Stereo problems, help

Hey,
I finished installing my tower speakers and amp last week and I tried them out in my driveway and they sounded awsome. I was anxious to get them out on the water and hear them and so I took my boat out and they didn't work. I was really ticked but thought that it just might be the fact that the battery that I had running my amp was almost dead. I took my boat home and charged the battery but they still didn't work. I have checked out all of the connections and I could not get them to work. The only thing that I can see wrong is the power light on the amp (jl 300/2) is blinking on and off about once a second. If you guys have any ideas on how to fix it or what to try, Please let me know.
Thanks,
Jimmy Dager

I don't know much but are they being supplied with enough juice.. How many batteries are you running?

Hey,
I have one battery that is running my starter and guages and is hooked up to my alternator and then I have one deep cycle battery that is soley for my amp and tower speakers. The battery is fully charged and so I know that can't be the problem.
Jimmy

HELP the guy out guys!!

Hey,
I learned some more about my problems. I made a new thread and explained the new problems/what I learned, it is " stereo and battery questions, problems"
Thanks,
Jimmy

Double check you wiring, it sound like you ahve a bad connection. Maybe one of the terminals is loe, or if you did not crimp one on right the wire could be slipping out. The ride to the lake, or bounce of the waves may have caused this to happen. Other than that, i would disconnect all wires and charge the battery, Having it all disconnected should also re-boot the amp which may have gone into a protective mode? Are the ohm loads on the amp right?

The power light blinking is probably indicating a fault of some sort, or possibly a failed amp.

First step would be to take a volt meter and measure the voltage at the amp. If it is not at least 12 volts then you should check the wiring.

Next, start disconnecting speakers, preferably at the amp. The fault could be a short in one of the speaker wires or at the speaker itself. If you find a single pair of speaker wires that makes the amp work once they are disconnected then trace that wire out.

If you have all the speaker wires disconnected and the power is okay then you may have blown the amp. If the amp has failed you may want to check everything else over carefully to make sure your installation didn't kill it, perhaps a short or too many loads on an output.

Rod

Hey,
I originally thought it might be a problem with one of the connections but I checked all of them and could not find a problem. Also, the amp works perfectly with my starter battery but not at all with my deep cycle battery.
Thanks for all of your insight,
Jimmy Dager

You said it is a shortage of voltage, what gauge wire ar eyou using? It does not make a difference what battery you use. I ahve power 3000 watts and and entire boat on a single one. Also, is there anywhere your positive and negative power wires to the amps could ahve been scared and could be touching, thus causing a short?

Hey Rod,
I posted my last message seconds after you did. I am almost positive everything is hooked up right because I did it and then had it looked over by a professional installer and also because it works with my starting battery but not with my deep cycle. If you can think of anything else, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Jimmy

Hey,
I am using 8 guage wire for both the power and the ground for a jl 300/2. Should I use a lower guage wire? Also Wkerat, see my previous 2 posts, everything works fine on one battery but not another.
Thank-you for your help,
Jimmy

If it works rigth with one battery it is most likely just a bad battery. I work at a shop and you can have battery's go bad like nothing, especially gel cells. We actually stopped using gel cells in most installs and have put in regular deep cycles instead. If you don't plan on running the amp a lot with the boat off and you are not running a ton of other amps why don't you just hook it up to the main battery. If you do want two battery's have yours checked since that is probably the problem.

Hey Wkerat,
Both of the deep cycles that I tried were brand new and I charged them until they were fully charged with a 2 amp trickle charger with an automatic shut-off. therefore, I don't think that it is a battery problem.
Thanks,
Jimmy

WE have had many new batteries come in that are junk and have ot be sen tback for replacement. DOes your charger show when it is charged and if it is holding a charge, because if one battery works it is not the system since a 12 volt battery is a 12 volt battery to the amp. As long as it can get a circuit power wise it is happy so if it works on one battery the other may be bad or didn't hold a charge. Did you try to run anything else off the battery?

Also, how long are your wires, if they aren't too long you should be fine with 8 gauge (how many watts is the amp)?

going by what jl says in the manual if power light blinks= voltage is dropping below 10 volts.so in other words it is dropping below 10volts then rising above 10volts causing it to blink. i had the same problem with mine once. that may not be your problem but that is what the manual says. good luck

Hey,
My power and ground wires are both almose 17' long to get all of the way back to the battery.
Jimmy