I got my avalanche all hooked up, and it sounded amazing. There's a slight problem. I was going along playing late night tip, and the bass just cuts out. So I figure it's that song, or somethings wrong with the my alpine deck. So I turn it off, wait a couple seconds, turn it back on to another song, and it plays fine for a while. Then, again, the bass cuts out.
Now, I checked my Orion 250 G4 out, and it's pretty dang hot. It's getting hotter than any amp I've ever owned, but then again I was told it would run hot, and it's pushing a 1 ohm load as well. Anways, I was wondering if the amp has some kind of thermal protection, and is just turning off because it's getting too hot? If so, James and Isaac, if you do, how many fans do you have running on it? Or what else have you done to cool it down?
Double check all your wiring and your sub wiring somethimes you mess up and connect it wrong cuz youre too excited to hear it bump already( its happened to me) and do you have all the knobs in th right place just double check everything to make sure. I never heard of a g4 going really really hot unless its damaged. But good luck!
Yes man, I know what I'm doing. Everything's fine, I checked it a million times. Gains are matched correctly to the headunit, and the wiring's correct. I'm pretty sure somebody that has a G4 told me that theirs got pretty hot, I just can't remember who it was.
Joe, you do know that G4s support up to 5v right? Anyhow, I would measure the sub's resistance with a DMM first. If they're at or above the minimum requirements, then try getting a cpu fan. You can install it on the heatsink fins. They do get hot at 1ohm loads. Mine ran warm to hot at 2ohms around 900w. If you're handy with tools, you could cut out a hole on the amp's chassis and install the fan there. It'll lower the temperature significantly.
did you get the amplifier used or refurbished? that may be why it was returned or sold, and during testing they didn't play it long enough to find the problem.
yes orion class AB amps running at low impedances will run so hot that you'll get burned by touching them. that's the normal operating condition for them and should still function at that temperature endlessly without fail. mine always have. granted I'm using second gen amplifiers of the SX series, not gen 4 HCCAs at the present
Yeah, see that's why I wonder if something else was going on. Like I said, it was hot, but I've seen amps get hotter. It wasn't hot enough to burn your skin. My friend has a Pioneer amp made in 92', and in the manual it says normal operating temps. are around 180 degrees, my Orion wasn't close to that hot.
Isaac, I just ordered some fans off ebay. Even though I know I could easily do it, I really don't want to cut a hole in the amp. I did set the gains, but only with my ears, so it's definitely not perfect.
One more quesiton, when I install the fans, I would probably get better cooling if they are pulling off of the amp and blowing away from it, apposed to blowing air on the amp, correct?
This has nothing to do with my car... even if it did, my bird only has almost exactly 50k miles, and even though I live in Michigan there isn't one speck of rust.
you could put it in a bigger heatsink. robotunderground on ebay has some 275g4 heatsinks. or you could try liquid cooling, i have always been intersted in that but never tried.
with an HCCA amp, just put one fan on ach end of the amp with one pushing and one pulling air across the amp. that'll do fine with no need to cut holes. the FETs in the HCCA are screwed to a rail that's attached to the sink fins on the casing so it dissipates it's heat well across the surface of the amp. one reason it gets so hot.. that's it's design.
make sure the amp has good airflow around it as well. don't squish it into or under a seat of bench etc so it's constricted from air.