Proper capacitor initial charging instructions???
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Proper capacitor initial charging instructions
Anyone care to explain to me in detail how to properly charge a capacitor initially? First time installing one and I am ignorant of how to do it. I think I place the supplied resitor unit on the cap itself, connecting both + and -. But do I only connect the red wire to the 12V power source, and ground the black wire, or do I connect the red wire to the 12V source, and use the resistor in line with the ground?
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Rep Power: 0 Hey "0100010". The resistor supplied with your capacitor is used to regulate the current flowing to your cap. If you hooked up your cap w/o properly charging, there would, theoretically, be an infinate amount of current flowing from your battery. This is due to the +12V potential difference. Sorry to bore (and/or confuse) you but all you have to do is this...
Hook the "-" terminal of the cap to your 1) ground distribution block (if you have one) OR 2) your car chassie. Its always a good idea to run all of your grounds, when using multiple amps and/or caps, to a distribution block and have 1 cable connecting the dist. block to the car chassie. This will elminate any ground loop problems (the humming you hear from your speakers when there is no music playing). Then hook the power cable from your battery, up to one end of the resistor and then other end of the resistor to the "+" terminal of the capacitor. I don't know what value of resistor they supplied with your cap. That value will determine how long it'll take to charge it. If you have a Multi-meter, it may be good to watch the voltage across the cap (red lead to the "+" and black lead to the "-" on the cap) If you don't have one (or even know what one is) I'd wait for like 5 min or so, just to be safe. AFter waiting, you can connect the power cable directly to the "+" terminal on the cap. You may see a lil spark because it wasn't done charging up but this is ok. The voltage of the cap will immediately jump to +12V. Just MAKE SURE YOU WAIT FOR IT TO CHARGE INITIALLY!! The volatge on the cap can jump up ~3V instantly w/o any probs but if you do it with 12V, it won't be pretty.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll be more than happy to answer them.
Hook the "-" terminal of the cap to your 1) ground distribution block (if you have one) OR 2) your car chassie. Its always a good idea to run all of your grounds, when using multiple amps and/or caps, to a distribution block and have 1 cable connecting the dist. block to the car chassie. This will elminate any ground loop problems (the humming you hear from your speakers when there is no music playing). Then hook the power cable from your battery, up to one end of the resistor and then other end of the resistor to the "+" terminal of the capacitor. I don't know what value of resistor they supplied with your cap. That value will determine how long it'll take to charge it. If you have a Multi-meter, it may be good to watch the voltage across the cap (red lead to the "+" and black lead to the "-" on the cap) If you don't have one (or even know what one is) I'd wait for like 5 min or so, just to be safe. AFter waiting, you can connect the power cable directly to the "+" terminal on the cap. You may see a lil spark because it wasn't done charging up but this is ok. The voltage of the cap will immediately jump to +12V. Just MAKE SURE YOU WAIT FOR IT TO CHARGE INITIALLY!! The volatge on the cap can jump up ~3V instantly w/o any probs but if you do it with 12V, it won't be pretty.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll be more than happy to answer them.
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