What gauge of wire

moparopkop

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Picked this wee amp of another member...
Anyone no what gauge I need to run it
It's 400w that's all I no about it
 

-Pete-

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I would run the biggest wire you can. At least 4 gauge anyway. The bigger the better as you will have voltage drop across the length of it.

You're next stop is to head to BOC and get some flexible welding wire (ground cable) 50mm2 is equivalent to zero gauge which would be more than enough for that size of transformer and a decent price.
 

moparopkop

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I would run the biggest wire you can. At least 4 gauge anyway. The bigger the better as you will have voltage drop across the length of it.

You're next stop is to head to BOC and get some flexible welding wire (ground cable) 50mm2 is equivalent to zero gauge which would be more than enough for that size of transformer and a decent price.

Understand the first paragraph
Lost on the second.....what's or who is boc
And why do u I need to get some welding wire...
 

-Pete-

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BOC welding and gas suppliers. you want to get some of the flexible ground wire (50mm2) which is zero gauge, the stuff cable you would use for your ground clamp when you're welding. Basically its cheaper than proper car audio stuff, and although it has less strands and is every so slightly inferior, it is a hell of lot cheaper!
so if you run a length of their 50mm2 stuff down the car and dont forget to fuse it as close to the battery as possible.
 
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moparopkop

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BOC welding and gas suppliers. you want to get some of the flexible ground wire (50mm2) which is zero gauge, the stuff cable you would use for your ground clamp when you're welding. Basically its cheaper than proper car audio stuff, and although it has less strands and is every so slightly inferior, it is a hell of lot cheaper!
so if you run a length of their 50mm2 stuff down the car and dont forget to fuse it as close to the battery as possible.

Surely it can't be expensive for a ground wire...I'd only need metre at most to where I am putting the amp
 

-Pete-

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wouldn't be too expensive at all. no idea what the current prices are like though but wouldn't be anything scary for all you would need.
 

pablo

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surely 8g ground cable is enough? As long as its equal or larger than the power cable. 0g is hugely overkill and into awkward fittings etc
 

Cartunes

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surely 8g ground cable is enough? As long as its equal or larger than the power cable. 0g is hugely overkill and into awkward fittings etc

I didnt want to say anything before now as I don't normally deal with scrap ( listen to me, winning the public over like Jacob-Rees Mogg at an LGBT fundraiser ) , but that amp would burn to a crisp if it handled 10 or more amps. 10 gauge wire would do rightly. 8 gauge definitely overkill. Maintaining signal path integrity by spending lots of cash on high quality cables for this amp would be like taking a pig to the Ritz for lunch.
 

-Pete-

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I agree gents its total overkill. I'm just coming at it from the angle of amps come and go but if you have the cable already in place, then it saves doing it possibly twice later should any upgrades come along or change in set up.
and yep terminals are a pain in the hole but thankfully people actually started making nice little machined blocks to take the zero gauge to make it fit any terminal size.

Just my approach to it is all.
 

moparopkop

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View attachment 218582 View attachment 218581 View attachment 218582 Picked this wee amp of another member...
Anyone no what gauge I need to run it
It's 400w that's all I no about it

Got some 10 gauge wire earlier there..
Regarding the 3 terminals on the amp....earth to the far right....have positive wire to open switch and it powers the amp up....no sound from speaker unless I bridge open switch and middle one...is this right? Just testing on a spare battery at the minute....when I wire up to the van battery will the amp turn off when ignition off...got a blue remote wire with the kit but no terminal for it
 
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Nicky

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The switch wire will connect to the back of the head unit and into the 3rd connection from the right; you should have a dedicated output for this on the unit and you’ll be able to turn the amp on and off via your settings menu should you wish to have it off. That wire out of the head unit will send a small current down that wire to wake the amp up/turn it on.
 

pablo

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Pretty sure you want ground on right then battery feed in middle and trigger/remote wire on left.

Don't get the positives mixed up or you'll fry something.
 
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