Hey All-

Managed to do a mid-week project of installing a subwoofer. Everything is wired: The remote wire is on a fuse, the ground wire is solid, all the power wires are working and the amp has power...but the subs don't work. I think it may be because I have a hi-low converter, which I wired to the rear passenger side speaker. That speaker still works, the amp has power, everything else works EXCEPT THE SUBS. Any suggestions? Maybe the settings on the Hi-Low are wrong??? I have input set to 'wired' and output set to 'RCA'. Any suggestions on what to do??? Any and all help appreciated! Tahnsk so much,

Chris

 

Wow, sounds like everything is a go. Any chance the wires in the sub box came loose(during the install of the woofer into the subbox)? Happened to me once, drove me crazy.

 

Sounds like everything is ok... but a few things to check:

1. Polarity of the high-low from the rear speaker to the amp is correct.
2. As CSAMF suggested, maybe your sub-wires got disconnected.
3. If you have a multi-meter check the ohm levels pre and post the converter, making sure it's not a bad converter.
4. Since it sounds like you have RCAs running to the sub-box I guess checking the polarity there wouldn't be a problem. But just check to make sure those are ok.

Apart from that... I don't know... I'm kinda of lost myself.

 

I took out the RCA converter so now there are no red and white cables....I may just want to use thr RCA converter and wire it to the back of the stock head unit in order to get the signal right. Other than that I have no idea what's wrong,.... The amp has power, the subs don't hit and i've tried it with 2 different sets of subs and 2 different sets of speaker wire. Any idea which fuses you guys used to power the amp?? Maybe this is the problem. I am using 2 green 30s. Thanks all

Chris

 

Just a suggestion on wiring your input to your converter. Really doubt it will solve your problem, but it will give stereo input to mono output for your sub, while capturing both channels of bass signal.

Tap + from one of the rears and the - from the other rear.

Put a multimeter on the converter output RCAs and measure the voltage. You'll need something between 2 & 5 volts for the amp to work with. Less and the amp might not be seeing a signal at all, and therefore not switch on its output stage. More, and depending upon the amp, its fail safes could be switching off the output stage because of possible over amplification.

Fuse size will have no effect other than popping at a specific amperage/overload killing power to the amp. If the amp is on, then the fuse is good and has no other effect on the output side of the amp.
g'luck!

 

Tapping the + from the left will give you a left channel only. You might be playing with fire (literally) if you combine different signals on the right ground(-). The ground wire might not be rated to take those combined signals.

Doesn't really matter where the ground (-) goes, your signal for the speaker is only coming from the positive(+).

 

Sorry Shank, beg to differ. Please see: http://www.bcae1.com/trimode.htm Tri-mode configuration explained.

While this example illistrates my recommendation on an amplified source, it applys. One would only be pulling low frequency & low load signal in this configuration, thereby leaving 95% of the signal bandwith and load to drive the main speakers-- very small impact on the factory HU.

 

Yea the left pos, right side negative shouldn't harm any thing. I installed audio stuff all day long. If your rear speaker is playing and the converter is on it, its some thing else. I've never gotten a bad converter and trust me I've sold and install lots from a few diffrent companys.

They have already sugested some good things to look for but here a few that they didn't mention.

On its simple did you over look you level setting, Make sure you have it turn up some other wise you won't get any sound from your speakers.

This a common problem that I have from customers, They blow fuse's and don't know it. If you have a round glass type fuse(looks like a small glass cylinder with either gold or silver ends) if you amp is fairly small its possible to blow these with no visible signs at all that they are blown. (easy way to check if you don't have multi meter is to simply turn on the radio and remove the fuse then touch the two ends of the wire that the fuse goes between together and if after a sec it begins to play then its the fuse.

Another way is to make a small jumper wire from the Pos on the amp to the Remote on the amp if it works then it probally the fuse.

A lot of amps power light will come on and stay on fine when the fuse is blown because its getting power from the remote.

But trust me its more than likely not the converter and running it from behinf the Head unit is just going to be extra work.

 

oooh.. completely misunderstood what you meant. Sorry. You are correct, the tri-mode configuration is perfectly fine (in fact, I have mine set up that way).

I thought we were discussing pre-amp config. This is what I thought you meant:


Sorry about the mis-understanding.

 

No sweat, buddy. I didn't articulate myself well. Your diag is what I am suggesting. Since Bullet has his leveler installed only on one speaker, I assumed his line leveler is a single channel input and single channel output. If that's what he's got then I still recommend he do it like a tri-mode.

You are right though... it really wouldn't make much sense on a 2 channel input, 2 channel output line leveler. Sure, you'd end up with a combined stereo signal, but only on the left channel output of the line leveler.... effectively wasting your right channel leveling capability.

Urban Assault has probably hit the nail on the head... the gain pots are probably set too low. Totally missed that one