i have a PG tantrum 1200 amp, the birthsheet says 1468 rms watts. right now i have a 1 farad cap on it and its a cheap one, what farad should i get for it for best results 1.5 or 2 1-farad caps to equel 2 farads?

What sort of electrical do you have to back up that birthsheet? Phoenix rates their amps at 14.4V, which is pretty much the best you could ever hope for on a stock electrical system. To make 1500wrms at 14.4v I would suggest ditching the extra cap idea and going for a rewound or HO alt +/- a good battery. Going from 1 to 2 farads won't gain you anything noticeable (I've done it with a cav and 1600wrms with no positive results, and know of many others), but getting a stronger alt or a really good battery will help that amp produce as close to those numbers as possible.



The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

i already bought the HO alt, it is rated at 180amp and the car is a cavalier. i only bought the cap to help the amp, but someone told me i might be hurting it. its only 1 farad. so do you suggest i ditch it all together? i still get headlight dimming even with the BIG3 and a HO Alt.

the cap won't help your amp make more power by any means..if anything your voltage will be lower then without it.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Offical dealer for the following-

SOUNDSTREAM
DB LINK
DB DRIVE
PANASONIC
GARMIN
ROSEN
SCOSCHE
XE DESIGNS
SOUNDGATE
PAC
LITEGLOW

What battery do you have under the hood?

If you still have dimming with a HO alt, BIG 3 and a 1F cap, I really doubt that you'll notice much improvement adding another 1F cap.

You could try a second cap, but if it were me I would spend that money on a much better battery under the hood.



The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

caps are for toy guns

I have a orbital gel battery, it looks just like the yellow tops, but grey

Ok so i guess i'll disconnect it since i now know its just hurting my system. i'll still keep it in cause it looks good and it has the digital volt read-out.

Could the cheap cap be causeing my dimming problem?

I'm thinking of trying out a couple Orbital batteries. Alot of the guys out here run them instead of optimas.

How much current is that PG amp drawing to cause dimming with a HO alt and a good battery? Is it a class A/AB amp (I thought they were Ds)? How much dimming is there? Is it just minor, or substantial?
I really doubt that your cap is doing much to contribute to the dimming, but it's possible I suppose - it doesn't hurt to try running it without a cap. You may want to get your alt checked out to make sure that it's putting out 180 amps at full draw. You may also want to try a second battery in the trunk if your dimming problem continues.



The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

i bought the alt new, but i never tested it or checked the draw on my amp, i think the manual said 80 amps (and its a D class).
The dimming is quite noticible, while driving on a country road (no street lights) i can see dimming on the road on every bass hit.

this is my system:
Orbital battery
180 amp HO Alt
Big 3 with a 275 amp fuse (150amp and 125amp fuse together) on a 2 gauge wire from battery to alt (with original fusable link)
4 gauge stinger wire from battery to PG 1200.1 amp with a 125amp fuse
4 gauge wire from battery to Boston amp (400 rms)
1 farad cap for the PG
anyone see anything wrong? i know they recomend 0 gauge wire, but a installer told me 2 would be fine.

sorry to thread jack but where can i find these orbital batteries?

Spotabee Racing (The Fake Z24) wrote:
Sorry that you aren't fond of me... I guess you seem to be a loner in that crowd bud.

...i beg to differ

I'm not sure of where in the states Orbitals can be found, but I know north of the border they can be found at Canadian Tire (and probably elsewhere).

Croatian, I really can't see anything wrong with your setup that stands out as being something that you could upgrade to eliminate your dimming problem. You will get less voltage drop using bigger wire, so that's an option you may want to look into.

You should double-check your connections again just to be sure that the contacts are solid. You may also consider a second battery in the trunk (call it 'plan b', unless you plan on running more power later). Other than that, everthing else seems to be fine.



The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

Deka's are also very similar to yellow tops.




RE Audio

the easiest way to find out if you need another cap or not is to watch the voltage flucuation on the amp. Caps are ment to normalize voltage flucuations, so if your amp flucuates with the voltage common sense tells you need more caps. that being said you can see that caps will always help any amplifier attain more linear output which is the goal of any amplified system( stereos, computers, T.Vs or the altinator in your car) and the general rule of thumb for any compition system is 1farad per 1kw of power.
people often forget the power of caps, unlike your battery, the cap has the ability for rapid charge and discharge. The battery (yellow top or not) has the ablity for rapid discharge but not rapid charge, this simple fact is what makes caps so useful in car stereo's, i.e the ability to rapidly discharge when the amp requires power, and then charge very quickly (this "time" is normally measured in time constants, time constants happen much more quickly then the bass notes you are playing, in the milli-second relm) to get ready for the next bass note. your battery does NOT have this ability

miphiston wrote:the easiest way to find out if you need another cap or not is to watch the voltage flucuation on the amp. Caps are ment to normalize voltage flucuations, so if your amp flucuates with the voltage common sense tells you need more caps. that being said you can see that caps will always help any amplifier attain more linear output which is the goal of any amplified system( stereos, computers, T.Vs or the altinator in your car) and the general rule of thumb for any compition system is 1farad per 1kw of power.
people often forget the power of caps, unlike your battery, the cap has the ability for rapid charge and discharge. The battery (yellow top or not) has the ablity for rapid discharge but not rapid charge, this simple fact is what makes caps so useful in car stereo's, i.e the ability to rapidly discharge when the amp requires power, and then charge very quickly (this "time" is normally measured in time constants, time constants happen much more quickly then the bass notes you are playing, in the milli-second relm) to get ready for the next bass note. your battery does NOT have this ability

uh oh... I detect another cap war coming on >.< *ducks for cover*