So on the advice of a member here (too lazy to go find your name...but thanks ), I went and got a multimeter from Radio Shack to test my connections to the amp.

The remote wire was giving me like 8.56 volts...which is good enough since it turns on the stock amp.

The power wire was giving me 0.10 volts. So I went up to engine, removed the fuse, and tested it there. Same. Must be the battery connection.

Removed the screw on the terminal and moved my eye ring connector to the other side of the bolt...

Now we're at 0.35 volts.

Is there some special way to connect it to the battery?

 

1. Are you sure that your meter GND is connected to a chassis ground?

2. Is your amp connected to a good ground?

3. Is your battery wire connected to the positive terminal?

 

Hey SwampGas,

When you were checking the voltage on the remote on terminal (blue wire), the did you connect the wire to the stock amp and to the new amp at the same time ? If you did, I am not surprised to see the voltage drop. When I was checking the remote on, the voltage was around 11.7 volts with the wire was disconnected from the stock amp and not connected to the new amp.

I also would like to find out how did you test the voltage on the power cable. Did you use the positive (+) terminal touching the power cable and the negative (-) terminal touching the chassis (non painted surface) ? If the cable was pulled directly from the battery, you should get almost exactly the voltage measured from the battery.

Also, make sure the power cable was crimpped properly. When I was working on the project, I was having hard time getting the fuse holder cable to properly connected to the power cable since it came off a few times when I crimpped it with the power cable.

Hope this help.

Cheers !!!

 

1) The meter was in series with the wire

2) Sanded away the paint underneath where the stock amp is and connected it to that bolt. I think there's a way to test a ground with the meter...I just don't know how.

3) Of course

 

A good way to test the ground is to put the positive lead of the meter on the cable you ran to the trunk then touch the negative lead of the meter to a piece of exposed metal in the trunk. If you read around 12VDC, your golden!

If you placed your meter in series with the power cable, then your measuring the current draw through the cable (if the other end was hooked to you amp).

 

drcookie:

When I tested the remote wire, I turned the stereo on, made sure the stock amp was on (speaker was vibrating), touched the positive to the wire and the negative to the remote terminal on the amp.

Also, if I connect the power wire to the meter and then to the chassis, won't it short? Not sure if the meter has a resistor...

 

SwampGas ,
You did have the remote on connected to the stock amp. So, the reading you got looks normal.

The ammeter is designed to have extermely high built in resistor so that it could take acurate measurement without causing the high amount of voltage drop.

Check this out. Set your multimeter to voltage (20V range).
Use the positive terminal on the multimeter and touch the power cable. Take the negative terminal and touch the chassis. Read the multimeter. You should get reading around 12 volts.

Just make sure you DO NOT touch the power cable straight to the chassis. It will cause a short !!!

Let us know if you need more info.

Cheers !!!

 

Ok..here we go...

Power to the ground wire = +12.41V

Ground wire to chassis = Nothing...couldn't find bare metal and touching the painted part didn't do anything

Remote wire to ground wire = +4.81V (while it was connected to both amps)

The subs I put in were slightly vibrating, so I'm assuming the amp is hard wired to the speakers if it's off...

The power LED isn't turning on for the amp, the protect/diagnostic light isn't on...fuse is fine...

Looks like the wiring is all correct...maybe my amp is dead? Last time I used it was like a year and a half ago in my old Legend.

 

Hey man,
You made a lot of progress on this one.
OK, power cable is good since you got the voltage.
The new amp is still not on (LED off)--- not really good.
Voltage on the remote on terminal is only 4.8v --- bad. It should be higher than that to turn on an amp.

My guess is the remote-on does not have enough juice to turn on your amp. I have heard this issue in this forum before but I forgot which amp was it. I need to do a search to find out.

Do you know what brand is your amp ? You probably need to pull another remote-on cable from the fuse panel to turn on your amp.
For now it appears that the stock remote line is unable to power up your amp.

How did you wire your input line by the way ? Did you use LOC or did you tap the line that goes to the stock amp ?

Cheers !!!


Check out this link :
http://www.acura-tl.com/forum/showth...threadid=34645

It talks about stock remote-on was unable to power up a JL amp.

 

Disconnect the stock amp.

 

drcookie:

I tapped the 2 wires inside the brown lines for the pre-amp signal...

I'll bridge the power and the remote terminals together tomorrow and see if it kicks on. If it does, I'll do what Brewboy suggests and just yank the plug on the stock amp.

I was tracing some wires...perhaps I could tap the remote wire before it gets to the stock amp wiring harness? If I remember correctly, it's an orange wire in the same group of wires as the big brown signal wire which is converted to the blue wire after the harness. Must be like 28 AWG before it's converted...yuck.

 

You could make a transistor switch that will operate on the +4.8VDC signal. I had the entire message typed up last night with detailed instructions but the friggin forums were down!

Essentially you would need a soldering iron, solder, meter, (1) NPN Transistor, (1) 2K Ohm resistor, and some wire. Radio Shack should have everything you need.

You hook your +12VDC, +4.8VDC, and remote to the transistor. The +4.8VDC singal turns the transistor ON and the current limited +12VDC (from your battery) is send to your amp.

If your interested, i'll post more detailed info.

 

I don't understand this nonsense at all.

I completely removed the stock amp...unplugged it at the wiring harness and took it out of the car.

I tapped the orange wire heading to the harness, which is the remote wire.

12V at the harness...12V at the end of the wire I put in.

In series with the remote terminal....11V @ 9mA.

Connected to the remote terminal (touching the terminal screw to the ground wire) is back down to 5V.

The amp doesn't kick on...however, I took my pliars and touched the power terminal screw to the remote terminal screw...amp turned right on.

I don't understand this...the remote wire DOES have 12V in it...and the amp isn't broken, since it kicks on if I bridge the power and remote terminals together.

Of course, once it did turn on, I heard soft static and rumble in the speakers....now watch it not work after all this...

 

The +12VDC remote wire does not have enough current behind it to turn on your amp. When you hook it to your amp, the low current condition causes the voltage level to drop.

example: You can buy one of those +12VDC Lantern Batteries. If you hooked this 12VDC battery to your starter motor it wouldn't have enough current to kick the motor over.

How old is this amp your using, i mean manufacture date?

You could try what I explained above.

 

Any suggestions? 4th day my car is in pieces...I'd really like to get this done. Ripping it apart everyday and putting it back together is becoming a hassle...

 

Bring it over to my house, I live in Allentown, PA. I'll have my blowtorch ready.

 

Forgot to mention...it takes 30 mA to activate it...

 

Grr...hit the submit button instead of preview...

Wanted to ask if there was a wire I could tap by the driver's side fuse box so I can just install a switch under the dash to activate the amp...

 

Don't know much about the fuse box.

You could use a relay to switch the 12VDC in your trunk to your remote wire. It would need to have a real low current turn on state though, since your remote wire is so weak.