Both of my amps went into protection mode last night.
I'm thinking its a dodgy earth. I removed the car's antenna completely a week ago, and the deck went dead, so pulled it out and the earth wire had been snapped some how (but it was still earthing through the antenna until I pulled it out.)

Haven't had time to check my rewire job on the earth yet.

Is it likely to be that or something else?

The amps are Audison VRx 4.300 and 2.400
My alternator can't keep up and I have different guage positive and negative cables, very naughty I know haven't had time to change them yet.
I had given them a fair workout yesterday, but they shouldn't have been troubled at all if all else is ok... and the fact that both of them are in safety mode suggests a problem with power supply yes??

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HU - CDA7969R
frunt - Morel HCW8 + CDM54 + Supremo tweets
bak - 2xKappa Perfect 10
amps - VRx4.300EX and VRx2.400EX
EQ - PPi DEQ230
Supra Deadsheet and Flashtac
Neotech and Dai-Chi cable
Aerpro, PIAA, Bellanco, Genesis 50A

sounds like a powersupply issue. and a multimeter should confirm it (voltage drop).

given the VRx's have been fine until now, then it shouldn't be the amps.

good luck

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/////ALPINE audison DYNAUDIO »»»morel polkaudio OPTIMA Stinger LIGHTNINGAUDIO

Issues of harassment, conflict, vindictive allegations, or unfairness, personal or observed, should be reported to me via Private Messages or at [email="shiny_car@caraudioaustralia.com"]shiny_car@caraudioaustralia.com[/email]

cheers man... yeah they have the safety light on.

Everything has been sweet until now, tho they only really been in use a few weeks. (I rarely have my car outside of workshops at the moment)

well, your not going to like this, but after my old headunit broke, it decided to only ground through the RCAs and unfortunately that broke the pre-inputs on both of my amps..

now Audison amps may be better designed and may have had protection against this - hopefully

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- A proud member of Team Gates - A proud supporter of the CAA SPL project

They also shut down with UNDER and OVER voltage.

I think it may be 10.5V & 16V


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Car Audio Australia Manager
Car Audio Magazine Editor
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Sound Quality System
- Source Unit: Pioneer DEH-P900HDD
- Multimedia: Pioneer AVX-P7300DVD - 5" Headrest Screens
- Front Stage: Morel HCW8 8" - Morel CDM54 3.5" - Morel Supremo 3" Tweeters
- Rear Fill: Morel Integra 6" Coaxials
- Subwoofer: Hertz Air Mille 3800 15" Infinite Baffle
- Amplifiers: Audison VRx 6.420.2 - Audison VRx 4.300.2
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Please do not PM me, use email - mrtek@optusnet.com.au

Thanks peoples...

Could the voltage problem be due to bad earth?

The voice coil on one of my 8" midbass was going nuts... with huge cone excursions without corresponding input... What's causing this power surging??? Plus started crackling so I have shut the whole system down until I can get professional help.

I'm wondering... when the aerial came out... is there some wiring attached to it that should have been removed?? I figured any wiring would be capped/cased but maybe not?

I'm not too stressed cos the system is wired with a dozen in line fuses and the amps have internal fuses as does the deck... plus a big circuit breaker etc. Still problem needs to be solved. If I'm lucky I may get it looked at tommorrow. Otherwise it was already booked in for full work over of electrical system next monday so will sort it then. Wish me luck!!!!

if the amp is grounding through the RCA's you'd need to fuse your RCA's to protect your pre-amp. (which i bet you haven't done, cause it's really silly)
first thing i'd check is that you haven't blown a VC, if the speakers were hitting huge excursion, they may be/have fried. put a multimeter on the coils to see, if this is the case, then possibly the impedance that the amp sees is lower than it likes, hence protection mode.

otherwise, as everyone else says, a power issue, shouldn't be a problem at low levels though, unless the earth has disconnected completely.

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'96 Mirage, currently resembling a tin can
uninstalled: Rockford RFX9300, Focal 165W3's Vrx 2.150 & 1.500
Power by: HERTZ audison OPTIMA StingerAerpro
TEAM AUDISON

Well the speaker certainly looks and sounds blown. But its a Morel HCW8 running 4ohm and about 75wrms... and it's only been in use a few weeks!

often when a speaker blows, it's impedance drops significantly, like under 2 ohm, sometimes under 1ohm,
which would cause the audison to go into protection mode.

this could be caused by manufacturer fault, or just overpowering it/abuse.
if the coil has melted, it's basically got to be from overpowering/abuse (even if unintentional)


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'96 Mirage, currently resembling a tin can
uninstalled: Rockford RFX9300, Focal 165W3's Vrx 2.150 & 1.500
Power by: HERTZ audison OPTIMA StingerAerpro
TEAM AUDISON

multimeter: you can check the voltage at the amp terminals, and the DC resistance (Re) of the morel woofer (Re is usually a little lower than the nominal impedence; eg: 3.7ohm vs 4ohm)

indeed a poor ground could be the cause of the problem. i guess too, a low voltage supply to the amps could be causing them to faulter and distort heavily. i think marc had a similar problem (supposedly a weak power supply for whatever reason) that cause his VRx to bugger up!

hang-on, haven't i bought that amp off you marc! aaaaaaaaaah!

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/////ALPINE audison DYNAUDIO »»»morel polkaudio OPTIMA Stinger LIGHTNINGAUDIO

Issues of harassment, conflict, vindictive allegations, or unfairness, personal or observed, should be reported to me via Private Messages or at [email="shiny_car@caraudioaustralia.com"]shiny_car@caraudioaustralia.com[/email]

Earthing a unit through the RCA leads is very dangerous, it can burn tracks in the head unit and cause faults further down the system line.

Whilst the VRx are very well equipped to handle most problems you can still do damage if being silly.

My suggestion is to see a professional, in Perth there is only one person that we authorize to install and carry out fault diagnostic work.

Clinton Bowers Design Audio contact Clinton on 0412 435 388

I have spoken with Clint and he is expecting a call from you.

Phil



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Phil Kent
Australian Importer/Distributor:
Audison - Amplifiers
Hertz - Speakers and Multimedia
Morel - Audiophile Car Audio & Home Cinema Speakers.
Audison Cable - Cables of the Highest Quality & Purity
AZ Audicomp - Advanced Installation Components for Professionals
http://www.rmaudio.com.au

Thanks Phil, I'll call him first thing tommorrow.

edit: took it in to Cinton today and all components are fine. Must be a wiring or possibly power supply problem. As its already booked in elsewhere for a wiring and power supply improvements he left it all as is. Thanks heaps for pointing me in his direction Phil... I was impressed by his standard of work and will be seeing him again in the near future.

[Edited 1 time by pope on 02 October 2002 at 23:03]

RM Audio have a policy of only dealing with reputable dealers who have a good understanding of the equipment they sell.

Phil


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Phil Kent
Australian Importer/Distributor:
Audison - Amplifiers
Hertz - Speakers and Multimedia
Morel - Audiophile Car Audio & Home Cinema Speakers.
Audison Cable - Cables of the Highest Quality & Purity
AZ Audicomp - Advanced Installation Components for Professionals
http://www.rmaudio.com.au

Yeah its something thats lacking a bit here in WA.
The one place that deals solely in high quality components are very bad at treating customers well.
Clinton seems to have the right mix of customer care, technical knowledge, and selectivity of quality products!

Where has he been my whole life?

[Edited 1 time by pope on 06 October 2002 at 18:02]