How to test a car amplifier?

M

mr_norris

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Hey guys,

Tl;Dr; I need to see if my car amp still works (as it should).

Short story long...

I used to roll with my sub and amp in my old car. Traded that car in, took out my sound and put it aside for installing in my new car.

After much internal debate, I decided against getting it installed (when someone fiddles with my stuff, things always go wrong - it's a frustrating curse).

I put ad's up on gumtree and OLX, found a buyer. Stipulated in the ad that unless they test it in front of me, I can't be liable for anything once it leaves my side - which I (un)conveniently forgot.

A bloke picked it up and called me the next day with a sob story. Apparently the sound people (who knows who) couldn't get it to stay on. As soon as it was switched on, it kicked into protection mode.

So... it's been sitting in my place on a table for weeks now, and I have absolutely no idea what to do with it.

It's a Targa TG-485. It appears to be in mint condition. I only got it because I wanted full range sound in my car - not to pump the bass or show off.

It is old though, and it had been sitting in my flat for about 5 months before I sold it.

So... what do?

I just want to make sure it's either really dead, or 100% working.

Any suggestions would be most welcome :)

Thanks!
 
The only way to test is, is to actually connect it to your battery along with the ground.

Does it go into protection mode after x couple of minutes? Or when it's under load?
 
Thanks for the reply.

Yeah I thought so - I still have all the cabling so I'm sure I can do that.

Apparently it goes into protection mode a few seconds after it's turned on, without any sort of load.
 
Easy, safe way to test is connect it to a computer power supply. (obviously disconnect it from your computer parts first.)

+12V is all the yellow wires on the molex plugs
0V or ground is all the black wires on the molex plugs.

Connect the amps + connector to the yellow wires
Connect the amps - (GND or ground) connector to the black wires.

To turn on the computer power supply, you need to check the manual but usually there is a green wire on the large motherboard connector that you need to connect to black (ground).

To turn on the amp, connect a piece of wire from the yellow wire to the "Remote" turn on connector on the amp.

You can google "How to turn on a computer power supply" to get more in depth steps.
 
not sure if a pc psu will have the amps to run a car amplifier...

I would just plug the amp straight into the car lighter socket and see what it does.
 
Well, if he is running the amp at full volume, then of course it won't work. But you can definitely get it to turn on and stay on an play music at moderate volume.

PC power supplies can do around 15A easily = 180 Watts. Plenty for testing.

Connecting to the car battery will of course also work. To turn on the amp, connect the car battery + to the REMOTE turn on connector on the amp. You don't need a headunit. Can even use your phone or MP3 player and plug it into the car amp to test music.
 
Gaz{M} said:
Well, if he is running the amp at full volume, then of course it won't work. But you can definitely get it to turn on and stay on an play music at moderate volume.

PC power supplies can do around 15A easily = 180 Watts. Plenty for testing.

Connecting to the car battery will of course also work. To turn on the amp, connect the car battery + to the REMOTE turn on connector on the amp. You don't need a headunit. Can even use your phone or MP3 player and plug it into the car amp to test music.
Click to expand...

Thanks, will give it a bash.

I was just a bit nervous connecting up my amp to my car (even if it's just a cable from the battery). I don't want to go blowing things up :P
 
The amp should have an inline fuse on the + cable to the battery as a precaution. All car audio installations put an inline fuse on the + cable.

The amp also has it's own fuses.

You should be fine.
 
Thanks, yeah there is a fuse on the cable.

I thought that the fuses in the amp may have blown (assuming it does go into protection mode), but man, what a whore to pull them out to check...
 
If fuses are blown, the amp shouldn't even do anything. Worth checking though.

If it is toast, it is worth taking to an electronics repair shop. Sometimes just a dry solder joint or blown transistor needs to be fixed and they are cheap. But only if the amp is worth, say R1000 or more, otherwise it won't be worth fixing (a few R100 bucks).

Are you sure the buyer didn't fry the thing and then give you a sob story?
 
Gaz{M} said:
Are you sure the buyer didn't fry the thing and then give you a sob story?
Click to expand...

That's what I suspected. But months of sitting inside my room may have caused something to go wrong. That's the only reason I agreed to taking it back.
 
I'm being a bit of a necro here, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any reliable sound places that could test my amp for me around the Pinetown / Kloof / Hillcrest area?

Unfortunately all my cabling is rather useless, and the fuse that went in the cable that connected to the battery has disappeared :/

I lost my care after my last post. But now I just want to see if it works, followed by getting rid of it :P
 
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