'"hi i have a power acoustik crypt 1500w 2ch amp and the protection light is on. i just bought the amp refurbished from the factory 2 weeks ago. i know my wiring is good cuz i tested it on a friends amp and it worked just fine. i am only running one sub a kenwood 12" 1200 watt 400rms and i have a scoshe .5 farad cap as well. now up until recently when i started my truck it would run great for about 20 min then go into protect and be very hot to touch. but when i restarted the car it would turn back on. so i added fans to circulate air and lifted irt on a mount to get ventilation. and now it goes straight into protection mode straight from the beggining. any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated. thank you
SOURCE: amp heats up and goes into protect mode
Hi Saint108. You're describing it well, and i know what the problem is already. The MA audio amp, can't hold with a 2 ohm load. It's too low for that amp, that's for sure. Those are budget amps and they are not well built enough to handle low ohm setups like that. It's overheating and there's no ways around it.. Other than wiring your subs differently ! Just wire your sub directly (not in parallel) in a 4 ohm load, you will notice it will stop overheating that much. Do it quick, you'll most likely fry your amp giving it such hard work !! The HUM you're hearing could be related to it also. Try that, and keep me posted on the status. Thanks ! Cheebster.
SOURCE: Protect Mode with RCA's
It sounds like you have some DC voltage on the RCA input.
You need to figure out if the problem is coming from the head unit or if it is in the amplifier.
If you have a voltage meter, you can use it to find out very quickly.
Set the meter for DC and for a max level of more than 12 volts. Most meters I use have a 30 volt level. That would be a good setting.
Take the black lead and make sure it is grounded to the chassis of the car or to the ground of the power terminal, be careful and make sure it does not touch anything else.
With the RCA cable disconnected put the red lead on the inner part of the RCA cable and see if there is any DC voltage and then check the ground or outer part of the cable. Do the same for the other channel as well.
It should be very close to zero volts. A couple of millivolts is fine to. Any voltage here will cause the amplifier to go into protect mode, which is what is happening to you. You will then need to have the head unit serviced.
If you have a Pioneer head unit, I have seen many of them with an open ground fuse for the RCA jack. That fuse is a surface mounted fuse and is very small and hard to locate on the main board of the radio. If you do have a Pioneer head unit the voltage may seem OK, but you will have an open ground, but that normally does not put the amp into protect. It makes the audio sound very weak and you would have a loud hum. I can help you with that if it turns out to be the problem.
If the voltage on both the RCA leads is OK, then you need to check the amplifier.
You can put the meter lead on the ground of the RCA jack on the amplifier, if you have anything abnormal there, you have a problem in the amplifier. Be careful checking this because you can easily touch the lead to the chassis of the amplifier at the same time as the RCA ground. Most of the time, if yu have a problem in the amplifier like the one you are having, this check of the RCA ground will result in some DC voltage on it. If it still checks OK, then put the lead into the RCA ground and check the positive part of it. You may need to move the lead around a little to get it to touch the metal inside, it is on the bottom part of the hole inside the jack.
I think you will find that you have some voltage on the RCA inputs of the amplifier. To fix this properly you will need to take it in to be serviced.
Sometimes you can ground the RCA jack ground somehow with a jumper wire and then turn the system on with the RCA cable plugged in and it will seem normal. But you do not want to do that as a repair, only to see if the amp will play. If it does play, you know that the problem is in the pre-amp of the amplifier. That would be the only reason to connect an external ground to the RCA jack. You still have a problem in the amplifier. If it does not play normal, you still have a problem in the amplifier if there was some DC on the RCA jack.
Sorry this answer is so long, but the problem you are having will require service of one of your units, you just need to know which one it is. If your inputs get grounded, you will not have the amp go into protect, you just won't hear anything.
Let me know if you need more help and if this was helpful to you a good rating is always appreciated.
SOURCE: my amp stays in protection mode
Does it go into protect in the vehicle if you disconnect the speaker wires from the speaker terminals of the amp?
SOURCE: how to bridge a 4ch power acoustik amp to 2ch
I had the Power acoustik saphire 4ch and had to do the same thing. Use the Positive from Term1 (spkr1) and Negative from Term2(spkr2). Good Luck.
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