POlK PA880.1 cut off

[mizike]

Ok my Polk amp just shut off yesterday, power led wont come on, so I took my voltage meter thinking it was a wire, voltage issue. THis is the strange thing I have never seen before and dont know what it would be. THe 12v power tests 14.4 volts car on and a little over 12v with car off, and the remote wire test around 12 volts either way car on or off. So I was confused, I hooked them back up to the amp and the issue is when the power is connected to the amp and I test the 12volt power wire it only shows 3 to 4volts for some wierd reason, take it out the amp and tests fine again, the remote wire tests 12volts in the amp or out. It seems like there is not enough power going through or something is wrong with the amp making the power not work correctly if I know the wire is getting 12volts or more out of the amp, but connected to the amp, not enough voltage magically. ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED I AM LOST, never seen this and it makes no sense. THANKS

[kawizx9r]

IIRC, the remote turn-on wire isn't suppose to supply 12volts constantly.

It sends a jolt which fires up the amp but after that it shouldn't be sending out any power.

Did you use the correct wire for the remote turn on? It's normally a blue one (I think with a white stripe). Not to be confused with the Antenna power wire (for those vehicles with retractable antennas).

[mizike]

Well its been on for awhile, so I would hope its the right wire but yeah its the same remote wire I had on my other amp, no change there but it is showing 12 volts when I turn my radio on and stays at 12 volt as far as I can tell, maybe the remote wire is messing up the 12 volt wire, but I jumped it too power to remote turn on and wouldnt work still, Ive never seen anything like this before getting realy disturbed I want my subs back

[kawizx9r]

Amp doesn't turn on at all you say now right?

I'd check to see if you blew the fuses. But honestly, you shouldn't see a constant 12v from the remote turn on. Something isn't right.

[mizike]

Im going to put two new fuses in this morning, they looked fine, but ya never know. THe thing is I didnt think the fuses had anything to do with the power going through the 12 volt line, why that would show 4 volts just because its plugged into the amp now.

I will put the volt meter on the remote wire this morning again and see if it stays 12volt. No it wont turn on even when I jumped it from power to remote it came on but would be barely on and going on and off, like it was getting too small of voltage, which makes sense if 12 volt is showing 3 to 4 volts, but nothing has changed and I dont know what would cause that.

[mizike]

Well I guess it was the large fuse right by my battery causing issues, Never seen anything like that though. I could test it at the fuse it would read 14 volts but then after 5 minutes after testing other options there would be no power going to it, test 2 to 3 volts, then later show 14 volts, I thought a fuse either went dead and didnt pass voltage or did pass voltage and was good, not play games with you.

[BeefJerky]

That is an odd issue with that fuse.

I do want to make one comment/clarification. When it comes to car amps, the remote-turn-on-wire is supposed to provide 12v for as long as the amp is on. It will then cease to provide power when the amp is supposed to be off.

[Eric W]

IIRC, the remote turn-on wire isn't suppose to supply 12volts constantly.

It sends a jolt which fires up the amp but after that it shouldn't be sending out any power.

Did you use the correct wire for the remote turn on? It's normally a blue one (I think with a white stripe). Not to be confused with the Antenna power wire (for those vehicles with retractable antennas).

???

The 12 volt trigger is continous and not a pulse.

[kawizx9r]

???

The 12 volt trigger is continous and not a pulse.

Disregard :tongue: my mind was totally elsewhere. Im thinking of another wire for when I was tapping into things to add a boost gauge/etc.

[mizike]

Well thank GOD cause now Ive been trying to figure out why the hell my remote was constant voltage lol. Yeah I never seen that with a fuse ever, voltage going through and then dropping, pretty damn strange. Im hoping that was the reason my amp kept overheating too, cause I never fixed that damn issue. Hasnt overheated yet since I got rid of the fuse and just bypassed it, but it has been cooler out so not positive.

[BeefJerky]

Uh, please don't run your amp without the fuse located at the battery. That is a bad idea, and downright dangerous. You need to replace that fuse ASAP.

[mizike]

I guess I will replace it, it has two fuses at the amp and I have never even had a fuse at the battery blow in my entire life but anythings possible lol. Im pretty fed up with this thing anyways now. IT is cold out and no matter what the damn thing overheats after 30 to 40 mins of loud playing which drives me nuts. None of my amps have ever done that. I dont know if I have to do the big 3 or whatever but it seems ridiculous to have to do that to avoid overheating on an amp that would really only be pushing maybe 600 watts out? My guage is correct 4 guage wires, grounded correctly, ventilation is good, makes no sense that it would overheat on a 2ohm load.

[BeefJerky]

The fuses at the amp only protect against a short occurring at the amp or between the amp and the speaker. The fuse located at the battery is needed to protect against a short occurring between the battery and amp.

[mizike]

But no matter where the short occurs, wont the fuses at the amp pop regardless?

[BeefJerky]

But no matter where the short occurs, wont the fuses at the amp pop regardless?

No. Fuses will only "pop" due to over-current conditions that are downstream from the fuse.

[mizike]

RIght but if the fuses are at the amp then everything is downstream from the amp to the battery correct? What would in theory the fuse at the battery really do that the fuses at the amp wont do? I can imagine if some major voltage came through it could damage the amp even though the fuses pop which could be helped by the fuse at the battery, but I would think for most things outside of the rare case, the fuses at the amp would just pop?

[BeefJerky]

You have it backwards. Downstream is away from the battery. For example:
1) The amplifier is downstream from the battery.
2) The speaker/subwoofer is downstream from the amplifier.

At any rate, the fuse at the battery is primarily to protect from a short that occurs between the battery and the amplifier. If that kind of short occurred the fuses in the amplifier would not blow.

[mizike]

Yeah that seems strange lol. I know because I have popped the fuses before hitting the power wire on the ground, speaker on power etc by accident. SO what does a short after the battery before the amp do if it doesnt pop an Amp fuse? Seems pretty backwards lol.

[dudeinaroom]

A fuse only pops if it is in an over current situation for a certain length of time. If you held that wire to a ground, and not just a quick jit it would blown, with out the fuse the wire will turn into a heater and start a fire. How long is your ground cable going to the amp? Where do you have the ground wire attached to the vehicle? By what means is the wire attached to the vehicle?

[mizike]

Yeah my main issue is the damn amp overheating since day one. Makes no sense and I swear I didnt think I would have to upgrade the big 3 for this small amp to not overheat, but no other amp has overheated with this same set up.

I have the ground wire short maybe 16 to 20 inches and its on a bolt to the car body I have it sanded to raw metal no paint for a good ground. All my wires are 4 guage and 12 guage for speaker wires. I really have no clue why it would overheat, its not the gain, not any settings on my radio etc. If I have to upgrade the alternator or do the big 3 I guess I will but really shocked that 5 to 600 watts rms calls for that to function properly???

[dudeinaroom]

Grounding can make a big difference. I have seen 20w 2ch amps cut out due to a bad ground. Back in the day I had a 500 watt bazooka amp that would overheat and go into protect. I had it grounded to the seat bolt, pulled the seat out, cleaned the metal, and sandwiched the eye terminal between the seat frame and bare, cleaned metal. I ended up punching a hole in the floor, grounded to the frame, aftertakeinf a spot down to bare metal, and siliconed the crap out of it after it was attached, and did the same to to hole, and never had a problem after that. There is a way you can measure volage drop using a VOM, but I forget how right now. I think it had something to do with attaching one side of the meter to the battery, and the other to the terminal on the amp, anything more than about .3 volts drop and you will have problems. I belive that you would hook one lead to the neg on the battery, and the other to the neg on the amp, and it shows you what the difference is in the voltage.

[mizike]

Yeah Ive had two SAS bazooka amps on this same ground but they worked fine, acutally really liked there old amps they hit hard. I have a volt meter I could put on the power and negative of the amp to see how much voltage is getting there when the bass hits, see if it drops maybe its not getting enough voltage?