I was wondering if anyone knew which which connector should be used as the remote on, for powering an amp. Thanks Chris

I was wondering if anyone knew which which connector should be used as the remote on, for powering an amp. Thanks Chris

Is there a pre-out connection on the back of the Dance head unit? Cos I think there was a similar thread somewhere here a few weeks ago and someone said that there's no pre-amplified outputs on the Dance head unit.

If you have, can you post a couple of pics please?

Ifs its like the mk1 fabia then its a blackpunt pre out cable.

no it, unlike the Fabia mark 1, it doesn't have standard pre-outs so you need to connect the amp via its high level in.

Do you intend to use a power cap. Some say it helps to to protect the alternator and battery as its less stress on the alternator especially when a lot of power is needed (i.e. loud bass draws a lot of power), others say a power cap puts more stress on the power cap because every time you turn on the engine the alternator has to work harder to fill the power cap. I'm confused!?

no it, unlike the Fabia mark 1, it doesn't have standard pre-outs so you need to connect the amp via its high level in.

Do you intend to use a power cap. Some say it helps to to protect the alternator and battery as its less stress on the alternator especially when a lot of power is needed (i.e. loud bass draws a lot of power), others say a power cap puts more stress on the power cap because every time you turn on the engine the alternator has to work harder to fill the power cap. I'm confused!?

The first theory is the right one. The job of a capacitor is to store a charge. Now when the amplifier peaks (such as when giving a big bass thud for instance) it draws a surge of current. In this case, the capacitor will have an extra store of energy that will cater for that current surge. This will help out in a number of ways.

(1) It will let the amplifier draw enough power for that instant (during the surge) as if the amplifier will not get enough power it will produce a distorted signal.

(2) It will protect the cables from the battery to the amplifier as the amplifier will draw the extra current needed from the capacitor instead of the cables going to the battery. This obviously means that the capacitor has to be installed next to the amplifier. If the amplifier draws a high current through the cables coming from the battery, the cables might heat up.

(3) It will protect the battery and alternator, since they don't get the high current surge as this is taken care of by the capacitor.

(4) If you don't install the capacitor and you have a high power amplifier, you'll get flickering of the car lightings as the power will be drawn from the battery and alternator and you'll get a momentary dimming of the lights with high current surges.

On the other hand, it might draw a slight bit of extra power every now and then when recharging, but this is basically negligible.

Hope that's been of enough help.

The plan wasn't to use a power cap, I've never had a problem with the sub in my present car, so didn't think that it would be a problem, especially as neither of my amps are particularly powerful. I intend to get wiring loom adapters, to extend them so as not to have to cut the loom, and then use high low converters to make the speaker signals into AV connectors, which can run. After some more research, it would seem that the only option for the remote on, is to run my wire to the fuse box, which hopefully won't be that difficult. Thanks for the help

thanks for that tak - but how powerful does my amp has to be to consider using a cap. i would have thought that every time you turn on the engine, your alternator has to work harder to fill the cap? or is there always power in the cap even when engine is off so it doesn't have to be recharged every time you turn on the engine?

The amp has to be a bit powerful to need the capacitor. Usually it's the stand alone amps, those having at least 200W RMS probably. If on the other hand you have an active sub for instance (ie the bass boxes that have an inbuilt amplifier in them) you probably don't need the power cap. However it all depends on the power the amplifier consumes. In one of my previous cars I had a Pioneer Pump active sub (see here) and I never used a power cap with it. Only when I put it at really high volumes and looked closely could I ever see the lights dimming very very slightly with the bass thud.

With regards to your 2nd question, no the engine won't need to go through extra heaving to charge it. The cap itself will lose the charge eventually (don't know if it's after a few minutes or after a few days as power caps are usually 1 Farad or more) - but it only takes fractions of a second to recharge.

Edited 25 July, 200916 yr by takksi
added link

Hi! Did you manage to connect your amp to the dance unit? Pictures?