Wires!

Wires and Wiring Kits
WIRES... everywhere! The boot of your car is full of them! They’re coming out from under your carpet, visible by your footwell, tangled, messy, abstract, annoying bundles of utter confusion!!! Sound familiar...? Here is how to keep them simple! Read on...

K.I.S.S

For a car audio system, the wires are one of the most crucial parts of the system (apart from the components themselves!) This is why it is important to use decent cabling in your system, but at the same time, to keep the layout as simple as possible to minimise any potential interference and should anything go wrong, it will be easier to diagnose the problem. There are many different wiring kits available on the market; the difference in price is respectful to the gauges and the quality of the cables.

If you plan to run two amplifiers or more, it is advisable to use a distribution block. This will make the wires look neat and tidy whilst giving you the option should you wish, to have some of your wires on display. Distribution blocks come in many different variations by many different manufactures and whilst some people are happy to chain the power wire from amp to amp, I personally think that the use of a distribution block is quite a nice touch and will make your installation a lot simpler and more pleasing to look at. For my car, the distribution block I chose was able to be used as for both the power and ground, and due to the location of my amplifiers, this was the most ideal solution.



What type of cabling do I need?

The power and ground wires come in different thicknesses or 'gauges' (the term coming from the American Wiring Gauge or AWG for short) The lower the gauge, the more current can flow through, so for example 0AWG wire would allow the most current through. The thicker the wire the more current that is able to flow through. For a car audio system that has several amplifiers or a very high power amplifier, you need as much current as can be delivered. This is coupled in with the fact that as electricity flows through a wire, the voltage will drop, this poses a problem, one which can be remedied by, for example carrying out 'the big three' upgrade, upgrading the alternator or using a higher gauge wire.

"Trying to power a high current amplifier using thin wire would be like trying to suck water out of a lake using a chain of McDonald’s straws."

The overall idea to use a thicker wire is to effectively reduce the resistance that the electrical current has to go against. From a number of sources, I have also found that it is recommended that wire no thinner than 12 gauge is used, due to a number of reasons, the obvious being the higher resistance as amplifiers have a rated power input, usually, but not always around 14.4v, if the voltage were to drop too much then potential damage could occur to the components as well as the rated power output of the amp being higher than the actual output. Trying to power a high current amplifier using thin wire would be like trying to suck water out of a lake using a chain of McDonald’s straws. It would be like trying to empty a huge swimming pool with a pipe the thickness of a straw, replacing the pipe with a much thicker one will allow for more efficiency and thus a greater flow.

If you buy a wiring kit, inside you will have everything you need to be able to wire up your amplifier into your car. You will have a piece of grounding wire, a positive wire as well as a fuse holder and the RCA cables required by the amplifier to deliver the signal from the head unit to the amplifier. You will also find a thin piece of wire (usually, but not always blue). This wire is what is used as the remote to turn the amplifier on and off in conjunction with the state of the head unit. It may be possible however that the head unit does not have the facility to accommodate a 12v switched signal. If this is the case it is up to you where to find another source of 12v switched power as having the amplifier on even when the engine is off will reduce the voltage of the battery and potentially, if enough current has been drawn, render the battery indefinitely useless. www.the12volt.com have a guide to the ideal gauge wire used depending on what size of length wire is required, however if you, like me have a specific wire gauge in mind, that is higher than what is recommended, from my research I would strongly recommend that it is better to go for the thicker option.

For my car, I opted to use a 4 gauge wiring kit. I felt that this would be the best option as the wire wouldn’t be too thick that it would be resulting in bulges from the carpet while also being too thin that I would encounter a serious voltage drop as my plan was to be running 2 amplifiers and I can confirm that the voltage is kept at about 13.8 volts. Should I wish to undertake ‘The Big Three’ upgrade, the voltage will be increased.

Fuses

As Steve Meade would say

"use FUSES - they are your friend and prevent Car- B-Q's"

This is true. A fuse is effectively the lowest common denominator in the circuit, therefore should the rated power exceed what the fuse is able to handle it will blow. Fuses should not blow on a regular basis, if they do, it indicates there may be a serious underlying problem and to just keep replacing fuses when the blow does not solve the problem. there are different types of fuses, the blade fuses, AGU fuses, while the more expensive ones are ANL fuses. the difference being the range of amps each type of fuse is able to handle.

Types of Kit

There are many different types of Kits to choose from, however there is a lot of talk of Stinger Wiring Accessories being one of the top brands. I came across one on a forum, a rave review about a Stinger kit that he purchased.

The Earth Wire

Earthing the amplifier is the most important part of powering the amplifier and your car audio system. It is important to keep the ground wire as short and thick as reasonably possible. As the wire is not directly connected to the battery’s negative terminal it is important not to forget that the signal will have to travel throughout the entire car till it can reach the battery negative. For this reason, being able to use the shortest ground lead possible will help reduce the chance of obtaining feedback, without the use of a ground loop isolator. The isolator is seen by some as a quick fix for the grounding problem, however if the amplifiers are grounded properly, then strictly speaking there should be no need for ground loop isolators. However it is important to not forget that although there are measures to reduce grounding issues each car varies in design and some cars even with the utmost care taken, may still encounter grounding issues.

Conclusion

"It could be like the difference between slapping an orange hard enough for a bit of juice to spray out, or squeezing the life out of that orange and drinking every last drop of sweet OJ..."

At the end of the day, no matter how much you are willing to spend on the other components such as amplifiers, subwoofers, speakers or head units, the best way to ensure that you get the most out of whatever you have installed, and are able to use them to their full potential, is if you spend the right amount on high quality wires. It could be like the difference between slapping an orange hard enough for a bit of juice to spray out, or squeezing the life out of that orange and drinking every last drop of sweet OJ...
Once again hope you have enjoyed reading this week’s blog and have found it useful and informative. Stay tuned for the next update very soon!

Neil Patel

Power Capacitors

Power Capacitors

What are they?

Power capacitors work by acting as a reserve power bank; they store the charge rather than being the source of power such as the battery. When you are listening to your music, and playing a heavy sub-bass note, the power will draw from the capacitor rather than from the battery so to ensure that the rest of the car will not be starved of power i.e. the headlights dimming. It will act as a buffer so that that the power being delivered to the amplifiers will not drop below the recommended voltages and be steady therefore reducing the risk of damage to the components.

So what power capacitor to choose?

After doing a bit of research, the general rule seems to be 1 farad per 1000 watts of power that your system is running at. So using that, a 1.5 farad power capacitor should be ideally suited to a 1500 watt system. There is a large selection of power capacitors available out there, for example, this power capacitor is a 2 farad power capacitor designed for smaller systems, this is not to say however that it will have a reduction in performance, however for those systems that require more power, a power capacitor with a higher farad will be able to deliver for longer and will usually be of a higher build quality. For a high quality power capacitor, I would recommend high quality car audio brands such as Rockford Fosgate. For example there is a selection of Rockford Fosgate series digital capacitors that are available in either 2 farad power capacitor or 10 farad power capacitor options that are well suited for highly demanding systems and as an added bonus, some might even say they look the business!

How to install the capacitor

Ideally the capacitor needs to be installed as close to the amplifiers as possible. The capacitor requires a 12 volt positive from the battery and a separate ground, to the amplifier; so that the 12 volt positive is 'inline' with the terminal from the battery and the amplifier. The amplifier 12 volt positive is then taken from the capacitor while the amplifier is usually grounded separately as it is important to use as short a ground cable as possible to reduce any potential ground interference.

When you need to consider other alternatives

Power capacitors will not always be of help when you are listening to music, if the lights for example dim down, and stay dim, this indicates there is a deficiency of power and there are other methods of solving the problem, it could potentially be that the battery is not able to generate a charge sufficient enough to meet the demands, so installing a higher cranking battery is usually the common solution however it is possible that upgrading "The Big Three" may also solve the issue(see below for more details). It is also important to check that the current alternator can produce a charge that will be sufficient with a larger battery.

'The Big Three'

The big three is a popular upgrade. It consists of upgrading three wires in the car to ones that are much thicker. As a result of using much thicker wire, more current is allowed to flow through; hence the overall effect seen will be that the voltage running through the car will be higher. The three wires that are upgraded are the wire from the alternator to the battery, the engine ground to the chassis and the battery ground to the chassis. It is common, but not always, that people will choose 0 gauge power wire when going about the big three upgrade. This is vital again to ensure that the voltage delivered to the amplifiers does not drop so low that the risk of damage is possible.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, there is no hard or fast answer to if a capacitor is necessary or not. However capacitors may have benefits if used appropriately. There are large selections of capacitors; some come with digital volt meters, distribution blocks etc, while others are purely chosen for aesthetic pleasure, I myself went for a 4 farad power capacitor with a built in digital volt meter with an LCD display so that it was something I was able to display and looks pretty damn cool.

Neil Patel

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