Blinking headlights

Guys...I just put in my stereo and well it kicks ass...but ive been driving it for about 3 weeks now and I have noticed that my headlights are starting to flicker on every bass note. This is a problem with my battery right??? Well I think I have heard fixes for this like a new alternator and yada yada..but I was wondering if there was something cheaper that would fix my problem. I dont want to cut corners or anything but I dont have alot of money as of now ..and i really really hate it...ok anyway any suggestions



TweaK

If a new alternator is the only permanent good solution then if you could maybe please leave a suggestion on one.

Get a very high farad capacitor and install it in parallel with your battery.

A capacitor is a piece of electronic equipment that charges energy for storage and releases that energy when you need it - like a battery only it charges in about 1 second and releases energy with utmost force. They come in many sizes, as small as 1mm to sizes larger than car batteries. What you need is something about the size of a thermos, but bigger is always better as far as caps go for sound systems. This should be 1 farad at least. Running parallel means to connect the + of the battery to the + of the cap and the - of the battery to the - of the cap.

What will happen is the cap will charge up using the battery's power in about 1 second, and hold the charge until a power demand comes - your subs. When the subs hit that kickdrum, it will draw the power from the cap, draining the cap and not your primary power source - the battery. Then the battery will charge up the cap to prepare it for the next major draw.

The cap allows the power draw from the battery to be much more gradual instead of the intense load of the subs directly.

Oh, a cap that will do the job will be about 100 dollars ... you might wanna save up.

Originally posted by phathonda
Get a very high farad capacitor and install it in parallel with your battery.

A capacitor is a piece of electronic equipment that charges energy for storage and releases that energy when you need it - like a battery only it charges in about 1 second and releases energy with utmost force. They come in many sizes, as small as 1mm to sizes larger than car batteries. What you need is something about the size of a thermos, but bigger is always better as far as caps go for sound systems. This should be 1 farad at least. Running parallel means to connect the + of the battery to the + of the cap and the - of the battery to the - of the cap.

What will happen is the cap will charge up using the battery's power in about 1 second, and hold the charge until a power demand comes - your subs. When the subs hit that kickdrum, it will draw the power from the cap, draining the cap and not your primary power source - the battery. Then the battery will charge up the cap to prepare it for the next major draw.

The cap allows the power draw from the battery to be much more gradual instead of the intense load of the subs directly.

Actually a cap will only As fast as the equivelent series resistance (ESR) times capacitance. That is called a time constant. and it takes 5 time constants for a cap to charge to full voltage whiel this time constant may be low. There is also equivlent series inductance (ESL) to worry about when you are playing music with quick heavy transients. Remember that too much ESL can actually hinder current flow due to the fact that Inductance hinders current flow.

RC Time contants are usally R x C = T Then T x 5 = TC

R = Total ESR
C = Capcitance in Micro Farads
T = Time
TC = Time constant

So say you have 50 Milli ohms of ESR (or 0.05 Ohms) Now times that to a 1 Farad cap (Which is 1,000,000 micro Farads). But with 1 Farad you would be time 1. wich make thses equations really easy. So 1 Farad x .05 Ohms = .05 Seconds. Now it takes 5 Time constatns to fully charge a cap so 5 x .05 = So that means it takes .25 Seconds or 250 Milli Seconds to fully charge the cap back up. Sounds quick huh? Well you realize that 20Hz note is 50 Milli seconds long for one cycle that means at extreme listening levels if your alt or battery cannot supply enough current for the 20 Hz cycle the cap will discarge to try tokeep the Voltage from sagging yet won't be able to recharge quick enough.

Cause if it takes .25 seconds to charge the cap and the base not keeps pulling lots of current every .05 seconds. The cap will maybe helfp for the first second of that then it will drop to the voltage level that the cars electrical system is at and will not stay at said 13.8 or 14 V That was initially charged on the cap.


Personally thos caps that are not the electrolytic tin cans are usally no help to a system. And those Pop can sized electrolytics are not a whole bunch better. Thay may help just a little, but they really are a waste of money. The issue is having enough current supply weither it be a bigger battery or HO alternator.

[DwyaneLin]

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[Monica]

Thanks for your sharing!