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difference between the powercore/powergrid?
Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 3:53 pm
by thedeal7235
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
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:44 am
by joyride
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.
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 1:29 pm
by brenzbmr@sb
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
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 3:39 pm
by PaulD
why in the world would you fuse a cap ?
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 4:37 pm
by thedeal7235
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
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:14 am
by TiEcs
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 ?
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 2:05 pm
by Stryker
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.
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 2:16 pm
by joyride
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.
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:45 pm
by ttocs
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.
Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:25 am
by stipud
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.
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:43 am
by HoseHead
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
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 11:13 am
by longboard
just treat the cap as a battery fuse it
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 1:31 pm
by ttocs
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.
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:54 am
by longboard
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
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:08 am
by stipud
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.
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:25 pm
by ttocs
by fusing the ground cable though, it would protect the power wire from being shorted on either side(amp or battery).
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:48 pm
by stipud
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.
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:52 pm
by TiEcs
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 ??
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 7:18 am
by stipud
TiEcs wrote:As the Ti series doesn't have an internal "amp fuse", does it become
Battery - Fuse ----------------- Fuse - Powercore -------- Fuse ----- Amp ??
Correct