SAE 1200d v1 working but no output

[RosDaddy 0]

The system

2004 Monte Carlo SS

Sundown Audio SAE1200D v1

Fi audio 12 q with bp flex in a 2.5cu ft box tuned to 28hz wired at 1ohm

Pioneer AHV-P3200BT Headunit

Second Battery with H/O alternator

1/0 Gauge wire run including big 3

My sundown audio SAE 1200d worked fine for 3 months and then i took it out of the car because i wasnt going to be driving it for a month and let it sit in my room in the box under my bed. I just reinstalled my system in my car and now the amp doesnt work right. It powers on correctly and looks as if its working fine but it doesnt give ANY output. Sometimes when i start the car it will give output and work perfectly and can crank it and drive around and it works perfectly but when i turned my car off and restarted it the amp gives no output again. On the third test drive it studerd for 10 seconds giving little bursts of output then starting working perfectly. while it was working perfectly i parked and shook the amp a little bit and it stopped giving output again. The protect light is off and the power light is on. I tried redoing every connection and at first thought it was the rca wires. I tried different rcas and it does the same thing. i tried different speakers and it does the same thing. I Switched the amp out with my buddys and my buddys amp worked fine so its not the wiring. All the connections are prestine, the gains are all perfect, the grounds are perfect, theres no blown fuses, The rcas i use are the same as before and worked with no problems and they still work with a different amp so the rcas are fine, I allso tried running an ipod straight to the input with a y cable and that didnt work. The problems seems to be the amp. It seems like theres a loose connection inside the amp maybe but i dont wanna mess with it because its still in warranty. It just seems like this would be an easy fix. I have some soldering expierence on circuit boards but was allways told what to do. If i knew what to do i might just try fixing it myself instead of having to send it in. Even if i do send it in im so damn curious because at first i thought i wired it wrong and have been trying to fix my conecctions for 2 days. Any suggestions??? thanks in advance.

[jcarter1885 995]

Email Jacob at [email protected], that would of been my first step and wait for his resonse. Well make a compromise, either try and fix it on your own/ void the warranty or send it in to get fixed (those are about the only two options you have here).

[RosDaddy 0]

Email Jacob at [email protected], that would of been my first step and wait for his resonse. Well make a compromise, either try and fix it on your own/ void the warranty or send it in to get fixed (those are about the only two options you have here).

I sent an email through the sundown audio warranty thing before i posted, Is that the same guy? Im more curious as to what went wrong and if i did send it in how long would the whole process take after it arrives?

[RosDaddy 0]

Email Jacob at [email protected], that would of been my first step and wait for his resonse. Well make a compromise, either try and fix it on your own/ void the warranty or send it in to get fixed (those are about the only two options you have here).

I sent an email through the sundown audio warranty thing before i posted, Is that the same guy? Im more curious as to what went wrong and if i did send it in how long would the whole process take after it arrives?

[swankyjosh 0]

actually i am having a very similar problem with my 1200d v.1 Im going to replace my rcas and see if that fixes the problem. So also curious to see what is wrong with yours.

[RosDaddy 0]

In my case its not the rcas. I used the same rcas before with no problems but tried different known working rcas with no luck and allso a y cable hooked to an ipod with no luck. Its really wierd, It seems the amp either works for a whole car trip or doesnt work for a whole car trip which makes me wonder. Heres an example of a couple of hours ago. I drove to go pick this girl up and on the way there the amp didnt work the whole time. after i shut the car off went inside and came back out later with her we got in the car and it worked perfectly the whole ride. later when i went to drop her off it didnt work again.... Soo weird, makes me wonder.... if there is something loose inside the amp then why would it work perfectly or not at all until the car shuts down. Not only that but the amp never gets overheated or anything. I pulled up to my house with it not working and let the car sit for 6 hours and when i got in nothing. but after i got to where i was going and turned it off for 5mins and got back in it worked..... God this has me sooo curious

Edited April 3, 2010 by RosDaddy

[swankyjosh 0]

In my case its not the rcas. I used the same rcas before with no problems but tried different known working rcas with no luck and allso a y cable hooked to an ipod with no luck. Its really wierd, It seems the amp either works for a whole car trip or doesnt work for a whole car trip which makes me wonder. Heres an example of a couple of hours ago. I drove to go pick this girl up and on the way there the amp didnt work the whole time. after i shut the car off went inside and came back out later with her we got in the car and it worked perfectly the whole ride. later when i went to drop her off it didnt work again.... Soo weird, makes me wonder.... if there is something loose inside the amp then why would it work perfectly or not at all until the car shuts down. Not only that but the amp never gets overheated or anything. I pulled up to my house with it not working and let the car sit for 6 hours and when i got in nothing. but after i got to where i was going and turned it off for 5mins and got back in it worked..... God this has me sooo curious

next time when u go riding (if ur amp is connected through your cd players remote line) Turn the cd player on and off and see if it works again. Mine usually works when i get in and after playing for a little bit it sometimes will shut off. than if i shut my cd player off and on(also my amp off and on) it will start working again.

[RosDaddy 0]

Heres a lil vid of it randomly shutting off

[Mac N Cheese 90]

i had the same prob with my 3000D, try emailing Jacob or calling db-r even if you didnt purchase it from him because he could probably tell you the problem right over the phone. Mine would cut out randomly, it was the casings around the mosfits located by the rca inputs

[RosDaddy 0]

i had the same prob with my 3000D, try emailing Jacob or calling db-r even if you didnt purchase it from him because he could probably tell you the problem right over the phone. Mine would cut out randomly, it was the casings around the mosfits located by the rca inputs

Thats the kinda info im looking for. I emailed him earlier today and sundown 2 days ago still waiting on a respone but are these what your talking about?

If those are whats wrong i dont see any obvious signs of damage from the top but have not checked the other side yet. i dont wanna take it apart quite yet because im sure that would void warranty. But if that is the issue would the whole thing probably have to be replaced? and im sure that prob something made be sundown not something you could just go buy.

[sundownz 197]

Sounds as if something was rattled loose inside and is connected intermittently -- you likely won't be able to find it by looking. I'll have to check it out.

[RosDaddy 0]

Sounds as if something was rattled loose inside and is connected intermittently -- you likely won't be able to find it by looking. I'll have to check it out.

Well maybe if your amps didnt cause such clean massive earthquakes this problem wouldnt have arose.

[dB-r 2]

Sounds as if something was rattled loose inside and is connected intermittently -- you likely won't be able to find it by looking. I'll have to check it out.

Well maybe if your amps didnt cause such clean massive earthquakes this problem wouldnt have arose.

LOL, is that what is causing all these Earthquakes lately? too many people running Sundown? I know they break cars, but breaking the earth?

Sounds like just a bad solder connection, it will be found on the bottom of the board where the solder is. But you likely won't find it. Takes a trained eye and knowing where the signal paths are, and an oscilloscope helps too... Just send it in for repair or replacement. You purchased it from dB-r or Sundown? New or Refurb? Warranty?

[Duran 387]

Sounds as if something was rattled loose inside and is connected intermittently -- you likely won't be able to find it by looking. I'll have to check it out.

Well maybe if your amps didnt cause such clean massive earthquakes this problem wouldnt have arose.

[RosDaddy 0]

ok i bought it off of a guy on roe who bought it off a different person. Hes trying to track down the invoice number but so far no luck. Im assuming its in warranty because on the sundown box it says 6/30/09 (my birthday) written on the inside and it came with all the paperwork.

[RosDaddy 0]

what about the high pitched whistle the amplifier makes? i noticed it again today. it let out this soft high pitched noise that im sure an elderly person couldnt hear, this time the whistle kinda stutterd and then stopped after a few seconds. (no output at all). I remember my old amplifier was the king of this. It only happens when the amp turns on and then stops. with my old amp it would let out a high pitched whistle and slowly get higher pitched and quieter untill it died off. this was a kenwood kac amp and i had no problems with, even though it did the whistle thing on bootup. Allways wondered what it was.

[BanginGMC 23]

ok i bought it off of a guy on roe who bought it off a different person. Hes trying to track down the invoice number but so far no luck. Im assuming its in warranty because on the sundown box it says 6/30/09 (my birthday) written on the inside and it came with all the paperwork.

Wouldn't the serial number be documented by the company so that could tell you where/who it was sold/sent too? -- don't really know how that stuff works.

[RosDaddy 0]

ok i bought it off of a guy on roe who bought it off a different person. Hes trying to track down the invoice number but so far no luck. Im assuming its in warranty because on the sundown box it says 6/30/09 (my birthday) written on the inside and it came with all the paperwork.

Wouldn't the serial number be documented by the company so that could tell you where/who it was sold/sent too? -- don't really know how that stuff works.

thats what youd think. theres not a single serial number at least a visible one anywhere on the box owners manual or the amp itself. I have looked like 5 times

[Kanaworm$ 292]

No serial number on the bottom of the casing?

[RosDaddy 0]

No serial number on the bottom of the casing?

Nope

Ok so i read i ridiculously long thing on how amplifiers work and checked all the fets properly with a dmm and there all working properly. I doubt its a power supply issue either. I have allso gone through and cleaned up any solder jobs that look funky. Still.... Same thing, no better or no worse. It allways tends to work though right after im done messing with it but then goes to the same issue after the car turns off and on. maybe ill just never turn the Monte off ill just let her idle when not in use. Im thinking that somewhere along the line its losing its rca signal inside the amplifier. At least thats my best guess.

[Duran 387]

Jacob doesn't use the serial numbers to track the amplifiers.

[RosDaddy 0]

Jacob doesn't use the serial numbers to track the amplifiers.

yah i wish i woulda known that when i bought it. all though i didnt expect the sundown amp to poop out on me. I just wish it was a normal issue, thats probably why they made the v2s

[Frostedflakejake 148]

good luck man! at least yours doesn't shoot into protect mode like mine

[RosDaddy 0]

good luck man! at least yours doesn't shoot into protect mode like mine

\Yeah but at least when its in protect mode the amp realized there was a problem and is usually easier to fix, mines just straight confusing.

Btw u live like 5miles from me lol, I live in madison heights. You got any plans on fixing ur amp?

I cant fix something and its making me mad. I can fix anything and i will fix this amp. Im in the process of learning exactly how amplifiers work down to the circuit board. I went ahead and tested common amplifer circuit board problems but my problem appears to be more complex. O well guess i got to learn even more. I just wish sundown would give me a little advice ( hint hint). Customer satisfaction?

[RosDaddy 0]

I just wanted to say thank you sundown audio. There customer service is fantastic, there letting me upgrade to a v2 model for a very reasonable price.