difference between the powercore/powergrid?

thedeal7235 · Post by **thedeal7235** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 3:53 pm

i looked on the manuels under car audio, but only found more install, then actual specs. so who knows this, i know the grid said equal to 10farad, but is the powercore more or less? and, am i understanding it correctly as it staes it has internal fuses?? or, would you still fuse before ur amp, or fuse before the powercore/grid? Thanks Christian

joyride · Post by **joyride** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:44 am

I thought that the Powergrid has all the little capacitors in it, where as the powercore had the solid state technology from Alumapro. Also, the 10F (small caps) was prone to disastrous failure, because when one cap went bad they all died.

brenzbmr@sb · Post by **brenzbmr@sb** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 1:29 pm

the power core 15 is a solid state cap from alumpro

the power core 20 is a bunch of little caps
like the power grid

PaulD · Post by **PaulD** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 3:39 pm

why in the world would you fuse a cap ?

thedeal7235 · Post by **thedeal7235** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 4:37 pm

exactly, your supposed to fuse before a cap; but i cant see any info on the initial question I posted under manuels, and briefly read some have fuses built in?, if you read what i asked about, so thats why i asked , instead of A-S-S-U-M-I-N-G

TiEcs · Post by **TiEcs** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:14 am

Old topic, but I have a question about fusing the Powercore 15.

My setup:
0/1 AWG power leads
Ti800.1
Ti500.4
Basscube
Powercore 15

I have 1 fuse of 180Amp next to the battery.
- Do I need to put another fuse right before the Powercore??
- Or between the powercore and both amps ??
- Or no extra fuses ??

Only 1 fuse at the battery seems kinda little ??
Has Pg got single Ti style fuse holders for 0/1 AWG ?

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 2:05 pm

i've got the same sorta setup as above... but i've often wondered if i need more fuses somewhere. i do know that you don't want resistance after the cap which is what a fuse provides resistance.

joyride · Post by **joyride** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 2:16 pm

check out the cicuit breakers. I got one, and love it. Granted, its not as pretty as the ti stuff. I believe they are only in 100, 150, and 200 amps. I was running a 1000.2, 500.4, bass cube, DEQ with 1/0 and its perfect.

Post by **ttocs** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:45 pm

I had an answer half typed out as to why I didn't think it would matter to have a fuse on a cap until it dawned on me. If the wire were to short out between the fuse and the cap(firewall for example), it would pop the fuse under the hood but it would also then leave the cap shorted out to do what ever it might do until it is discharged. With this in mind it would be a good idea to put a fuse directly infront of the cap. You could fuse the ground wire on the cap which should not effect the voltage going through it too badly.

Post by **stipud** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:25 am

Because a fuse is such a short distance, it really offers negligible resistance to the line... think about it, if you've got a big fuse up at the front by the battery, you would think you already have very little power in the back of the car... however with 0 gauge you still get 250 amps.

So ideally you would fuse between the powercore and the amps, to protect from shorting out the amps power wires. The powercore should already be sufficiently protected by the fuse near the battery, but you can add one immediately before it if you are super anal.

HoseHead · Post by **HoseHead** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:43 am

You should fuse within 18 inches of the battery.
This is designed to protect the car, not the sound system.
If you somehow experience a short to ground in the "back", this fuse will blow before your battery explodes, your regulator pooches or your alternator burns up.
An additional fuse in the B+ line (unless the device is fused ie Tantrum amps) to each device will protect that device.
This fusing will protect the device should a short to ground happen in the device.
Both are recommended.

HH

longboard · Post by **longboard** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 11:13 am

just treat the cap as a battery fuse it

Post by **ttocs** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 1:31 pm

stipud wrote:Because a fuse is such a short distance, it really offers negligible resistance to the line... think about it, if you've got a big fuse up at the front by the battery, you would think you already have very little power in the back of the car... however with 0 gauge you still get 250 amps.

So ideally you would fuse between the powercore and the amps, to protect from shorting out the amps power wires. The powercore should already be sufficiently protected by the fuse near the battery, but you can add one immediately before it if you are super anal.

Again if you fuse it between the cap and the amp, and the power wire shorts out at the fire wall what happens? You will still dump every electron that thing has stored, throw some sparks and weld something to your chassis.

Again if you were to fuse the GROUND cable going to the cap it will protect the cap if it shorts out in either direction.

longboard · Post by **longboard** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:54 am

fusing the groud is never a good idea on any circuit as if that fuse fails the amp etc will try and pull ground from rcas etc never good

Post by **stipud** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:08 am

ttocs wrote:Again if you fuse it between the cap and the amp, and the power wire shorts out at the fire wall what happens? You will still dump every electron that thing has stored, throw some sparks and weld something to your chassis.

Again if you were to fuse the GROUND cable going to the cap it will protect the cap if it shorts out in either direction.

In that case you would want to add a fuse before the cap on the power wire.

So to properly (anally) fuse a powercore

Battery - Fuse ----------------- Fuse - Powercore -------- Amp Fuse - Amp

This level of fusing is required to compete in IASCA and similar.

Post by **ttocs** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:25 pm

by fusing the ground cable though, it would protect the power wire from being shorted on either side(amp or battery).

Post by **stipud** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:48 pm

ttocs wrote:by fusing the ground cable though, it would protect the power wire from being shorted on either side(amp or battery).

Good idea in theory, but not in practice. Many amps are still grounded by their chassis, or (as longboard mentioned) are commonly grounded through RCAs, etc. You would need to fuse every possible ground, which is not feasible, and could cause cascading failures which would be impossible to diagnose. If you could simplify automotive circuits by fusing ground rather than power, it would be commonplace in cars.

I see what you're saying, but either way you would require a fuse on the power wire or ground wire of a cap, so I see no benefit to installing it on the ground.

TiEcs · Post by **TiEcs** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:52 pm

stipud wrote:
Battery - Fuse ----------------- Fuse - Powercore -------- Amp Fuse - Amp

As the Ti series doesn't have an internal "amp fuse", does it become

Battery - Fuse ----------------- Fuse - Powercore -------- Fuse ----- Amp ??

Post by **stipud** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 7:18 am

TiEcs wrote:As the Ti series doesn't have an internal "amp fuse", does it become

Battery - Fuse ----------------- Fuse - Powercore -------- Fuse ----- Amp ??

Correct