WTF man?

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:26 pm

OK now I have had some fucking weird shit going down with this mps2220 amp and Im nearing the end of my tether.

Maybe Cec can belp me out here.

Every now and then one side (always left) will refuse to work.

All the red lights are on inside and the green light is on.

If I pull an RCA and put it in that side it works alone, but add the other one back and gone.

Now. Whats REALLY fucking odd is that when I switch the RCAS around (left and right into the other sockets) it works, but its alot quieter???

And then when I put them back its like 5 times louder?

I dont get it, maybe the fucker is haunted?

Post by **AVICJR** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:31 pm

Did this happen before you installed the eq? You said you had problems adjusting it. EQ may be your issue.

1moreamp · Post by **1moreamp** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:40 am

Pandy, if you think its the amp send it back to me,I will warranty anything wrong with it. I promised you that in the beginning

You know one of the switchs on the front end plate is a mono switch, please check that for me

Let me know whats up and I will make anything I can good

Always here to help buddy

Oh if all the red leds are on all the right voltages are correctly feed to input and vas stages, thats what they tell me when they are there. the green led on the endplate is a all good signal for the amp, yellow or red will denote trouble.

let me hear from you tomorrow...

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:18 am

yeah I printed out the pic of the amp with the list of switches on it so I could double check and its in stereo with the ground mode in normal (not floating)

Funny thing is the gain on it doesnt seem to do anything.. The bass works ok tho.

About a month ago I realised that the solder had broken on the hot wire on the circuit for that speaker, so I took the amp out and fixed that and it was fine ever since.. Maybe I have it wired up wrong inside? lol.

As I say, it was fine until last night when I was sitting outside a wawa watching Shaun of the Dead. I upped the gain on the fusion because DVDs are quieter than CDs and it played perfectly. Then all of a sudden that channel starting popping and vanished.

I pulled into work and fiddled with it for a bit, before switching around the RCAs and it came back to life, but really quiet. I switched them back again later in the night and hey presto, back to being perfect.

Totally odd tbh lol

Post by **stipud** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:34 am

Pandy, perhaps you are overdriving the MPS. IIRC the old amps are only designed to take 2 volts input, and I'd be willing to bet your EQ is capable of two to four times that.

You should really really _REALLY_ consider setting the gains properly with a multimeter. Go download a 60Hz test tone, and burn it to an Audio CD (not MP3 CD).

Now get out a generic multimeter (these things are like $10, you have no excuse not to have one). Unhook the RCAs from your amps. Set the test tone to play on a loop, and turn your deck volume to about 3/4 (this will be your maximum, going past there will overdrive your equipment). Now on the EQ, adjust the internal gains until you are reading 2V on the RCAs. You measure this by putting the multimeter ground on the RCA shield, and the positive on the center pole. Make sure all of your RCAs are reading the same voltage, if you have individual gains.

Now for the MPS you can just set the gains at their minimum setting, and for gods sake turn off bass boost (you can use your EQ if you really want to do this). May I recommend however, that instead of boosting bass, you turn down treble and midrange instead, then increase the volume? Boosting stuff causes clipping, while attenuating is perfectly safe.

Now since your ZX can handle 8 volts, you will need to tinker a bit with the gain on that one. What I will HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend is that you get an LPL, which allows you to attenuate the amp. What this lets you do is set your gains at their maximum, and then you can use the LPL as a remote gain knob, so to speak. This is FAR better than any kind of bass boost, because you're only adjusting the sensitivity, rather than fucking with the signal. This means for songs with quiet bass, you can turn the LPL up, and the bass will get louder. For louder songs, you turn the LPL down to avoid clipping the amp. Basically you can turn it up until it stops getting louder... once you reach this point, turning it up any further will only increase clipping, so turn it back down a bit.

Please Pandy, if you're going to listen to any advice we give you, at least do this.

1moreamp · Post by **1moreamp** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:45 am

Pandy, you melted a speaker with the amp, right? Now if thats what has happend, perhaps the amp was damaged. Anything can happen, especially with melted drivers.
So i propose you mail the amp back to asap. i will turn it around the same day i get the amp in. I stock all parts, and except for your shipping to me I will cover the rest, OK?

Let me know buddy... Cec

Post by **bdubs767** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:47 am

I would add something but tom and cecil covered it all

Post by **stipud** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:50 am

Nothing melts a speaker or an amplifier faster than clipping.

Please save the rest of your stereo, and follow my advice.

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:02 am

After an autopsy I realised the speaker hadnt melted. The tweeter had basically fallen out of the megnet because the glue faile dand fell into the driver, battering it and the driver to hell.

I think youre right Stip, I think this is a gain inbalance, and yes being an older amp its probably hyper sensitive to gains and pre voltages.

I will get a MM this weekend and measure that, and make sure its not exceeding 2 volts. Cecil already said this to me before about how these amps are not happy doing over 2v in..

Cec, Im 99% positive the amp isnt damaged bro because when I resoldered that wire it worked A1 for over a month since then. It's only since I have added the fusion that its acting up again and Im 99% positive that its definitely the gain setting. However, I have noticed that the gain and bass 'knobs' on the amp are a little old and worse for wear and I do get some crackle when moving em..

Once I have measured the pre voltage and can rule that out I will consider sending it back, I really appreciate that offer

It might have been as simple as an overheat tbh. As I say I uppsed the gain to match the sound for the DVD player and sat there for over an hour with it at a pretty high volume.. I will have to get out there and rewire those fans as I disconnected them when I repaired that bad speaker wire.

But as I said, Im pretty sure Stip has this sucker numbered, because it took HOURS to get the system to perform again with the fusion wired up.

Edit, yeah I have the bass setting on the mps on zero stip, I dont want any bass going into the mids anyways

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:03 am

Oh just to add.

When I installed the planets I took out the passenger side volfenhag and put a tiny bit of pressure on its tweeter and it came off in my hand.

Those speakers were just shit, pure and simple.

1moreamp · Post by **1moreamp** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:04 am

stipud wrote:Nothing melts a speaker or an amplifier faster than clipping.

Please save the rest of your stereo, and follow my advice.

Yeah, I'm sure he shorted the driver some how first, then the dead short on the amp channel did the rest. Unless hes blown his new replacement drivers then that would account for the current failure with the amp still showing all good on its indicators.
But as you said the drive levels are all different for these anps, so its possible that he could have damaged the frontend iC's with too much drive level out of the EQ. I'm sure the Eq will pass 8 volts RMS easily, especially with any of the bands turned way up on the EQ.

Damn it be funny if he had blown a second set of drivers and the amp was still Ok

I can't tell till I see the amp and bench it to full test.

Pandy , get on the stick and call me or mail me the amp. or try different speakers hooked up to them for a moment, just to see if the sound returns to normal out the amp. Let me know buddy... cec

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:07 am

No worries Cec.

Also remember peeps that on that channel is an audiobahn 6x9 thats markedly better than the volfen hag (still shit but hey)

None of the other 3 speakers are or were damaged and the planets play fine.

I think you might be right Cec, the input ICs are cutting out (or at least that one is) due to being over driven from the EQ.

Thermal maybe? because an hour later I reconnected it and it was fine again..

Post by **stipud** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:08 am

Man, if you have that amp in that box with no fans running, you are definitely going to have problems.

Post by **Bfowler** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 11:05 am

1moreamp wrote:Pandy, you melted a speaker with the amp, right? Now if thats what has happened, perhaps the amp was damaged. Anything can happen, especially with melted drivers.
So i propose you mail the amp back to asap. i will turn it around the same day i get the amp in. I stock all parts, and except for your shipping to me I will cover the rest, OK?

Let me know buddy... Cec

would that mean you stock the FETs and gate resistors for PG XS series amps? I'm sure within the next 3 or so weeks i will be harassing you about that

1moreamp · Post by **1moreamp** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 4:51 pm

Yes i have xs amp outputs and power fets, the gate resistors are fairly common, unless you have beeen mod'ed to higher grade output fets But i also have one of those laying around for reference to that gate resistor mod
The upgrade is to a much beefier output IRFB41N150 from the stock IRF540.
the diff is 41 amps capable instead of 28 amps capable

gotta run custy here C

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:17 pm

well it aint any of the above because now the whole amp cuts out and in with heavy bass and when i brake hard or hit bumps.

im pulling it out in a minute and am going to bring it in and redo all the internal wiring

1moreamp · Post by **1moreamp** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:36 pm

Pandy wrote:well it aint any of the above because now the whole amp cuts out and in with heavy bass and when i brake hard or hit bumps.

im pulling it out in a minute and am going to bring it in and redo all the internal wiring

Broken loose wiring or broken solders on the amp somewhere, or bad connections on the power and ground maybe...

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:19 am

OK I pulled it out last night and noticed a few things.

On the coil that is bolted into the back of the power sockets one of the 'leg' things that screws into the board was loose. Thats been tightened.

I also noted that the amp rem wire from that onto the board only had a couple of threads left and where it goes into the socket on the backside it wasnt connecting very well, redone that with a new piece of wire.

Redone all the speaker wires on the board using 8awg monster cable, it looks alot better now.

I'll be putting it back in tonight after work. I cant work on it during the day because I really dont want anyone to see whats in the car..

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 11:48 am

OK well I have done all I can, the rest is up to god...

The laser cannons are in now too

Post by **Bfowler** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 1:03 pm

my prayers are with it

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:18 pm

It's 100% now.

Infact its fair to say its never worked properly because its performing better than I have ever heard it.

No more ignition pop, no more interference, no more cutting out and its kicking really nicely now, I can even use the master volume on the fusion without it going nuts.

Something wasnt right in there, I dont know what out of the few things I noticed was actually casuing the problem but I would think it was either the amp rem wire hanging by a thread (infact I bet it was that) or the loose red coil wire, but either way its fucking lovely now

Only one bummer, the fucking assholes who sold me the laser canons told me they were 12 volt. They were 5v, so nby the time I got to the trunk one had already popped and the other one lasted about 10 seconds

Anyone out there got any 12v green bright leds that will handle a cars amperage?

Id appreciatew it, theyre easily fitted into the cannon housings.

1moreamp · Post by **1moreamp** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:23 pm

Try these, he has other colors

http://cgi.ebay.com/10x-Ready-12v-5mm-U ... dZViewItem

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 1:09 pm

Scratch that, one of the housings melted

Sod it Ill get a tube instead, cant be assed messing around with that anymore..

As for the amp? took a 2 hour drive today cos I had to go visit someone and its performing amazingly well, Im so happy that I have that sorted out and can now disconnect the 6x9s and put them on the ZX200

Got my new black back seat in too, really looks nice

1moreamp · Post by **1moreamp** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 3:07 pm

So were all good Pandy? Everything is working on the MS ok now ?
Let me know otherwise friend

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:12 pm

Yes its absolutely perfect now

Gonna wire up the ZX tomorrow and go get my new front stage, I cant fuckin wait