Who said anything about a bad amp? I said use the money that you'd use to buy a cap and put it elsewhere, like buying more efficent amps or speakers to better use the power you already have there in your electrical system. (better/more efficent equipment normally cost more money)


You can have your views on that, not going to argue that, but you've got to agree, unless you have a light dimming issue don't worry about it for right now. Unless a person is driving around with the system cranked all the way up all day long they may not even turn it up enough to get a light dimming issue. If somebody gets a light dimming issue then looking into a solution for it but until then install the system and give it a try. He can always give solutions a try later but for right now the guy shouldn't need to worry about this.

Ted

 

Well, on the experience issue.. explain this:

Kicker 600.4 fused @ 80 amps (2 6.75" Kappas, 2 6.5" Audiobahn Midbass)
Audiobahn A2200HCX fused @ 120 amps (2 S12L7's; running 1 ohm Mono)
200 amp alternator
Optima Redtop Primary
Battery Isolator to a Yellow Top Deep-cycle

That's a hell of a charging system right there...

Explain to me why my All the Lights on my car were dimming before I put the 2 1-Farad caps in there?? I'd like a reason.. If the Cap does nothing....

 

I'd like to correct myself if I came across wrong, I'm not saying caps don't do anything, it's just that the size of the caps normally used are way too small. I mean, one usage of caps that they work well on is fuel pumps for like turbo car set ups. The cap helps with the demands of current that is needed when they start to spin up so they do have uses as you already know. It's just that to keep the headlights (just the headlights mind you) from dimming it would take a 10F ca

On the 200 amp alternator thing, was that a stock one rewound or is it an aftermarket one that has good idle output on it? Stock ones that are rewound sometimes don't have as good of idle output as stock but when revved up can do the 200 amp rating.

In regards to the light dimming, how long have you had the cap in the car? What temp was it outside when you didn't have the cap and what temp is it outside now when you do have the cap? Temp makes a difference on how much output the alternator can put out, most GM cars will do like 14.2 to 14.4 when they are cold but then after they are warmed up will do like 13.6 volts so there's a difference right there.

If it solved your light dimming then that's cool. But when I see experienced people do tests like the following it makes me wonder how a cap is going to help out the whole electrical system from having the lights dim when it can't even stop a brake light from havnig a noticeabel dimming:

"On my test bench, I connected a diode-isolated brake light to a 15 Volt DC supply. With a 1 Farad cap on the brake light, a .5 Volt momentary (i.e. .1 Second) drop in the supply is still noticeable."

Taken from David Navone's post in this thread: http://www.carsound.com/UBB/ultimate...c;f=2;t=003773

When somebody can supply a test like that and have results like that it makes me wonder. I mean, for examle, people will say they can hear a difference after they put a cap in but can they? Richard Clark at one time had $5K challange to say you couldn't but I don't know all the details of his challange but you get the idea.

 

The 200 amp is a custom wound piece that I've metered, it puts out ~198 amps at 1200 engine rpms (via OBDII dashboard reading), and ~230 amps @ 3K rpms...

The temperatures varied before and after, but overall there were the same conditions before and after... and the ONLY time I ever get any dimming now is when I'm stopped at a light for a while and the stereo is CRANKED... and I can actually watch my Voltmeter on my Sub amp line drop as the voltage in my yellow top drops...

The Cap is a buffer, it lessens the voltage swings... I was getting ~ a .5 V difference when the system was up on the sub amp power cable, since the Caps have gone in that flucuations have reduced GREATLY; such that 99.99% of the time, the voltage gauge doesn't flucuate at all, unless I'm draining things (ex, @ the light and cranked)...

 

Well that's sweet then, was it a spendy alternator? Where did you get it at? (sorry, at work now so I can't take too much time to type up responses)

 

I got it from a Local electronics repair shop that's been around for like 4 generations... I blew the 140 amp and when I break something I always go bigger...

 

What do you mean by the dashboard reading? I've got a '96 T/A and would like to know how you got that info (maybe I can check out what the stocker puts out) when you get a chance to respond, no hurry.

 

Sorry typed that fast here at work and wasn't totally thinking straight... busy, stressed, ready to kill a customer for constant changes...

The OBDII is an Autotap like program, but I did the readings for the alternator at the local shop, they can test them and do the output readings. They've done another one in the same shell size that was like almost 300 amps... but it was also like 2x the price, or so I was told.

The stocker puts out about 140 amps, but only above 2K I believe...