative and positive ends
oh man how many times am i gonna say this.. you are just a HUUUUUGE source of good information and a very good teacher.. i didn't even know small things like these matter so much.. i have so much respect for you buddy.. literally the best audio system channel out here..
Really appreciate that! It's not always easy, I was up til 2 am last night editing this, but comments like these make it worth it.
This is by far the best car audio channel on UA-cam. Thanks again Mark!
Doing my best! Thanks!
Agreed
Has to be Doug in disguise
I concur with thT statement song ! 💪🏾
I dont know about the best maybe the most professional.
Video idea; $3 rca vs $30 rca signal cable differences . Love the videos!
Always well demonstrated!!!!!
@Mark Seven quick maths
I have a problem in my sony amplifier it is giving red 🔴light and it is not onning please 🙏 put the vedeo open this
@@abdulsajid1518 you mean you have a red light on , on your amp and your car isn’t on ? Sounds like you wired the remote to a constant current fuse
@@abdulsajid1518 amp is in protection
This video should be required viewing for every tech touching automotive electrical components, whether handling installs, retrofits or forensics. Serious value here. Thank you!
Very well done. I like that you took the time to explain that voltage drop measurements are to be taken while the system is UNDER LOAD. I will say that the voltage drop measurement you are taking is proportional to the current of the load. Therefore the voltage drop will be higher when you turn up the volume (Vdrop = I_load x R_wire/connections). To add further information, you are testing the voltage drop due to the electrical connections and NOT the system drawing more current than the alternator is capable of providing (therefore resulting in the voltage dropping to battery voltage). You should do a separate video explaining that the alternator can only provide the current it is designed to and that adding extra batteries is not going to solve voltage drop issues. In order to maintain 14.4V+ you need to have an alternator capable of the system demands (or multiple alternators).
kyle3420 thanks for explaining in full what should have been included in this video ... Lots of ppl including myself were confused like how are u dropping .05 volts full tilt .. now I understand better thanks
Man I Appreciate your Clear speaking of words & Exact process of the issue at hand. Your videos are Top-Notch and have Evolved my car audio knowledge. Thanks
I learn a lot from you, simple things that i thought was not a problem, thanks bro am all the way from the caribbean (GRENADA)
There's one thing you failed to mention in the video that I noticed Oh by the way excellent informational video, when you're describing testing the resistance the positive lead goes to check your possible ground locations the negative leave goes where to the battery or to the battery cable it's never specified where it goes. Lot of folks wouldn't know, either way excellent work thanks for the information got a good thing going keep it up
This is the only real audio channel on here. Period.
Used voltage drops for years and would make one small comment on checking your grounds. The body grounds are usually much small than the power side. This one area is easily overlooked when you see a large power cable going to the engine block followed by a tiny wire going to the body. And you have a excellent series of videos didn't start using plastic until I viewed your site.
Love this. Thank you. Thank You. You speak so clearly, Not too fast, Not too slow; just perfect. Don’t add any life stories or personal things, Straight to the point. God Bless. Definitely learning car audio here. I’m not big on car audio. Ratio(Handling/Engine/Audio) Car wise is (50/40/10)..... so less is more for me. What’s a good small amp to control 2-4 speakers and maybe a small sub. Toyota MR2 (SW20) 1991 version.
FLIPPING OUT!!! THIS IS WHAT IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR! THANKS! Subbed!
Awesome vid Mark!
I recently needed to test for voltage drop, the ultimate problem being with my fuse block.
Accidentally installed a washer between the fuse and block, which caused a high resistance failure point.
The fuse for the subwoofer amp began to melt during some serious hip-hop bass segment, but never went full-blown.
Won't be making that mistake ever again.
I get less than .1 volt drop after getting a new fuse block.
The factory amplifier ground points under the seats were never used, and gave me a great grounding spot!
I was aware of the resistance test but never load tested a ground point before, that's a great test!
Great video. We need this level of accurate sharing in everything! Save that money.
Great video Mark. Thank you for always improving the craft and helping others (all of us) along the way!
I don't usually thank ppl on here, but thanks. Learned a ton in a short span of time. Hoping I don't forget it all.
i used my seatbelt bolt in the back, sanded the heck out of it and put washers on both sides with a locking screw and it’s worked better than grounding to my battery
Have you ever done parasitic loss? If not, id love to see you cover that as well.
The king of car audio UA-cam
Haha, I performed my car audio instalation in my backyard, so I'm not a proffessional audio installer, but I do have 14,20 V at the battery and 14.15 at the amplifier... so thanks Matt for clearing things up !
Where else can you use as a contact for the negative point if you multimeter wires are the standard length and do not reach the car battery?
You have extra speaker wire? Just use that, but don’t forget to measure it’s resistance while it’s connected to the DMM leads.
Wow testing resistance on my ground location…I should know better. Gonna do it now. Also measuring voltage drop, too.
Great information well explained.
I've done a couple basic installs over the yrs and never thought about this. Great info.
Hi great video but a 2.46 what are you connecting the black cable too? Is that the negative from the battery.
i am putting a 600 rms system i was goin to go with a orion 4 gauge amp kit but after watching your vid i aid the extra $4 and got the knukoncepts ampkit and am so glad i did thanks CAF!!
I didn't have any voltage drop when I checked the other day but I rewired some speakers and now I have a ton of noise weird things going on I'm going to redo them and check my grounds. Thanks for the video
the ground that you tested in the bottom with the 0.03, is that a frame bolt installed? i do not have this bolt in my jeep. Just wanting to know about the install of this ground bolt.
What a great video, spot on! My builds almost done this video will allow me to sleep at night now lol
Ty for the video.....how much performance loss cam someone expect from a weak ground? Ie 10%...20%??
hi my twin victrons are only giving out 10amps max at moment.18a and 30amp parallel dc chargers.i have 10amps at starter battery my alternator was upgraded couple years ago 140amps i think.i still have my old 12amp charger running agm battery also separate circuit .the victrons supply 105ah lifepo4.have to top up lifepo4 with mains charger every few days but on weekends away need that extra power
Any idea what would cause small popping noises in a stock stereo system. I have a 2021 Audi A7 with a stock Bang and Olufsen. The pops vary in intensity but are not super loud and I hear them coming from all the speakers but not at the same time. I'll hear them from one speaker then another. This a common issue as I have found many forums of complaints. Audi calls this normal behavior which is rediculous. They tried replacing the amp which did nothing. Thanks.
I have a down 4 sound jp23v2 amp. Im trying to recalibrate the bass knob voltage reading but where do i measure at? At the amp or the battery?
this was interesting, i just tried all these. My audio battery and car battery are in the trunk. rest voltage was 12.7 volt across anywhere i tried .. resistance from all my wiring was 0.00 including my earth points (rear folding centre seat mounts) i'm using 2/0 ofc for everything..
The engine bay fuse/relay box has 2 positives one from the alternator both show 12.67volts (i realized after my interior lights were on if that makes much difference) the only thing i couldn't test was the resistance from fuse/relay box positive to my trunk glad i found this it helped alot since i am adding a 8k rms amp soon and i am pretty positive now my electrical is looking healthy... only thing i have to do is beef up my 140amp alternator
I am going to try this on my 36 foot motorhome. The battery is in the back and amp in the front. I was concerned about v drop Kenwood advised 4AWG for the 400W amp over that distance. I thought it would have been 2 or 0 over that distance. Dumb question, would a capacitor before the amp in the front help with voltage drop? If Kenwood was in error new cable is going to be much more expensive than a capacitor
So I had 2 15 inch subs installed in my Yukon in a custom box. It was a big job so I went professional. Bought equipment and he installed himself. He is extremely knowledgeable and did a great job installing it. The thing is, it's been 3 or 4 months now and I swear I've lost some power sometime recently? What could it be? I know everything is the right size and it's all obviously connected properly. So with that being said, and me making no other changes to my vehicle, what could have happened?
Stock alternator 2015 corolla and have a -1/0 ofc power ground and big three plus couple extra block to body grounds because unibody crap, 400$ in copper so far. I have a 1500 watt rms amp on a 1-12” dvc 2 olm wired 1 olm amp is happy at 1 giving average 1800 to 2000 max, now also have 3,5 farat cap, do i need a big alternator????? Thanks awesome videos
So I just purchased a skar 1200.1 monoblock. I’m having a issue when I turn my amp up with the bass knob sometimes my subs beat without having music sent to them. Plus the speaker output has 1 ac volt without sending any signal to the amp?
In order to test for ground on certain metal parts of the car, can I use the jump starter wires as extensions? Because, I don’t have an extension lead for my Digital Multimeter
Yes you can
I saw when finding the grounding points one side of the lead coming from the multimeter was used to find the ground points but the other was connected to the battery negative ground. Is there another way to test, like connecting the negative to a seperate ground block then testing. The issue I have I am trying to find a long cable that twill go from the front to trunk for ground points. By the way, excellent video!!!
When testing voltage drop while playing test tone.. Can I disconnect the speaker wire from subwoofer. So I don't have a 40hz tone booming in my neighborhood
I installed a kicker KX 400.4 amp and upgraded all 4 speakers and tweeters in my truck. Everything worked when I started my truck up but today was the first time I actually drove my truck, once I started to drive I had no sound, the must have shutoff. Come to a complete stop put the truck in park amp work. I rethinking that my grounds are not that great. To have it work in park and not in drive.
Great pro tips! I never check my grounds for resistance, but I will now... You’ve shamed me into it 😂
Question, if an amp installed worked perfectly for a month and then just stopped and the green on light dims out on the amp when turned on what could be the issue? Voltage at start is 13.3v from the battery and 12v from the remote, but when the ignition/car is turned on the hot power voltage drops to 2.3v where the remote stays constant 12v. When the car is turned off the voltage slowly comes back up on the amp. Is this a bad amp?
I'm having a very similar problem... Did you ever find a solution?
@@blackrealmmedia I swapped the fuse block and that was the problem. Fuse was good but there was something with a weak connection.
@@Suprasian Thanks! I'll check that out and see what happens
@CAF - I just installed a coustom box in my sons 2008 Infinity G-37S and the only way I could built it to get his 2 Duel 2 ohm Skar Audio DDX12’s and Skar 2,000 watt amp in the SMALL trunk was to put the subs facing up with them mounted on top of the box. My question is.., why does it hit harder when the trunk is open? 🤔 I always had my subs facing to the front or back in my younger days of systems. Lol. I feel like I’m not getting the full effect out of the subs. 🤔🤷🏼♂️ Thanks!
I want to get a clamp meter that I can test the current of my main power wire. I went to a few stores and from what I read on the packaging it doesn't go over like 10 amps DC. It'll do AC just fine but I can't find the right meter to go high enough on DC voltage. I just want to find out how much I'm really pulling through my power wire.
What’s the best ground for a 2019 f150 super cab????? and thank you
Your video's are so insiteful and so easy to comprehend.
thanx man i have a jeep wrangler and my ground is on the cargo bolt and ive been feeling as though i have not been getting the best performance out my system glad i stumbled across this video thanx man
Is it ok if im take the power 12v wire to power wire of headunit? im using compact active subwoofer blaupunkt gtr 130a. The audio shop install like that. Just wierd why not use the power wire direct to battery but take from the headunit.
Did you connect the first probe to the positive or negative terminal at the battery for resistance or ground.
Hi, so to check the OM I need to put the black wire of the avometer to the disconnected minus cable from the battery and the red wire on the chassis?
Thanks
I’m running 1/0 ofc wiring for my amp during a certain song when the bass note hits the amp shuts off and will not turn back on until I shut the car off and restart the car I then lower the volume by 5 (from volume 30 to 25) and it doesn’t cut off. It doesn’t cut off on any other song either
Great video Mark, I'm grateful that you do what you do, u take the time to explain it step by step
hello Mark,a huge thanks for being my mentor,i m geting toghether all the parts and tools i need to instal my sound system.i have a huge space where the spare wheel goes 60 cm x90 cm
This is why I say car audio is mathematical people don't believe it 14.4 volt with 1 volt drop can lose 100 watts out put... 14.4 volts ×100 amp= 1.440 watts 1 volt drop 13.4 × 100amps =1.340 watts. Then have resistance of The Wire that alone can cost you up to one volt depending on the length of the wire and size ? Just say. Good vid mark keep it real
Most of it is simple math, but it can make a big difference in the performance of the system!
You can treat wire as resistor and calculate power on it, for your example you have 1v on it when 100A is passing through it, that makes it 1V/100A=0.01Ohm (10miliohm), also power can be calculated 1V*100A=100W. Since wire is in series with load (using kirchoffs law) you have to get total power by adding power on wire/resistor and amplifier on this example, so 1440W=1340+100W
Also your amplifier will most likely produce more power at 14.4V than it would at 13.4V so most likely you are gonna get more than 100W just by upgrading wire.
Cekpi7 Measure the voltage with the car on and the system playing at whatever volume you normally play. When the bass hits your gonna see the voltage decrease. The best bet to get all the voltage you can is upgrade the alternator, run over sized quality wire, and add batteries. That’s the biggest problem when people add systems to their cars they don’t think of upgrading the electrical. Stock alternators only have a little head room and can’t keep up the the demand of a big amplifier.
I was wondering your thoughts on a problem that I have. When turn up my system to volume 38 which is my set point. There are times when my system is very loud and times when it is not. All speakers are ran off of 2 amplifier (75×4 and 1500x1) I am losing volume from all speakers in car. 1/0 power wire/200amp fuse, checked speaker polarity, XSd480 under hood, 2 kinetic batteries in the back, Stock Alt. Double checked all connections. Seems to me like power loss because it is both amplifier. Any thoughts would be great Thanks
I learned back in the 80s using an opened box for subs allows woofers to travel as though they are in a lot huger box. Then on one woofer reversing polarity each woofer no longer cancels each other out. Using seas foreign 13 inch woofers sounds great. Music used to test Patrick O’hear David Helping examples shows the highs and lows better than like rap 60 db bass. Give me comments what you think. I love learning.
I have a 2017 Toyota Highlander and the battery is in the trunk, right next to where the amps will go. Would it be best to direct connect the amps ground to the ground of the battery or the chassis?
Please help..
I know how to check ohms(impedance) when subwoofers are Not in box..but how do you check when they are mounted..and enclosed?
Do speaker jacks change ohms?
I got an alpine stereo its been acting up it won't turn on. So I checked all my fuses they are fine. I checked my power on the harness, both the key and the regular power wire to the stereo have power. I'm not sure if the multimeter is reading the ground it's not beeping. or if I'm doing it right... Would say the ground is the problem or something else? Because it blew fuses on my amp last time I fixed it. I changed them last time and it turned right on
That explains alot of my voltage drop, I have 4v of drop under heavy load at specific frequencys and this helped me realize I had to small of a ground wire or cca and not ofc got it fixed now thank you so much
so with 4 volts and a added amp will sound better than a line converter because you can set the gain lower on amplifier. Will allow you to go full volume more likely?
Hey mark. Thanks for all your videos. I realize this one is a bit old. I I'm looking for a good ground on the same vehicle. I assume you drilled into the body for that location?
I also used that cargo hold down is a ground on my previous amp which died after a year in this vehicle. I don't know if it was because of a bad ground or because it was 20 plus years old 😢.
Thanks again!
Can I use a negative speaker wire to extend the negative probe?
Bro you are really good at what you do I learn something new every time I watch your channel thanks so much. 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Mark in some of these new vehicles the ground in the rear is poor everywhere u look.
What would u do to overcome a poor ground that is poor through out the vehicle.
easy, ground wire directly to the negative post on the battery. plus the big three ofc
Run appropriately sized wire through the body panel and attach to nearest good ground, which may be the frame of vehicle. Make sure to use a grommet when passing wires through any panel.
Rear seat mounting bolts, seat belt mounting bolts, or rear strut bolt. I have had good luck with these in the past. Clean the paint in the area you choose with sand paper or a wire wheel, and test your connection.
Look for what the manufacturer is using as a ground, worst case a separate lead going back to the battery.
Your suspension
Where do I get 16ft leads for my voltmeter
Great video! This may be the answer to the hiss i am hearing with my new amp
What I did is add an extra battery to the rear of my 08 Durango and just did a run of 1/0 power and ground strait to the alt. Eliminated all of those pesky grounding problems.
Well you gave me somthing todo when I get home, definitely interested on the outcome of the tests
Will bad RCAs cause a voltage drop when amp is turned on?
Question:
I'm a budget bass-head and recently started a budget build 4x4...
So...I already had a small system installed by an audio shop...
It was good but I wanted MORE...
So ordered a 15,(had an older amp and box given to me already for the 15)...
So...im almost positive my
Sub is under powered but will this stop it from working under loads 🤷🏼♂️ meaning after a while of jammies I loose sound to just the one bridge amp...is this from lack of power you think 🤔🤔
Because my concern is that I'm using the same ground as the other amp and it's a tedious process to get back to where it is as ive built enclosure of sorts 🤦🏼♂️
Is it a bad idea to use the same ground 🤷🏼♂️
Both amps are different as are the subs...one is dvc and the other not etc...ohms if each sub is different as well...
Hey bro. I pulled my carpet out of my trunk and ground the paint off. Done the big 3 upgrade with 0 gauge. I put in my new amp and it was getting hot easily. Plus it isn't hitting nearly like I wanted. Figured my ground was fine. Broke out the multi meter and tested multiple spots in trunk. They all show 3 ohms of resistance. Would that much resistance impact my amps performance? Thank you. I'm severely frustrated
If my volts are going from like 14.7 down to 11-12 volts when under power. Is it from a bad ground or needing more power. I have 2 sundown sa 10s v2 so 1,000 watts rms with a jp-2300 amp. My amp will get hot and turn off when playing loyd music for 5 mins. The only electrical upgrades is my main battery which is xs power d3400 and big 3 kit. But stock alternator. Was buying a alternator Wednesday but thought it might be possible it’s my ground what do you think? Using ofc wiring kit for my amp and the ground is on a seat bolt and I cleaned off to bare metal
The truck is a 2008 GMC Sierra 1500
My subs are working but barely any bass like if there was nothing can a bad ground cause that ? Or what can be the problem thanks !
You The Man. Always GREAT Knowledge. THANK YOU!!!!!!
Bro, how did you get your multi meter leads to reach from the front of the vehicle all the way to the back?
Take note! He's playing a sine wave while doing the voltage drop test. Cannot tell you how many people I see just measuring DC voltage at the amplifier without anything playing. Without a load, you're not going to see significant results. So play a sine wave, crank that volume.
Very nice pointing this out! "Easy to miss" but very important.
I have a question. I just installed a new battery on my 2018 ford f150 and now when I accelerate my voltage drops from 14.5 to 11.9. When I cold start the truck it will stay at 14 even if I play my system. But once I start moving I’m having voltage drop issues. All my wiring is good, have a new alternator. I removed the fuses from my system to see if it was my amp or sub and it still had the same issue. Any idea what could be wrong?
Also when I take my foot off the gas the voltage will go up to 14.5 then the second I put my foot on the gas my voltage drops.
Nice setup. On the sub amp in the video. Wasn't bridge right it needs to be as is shown on the outside of the amp itself why was that not bridge properly to the sub? 🤔
Probably a dumb question and I feel it might have to do with grounding but I’m running a 3k rms amp with 0g ofc kit but my 0g wire keeps melting at the in-line fuse by the battery. How or what should I do to help. (Wire burns after a couple days of playing at decent bass range)
Love your videos they actually do help determine alot of people's, I'm having an issue myself, I purchased a pair of 10 inch DB Drive G2s 4 ohm and I'm wired at 1 ohm but when I turn my gain up to halfway I get popping noise, not really clipping but I know there's not to much power I'm literally right at RMS power rating on amp to subs, I've checked all grounds and power and even speaker wire it's 12 gauge, using 1/0 gauge for amp and subs it's just at high volumes I get 1 or 2 popping sounds but I'm at only 80% power as far as reaching RMS power. Any ideas?
Figure it out? Sounds like my issue
Hi I was curious on how I could run a 5 channel with all my speakers being component speakers on my 2010 Volkswagen Tiguan( LOL I have more of a mechanic background than an electrical background) but I’m getting infinity kappa 60.11 cs for all four doors and they come with passive crossovers for each woofer and tweeter so how would I go about parallel wiring each front and back speakers to get 1 ohm each because my Kenwood amp is rated for 2 ohm speaker.( I’m sorry for wording this probably wrong but I have no ideal what I’m doing)
You have 1/20 volt drop with a 0db 40hz sine tone playing at max volume ( full tilt ) before clipping?
Or you just have that voltage drop in the wire runs with no music or tones playing?
With the test tone playing
guy_incognito no way ... a 1500 watt amp playing at 40 Hz sine wave at max volume, with one battery, no high output alt, 1 power and ground, should drop way more than 1/20 of a volt unless he is literally getting no power out of the amp and has a SQ setup where the sub is wired to 4 ohm, or there is not tone playing.
It’s DC voltage in regards to this 12V system. I understand he is applying a “ constant load “ but a sine wave is AC voltage so again he either left out some info or I am over thinking.
I have a 240 HO alt , 1 60 AH, 1400 CCA AGM battery & a 2000 W bass amp. The alt does like 150 amps at idle and at “ max volume no clipping “ some bass notes an pull the voltage down on my front battery to low 13 sometimes 12.8.
When I check voltage at my battery and then at the amp there is hardly any voltage loss, like 1/20 of a volt so that’s why this video confuses me
Can a wire be used as a extension from trunk to unhooked negative terminal ?
@caraudiofabrication Hi Mark, ive followed your Resistance follow through but my multimeter just has a constant beep at me. Any ideas?
What if the car has an eld/voltage regulation system, using the ecu to drop voltage that interferes with the amp?
Run a separate ground will eliminate all this work! It also eliminates any future issues with the ground. Sure it cost more but you have to run the hot why not run the ground at the same time? Been doing this since I have been driving way back in the 80s when cars were simple!
Ken Richner I was running 0 awg wire back in 1987 from negative terminal to a distribution block since I was around 14-15 years old. They all told me I was an idiot. Lol. Never had any issues. Zero pops zero engine noise. Now it seems they have all followed lol
Well usually the chassis ground will have a much lower resistance than ~0ga all the way back to the battery... and it’s the common ground so on top of keeping the impedance minimal, it should also help minimize system phase issues while keeping cost low (ofc ain’t cheap ya know.) so use that bucket of saved money to further enhance your system by acoustic treatment, add or upgrade your dsp, add loudspeaker horns on the roof for hollering at bitches etc.. you know .. things that really matter
@@tommyapex4595 the treal shit 😂😂😂
The frame and body also act as a buffer against voltage spikes from amp, you can fry your battery and or alternator doing this which is why most amp manuals say to ground to chassis.
I have a question. I have 2 15s in a Saturn in a ported box with the subs facing up and port facing the rear. My backseat fold down and I was wondering would I get more bass /flex if I have the port facing the cab of the car unstead of the rear
Can you make a video about setting the gain with a ddm using the amp his output voltage, 1000 watts rms 44,7 volts
Go to Steve Meade's channel. He details how to use it.
That seem like a fuck ton of volts...I don't think anything in a vehicle runs or produces 44V...
@@mikecheeze4312 √(1000w*2Ω) = √2000 = 44.72v
@@eikuz great job smart guy!!! Yeah I could've used a math equation to say that too!!! Now show me something in a vehicle that produces or uses 44v like I stated in my original post....🤦♂️
@@mikecheeze4312 Amplifier boost's the voltage for speakers
So I have done all of this and got a ground with 0 resistance and my voltage drop is roughly .1v and my headlights still flicker slightly on 600 watts rms should I do big 3 ho alternator or better battery
the word is conductor you want it to conduct, the ground needs to be conducting electricity, paint is not conductive... connecting to a painted surface is not conductive, you want a large surface area to conduct a lot of electricity only measurable when under load, use encapsulating dielectric grease to protect the connection
Sir I'm confused maybe u can help what makes a amp go into protection mode with my car in acc right before start yet when I start the car it turns off ?
Would having insufficient power from the alternator create a bass fade issue? My woofer pumps for like ten seconds and fades to a softer tone and will not boom as hard. I'm running NVX 500.1 to one 10in woofer in my 2016 Jeep Wrangler. I used all of the wiring you used and followed your install guide.
Same here with Sub And Speakers also
all videos are so helpful where can i download the 40 hz test tone
Help please-
So I go and test my grounds. Had to improvise with my limited supplies. Had some leftover 16 guage speaker wire (ofc of course😎) and had to separate the two wires and connect them to make a jumper for my ground off the battery. So I got one running from ground up front to back seat of my crewcab and connected to one probe. Using the other to touch ground locations. Touching both probes it jumps around once or twice but measures 0 ohms. Also this is just the cheap multi meter from Walmart for 10 bucks. So I check amp ground and does the jumping around for a sec but reads 0. Terminal on amp reads 0 . Tried a few random locations back there under seat that would be feasible for grounding and all 0s. I either got 0 reading, or the 'oL' on the screen when its not touching anything. I never could find any resistance anywhere. Under my hood I checked alternator casing ground strap on hood, even the frame where i ran one of my big 3 and another on back of the truck that's just a factory spot.
Should they all be reading 0? No resistance anywhere? Now I did just rescrape and clean every ground on the truck plus did big 3, but I know myself well enough to know i highly doubt I did it all perfect. I'm a novice at electrical so im guessing I had to have done something wrong
Hi i need some help!!!!!. so i got everything and it was playing and after a while i put in some speakers whit a nother amp and the ground wier poped out of the subwoer amp but i put it in the apm again and now it is playing a lithle while and then dies and some time maxes it self out and cant get the base to play so lout. if you re seing this and now how to fix it i would be greatfull of you help!!!!!.
How do you dyno test the performance of an amplifier to verify if it really pushes the RMS watts the manufacturer claims? I want to feed at least 1000 watts to my Crystal Mobile Sound CMPx2 2ohm dvc 15 inch subwoofer that is rated 1600 watts RMS. Is there an amplifier you recommend?
How would the test results be affected by leaving the battery connected during testing?