Thread: Newbie here

No, as has been stated before, fusing at the battery is to prevent fires, arcing, etc, in the event of an accident/short/whatever between the battery and the end component. You fuse each component at the end of the run. For example, I have a 100A fuse at the battery and 4GA wire going from the engine compartment through the firewall and on to the trunk. That wire goes to a distribution block. Each component that taps into the distro block has its own appropriately sized fuse. All of my component draws add up to about 80A, so I used a 100A fuse.

Crutchfield has a well worded explanation you should read.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-kMVjk9h...ers_faq.html#3

You should email the company that makes the amp and ask what fuse they recommend. I think it's pretty stupid that they neglected to put that piece of information in the manual.

ok i'm thinking a fused(80A) cable to this in the boot somewhere:
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SZ2076
then a 60A fuse from that to the AMP
And a 15A fuse back to the CarPC under the passenger seat.

fuses:
kegobeer and his links summed it up nicely.

the one detail that i think was missed:
the fuse rating should never exceed the current capacity of the wire. it's a 'duh' thing, but sometimes easily missed.

and it appears that the12volt.com came back online:
http://www.the12volt.com/info/recwirsz.asp

i have always had the impression that cadence was a higher-end brand, so i think it is very odd that they don't include some sort of recommended fuse rating...

wiring:
3-4 years ago, any wiring kit you got would have been fine.

now, with the rising cost of copper, not so much. the most recent tech i have read about is a new wire on the market, called CCA, or Copper Coated Aluminum.

the biggest difference between that and copper wire is that it needs to be thicker to carry the same power, and because of the higher resistance of aluminum, higher loads do raise the chance that the wire will heat up with heavy use.

while the extra resistance/heat might not be a huge issue for most installs--though it is a major detractor for me, i really don't like the idea of running a thicker wire to carry the same amount of current.. most installs don't have the freedom to be able to easily run larger wires-- in terms of installation, the smaller, the better..

due to this, i recommend only buying kits that specifically state that they use copper wire.

in the end it will probably cost a little more, but i feel the quality benefits outweigh the extra cost.


crossover settings:

there are tons of guides online for this, though if you have trouble let me know what size speakers your working with, and i can give you some rough guidelines to start with(x-over setup is really specific to each install).

Sorry was away all weekend.
Shame there isn't more car pc stuff in aus
Don't worry too much about what I was saying wasn't the simplest of solutions far more suited to what I want to do. If you are interested I will explain better.

Cheers

nah i've pretty much decided under the seat will be easier anyway..
would prolly consider the glovebox, but being fully enclosed the heat wouldn't have anywhere to go.. while not a high powered pc, the heat would build up no doubt.
unless i cut into the aircon duct and send some of that air into the glovebox.. but nah..

Originally Posted by soundman98

and it appears that the12volt.com came back online:
http://www.the12volt.com/info/recwirsz.asp

Yeah i had a look there earlier, which is how i figured out what cable/fuses to get.. but i'm also here seeking confirmation that i'm not totally stupid and making mistakes

---------- Post added at 09:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 PM ----------

how long does the M2-ATX psu wait to turn on the AMP?

The M2-ATX just kind of guesses - I don't recall the exact amount of time. There are quite a few M2 owners that still get a pop. If that happens to you, you could get one of these: http://www.davidnavone.com/cart.asp?14&pid=146

Here is one of the M2 anti-thump sucks threads here on mp3car: http://www.mp3car.com/power-supplies...hump-suck.html

kegobeer, i am a little interested in the design of that pop eliminator. have you used one?


amp thump doesn't always happen with all setups. i usually recommend to go ahead and install everything first, and if you do happen to have a turn on pop, deal with it then..

there are really a couple of options for getting rid of it-- all involve turning the amps on after the pop occurs.

1. if you are familiar with electronics, you could build one using a 555 timer circuit-- that is what most external devices are based off of..
2. the link that kegobeer provided.
3. a dei 528t pulse timer.
4. a program called ampcntrl(spelled something like that) it uses a the serial port on the pc to turn the amps on after windows starts up..

options 1-3 are all 'expected-delays' meaning that if the pc hangs, or doesn't boot right away, the delay will not prevent the pop.
option 4 is the only way to ensure that the amps won't turn on until the pc is booted into windows-- well past the pop.
option 4 would require extra parts/switches if you use a aux input into your amps to turn them on in the event that the pc doesn't boot..

No, I don't use one. I don't have any problems with popping. I've seen that particular device mentioned in a few threads so I thought it was worth bringing up as a possible solution.

Ok, well the M2-ATX PSU won't fit inside the case.. so now i'm wondering if i can use motherboard standoffs to mount it to the side of the case.. though i'm wondering if the threads would be long enough to grip into a nut on the inside of the case.. if that makes sense..
i'll check tomorrow if the case will fit where i need it to.. i hope it will or it means another re-think
On the plus side, i guess if the PSU isn't in there i might be able to fit the digital radio module inside the case..