I have a kicker zx 1000.1 (roughly 2 years old) and worked flawlessly up until about 2 weeks ago, it just stopped "putting out" if you will.
I checked the obvious things first, rca's, protect light, actual speaker wire etc. The amp had power, with no protection light on. After scratching my head for a few I decided to try and known good sub with the amp and had the same problem.
The original sub was a dual 4 ohm 15" solo baric. And it read correct with a multimeter.
I finally took the car to an audio shop where they tried everything that I did, then had me pay them $35 to tell me my outputs on the amp were bad..
I was just curious if there were any internal troubleshooting guides available so I could attempt to fix it myself
Replies (9)
swez on 04/8/2009 21:12:36
Not really!
In this case, figure the repair cost will be about $75.00 labor plus parts.
There is one trick you can try before packing it back up and return for repairs. This test will tell if the amp is good or damaged:
1. Use a portable audio Player that has a headphone jack to match the player and a pair of RCA type patch cables on the other end. (Patch cord)
2. Plug in the RCA's to the amp and turn on the player. If you get bass, there's a problem with audio signals from the HU to your amp.
3. If you get no sound, wiggle the RCA wires in the amp and see if that brings up the bass. If not, it's off to the repair shop for a time.
Bummer,
Swez
big_bass_chase on 04/26/2009 14:06:34
Great suggestion Swez, I'll keep that I'm mind if I have issues in the future.
I decided to take the amp apart and have a look inside, just to see if there were any obvious damage to the circuit board. In less than 5 minutes I found that one of my inductors had a wire that the solder melted off of, leaving the wire dangling just far enough abouve the circuit to not make a connection.
I took it to work with me and re-soldered it with standard grade solder, we are out of the high temp solder right now . I assume this will be enough for a trial run to see if works properly, then use the high temp later. * Assuming there are no other problems with it.
I'll give it a test run using smaller fuses just in case something goes wrong, i'd hate to damage it worse than it already is.
One thing that slightly bothers me is not knowing what caused that particular wire to get hot enough to melt its own solder. Everything happens for a reason, especially when dealing with electricty. I'll keep a close eye on it when I test it with the cover off and let it play for awhile.
I won't have time to do this for a few days, so I'm open for suggestions/comments in the meantime. Thanks swez.
big_bass_chase on 04/29/2009 10:20:42
Alright - I got the amp re-installed yesterday, and it works well. Hopefully it will last..
I also installed some kicker rca's and I clipped the old tarnished part off my ground wire and made sure it had a good connection. I had no idea some new rca's and a fresh ground would make the difference that it did, its even better than before :)
swez on 04/29/2009 11:12:59
Hey, that's great news and am glad you elected to crack the case and have a good look around.
It makes sense that that coil in the power supply would have been the failure point. In many cases, these larger components are assembled by hand, after the small parts were installed and wave soldered. The person who did that hand work may have done a poor job and you have a solder joint that looked OK, but failed later.
In most soldering systems today, many are now using lead-free, (Pb free) solders. That might be a 95/5 alloy of silver and tin. It has no lead and a high solder melting point.Use a rosin based flux to clean the old solder and landing pad, then solder with 95/5 solder.
Nice work,
Swez
big_bass_chase on 04/29/2009 12:24:19
Thanks buddy.. I was considering venting my trunk to help my driver breathe better, and hopefully get a little closer to the sound I had with this setup in my explorer. Maybe I should post a new thread for that, I couldn't find much on other threads..
big_bass_chase on 07/9/2009 14:32:02
Well, one thing is for sure.. Even after the repair, as well as a dime sized hole on the cone (duct tape fixes everything haha) I bought a db meter from radio shack that peaked at 130. Lets just say it was a waste of money because as soon as the song started playing it topped out at 130 db's. The meters that go higher are too expensive, but i'd really like to know what im actually hitting.
swez on 07/9/2009 16:05:55
That Radio Shack meter is good for general sound checks and a good monitor for live sound as well. But with the rig you have now, it won't handle that much SPL.
If there are any sponsored DB Drags in your area, getting the system tested on a Termlab metering system will give a very accurate SPL number for this setup. Some stores do local meets and maybe a modest fee for the test. Check that option out too.
Swez
PS Yes, duct tape will do many things and patching a sub cone is one of them. How'd ya get the hole anyway?
big_bass_chase on 07/12/2009 08:40:42
Of all things it could have been, it was actually the stock H/U, lol. It was laying just in front of my box in the trunk and I was getting it out and it slipped out of my hand and the corner of it gave me my nice hole.. At least it wasn't on the rubber surround though! I couldn't even tell a difference before I taped it, assuming that's because of the ported enclosure..
As far as db drags, I rarely hear of them near my area. * A road trip isn't completely out of the question, if I can ever get some things done I've been putting off! I'd really like to go nopi again, that was a blast and I saw so many awesome setups.
swez on 07/12/2009 11:17:36
Ouch... hate when that happens.
Have seen a lot of very badly damaged woofers come out of night clubs and such. Some still worked OK but looked like they have been through a war.
In January, we did a huge club install. Most of the gear was used and stored in a place where critters got into the vents and chewed up most of the internal wiring and fiberglass fill. What an expensive mess for them and a good payday for our team.
We had to replace 8 JBL 15" woofers on that deal. Fortunately, we had 4 in stock already and made a quick/easy few grand on drivers and labor. See how one man's misery becomes another man's money maker? GRIN
Swez
I checked the obvious things first, rca's, protect light, actual speaker wire etc. The amp had power, with no protection light on. After scratching my head for a few I decided to try and known good sub with the amp and had the same problem.
The original sub was a dual 4 ohm 15" solo baric. And it read correct with a multimeter.
I finally took the car to an audio shop where they tried everything that I did, then had me pay them $35 to tell me my outputs on the amp were bad..
I was just curious if there were any internal troubleshooting guides available so I could attempt to fix it myself
Replies (9)
swez on 04/8/2009 21:12:36
Not really!
In this case, figure the repair cost will be about $75.00 labor plus parts.
There is one trick you can try before packing it back up and return for repairs. This test will tell if the amp is good or damaged:
1. Use a portable audio Player that has a headphone jack to match the player and a pair of RCA type patch cables on the other end. (Patch cord)
2. Plug in the RCA's to the amp and turn on the player. If you get bass, there's a problem with audio signals from the HU to your amp.
3. If you get no sound, wiggle the RCA wires in the amp and see if that brings up the bass. If not, it's off to the repair shop for a time.
Bummer,
Swez
big_bass_chase on 04/26/2009 14:06:34
Great suggestion Swez, I'll keep that I'm mind if I have issues in the future.
I decided to take the amp apart and have a look inside, just to see if there were any obvious damage to the circuit board. In less than 5 minutes I found that one of my inductors had a wire that the solder melted off of, leaving the wire dangling just far enough abouve the circuit to not make a connection.
I took it to work with me and re-soldered it with standard grade solder, we are out of the high temp solder right now . I assume this will be enough for a trial run to see if works properly, then use the high temp later. * Assuming there are no other problems with it.
I'll give it a test run using smaller fuses just in case something goes wrong, i'd hate to damage it worse than it already is.
One thing that slightly bothers me is not knowing what caused that particular wire to get hot enough to melt its own solder. Everything happens for a reason, especially when dealing with electricty. I'll keep a close eye on it when I test it with the cover off and let it play for awhile.
I won't have time to do this for a few days, so I'm open for suggestions/comments in the meantime. Thanks swez.
big_bass_chase on 04/29/2009 10:20:42
Alright - I got the amp re-installed yesterday, and it works well. Hopefully it will last..
I also installed some kicker rca's and I clipped the old tarnished part off my ground wire and made sure it had a good connection. I had no idea some new rca's and a fresh ground would make the difference that it did, its even better than before :)
swez on 04/29/2009 11:12:59
Hey, that's great news and am glad you elected to crack the case and have a good look around.
It makes sense that that coil in the power supply would have been the failure point. In many cases, these larger components are assembled by hand, after the small parts were installed and wave soldered. The person who did that hand work may have done a poor job and you have a solder joint that looked OK, but failed later.
In most soldering systems today, many are now using lead-free, (Pb free) solders. That might be a 95/5 alloy of silver and tin. It has no lead and a high solder melting point.Use a rosin based flux to clean the old solder and landing pad, then solder with 95/5 solder.
Nice work,
Swez
big_bass_chase on 04/29/2009 12:24:19
Thanks buddy.. I was considering venting my trunk to help my driver breathe better, and hopefully get a little closer to the sound I had with this setup in my explorer. Maybe I should post a new thread for that, I couldn't find much on other threads..
big_bass_chase on 07/9/2009 14:32:02
Well, one thing is for sure.. Even after the repair, as well as a dime sized hole on the cone (duct tape fixes everything haha) I bought a db meter from radio shack that peaked at 130. Lets just say it was a waste of money because as soon as the song started playing it topped out at 130 db's. The meters that go higher are too expensive, but i'd really like to know what im actually hitting.
swez on 07/9/2009 16:05:55
That Radio Shack meter is good for general sound checks and a good monitor for live sound as well. But with the rig you have now, it won't handle that much SPL.
If there are any sponsored DB Drags in your area, getting the system tested on a Termlab metering system will give a very accurate SPL number for this setup. Some stores do local meets and maybe a modest fee for the test. Check that option out too.
Swez
PS Yes, duct tape will do many things and patching a sub cone is one of them. How'd ya get the hole anyway?
big_bass_chase on 07/12/2009 08:40:42
Of all things it could have been, it was actually the stock H/U, lol. It was laying just in front of my box in the trunk and I was getting it out and it slipped out of my hand and the corner of it gave me my nice hole.. At least it wasn't on the rubber surround though! I couldn't even tell a difference before I taped it, assuming that's because of the ported enclosure..
As far as db drags, I rarely hear of them near my area. * A road trip isn't completely out of the question, if I can ever get some things done I've been putting off! I'd really like to go nopi again, that was a blast and I saw so many awesome setups.
swez on 07/12/2009 11:17:36
Ouch... hate when that happens.
Have seen a lot of very badly damaged woofers come out of night clubs and such. Some still worked OK but looked like they have been through a war.
In January, we did a huge club install. Most of the gear was used and stored in a place where critters got into the vents and chewed up most of the internal wiring and fiberglass fill. What an expensive mess for them and a good payday for our team.
We had to replace 8 JBL 15" woofers on that deal. Fortunately, we had 4 in stock already and made a quick/easy few grand on drivers and labor. See how one man's misery becomes another man's money maker? GRIN
Swez
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