Electrical Troubleshooting

[jalat 0]

System consists of the following:

• 2010 and up Camaro drivers side large stealth enclosure from Subthump

• Knukonceptz 4AWG wiring and interconnects and speaker wire

• MTX RE-Q

• Subthump T-Harness (used so that we DO NOT splice into the factory wiring)

• 12" Fi Q (dual 2 ohm wired to 4 ohms w/ all options and high qts)

• ZED Audio Kronos bridged @ 4 ohm (1000rms)

There are a couple things that seem to be off. For one, we are using the factory headunit and thought that the RE-Q would be perfect because of the bass restoration, and the fact that the Kronos needs unbalanced grounded preouts (as said by Steve from ZED). Now, due to the fact we havent installed any bass blockers on the factory BA system, we made the bass on the headunit to -5, mid @ -1 and treble to +1. What baffles me is the fact that the gains on the MTX RE-Q as well as the Kronos have to be set all the way up before any sound comes out of the subwoofer. Now the Kronos has 2 built in clipping indicators so I know for a fact that I am not clipping the subwoofer. I read that the RE-Q is supposed to boost the lower frequencies of the stock system so that there is no need to have cranked gains and such, or lose preout voltage on the RCAs....

So my question is, why must we have the gains so high on both the MTX RE-Q and Kronos to obtain proper sound?

My next issues has to do with the amount of light dimming on the interior lights as well as the amplifier. 4AWG wiring is used with a 100A fuse for power (at about 6 feet in length) and my ground cable is about 4 feet in length. The battery is in the trunk, and whats looks to be about 2AWG wiring is used for factory ground and alternator charging wire. Whenever the system is turned up, there is a significant amount of dimming going on with the interior lights (dash, dome light, etc.) but here is the catch..... The amp at near full tilt is getting 13V at the lowest, so it doesn't seem like there is a voltage issue what so ever.

So my question is, If my voltage is alright to the amplifier and batt, why is there such a significant amount of dimming?

Overall, I am very impressed with this system and would just like to clean up these issues so the owner can enjoy his finished system.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

[Duran 387]

Measure the preout voltage going to the RE-Q, and leaving the it and tell us your findings.

[jalat 0]

Measure the preout voltage going to the RE-Q, and leaving the it and tell us your findings.

From the factory BA amp, we have 6V DC floating going into the RE-Q

[Duran 387]

What is the output form the RE-Q?

[CrazyKenKid 64]

mike!! how are you doing man?

you say you have a dimming issue well first things first check the output of the alt and see what it is putting out! i know with my car i had a dimming issue also then i got my alt freshed up/ upgraded and no more dimming issue and this was with my 2-batcap 2000 in the back of the car and i still had dimming issues. but once i got my alt taken care of everything was good to..

my issue was with my alt, my mechanic said this alt was starting to go which is why my lights started to dimming during a current draw (bass notes) apparently my alt wasn't able to keep up with the instant draw in current he told me even though my voltage was good!

now as for high gains no clue other then pre-out voltage being an issue you say it floats at 6volts maybe when music is going the voltage drops a lot! you could try a line driver if so talk to gary about those! he might have one for sale unless he put it back in!

[jalat 0]

What is the output form the RE-Q?

When measured with my multimeter set to DC voltage i got 0 volts on the RCA's which is good because that means that the signal is now unbalanced going into the kronos (or the other way around if i got them mixed up)

And Ken, as far as I know it's a 100A alt. The car is brand new with only 20,000km on it, so i doubt its an alt issue

[jalat 0]

Evening bump.

[CrazyKenKid 64]

so a 1000amp alt to support a 1k at 4ohm setup! i wonder how much current that amp is drawing then.

ya i am sorry dude i don't know why your lights are dimming then other then the amp can't keep up with the demand other then that you could always try to wire a cap in there..not like it will do much other then maybe prevent the lights from dimming b/c caps dissipate faster then a battery but then to charge back up... you know the deal with caps no need for me to explain it all it is a trade off i guess well you do get a cool voltage meter on a cap though lol!!

as for the high gains i can't help you there

sorry man

anyways get in touch we with me again some day!

[jalat 0]

so a 1000amp alt to support a 1k at 4ohm setup! i wonder how much current that amp is drawing then.

ya i am sorry dude i don't know why your lights are dimming then other then the amp can't keep up with the demand other then that you could always try to wire a cap in there..not like it will do much other then maybe prevent the lights from dimming b/c caps dissipate faster then a battery but then to charge back up... you know the deal with caps no need for me to explain it all it is a trade off i guess well you do get a cool voltage meter on a cap though lol!!

as for the high gains i can't help you there

sorry man

anyways get in touch we with me again some day!

Ya i'm baffled by all of this too.

As a matter of fact, I have a capacitor sitting at home, I believe it is a 1 farad Stinger one. Thing is, I have no idea whether it is charged or not, or if its been dis-charged, or how i go about installing it without the capacitor you are supposed to use...

[CrazyKenKid 64]

how to tell if the cap is discharged is easy! either find an old screw driver and touch the positive and negative ends of the cap! or get a car light (12vdc) put the neg on the outside of the bulb and the positive on the center!

also to see if it is charged just get a dmm and see what the voltage reading is! if it is 0 or close to 0 you are good to go! make sense?

[CrazyKenKid 64]

and what did you mean by

" or how i go about installing it without the capacitor you are supposed to use..."

are you saying it is to small? if so don't worry about it it is cap! glorified voltage meter which may or may not help you! you don't know till you try!

hell try it out! just hook it up to the front battery (temperately) and see if it fixes dimming if not then you know a cap is useless then lol

[jalat 0]

and what did you mean by

" or how i go about installing it without the capacitor you are supposed to use..."

are you saying it is to small? if so don't worry about it it is cap! glorified voltage meter which may or may not help you! you don't know till you try!

hell try it out! just hook it up to the front battery (temperately) and see if it fixes dimming if not then you know a cap is useless then lol

what i meant was, once i installed a knukonceptz capacitor in a friends system. it gave me charging instructions. it told me to use the provided tiny capacitor and attach it to the positive power wire. hold there for 1 minute, then connect the power wire without the tiny cap

[CrazyKenKid 64]

o i don't know anything about initially charing a cap lol sorry man. i have had to use one. it was just a suggestion. but if i was you i would just hook it up and go from there. and i think the tiny cap is more or less for the first time... rather then all the time b/c once your cap is drained what charges it up again.. the alt/battery bank right? there is no tiny cap to give it a quick jolt of life each time it drained right?

but like i said i am NO expert on caps

[Dutchie. 10]

Sounds like the sub is wired wrong and making the amp struggle. Almost the same thing happened when my friend wired his subs wrong.

[helotaxi 46]

The -5 on the bass setting is killing you. Set it flat. The factory speakers should be able to handle the factory headunit with settings set flat.

[jalat 0]

The -5 on the bass setting is killing you. Set it flat. The factory speakers should be able to handle the factory headunit with settings set flat.

when set flat, to zero, the stock speakers are distorting at the listening volume needed, to keep up with the subwoofer... that is the only reason it is set so low.

[Dutchie. 10]

Ok so I started looking at the re-q and stuff just to get a better understanding.

Do you have the re-q or the re-q5??

Make sure all the rca's are plugged into the correct places on the re-q.

The re-q5 has low pass crossovers, make sure these are set correctly. If the speakers are getting very distorted, maybe they are getting too much bass, and the subs are trying to play vocals, so the low notes are not hitting.

Make sure your gains are turned down before checking everything, so you don't all of a sudden play something full blast if it is corrected.

Make sure your subsonic is set correctly.

Check your subwoofer ohm load (the way you wired it) to make sure the amp is stable at that load.

That's all I can think of right now.

[jalat 0]

Ok so I started looking at the re-q and stuff just to get a better understanding.

Do you have the re-q or the re-q5??

Make sure all the rca's are plugged into the correct places on the re-q.

The re-q5 has low pass crossovers, make sure these are set correctly. If the speakers are getting very distorted, maybe they are getting too much bass, and the subs are trying to play vocals, so the low notes are not hitting.

Make sure your gains are turned down before checking everything, so you don't all of a sudden play something full blast if it is corrected.

Make sure your subsonic is set correctly.

Check your subwoofer ohm load (the way you wired it) to make sure the amp is stable at that load.

That's all I can think of right now.

RE-Q not the 5 channel.

LPF is at around 100hz

Subsonic is around 25hz

Gains are full on the RE-Q

Subwoofer is a dual 2 ohm wired to 4 ohms, and bridged on the ZED

Subwoofer is defiantly not playing any vocals

Some of the guys on another forum are saying the the RE-Q might not be able to take the balanced signal from the BA amp and is causing it to act funny.