Confused on a problem

slick94prix · Post by **slick94prix** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:49 am

Been about a year since I've really messed with Car Audio now. I sold the Directed 1500d to someone local. It had been unused for about 7 months before hand. For about 2 months, I had it connected to the Olympus 1615, wired at 1 ohm.

This is the message I got from him.

&quot wrote:Hey man I just got some bought some speakers and I hooked up the amp it works.. but it cuts out after alittle play time. It doesn't go into protection. I know it's not the speakers because i hooked them up in my buddy's car and they worked fine. any idea's?

My reply:

Whats the ohm load you are feeding the amplifier?

Have you messed with the gain settings any?

His return:

&quot wrote:turned gain down to half way it's running high 1's for ohm like 1.7 1.9 specs say it should run 1 ohm stable

And my reply:

Yeah, I was running it at 1 ohm during the time it was used on the Hifonics.

If your around tomorrow morning, bring it by, and I can check it out.

Have you checked the fuses on the side of the amp?

So yeah, I know the amp is good. Sounds like he is feeding it around a 1.7-1.9 ohm load. First thing I'm going to check is the actual ohm load he is feeding it. Then I'll check the connections. I'll move onto the actuall adjustments on the amplifier, and then I'll check the HU (who knows, he may have the BASS/SUBWOOFER setting maxed out).

I just don't know what could be wrong with it.

Any suggestions?

slick94prix · Post by **slick94prix** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:55 am

I'm also going to check a few other things:

Size of power wire
Bring a spare set of RCA's with me
Make sure ground is cool
Turn off the "Super Bass" setting on the amplifier

Ryan from Ohio · Post by **Ryan from Ohio** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:19 am

Well if the amp is known to be working and able to continuously handle such a load...

I would say its how he has it setup. It may be the line voltage in is to high for the amp or the ground also...

slick94prix · Post by **slick94prix** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:24 am

The amp was left connected to power, in the car, when it was unused. However, there was no speaker, or wire, connections to anything. I'll put it this way- It may have been powered up and down, but it surely wasn't being abused. Certainly nothing to have damaged the amplifier.

Yeah, I'll check the power and ground as well. If it's cutting out the way it is, may be just starting to warm up, not getting the required power, and cuts out.

I'll probably bring the handiest of all tools used today- Fluke DMM. I also have my clamp-on ammeter as well I'll probably break out.

slick94prix · Post by **slick94prix** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 6:53 am

Alright, I'm off to check it out. I'll come back and report what I find.

slick94prix · Post by **slick94prix** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 8:15 am

Yeah, about what I expected, kind of a so-so parking lot install.

Few issues I had:

Amp mounted on top of the box, directly to the box. I recommended mounting it elsewhere. Sounds like he's going to just get some rubber grommets and space if off the box. Sounds like it got warm yesterday while he was playing with it. He figures the rubber will absorb some of the impact, and spacing it off the box will help with airflow. He also is thinking of getting a computer fan for it.

Of course in my mind I was thinking "omg" but whatever, I made my recommendation.

He has a dry cell battery in the trunk to go along with the battery under the hood. He is using 4 guage for everything but the battery to chassis ground. I told him he needs to change that asap. I had some 0 guage sitting here, so I gave it to him along with a few ring terminals.

He had the "Super Bass" knob in the on position. I turned it off first thing, and explained to him why not to use that.

I set up his deck a bit for proper control.

I tuned the gain setting for him, turned the subsonic filter on (2 w6v2's in an unknown ported box), and turn the frequency setting to ~35 hz.

So yeah, nothing wrong with the amp. He was playing it for a solid 20 minutes before we met up, 10 minutes with me, and another 15 minutes while he followed me to my place to get the 0 guage, no issues.

Ryan from Ohio · Post by **Ryan from Ohio** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:18 pm

Hahaha, ya I figured its a simple tuning issue and possibly the ground. People are silly.

slick94prix · Post by **slick94prix** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:08 pm

Yeah, it's alright though. The guy is nice, and we have had multiple transactions between us before, so I'm definately willing to work with him some.

I told him if he had any other issues to get hold of me, but I think he should be gold. I think he is going to try to find out the box size and tuning frequency of the ports, so I can get it dialed in just a bit better

slick94prix · Post by **slick94prix** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 4:07 am

He just sent me a message, said he is having problems again.

Not sure if he's telling the truth, or not, but whatever. I offered to just give him his cash back for the amp.

If anyone on here, local, is willing to test it out for me, just to make sure that it is going, I'd really appreciate it.

BTW, when I was there, I was seeing about .7-.8 ohms. Could be part of the problem.

Bwcad1 · Post by **Bwcad1** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 4:20 am

slick94prix wrote:He just sent me a message, said he is having problems again.
Not sure if he's telling the truth, or not, but whatever. I offered to just give him his cash back for the amp.
If anyone on here, local, is willing to test it out for me, just to make sure that it is going, I'd really appreciate it.
BTW, when I was there, I was seeing about .7-.8 ohms. Could be part of the problem.

did you test your meter? what do your lead's read? depending on the set mine read +/- .2 ohm. so technically it could be 1 ohm or .5 ohm. It sounds to me like he is going into clipping either from voltage or load. The directed will cut out if the clipping gets severe like many other amps.