Capacitor question URGENT!!!

Capacitor question URGENT!!!

I am going to buy a capacitor to put in my audio system but I don't know how long the wire needed to be.............I will put the capacitor in my trunk but I need to know how long I need the wire...........8ft>?? 10ft??

btw, I am new in audio system, if I understand, there's a wire from the cap to the car battery and the other one is from the cap to the amp right???
so basically, I need one of the two wire to be long enough to be able to wire it from the trunk to the battery................and the other wire (depending on the space between the cap and amp)

how long should i buy the wire????????

Nope, you've got the installation wrong. Doesn't run a cable from the battery to the cap, then the cap to the amp.

The cap is wired in parallel with the power and ground leads going to the amp.

Instructions come with the cap...read them well, or have your local Best Buy put it in for you. Cheap peice of mind that it's done right.

Power wire from battery to fuse then to cap then to amp... Negative wire from ground to amp.... and negative on cap to ground.. power wire from amp to cap must be NO LONGER THE 18"!!!! or a cap is pointless..
directions should be with the capacitor...
be careful use the slow gain fuse that came with the cap...
good luck

so the wire from the cap to amp should not be longer than 8ft.

but how much long do I need the other wire from the battery to fuse.........that's what I want to KNOW!!! (if I put the cap in the trunk)

thanks

Keep the cable between the fuse and the battery to a absolute minimum. The fuse not only protects your amp from a internal short (actually any good amp has a built in fuse to do that), it protects the rest of your car from a short somewhere in the power cable between itself and the amp.

15 feet won't be quite enough. Go with 20. You'll probably have a couple of feet left over, but more is better than less.

What gage are you running?

4 gauges...........i think 16ft. should be quite enough........

What's the exact use of a capacitor ?

It's supposed to help regulate the voltage to the amp. A capacitor stores electrons. When the amp demands a lot of power the capacitor can help to prevent a drop in voltage by supplementing the alternator/battery, but only for a very short period of time. When the amp doesn't need a lot of power, the capacitor recharges itself from the battery/alternator. It's a lot like a toilet tank. When you flush, you need a lot of water really fast (more than the water supply can give you). Once the flush is over, the tank recharges slowly from the water supply.

It can make a difference if you're running 2000 watts, but practically it's not worth the expense.

I don't mean to spoil your thread, just trying to help-- If you haven't bought the CAP yet, please don't. Just spend the money to buy something that WILL ACTUALLY make a DIFFERENCE-- like Sounddeadening material, HO alt, or extra wires for bi-wiring/bi-amping.

I have installed many systems with caps and without caps.. and what I observed is that there's absolutely NO audible difference with or without a cap. Their ESR's (internal resistance) is too high to compensate for the voltage dips (Xstatic Batcaps are said to have resolved this though, but they're expensive)

If you wanto to stabilize your electrical system, you should consider upgrading to an HO alt. CAPs are just "band aid"

I agree with XTM, in thoery they sound like they should work, but no one that I know of has ever proved with a SPL meter that there is any difference. In fact most the guys running 150 db or more dont even use a cap. They just have 2 or 3 24" or larger subs and a whole lot of concrete with MDF. Unless you are running over 2,000 watts your not going to really need it anyway. I also recomend a High Output Alt. It will save the rest of your car anyway. You can also look at doing an engine ground system to help things out, or use some of your left over power wire to run a ground directly off the alt casing to the ground on the battery. That will help the dimming effect of your headlights about as much as a cap.

The caps can be a little scary too. I forgot about it once, and disconnected the positive cable from my battery to put a fuseholder to my horns on the post. Layed the positive cable somewhere close to the engine block (or somewhere, not exactly sure where), and it tossed a pretty good spark! Guess they hold a charge for a long time.

I must disagree. Having a cap made a substantial difference in my setup. I ran a 3 amp system, around 700 watts, and throwing a 1.0 farad cap in made a world of difference. My bass increase with my sealed 12's was probably 20-25%. This is with a car with a new 110 amp alternator. If you want a cap, get one. Usually it's .5 farads for every 500 watts, but more is always better.

As stated above, use caution when dealing with caps. They store enough electricity to kill you, if the charge were to go through you. Luckily, humans skin is pretty much a big resistor. Also, the charge can remain present for quite a while. Just don't go putting the thing on your tongue like a 9volt battery.

Use a test light to charge and discharge caps. They are easier to deal with than the little resistor that comes with it, and you know when it's finished charging or discharging.

The recommended way to wire your power setup is this:
use 4 guage when running a decent amount of power, 8 is wimpy, more is always better/safer
from postive battery terminal to fuse...no longer than 18" from battery
from that fuse to your cap's positive side....get 20 ft of the stuff....you really will need it
from that same positive end of the cap to your amp/power distro....this should be fused for eash amp
ground the cap to a good, clean ground on chassis....same guage as power wire, no longer than 18"
ground your amp/ground distro to good clean ground...again, short a possible, same guage

Let me know if there are any questions.