Amplifier issue, troubleshooting required.

[shizzzon 461]

Audioque is already aware of this so while i wait for shipping delays, i wanna know if u guys can think of how this happened before i have to wait a week before they tell me.

I have 2 AQ2200ds strapped together.

The power light was always on on both amps so no reverse wiring there.

They never went into protect.

Voltage sitting at 13.5v

Gain half way, subsonic all the way down, lpf at 110hz.

Preout voltage 4v, preout maxed out on head unit, Sub output is turned on, bass is on +3 boosted at 80hz.

I was on the phone with AW and everything was verified that everything was hooked up 100%.

Even the resistance on the terminals read 1.4ohms so everything was perfect.

Turned on the stereo, had to crank it very loud just to get an "ok" sound out of the setup.

What did it sound like?

sounded like the subs were out of phase...

But that couldnt be because they are wired in series, then parallel so out of phase is impossible.

We checked the rcas, everything had a perfect connection.

We left this song playing for about 15 seconds....

All of a sudden, the slave amp just completely started smokin.... BAD.

The entire underside of the amp, all vents on the bottom and both ends of the amp were venting smoke.

Immediately turned the car off and disconnected the remote wires.

The master amp is fine but both are being shipped back...

So, what do u guys think may have happened?

IT is a signal issue but how could a signal issue cause that kind of damage?

[johnecon2001 82]

I doubt it was a signal issue.

Sounds more like low impedance or a short.

[shizzzon 461]

well, definitely not low impedance.

Even if it were, it'd be a LOT louder than what it was.

That 100w amp i had in there when i was doing box testing was louder than this, that's how bad it was.

A short, inside the amp is the only way i see it.

Everything was looked over by me and a tech at this shop and found nothing wrong.

And nothing with the multimeter or protection lights would disagree with me either.

Apparently i'll just have to wait and see what they say.

Well... guess i can go ahead and take pics of the install tomorrow before i ship em out.

the remote wires are disconnected right now so if anyone sees that, don't blame the problem on that, lol

[ford302redneck 15]

sounds like a problem with the internals of the amp.

Did you try one not being strapped?

Sometimes they mess up when you strap.

[shizzzon 461]

i could try but not the one that went up in smoke, hehe.

I seriously would have.... but i was at the shop when we were doin testing.

If it would have not went up in smoke.... we were gonna switch out the rcas and see if it helped...

If it didnt, i was gonna run one at a time to troubleshoot.. but the smoke got me first.

Their master tech is callin me tomorrow so lets see what he can think of.

[shizzzon 461]

update to this scenario-

I finally got the master amp to work.

There is, as i originally thought, a problem with the signal cables.

But unfortunately, i've just gotten sick, figures, so it's gonna be a couple to few days before i can get back there and see whether the shop plugged them into the right output, verify the jacks work at all and make sure the head unit isn't damaged.

The problem with the slave amp smoking... can't say until they receive the amp...

I havent shipped it yet, i'll try tomorrow hopefully.

[DJL 2]

  shizzzon said:

update to this scenario-

I finally got the master amp to work.

There is, as i originally thought, a problem with the signal cables.

But unfortunately, i've just gotten sick, figures, so it's gonna be a couple to few days before i can get back there and see whether the shop plugged them into the right output, verify the jacks work at all and make sure the head unit isn't damaged.

The problem with the slave amp smoking... can't say until they receive the amp...

I havent shipped it yet, i'll try tomorrow hopefully.

From talking with Sean it looks like the problem has been traced back to the installation of the HU which Sean did not install. I appreciate Sean's honesty. He called me right away about his findings. When he couldn't get the master amp to operate either he went back over his install and found the HU install problem. The master amp now works perfect. It's a shame this happened but even install shops make mistakes.

We will see what the slave amp has to tell us when we open it up.

[johnecon2001 82]

So what was the problem with the HU then?

[shizzzon 461]

i'll let u guys know hopefully within the next week.

There are 2 problems here-

1 - why wasn't the amp(s) receiving a signal through the rcas?

2 - what happened to the slave amp to cause it to go up in smoke...

I'll find out number 1, they'll find out number 2.

[sqguy 0]

The few I have seen ran RCA HU to the master, then RCA master to slave. You have to have a feedback loop from one to the other (in the RCA connection) to have them work together properly. Some others have RCA from HU to each amp, like MTX does. They do not appear to have a feedback so not sure how they work that way. The feedback allows the slave to match the master, without it if something is amiss you will get smoke. However MTX only uses one wire from each amp, most use two. It depends on how the amp is built as to what affects it/how it is wired. Seems strange a HU install could cause anything, you should know where the RCA go that hook into the amp you are installing, unless the HU was emitting something odd in the RCA. I was not there so not passing judgment (!) just sounds strange. Strapping can always cause smoke if not just so. Long as you have someone covering it, then at least you are cool.