Whats power Capacitor?!?!?!?!

[amballer82822]

I installed blue LEDS in all the stock light sockets. (Step lights, map lights, door lights , glove box , gauges.) and i have a custom box in the trunk with two 12" subs and 4000 watt amp. everytime i turn the bass up a little the lights all strobe or like dim the go lighter along when the bass hits... will a Power capacitor fix this please help thanks98GGSX Thumps up

 

[DSM_munky_man]

Yes it will, just remember to wire it the right way.

 

[AGSX2NV]

Yes that will definitely help. IT also wouldn'be a bad idea on running a higher amp alternator. That helps alooot.

Car Audio Capacitor Installation

 

[amballer82822]

Thanks alot guys appreciate it

 

[2GbTalonGuy]

Yup, that should do the trick. How many watts are you running through your trunk anyways!?

 

[krackit]

cap is almost a must when runnin 2 bigger subs. the cap will also help prevent killing your battery while your car is just idling and not producing as much amperage. doesn't take a lot of wattage to turn your car into a disco room. especially if ## running more power options. alternator just cant keep up.

 

[ramsack]

A capacitor isn't going to help keep the battery level up. A capacitor can drain its charge very very quickly. The more amperes being drawn off of it the quicker it drains. Subs will drain a farad capacitor in a second or less. They are just there to act as a reserve so the lights don't dim. It's not going to save an alternator, either. You need the power to back everything up. Plenty thick cabling and a good alternator. It wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade the alternator and put a much thicker wire from the alternator to the fuse box or battery (I forget the route off-hand). A capacitor is just a power supply smoother. You might consider getting more efficient subs. Wattage isn't everything. You don't need an insane amount of watts for loudness. In fact the more watts there is the more chance there is that the subs are crap and it's just going to boom and not offer clarity whatsoever. 4000 watts is just ridiculous. You only realistically need 500 watts at the most. 4000 watts is 333 amperes @ 12 volts. You are going to need multiple alternators to keep up assuming a constant 4000 watts. You are probably barely even utilizing 4000 watts. The more you amplify a signal the more distorted it becomes.

 

[Tyeler18]

A capacitor isn't going to help keep the battery level up. A capacitor can drain its charge very very quickly. The more amperes being drawn off of it the quicker it drains. Subs will drain a farad capacitor in a second or less. They are just there to act as a reserve so the lights don't dim. It's not going to save an alternator, either. You need the power to back everything up. Plenty thick cabling and a good alternator. It wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade the alternator and put a much thicker wire from the alternator to the fuse box or battery (I forget the route off-hand). A capacitor is just a power supply smoother. You might consider getting more efficient subs. Wattage isn't everything. You don't need an insane amount of watts for loudness. In fact the more watts there is the more chance there is that the subs are crap and it's just going to boom and not offer clarity whatsoever. 4000 watts is just ridiculous. You only realistically need 500 watts at the most. 4000 watts is 333 amperes @ 12 volts. You are going to need multiple alternators to keep up assuming a constant 4000 watts. You are probably barely even utilizing 4000 watts. The more you amplify a signal the more distorted it becomes.

This.

A cap isn't going to benefit you. Waste of money if you ask me.

Btw Ramsack, what's your profession?

 

[ramsack]

My profession is a forum moderator for an internet company, but in my experiences with everything I do and learned by reading a doing I'm a mechanic, electrician (digital logic, wiring, car shit, household, industrial controls), and part physicist (not all the way there yet in understanding quantum physics 100%, cause no one really does.)

A 1 farad capacitor is going to store 1 columb of electricity. Which is 1 volt at 1 ampere per second. So you would need almost 28 of those capacitors to keep a 4000 watt system up for a second.

 

[krackit]

it will stop your battery from having such a significant drain. a caps only purpose is to smooth out voltage spikes and keep a constant voltage equal to that of the circuit. so on a 12v system, the cap will help keep the voltage at 12v when the sub punches, taking a bigger amperage draw. without the cap, when the bass hits, it takes a bigger draw, lowering your systems voltage, in result, disco lights.

 

[ramsack]

A battery can't let go of electricity quickly like a capacitor can. If you don't have the charging system to back up 4000 watts then a capacitor isn't going to do anything to help the battery (it won't anyway no matter how small the wattage is.) The car's system dims because the battery cannot let go of electricity NOR can the alternator provide the amperage to keep a healthy ~13.5 volts up.

A 1 farad capacitor taking a 4000 watt hit (12 volts, 333 amps) is going to drain in 1/28 of a second. A battery is going to take minutes to drain.

It's so hard to get a job in a field of knowledge without degrees to back it up, even if one has the brains.

 

[krackit]

ya. i don't disagree with what you are saying. im just saying they do help with the battery. my JBLs are only 500WATTS and i have a 5farad cap for it. i myself believe caps are necessary in bigger systems if you want the quality. pulling power from your amp and deck isn't going to help. just like for home theater systems, you buy units that produce a constant 120volts so your home theater equiptment is constantly fed the proper voltage for best quality.

 

[ramsack]

The only thing they help with is dimming of the lights. It can be destructive to alternators if it is severe enough. Brushed motors don't like high frequency large loads being drawn like that. 500 watts is nothing to an alternator. You are rarely ever hitting 500 watts, too. The RMS power is how you are supposed to design systems, not peak. RMS is usually half, so at an average you are seeing 250-300 watts on the system. Hell, even turn signals flashing dim other lights on these cars and that is less than 50 watts. 4000 watts, you might as well put a V8 in there and put like 5 alternators on. That's a lot of horsepower and gas being sucked away for just thumping.

Those units for home theater systems you are referring to are VARIACS, which are variable transformers constantly being adjusted to say 120 VAC. There is also some line-conditioning crap in them, too. To me, they are a gimmick. A receiver has its own transformer and the voltage is getting stepped down, and in the end conditioned inside the receiver to 5 volts. Amp stages may use a higher voltage, but it is still conditioned by the receiver.