Hi, I was wondering if anybody could help me. I recently bought a capacitor off eBay to improve my system. When I got it I didn't get anything other than the capacitor itself. Could you tell me the steps that I need to carry out to get it wired up into my system. Thanks, Gareth
1 put capacitor in passenger seat of car 2 drive car to install shop 3 get service ticket 4 wait while professional installs capacitor 5 pay shop bill 6 drive car home
lol......that was funny!! i need to tell people that one when they try to get me to do it for em for free....
djgazman85
Unregistered guest
Posted on
OK. I've done a bit research but there seems to be conflicting views as to how to do it. I have my cap and resistor ready. Now do I need to buy an extra power lead with inline fuse holder? Or do I just hook it up to the amp power terminal... I know it needs to be grounded too. I'm really wanting the steps for charging it up.
1. I disconnect the fuse from the power cable of my amp 2
djgazman85
Unregistered guest
Posted on
OK. I've done a bit research but there seems to be conflicting views as to how to do it. I have my cap and resistor ready. Now do I need to buy an extra power lead with inline fuse holder? Or do I just hook it up to the amp power terminal... I know it needs to be grounded too. I'm really wanting the steps for charging it up.
1. I disconnect the fuse from the power cable of my amp 2
Personally, everyone I know has just hooked up the power to power, ground to ground, and it was ok. I know it's not recomended, but not sure why its not recomended, heh.
You have to pre charge it first, or it won't have a reason to work. If you just hook power up to power, ground to ground, then you are hooking up a piece of metal that is just interfering. Without a charge it won't act as another battery. That why that's not recommended lol.
the only reason you pre-charge capacitors is to eliminate or reduce sparking when connecting the power and ground lines. It basically equalizes the voltage before completing the circuit.
by the way nocc1n, you're completely wrong on pretty much every count there. capacitors don't act as batteries. capacitors are pretty much paper and electrolyte fluid that store and release current. a battery creates power through chemical interaction.
a capacitor will work just the same in a circuit with a pre-charge or without. in the case of these large 1 farad 20 volt capacitors, they are charged slowly and put into the circuit charged to avoid large sparks for safety. that's it.
GlassWolf can you tell me if it is okay for the capacitor to be installed upside down? cause mine is installed upside down. also the voltage meter and the lights on the capacitor stays on even after the engine is shut off. i had my friend install this for me cause he said he knows what he is doing. i personally don't have a clue about this stuff. from reading the posts seems like you are a pro.
see if the capacitor you're using has a small remote wire that drives the digital display. if it does, you can use a relay and connect that to a switched ignition 12 volt source instead of the direct battery constant. that'll turn off the visual display when the car is off to preserve the car battery.
I don't know about your particular cap but, the display on most will only come on when there is a voltage change. Like when you start your vehicle or there is a decent bass hit that pulls more current thus lowering the system voltage. It is usually timed to stay on for 30 secs or so. The few leds don't draw much current at all anyways, so I think you are fine.
thanks. that was just bothering me. it does go off after a little time but it comes back on again and goes out even though nothing is running. i should have said it goes on and off.
hey GlassWolf i had my cap in my car i took it out then put it back in when i was hooking the wires back up it sparked on the + side of the cap and now the LEDs dont work what did i mess up and what can i do to fix it?
Heh...was going to say, I've always hooked up capacitors straight up without precharging.. Just disconnect my batteries ground first. Now disconnecting, this is another story, heh heh.
Have never really had a problem with it, but I almost always wear gloves when messing around with electrical wiring...just to be on the safe side.
Seth
djgazman85
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Nice to see many responses on my post but none to do with what I want!
You see I got it on its own without any instructions so I'm lost as to what to do!
