Stereo Shut down

[Domsz06]

[QUOTE=sparky216;124714][QUOTE=Domsz06;124692]all my fans have amps and it has helped the problems out a lot.

Dude those must be some rockin fans....lol

heck yeah man!! rockin fans indeed

[Moki]

For those who haven't purchased their amps yet, get the amps with the Ice chip in them and are a D-class. I can run mine all day in an enclosed area during the middle of summer at Lake Powell (near 100 F) and they only get very warm not hot. No problem with ever shutting down. They also draw less power for longer battery life when docked or beached.

[talltigeguy]

For those who haven't purchased their amps yet, get the amps with the Ice chip in them and are a D-class. I can run mine all day in an enclosed area during the middle of summer at Lake Powell (near 100 F) and they only get very warm not hot. No problem with ever shutting down. They also draw less power for longer battery life when docked or beached.

I do not recommend putting Ice on your amp, water is an amps worst enemy...

On a more serious note..AHICKEN, if your amp was shutting down, then only the speakers served by that amp would stop working. My system has a separate amp for tower speakers, so if everything shut off, I would think it is a head unit problem. Next time it happens, take not if you lose everything, or just cabin speakers.

[Ruune]

here's a tip: cut a hole in the bottom of one of your cupholders thats over that compartment(not directly over your amps though.. Just make sure its not so big that you cant fit a drink it there w/o it falling through. Convection will pull heat out- especially when you're underway.


If you want to do it up right, try this:
http://www.shipstore.com/SS/HTML/ATT/ATT17334.html


it comes with a 3" hose that you can hook up to a cut-out cupholder (you wont want to place a drink in this one!), using a hose clamp. Wire the leads up to a manual 4 amp switch and curcuit breaker, or use a relay with the blue "power on" circuit from the head unit.

If you really want to get creative, cap off the cupholder with one of these:
http://www.xoxide.com/80mmbiohazard.html


I think I just found my first spring project!

[Moki]

I do not recommend putting Ice on your amp, water is an amps worst enemy...

On a more serious note..AHICKEN, if your amp was shutting down, then only the speakers served by that amp would stop working. My system has a separate amp for tower speakers, so if everything shut off, I would think it is a head unit problem. Next time it happens, take not if you lose everything, or just cabin speakers.

It's dry ice....hellooooo To Tall's point, you may want to also check your voltage going to your head unit, it may be turning off due to low voltage.

[TigeDuner]

How about mounting fans in front of the amps to pull the heat off the amps and circulate the air in the compartment?

[chpthril]

You would need to mount the fan(s) in such a way ti either move fresh air in or hot air out or both. Simply blowing the same air across the amps will do little to cool them.

Ask Dom how he did his.

[mtnsmith]

I had a loose ground at the battery where the amps were all grounded to and it caused random amps to shut down so I thought it was heat, but then I found the loose connector and it was all good. So maybe check the grounds?

[TigeDuner]

You would need to mount the fan(s) in such a way ti either move fresh air in or hot air out or both. Simply blowing the same air across the amps will do little to cool them.

Ask Dom how he did his.

Thats what I guessed. Our compartment gets hot in the summer when the air temp pushes 110 for most of the day.

[TigeDuner]

I do have a 3" vent hose in the compartment that dumps fresh air into the trans area under the floor. I suppose the compartment air could be pushed into this area and drawn out the back. Mount a blower on the wall above the floor and hose over to the hole in the floor.
This should suck fresh air in from the vent under the windshield and push it through the floor.
Not near as cool as a fan rack over the amps with red LEDs in the fans though.

[chpthril]

Thats what I guessed. Our compartment gets hot in the summer when the air temp pushes 110 for most of the day.

Read through Dom's Stereo Thread, i know its long, but he and Phil spent a fair amount of time talking about where/how to mount fans

[TigeDuner]

Long is an understatement. I did a search and it popped up, but I didn't see any pictures which would help a bunch.
Mine shut down about a half a dozen times last summer when we had long surf runs with the noise cranked. Not much air flow at 10 mph.
I'll keep looking. Thanks

[FIC]

I would put an ohm guage on the tower speakers with them unhooked from the amp, they normally read about 3.4 to 4.0 ohms. We rewire them in series which brings them to about 8.0 ohms , this takes alot of heat off the amps because they dont work as hard and you can crank up your gain. The lower the resistance the closer to a short which heats up the amp.

[philwsailz]

Air across an amp always helps.

Turning down bass boost if it has been turned up helps.

Speakers wired in parallel sometimes are a no-no. The nominal RESISTANCE is 2 ohms, which most amps are okay with but there can be dips below two ohms IMPEDANCE (since audio is AC). These dips require a lot of current and current heats amps up.

Sort of adding to what FIC says, one can take a two-ohm load, (two speakers in parallel) and re-wire it very easily to an 8 ohm load, (two speakers in series). The current goes down by a theoretical factor of four, but since audio loudness is logarithmic, the lower power output, as a result of the higher load is easily compensated for, either with a tweak of the gain know, or a very slightly higher volume setting.

Check your power wire, and make sure the connections are tight and that the wire is the proper size. Voltage sags with either being less than ideal, and current goes up as a result.

We can discuss a LOT more, but I ahve to go for the day.

I will check back Monday.


Have a good weekend all!

[TigeDuner]

Thanks for the ideas. I will be bringing the boat home from the lake in February, so I will check the ohms on the speakers. Tige AZ wired the Wetsounds so I don't know which way they went. I will also give them a call and see if they have a standard for wiring the threesom.