need another battery?

[Jamie-b]

hey,
i just installed a 10" fusion sub, monoblock amp, ad 2ch amp to my vs ute. After i installed it all i needed to start it off a battery pack, thought it was a bit odd but no biggy. So i started it, and left it running while i played around with the settings on the amp, (while doing this i was also playing with the throttle) i stuffed around with the settings for about 10-15 minutes. then switched off the ignition then immediately tried to wind it over again... and i got nothing, didnt even click.
My battery is less than 2 months old, and my system isn't very big, surely i dont need a 2nd battery?

I'm pretty happy of the way it sounds, while im in the car.. with the doors closed and windows up. but if im standing outside the car it sounds fairly crap, everything is vibrating (ill try to fix this tomorrow) and the sub sounds a lot less bassy than it does when im in the car...(i don't mean volume, the tone sounds higher)

[Luke0011]

unless you know what time the elctrlytic solution was poured into your battery when it was manafactured you have no way of knowing how brand new it is. It could have been sitting on a shelf for 18 months with the solution slowly corroding the plates, therfore making it a brand new üsed"battery. Do a load test and check your alternaters ouput voltage.

[StoneX]

Your battery should barely even be getting used for the stereo while the car is running.

[| evaN |]

how loud was it pumping when you were playing with the settings? With my car started, it'll struggle to turn on the next time if you don't left the system recharge. In other words don't turn the car off right away after giving your system beating

[VZ-Rob]

sounds about right
when i did my install had the same problem
i put a battery charger on while doing the levels
with the motor off
re-charged her up in about 2 1/2 hours
oh and upgraded to a 120amp alternator

[theSeekerr]

What you really need is a soft start circuit to put a delay on the amp, so the car can crank before the amp starts drawing power. No idea if anyone sells one prebuilt for 12V supplies, but there's plenty of designs out there on the net.

[StoneX]

That does not sound about right... He had the car running, it shouldn't nearly kill the battery if the car is running.

I've had 2800Wrms worth of amps running while my car was idle with stock alternator and it has been fine to turn off and on with no probs starting. Something is wrong in his electrical system.

[Jamie-b]

hmm k thanks, well one of the amps is around 1000wrms and the otherone is 200wrms
but the sub only draws 150rms and the speakers 60rms

how loud was it pumping when you were playing with the settings?

Most of the time it was above 75% volume.

Turning the system off before shutting the engine down is kind of unpractical, because this should also mean that i couldnt run my system with the engine off.. which i would like to be able to do.

EDIT: Just had a thought, because my battery was flat, then i hooked it up to a starter pack to start it, then disconnected the starter pack then turned on the stereo, the battery would have had only a few moments on idle for the amp to start charging the battery back up, so my battery was probably still nearly flat, then i went and started up the system, which would have taken most of the power the amp was generating? So the battery couldnt have started getting recharged?
Could this be it?
After school i will start the car up with the stereo off and leave it for a while to charge the battery up before starting up the stereo.

How long should it take to charge up the battery at idle?
Once the battery is fully charged, and i turn off the car, how long should i be able to play the stereo for, and still be able to crank the car over?

[StoneX]

It will charge much better driving... You might be better off putting the battery on a charger if you can't drive the car.

Let us know the AH (amp per hour) rating of your battery and we can estimate how long it would run your system for. It won't be very accurate though as the stereo doesn't draw a constant amount of current, it varies with the music.

[Jamie-b]

alright thanks,
if i had a switch on the power cable running from the amps, and i was running the stereo with the engine turned off, would the car be more likely to start with the amps turned off, then turned on once the engine is started?

[StoneX]

Yeah, some people put a switch on their remote wire (not the main power cable) which switches their sub amp off to conserve power. Might mean having separate remote wires for each amp if you don't want the 2 channel to turn off.

[Jamie-b]

ok thanks mate, but i think the 2ch uses more power than the amp running the subs?
because when my battery got flat, the speakers stopped, but the sub was still pounding

[Jamie-b]

also, if i turned the amps off, would the sound still be able to pass through them as if they were not there?

eg: if there turned off sound will still play as if there not there, as if there playing straight out of the headunit.

[StoneX]

Different electronic devices will cut off at different voltages... Your speaker amp must have a higher voltage it shuts off at, it's not because it draws more power. Speaker amps don't draw that much power compared to sub amps.

No, if you turn amps off, you get no sound at all unless you have other speakers running from the head unit speaker wires.

Your best bet would be to charge your battery completely and see how it goes. Then if the battery goes flat too quickly with the car off, buy a higher AH rated battery.

[holdenboy]

Im abit suss on this, even a very poor battery should start straight after being charged by the alternator......the main difference in between a bad battery and a good one is the amount of time it can hold the charge.

I'd be checking the battery terminals or the alternator charge wire (makes sense as you would've played around with the positive / negative terminals when installing the power cable/s for the amps).

[sweefu]

just chucking my two cents in.. but at the moment i have 600wrms running in my car from two amps, i had it blasting at full gain and full volume for an hour and a bit today, didnt start the car during. at the end i switched it all off and it started as easily as it does everytime.

[Jamie-b]

yer i just had it running for a while tonight with everything turned off, to let the battery charge, then had the system blasting then it started straight away, must have been because i didnt let it charge before turning the system on. It all seems good atm but ill keep playing with it over the next few days

[holdenboy]

Youre best to get yourself a multimeter and make sure the alternator is charging the battery properly, i run 4000wrms to my subs and another measly 300wrms to my front splits and havent ever had a problem starting my car using only the stock battery....the amp will draw very little current unless its actually producing sound thats fairly loud.

[Luke0011]

hey,
i just installed a 10" fusion sub, monoblock amp, ad 2ch amp to my vs ute. After i installed it all i needed to start it off a battery pack, thought it was a bit odd but no biggy. So i started it, and left it running while i played around with the settings on the amp, (while doing this i was also playing with the throttle) i stuffed around with the settings for about 10-15 minutes. then switched off the ignition then immediately tried to wind it over again... and i got nothing, didnt even click.
My battery is less than 2 months old, and my system isn't very big, surely i dont need a 2nd battery?

I'm pretty happy of the way it sounds, while im in the car.. with the doors closed and windows up. but if im standing outside the car it sounds fairly crap, everything is vibrating (ill try to fix this tomorrow) and the sub sounds a lot less bassy than it does when im in the car...(i don't mean volume, the tone sounds higher)

My first reply was just an response to the battery being recently purchased Jaime, but i didnt answer your first question and that is no you dont need 2nd battery. And you say sub sounds less bassy standing outside compared to hearing it inside the car. Were the windows up or down as it would make obvious sense if the windows were up but if they were down then try walking around the car at different distances and see how the bass sounds. Sound is fairly complex with many variables affecting it characteristics.