Installing Power Capacitors?

**coachreed** · 09-08-2004, 11:25 PM

The test light gives a path for juice to flow through the cap, charging it up slowly... I had charged my last one but took awhile to hook the amp and stuff up... when I went to install my fuse into my fused distro block, I arced the fuse and it partially welded to the block! DOH! Definitely wanna charge before hooking things up! lol Ground the cap on the Negative side, get your 12V supply ran and hooked up but before you connect it to the cap, put the test light in series with it... once the test light quicks shineing, remove the light and hook the 12V supply cable to the cap... should be good!

Good luck!

**christmaspie** · 09-08-2004, 11:28 PM

Most car audio specific capacitors should come with a circuit board to charge up your capacitor. Basically you hook it up to 12V on a test bench for about 5 minutes and it charges up slowly to avoid a spark. LED goes out when it's all charged. Now if you don't have one or it didn't come with one I would recommend checking out monstercable.com or rockfordfosgate.com or something because they might have listed values. I'm not at work right now but next time I'm there I'll grab one of my boards and check resistor values and let you know.

**sdashiki** · 09-09-2004, 01:08 PM

its just my hope that you arent gonna use the cap for yuor carputer and only for the amp.

Caps are overrated in all aspects. Too bluky for what they do, BIG power jolts by milliseconds at a time, if you hit the bass with subs on a nice low droning note, the caps do nothing and it just drains yer car battery.

If you are worried abuot power draw from AC, windows, radio, amp and carputer. Get a dry cell deep cycle battery.

NEVER EVER EVER buy caps, they are pointless. When a second battery is only $150

IMO

**falconey** · 09-09-2004, 01:29 PM

Originally Posted by sdashiki

its just my hope that you arent gonna use the cap for yuor carputer and only for the amp.

Caps are overrated in all aspects. Too bluky for what they do, BIG power jolts by milliseconds at a time, if you hit the bass with subs on a nice low droning note, the caps do nothing and it just drains yer car battery.

If you are worried abuot power draw from AC, windows, radio, amp and carputer. Get a dry cell deep cycle battery.

NEVER EVER EVER buy caps, they are pointless. When a second battery is only $150

IMO

This is wrong. You sound like you've been reading too much nonsense on the net. Caps are good for those that use them correctly. No it won't save a battery or an altenator and no it's not a miracle worker. But if you get a cap for what it's actually meant for it can take some of your electrical system load for most dips dealing with bass hits. So my take is they aren't great pieces of equipment, but in no way are they useless.

**sdashiki** · 09-09-2004, 05:49 PM

UM NO.

have u ever installed car audio yourself?

Caps do nothing to stop power load drops. A bass hit with a 1 farad cap and a 1000watt system will work until the bass becomes a drone. Millisecond charge/discharge of the cap makes it utterly useless in all but the most mediocre settings. Bass hits like a hip hop beat work fine, but you throw in some techno and some fatboy slim bass drones and your lights fade away and so does your sound. And in carputer applications a big explosion from a DVD could do it.

You may see caps used in competition cars and think wow they must do it, so must I. Competition people use them CUZ ITS COMPETITION and they are mostly sponsored by companies who make their own caps.

It boils down to cost really, 1 farad cap sets u back $100. Whereas a deepcycle battery that takes up no more volume of space than the 1 cap or 2 half caps, costs $150 and will work to your benefit. Powering everything including amps, carputers and subs for long after you shut off the car. Caps cant do that, they dont hold a charge when the car is off. Wel yes they do but a millisecond charge that doesnt get recharged never really existed if it does no actual work.

In a carputer/audio setup the computer comes first and a deep cycle battery is the way to go. Anyone i ever talk to about competition sound this and car audio that, dont use caps. Its pointless, deep cycle batteries wired in series can power anything you can ever throw at it and not get drained. And for applications seen on these forums, a yellowtop deep cycle battery wired to the car battery will SUFFICE MORE AND BETTER THAN ANY CAP.

Oh and caps are dangerous, cross the two points and BAM. Do that to a deepcycle... well you cant.

if you spent money on a nice car audio system, and a good carputer, take care of it. A cap wont do that. Not even supposed to do that, they are only there to MAKE SURE MILLISECONDALLY (mmmmmmm spelling) that the bass doesnt drop the voltage of your car and thusly DIM THE AUDIO, not only the lights. Keeps yer bass HITS from being pings

**DLe** · 09-09-2004, 06:14 PM

Originally Posted by sdashiki

UM NO.

have u ever installed car audio yourself?

Caps do nothing to stop power load drops. A bass hit with a 1 farad cap and a 1000watt system will work until the bass becomes a drone. Millisecond charge/discharge of the cap makes it utterly useless in all but the most mediocre settings. Bass hits like a hip hop beat work fine, but you throw in some techno and some fatboy slim bass drones and your lights fade away and so does your sound. And in carputer applications a big explosion from a DVD could do it.

You may see caps used in competition cars and think wow they must do it, so must I. Competition people use them CUZ ITS COMPETITION and they are mostly sponsored by companies who make their own caps.

It boils down to cost really, 1 farad cap sets u back $100. Whereas a deepcycle battery that takes up no more volume of space than the 1 cap or 2 half caps, costs $150 and will work to your benefit. Powering everything including amps, carputers and subs for long after you shut off the car. Caps cant do that, they dont hold a charge when the car is off. Wel yes they do but a millisecond charge that doesnt get recharged never really existed if it does no actual work.

In a carputer/audio setup the computer comes first and a deep cycle battery is the way to go. Anyone i ever talk to about competition sound this and car audio that, dont use caps. Its pointless, deep cycle batteries wired in series can power anything you can ever throw at it and not get drained. And for applications seen on these forums, a yellowtop deep cycle battery wired to the car battery will SUFFICE MORE AND BETTER THAN ANY CAP.

Oh and caps are dangerous, cross the two points and BAM. Do that to a deepcycle... well you cant.

if you spent money on a nice car audio system, and a good carputer, take care of it. A cap wont do that. Not even supposed to do that, they are only there to MAKE SURE MILLISECONDALLY (mmmmmmm spelling) that the bass doesnt drop the voltage of your car and thusly DIM THE AUDIO, not only the lights. Keeps yer bass HITS from being pings

Don't worry, i'm using this for the right thing. My carputer needs this capacitor to run well. (JK) Of course I'm using it to power my amp. This is just so that the 12v in my car won't drain for those initial low bass tones.

**WhiteRabbit** · 09-09-2004, 07:53 PM

I think some people here are very confused about the purpose a capacitor plays in a vehicle.

then some people decided to voice their opinion (yep, just opinion) when there was no question raised at all about the issue.

He knows how to install a cap now. cool

to those confused about the difference between batteries, capacitors, and even between deep cycle versus starting batteries and why there is a use for each one, check out http://www.betteraudio.com/geolemon/newmain/battcapalt/

that should put to bed the side topic of each's function

**christmaspie** · 09-09-2004, 11:29 PM

Capacitors in vehicles do a very good job of controlling DC ripple and when properly installed can be useful to an extent. To say that all caps suck or that a deep cycle is the answer for everyone is foolish. I have installed caps in systems that had headlight dim and seen the dim eliminated on exact same music after installation of caps. Capacitors are not useless.

**sdashiki** · 09-10-2004, 01:15 PM

dont argue that. Cost is the main issue for everyone.

Why spend almost the same amount on caps when a larger benefit from deep cycle can be had for only a few dollars more?

Price versus abilities.

Just the same reason we build carputers. Why spend $600 on a decent HU when it only plays Cds and maybe MP3s? For $1000 you can have a sweet carputer setup for more than just cds.

**WhiteRabbit** · 09-10-2004, 04:12 PM

Originally Posted by sdashiki

dont argue that. Cost is the main issue for everyone.

Why spend almost the same amount on caps when a larger benefit from deep cycle can be had for only a few dollars more?

Price versus abilities.

Please read the link I provided. Then, you will be able to tell me exactly why this is a fallacious argument.

While reading, specifically focus on how capacitors perform versus how deep cycles perform. If you wish, even check out how starting batteries perform. It helps to put things into perspective.

Then you can post back below and explain to everyone why a deep cycle rarely does what a capacitor normally does, and why a capacitor will NEVER do what a deep cycle is designed to do.

seriously, its all in the link I posted yesterday. Its not even a very long article, should be easy to pick out the neccesary information.