Amp Wiring

[Slim]

I've been fiddling about with my ICE set up for a while now with no luck, I've come to the conclusion that it's something to do with the amp.

When I turn on the head unit, the amp comes on, for about a second then the light goes off and as my speakers are all being run through the amp, I'm getting no sound.

At the moment, I've just got the front speakers wired up into channel 1 and 2 (it's a 4 channel amp). If the head unit goes on after being off a while, I'll get a second or two of sound from them before they go silent, but I'm positive it's something to do with the amp.

Any suggestions?

[S11EPS]

Can you give me a few more details? - head unit make/model, amplifier make/model and stick up a baisc wirind diagram/description of what you've got connected where.

Have you checked any of your voltages at the amplifier? Does the power light on the amp stay on when the sound goes?

[Overseer]

check you've got a solid earth.

[S11EPS]

I'm thinking that its a 'remote' wire based problem - the amp is switching on, and switching off rather than staying on.

Just need a few more details to be able to confirm.

[Dizzie]

you've got your speakers wired up wrong.
unpug them all and see what happens.

[Slim]

The amp is an Alpine V12 4 Channel one (MRV-F340)
The head unit is an Alpine TDM-7586RB (has CD Changer)

I've disconnected all the speakers and tried it, the same thing happened, light came on then went off again.

I took 2 pics with my digital camera, I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to all of this sort of thing I'm afraid:

http://mysite.freeserve.com/GavWorld2/ampwiring1.JPG
http://mysite.freeserve.com/GavWorld2/ampwiring2.JPG

The amp light goes off at the same time as the sound. Channel 1 is powering the driver side door speaker, Channel 2 is powering the passenger side door speaker and have the amp to power channels 1 and 2. I think I've got the RCA leads plugged into the right slots, it says channel 1 and 2 beside them.

There was an earthing point made on the floor under the rear bench by the previous owner, that seems to be fine. Not checked voltages, wouldn't really know where to start, someone else has suggesting it might be going into protection mode but that was lost on me.

[Overseer]

i only had this problem with my amp with aq dodgy earth, sounds like it might be alright, but its worth checking with a meter, just check you have 12ish voltes across the earth + live.

[S11EPS]

Slim, do you have (or know someone that owns) a multi meter so that you can check the voltages you're getting at the amp.

Its true that incorrect speaker wiring can cause the amplifier to go into protection mode and shut down, but with the set-up you have it would be pretty difficult to get wrong!

If you get a mutli meter you can check your voltages, and we'll take it from there  

[reserves]

I'm not a total expert here but I think you have wired the speakers wrong.

It looks to me like your only using one channel (the top one in your picture)

As your trying to run 2 speakers from 4 channels I think you would have to bridge each channel. There is a picture on your amp that shows where to bridge it , above where you have the speaker wire.

if you numbered the speaker terminals on the amp like this:


RCA INPUTS      1 2 3 4          FUSES
                       5 6 7 8

Then 1-4 are channel 1 and you should connect the speaker with 1 and 4

5-8 are channel 2 and you should connect the other speaker to 5 & 8.

i can't see which way around you need them ( + -) as the pic is too blurry.

R

[modulater]

If you look at the first pic link you gave us you can clearly see that you have wired the stereo speakers to your amp bridged mono out.

Look at the legend on the amp.

The far right and far left of the sockets are the connections on the top set of terminals. This will make it the bridged output so it runs in mono.

If you look again at the legend you see the bottom one is split in two, so you use both terminals for each channel of speakers.

The top row of terminals will only have a wire in either end for bridged mode.

The 4 wires you have need to go in the lower set of terminals as this is normal stereo mode.

As said previously the amp is going into protect mode so you dont fry either it or your speakers

Hope that helps.