i'm going cap your a......

[stolibears]

I just recently got a cap for my setup for my amp and sub, but no one warned me about the little "gotcha" with having to charge it first before you hook it up.

in my research I found that if done incorrectly, you could fuse your main fuse to the fuse box if you ignore this very important step first.

now the cap I got, rockford fosgate, came with pretty vague instructions with a resistor card to aid in charging first, but neglected to explain what you supposed to use to charge it with. I read on some forums that you could do a "dead charge" by by-passing the fuse and hooking it up to the battery, but some people were against it.

since it required a 12v dc source, I just went out and got a car battery charger and used it to charge the cap.

does any one else have a better way?

thanks.

 

[$lick Rick]

it's really the discharge you have to be concerned with more than the charge

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

 

[civhatch92]

I just hooked mine to the battery to charge it.. yah it sparked and scared the s**t out of me, but it got the job done none the less.

 

[wetcmonkey]

ya straight to the battery is what im doing why to the fuse box? do explain.

 

[stolibears]

ya straight to the battery is what im doing why to the fuse box? do explain.

by-pass the fuse box, not through it. lol
the method I read about was basically just hooking the cap straight up to the battery to charge it. hooking it up with a fuse was a supposed no-no.

 

[ShinsenTuner]

I know you need one of those volt meters and possibly an old alarm horn, once those are connected and is charging, the alarm horn will slowly die out in sound. I had a cap when I had my system, it didn't do much but made the bass hit a lot cleaner and harder at high volume. Also looked really cool, lol.

 

[stolibears]

I know you need one of those volt meters and possibly an old alarm horn, once those are connected and is charging, the alarm horn will slowly die out in sound. I had a cap when I had my system, it didn't do much but made the bass hit a lot cleaner and harder at high volume. Also looked really cool, lol.

yeah, I read something like that, but they used a light bulb instead of the horn.

 

[lewis_lsi]

just hoocked mine up 2 the battery and then it starts to flash or somthing when its charging. normally the numbers show around 12-13v and this is not flashing, though it changes will ur music is playing. the main danger is hoocking the wiring up wrong but most caps have security features for this, especially a fosgate.

 

[cujo613]

Light tester

resistor

siren

the charger that came with it

See the fun thing with caps is that they can explode if they are defective and you just throw a charge directly into it

 

[Genuine Rolla]

^^

So then how do you go about charging one up safely...?