Capacitor Installation, How to Pictures

[gkatmar]

I have a Stinger SC241MDX 1.2 Farad capacitor and it has a distribution built in to it. It has 4 connections as you can see in the picture. My question is how do you hook this thing up? Do I need to use all of the connections? I am only gonna be hooking it up to one mono amp powering one sub. Thanks

 

[my04runner]

Gkatmar, How powerfull is your amp? Do you plan to have your bass pounding? A Cap is not normally needed if you are only running one Amp on it. The Cap allows a steady source of current to be delivered to the amps. A Cap is very usefull if you are going to be pulling a lot of power from the battery, but normally one to two amplifiers can run fine with out a Cap if you are planning on winning any bass competitions. Just my two cents.

But to answer your question. There should be a "+" or "-" symbols on each poll.

 

[Gravey]

saw the post, and thought wow now i can finally use my cap thats been sitting there. but looks like hes just askin for help =(

 

[otterball21]

A cap is nice though for any amp.

It depends on how many watts he's running. My truck can keep up with my 460 watt RMS amp. 900 peak. But if I sit at a light... my voltage does drop down to like 11-12 volts... the truck is trying to keep the battery charged which then charges the amp.


To wire up your cap... It looks like... one side i + and the otherside is -. FIRST THING YOU DO IS CHARGE YOUR AMP! They should have given you instructions on how to charge it. It allows a little trickle charge onto your capacitor so it doesn't become a quarter stick of dynamite... MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO CHARGE IT!

Now... that the precaution has been followed. ... The two terminals on one side for the positive... The power goes to one terminal and a wire for the amp comes out the second terminal for the same side. The other side of the cap... one goes to the ground cable.. and the other one has a wire to go to the amp for the amp ground. pretty much.. you wire the capacitor parallel to the power and ground of the amp. The digital display does not need a remote turn on or anything. When the power fluctuates in the capacitor it turns on and off. And no.. the digital display may stay on when you shut your truck off. But it will automatically shut off and not drain your truck battery.


Good luck...

 

[gkatmar]

I'm running an Alpine MRD-M500 amp. About 500 watts RMS.

 

[otterball21]

our truck's lights won't dim if your running up to 1000 watts.... any more than that... you'll start noticing some dimming.... but caps just give you that extra power that you need when you need it for punchy bass notes...

 

[bigacuralvr]

This is how I have always installed them, and never had a problem....

http://www.caraudiohelp.com/car_audio_capacitor_installation/car_audio_capacitor_installation.htm

Hope that helps!
Brett

 

[SH0ck-D]

500 watts RMS, your probably pushing 1200 MAX? You can probably downgrade to a .5 farad cap and save some money or not run one at all. For reference my friend was running a 3000watt max, 1200 RMS system (1 13.5 JL W7) and the shop that did his work only gave him a 1 farad cap.

my 2 cents.

 

[otterball21]

.5 farad would probably cover ya, but the difference is that the battery has to surge to charge a .5 farad cap if your drawing 500 watts rms. I usually see the cap actually helping if it was close to max power, so there is a decent left over charge and the headlights wouldn't dim.



If you were gonna go with .5 farad... I honestly wouldn't even bother, it would be a waste.