ok, so I should be able to get some RCA's this weekend.. .that will leave me where all I need is a fuse holder, a fuse,the power and ground wires.. .so I was wondering,
earlier, right after I got the amp, I hooked up the power and ground to the battery just using an extension cord with the ends cut off, and the wires stripped out on the ends to check and see if the amp would turn on at all
...would it hurt anything to use this for a few minutes just to see how things sound, I mean an extension cord carries 120 watts all the time, so 12volts from a car battery shouldn't hurt it right?
oh and I plan on keeping the gain turned all the way down until I get the good wires run and set the gain correctly
^^oops meant that an extension cord carries 120volts all the time, so 12 volts shouldn't hurt it....only thing I might worry about it the fact that there is no inline fuse on the extension cord, but I'm not talking about leaving it hooked up all the time, just for a few minutes so I can hear my subs bump with 300 watts
i would thinnk it would be fine. if you think about it in HT setups plateamps can be 1000rms and the power cord they use is the same thickness as a lamp cord.
nick, its the powerwire so it won't have 300 watts going through it, thats what the speaker wires will have going through them. what I am talking about it the wire from the battery to the amp...and i think i need to worry about how many amps its drawing not the wattage.... anyone else?
Why destroy an extension cord and take a chance of smoking the amp and subs when you can save up $40 and come by the shop and get a 4ga scorpion amp kit w/ RCA's, terminals, fuse holder...everything you need??
Absolutely do not run anything ever without a fuse! That's a invitation for a disaster.
" an extension cord carries 120volts all the time, so 12 volts shouldn't hurt it "
" with only 300 watts, that would be fine for a few minutes, they are rated at like 700-800 watts going throught them constantly. "
Well, apparently we need a lesson on the difference between AC and DC current. AC is what comes out of your wall outlet, and what an extension cord is designed for. You're talking about running DC from the car battery through it. DC current creates MUCH more heat than AC when running through wires, hence the need for huge power cables to run large amounts of DC, while a thin cable like the extension cord can carry a large amount of AC. It takes a lot bigger cable to handle X number of watts at 12 volts DC than to handle X number of watts at 120 volts AC.
Canaan...yeah, guess I'll have to buckle down and pay the $40....but I thought it was an 8guage amp kit, but 4gauge would be better. r u working there tuesday? thats when my wife gets paid and I should have the $$
guess I'm just a little too impatient about getting my boom going.
We just got a few 4ga kits in that we are selling for $39.95. (Installer Grade) 17ft 4ga blue, 3ft 4ga silver, fuse holder, crimps, loom, grommet, RCA's, pretty much everything you will need.
Also, does your amp have high-level inputs? If not you will need a LOC.
"Well, apparently we need a lesson on the difference between AC and DC current. AC is what comes out of your wall outlet, and what an extension cord is designed for. You're talking about running DC from the car battery through it. DC current creates MUCH more heat than AC when running through wires, hence the need for huge power cables to run large amounts of DC, while a thin cable like the extension cord can carry a large amount of AC. It takes a lot bigger cable to handle X number of watts at 12 volts DC than to handle X number of watts at 120 volts AC."
the way he described it he used all three wires in the cord, the average size for those wires is 14 gage, which means it would be like running the equivalent of about 5 gage wire or bigger, because it works the same way with 8 gage wire, two 8 gage wires is equal too one 4 gage wire, that would mean that two 14 gage wires would equal 7 and then if you use that same formula with the third wire equated in you get about a 5 gage wire, which for a 300 watt amp is more than enough, copper wire is copper wire. i believe i am right, and if im not please explain to me......
" earlier, right after I got the amp, I hooked up the power and ground to the battery just using an extension cord with the ends cut off, and the wires stripped out on the ends to check and see if the amp would turn on at all "
^^^ I took that to mean he used a standard 2 wire indoor extension cord, and used one wire for power the other for ground.
First>Canaan, since the 4gauge is the same price as the 8guage that you showed me earlier, and it will do better if I ever want to upgrade, guess I will be there Wednesday to get it YAY!!!Also, it does have High Level inputs, but I dont have the little wire harness thingy that fits in there, plus I think RCA's look nicer, and I already have a LOC....Scoche one from Walmart,but everyone I have asked said it would work fine, I'm gonna hook it up behind the HU (I've checked and theres lots of room back there) and run the RCA's from up front to the back where the amp is. I think it will look cleaner that way.. btw ...pic of LOC
nick and MS>what I did, just to see if the amp would power on was use a 3 wire extension cord. I just hooked it up to make sure the amp would power up and ran it outside the car. I hooked the black wire from the battery + to the amp +, and the white wire from the battery - to the amp -, and I already had a remote wire hooked up. ..after hooking up the cord, i flipped the switch I have on the remote wire to the on position...looked at the amp to make sure that the green power light was on (it was), then turned off the remote wire switch, and disconnected the extension cord from the battery and the amp.
doesn't matter now, gonna wait and buy the 4gauge kit from Canaan and like I said, that gives a little leeway for upgrading later.. btw,the other night I noticed that my thin azz remote wire had nick in it , I know the amp kit has a new one, but I have some 14gauge wire that is bigger and has thicker insulation...wouldn't that work better...and also, IF I can use the 14 gauge I'm gonna have to hook it to a different place, because it won't fit on the fuse where the current remote wire is, so which wire on the back of the HU do I hook it to? I already know the correct ones for my LOC
also, i checked and found out I had the subs hooked up backwards to the rear speaker wires. but since they were only getting 20watts from the HU, that shouldn't have hurt them...i got them hooked up the right way now, and have the wiring colors written down for when I hook them up to the amp.
