what would you do with a 1 farad cap?

[ttocs]

I have one farad cap that I got in a bulk-buy that I have not been able to give away on the local craigs list for $20. I am in the process of installing my DD10 and all the dash wiring and with 3 lcd gauges, 4 gauge modules, sirius unit, blue tooth, line driver, radar, and other crap I can't remember its to the point I am writting the stuff down to help remember it. I moved to a dual battery system(kinetic 800 and 1800) in the trunk and ran a 0/1 power/ground run down the car. They are all split up at the back seat and to ensure that the deck is getting its power from the same location, and because of all the other stuff going in that needs switched power the DD10 will be hooked up to switched ignition power, the DD6 later will do the remote functions I need done. With the cam I have sometimes the motor rpm will drop just long enough to cause the voltage to drop enough that it causes the digital gauges to have a small glitch in them. With the 1800 pushing the amps They have less of a chance of dropping them the rest of the accesories with the 800 backing them. Think it would help to slap that cap on the power wire feeding the DD10, which then feeds the deck/gauges?

[Mr. Wild]

Yes I think a cap might help even out dips in alt voltage when the engine if almost stalling. I would try it at least.

Another useful thing about caps these days is that they clean out noise which class d amps dump in the power line. At least low quality amps can dump a lot of switching noise.

[Eric D]

I am planning to install 3-1 farad caps in my next personal installation, using the old PG triple mounting system. The funny part is though, I will most likely not connect them to the electrical system. They will just be there for looks, with fake wiring into and out of the them.

If the cap you have looks good, put it somewhere, if not, don't bother.

[ttocs]

I think I might have space where I can squeeze it in, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere.... I don't think on, or even three of these will make a difference on the 1200.1 I will have powered by that big kinetic and HO alt, but I could see it stabalizing the voltage for the deck and gauges. Three ya baller!

Only thing I don't have for it are some nice 4 awg ring terminals if anyone knows of a set.

[vladthebad]

Use diodes, and run it for the headlights. At worst, instead of blinking with the bass, they fade and return... More of a slower heartbeat. Or just fade slower and don't return if your voltage stays low, heh.

[ttocs]

headlights are HID so not high current.

After some thought when I wire the DD10 I didn't think about the fact it will be pulling power off of the big battery as well. Either way I can't see it hurting and I can make some room, will look good in the display I think and I could see it actually possibly keeping the voltage from sagging on small current draw devices like the gauges and such.

Just looking for some nice 4 awg ring terminals if anyone has any. I have some cheap crimp-style but would not mind finding something that looks better for show.

[vladthebad]

High current or not, your eyes see difference in light easier than you can hear a difference in volume. Unless the HID circuitry is fully regulated, it will make a bigger difference there than anywhere else. If that is the case though, the. I'd diode them and run the REST of the non-audio side of the car off of them. May slow/remove blinking of dash lights/clock/etc. with any lights, car at 14v, lights bright... Bass hits, cap doesn't drop with car voltage due to diodes, but drops based on load off of it... If you can't stop the voltage bounce in the stereo, or can't flatten it due to 1f instead of the infinite you'd really need... At least you can slow/stop the dimming on the other parts of the electrical system.

[ttocs]

High current or not, your eyes see difference in light easier than you can hear a difference in volume. Unless the HID circuitry is fully regulated, it will make a bigger difference there than anywhere else. If that is the case though, the. I'd diode them and run the REST of the non-audio side of the car off of them. May slow/remove blinking of dash lights/clock/etc. with any lights, car at 14v, lights bright... Bass hits, cap doesn't drop with car voltage due to diodes, but drops based on load off of it... If you can't stop the voltage bounce in the stereo, or can't flatten it due to 1f instead of the infinite you'd really need... At least you can slow/stop the dimming on the other parts of the electrical system.

not sure what you are trying to say about diodes.... Been installing for 16 yrs now, worked as an electronics tech for over 10 as well and there is no diode that will do what you are saying. Keeps voltage from sagging? No, sorry, they will not help with that.

[vladthebad]

You misunderstand. 12v->diode->cap pos terminal. Cap charges through the diode. If the car voltage drops, it won't discharge the cap. Only things powered from the cap discharge it. So if your cap is stabilizing the voltage of a low draw device, instead of voltage dropping nearly instantly from 14v to 12v... And having the light 'blink' it will instead lose intensity slower. Although it won't brighter quite as fast though either once the bass stops and car voltage climbs.

Go put a 1f cap and diode isolate it to one headlight of a car with blinking problems.... Turn headlights on and crank stereo. See the difference.

[ttocs]

of course you also would loose .7v by doing that which on a 12v system was significant enough for me to go with a battery isolating relay then the two diode isolators I already have.

[vladthebad]

Granted... Depending on how good your alternator is and how much/rapid your voltage drop is... It may make zero difference. With a vastly under-powered alt and headlights that darn near strobe it works pretty decently, although there really isn't a practical way to permanently wire it. I'd love a farad for my dash lights... Dash light blinking drives me far crazier than anything else though. Maybe I'll eventually tap into the fuse box and put them on their own circuit backed by a cap. If you aren't experiencing that kind of drop, or have regulated power supply for HIDs and LED based lighting with voltage regulators elsewhere, it would likely make zero difference altogether. I'd think any car new enough to have HIDs would have led lit dash/instrument panel too though.

Sure, but at the voltage drops I was getting... Brights would blink down to darn near daytime running lamps at full tilt on some music. 14->11.7->14 in some cases really sucked. A steadier 12.5/13 would have been a godsend. Bigger big 3 and an older me with the volume knob and more tasteful music selection seems to have solved that problem to some degree, even with the sissy alt.

[ttocs]

right now I am running a no-name 200A alt that has been working fine for about 4+yrs now. How ever I snagged an old school 165A phoenix gold(by wrangler from what I understand) and an offboard balmar voltage regulator.

I am not worried about dimming lights from big bass hits as much as just a rare occasion(2 times a month maybe?) where as I roll up to a stop the car will get down to probably 3-400 rpm range for maybe half a second before it goes back to its normal idle at 800 rpm. Its just enough for the voltage from the alt to dip that the smaller 800/starting battery can't keep it up. I think that alot of that will be fixed by it now being powered off of the 1800. I am running a trickflow stage 1 cam and twisted wedge 170cc heads on the factory computer which just didn't like changes like that. They have been known to be a little tempormental from time-to-time and with that being my only problem with driveability its running great honestly.

Was looking at the size and it will fit nice in the spot I have open for it. I thought I had brackets for it but now that I have them out they are only to mount the base of a cap down to something flat, nothing for the top. If anyone has any cap mounting brackets hit me up....

Your comment about putting a 1 farad cap on your dash lights - that is exactly what I am doing. The analog gauges when the power goes below thier threshold it just dims them and they may not read right for that time. The digitial gauges I am running(plx designs multi gauges) when they go below threshold voltage will sometimes lock up the display - hopefully the big battery and the cap will stop that, guess I will see...

[vladthebad]

Hey, 1f for gauges certainly couldn't hurt... I'd diode isolate, but that's me. Why waste the capacitance on the rest of the system when it will make zero difference. Drop in the bucket, etc.

[smgreen20]

Me personally, since you already have a 2nd battery, I'd say put it on the DD10. It stands to reason that that would help stop the disturbance you're having. My general rule of thumb for caps, I use them in a pure SQ install and where the amps are unregulated, or if you're running regulated amps at low ohms or near its limit.

[davewaibel]

depending on the cap, if its a good 'real' 1 farad cap there is a very good use for it- check out the you tube video by ixos on capacitors- it will make a believer of the naysayers on the forum when it comes to caps- the kinetik hype is just that, hype, its not the same as a 100 farad cap, blah,blah- there is totally room in large systems for good batteriers, and powercores, or like caps- I have several of both working in my system, and I have no electrical issues, and with all the crap I have going I should have a buttload of problems- anyway back to your 1 farad====
I would hook it up to the power on your deck and any signal processing equipment power- regardless of esr/discharge rise rates/or other mythical bullshit, a good 1 farad cap is an amazing noise trap, as you will see from the above mentioned video, which in itself is totally worth it, especially if your bumping signal voltage to 8volts with any downstream processing- I believe the titanium 1 farad cap is actually a good cap, the ixos cap is a nice one as well, as those ixos caps are still selling for like 200.00- a 25$ fleamarket cap is probably not much more than an empty thermos sleeve

[ttocs]

going on the dd10, it will be used to supply power to the deck(which is completely passive) as well as the gauges. Will be able to work it into the R-links/DD10 display for a cool look as well. Bought the mounting pieces in an auction tonight as well as the ring terminals. Should make a cool display with them mounted on plexi and layered like I did the fuse blocks. Hell its the only way it will all fit it to stack it all!