Questions about wiring a capacitator

**Meelobee** · 06-01-2006, 04:11 PM

Because my pc keeps shutting down when I crank the car engine I bough a capacitator, unfortunately the cap didn't come with a good installation manual. For what i could figure out, this is how it is supposed to be connected, is that correct?

The manual says:

"Do not ground the capacitator directly to the amplifier's (in my case my car pc) ground terminal or to the system ground wiring. "

The only place I have to attach ground is a big screw in the trunk. But my carpc is allready on that, can I also ground the cap on that?

**Jahntassa** · 06-01-2006, 04:42 PM

That's the right way to wire it, but I don't think a cap will really do what you need it to do in this case. You'd really need something more like a tank battery.

**turbocad6** · 06-01-2006, 05:23 PM

a cap may or may not help.... depends how much help your system needs.... the cap needs to be charged... the first time it is connected to power & every time after that..... the "correct" way to do this is to charge it slowly, with like a 194 bulb in the circuit... takes a few seconds to charge.....

an alternative is to just wire it all up with the battery disconnected, then either charge it with a bulb at the battery terminal to avoid sparking it, or just put the terminal on.... it will spark intially... this is normal.... a 1f cap won't do much.... a huge bank of caps will weld the terminal to the battery though with so much current flow at once... so charging is more important the larger you go with caps...

**zootjeff** · 06-01-2006, 07:34 PM

You want the cap as close to the computer as you can get it. Get the Ground closer to the computer than the Chassis if you have that option. How big is the cap?

You might want to use a battery and a Diode.

**blazinaspire** · 06-01-2006, 09:55 PM

the wire in the middle that you have in your diagram is a remote wire for the cap and it needs to be connected to the remote on your radio or another 12v switched source, but in my opinion i dont think it will help, just get a better battery and thicker wires, and then you will see a difference, well thast what we do when we have an audio setup

**Meelobee** · 06-02-2006, 02:51 AM

Originally Posted by zootjeff

You want the cap as close to the computer as you can get it. Get the Ground closer to the computer than the Chassis if you have that option. How big is the cap?

You might want to use a battery and a Diode.

The cap I have now is 1F, I got an option to get a 2F version. I'll try to install it tonight and see if it works. If it doesn't work I still can get a battery and a diode. Do you perhaps have a diagram how to wire that? (specs in sig) (sorry, my electrical skills aren't that good..)

Edit: Nevermind, I'm not going to use the cap, I found the source of the problem and I won't need the cap now. Turned out the wiring to my on/off button has too much resistance and that causes the rebooting pc on cranks. Thanks for the help anyway