capacitators

[BuckHunt]

what do these things do? I get the impression they save your battery or alternator or something like that. Can they improve sound in any way though or uhh... yeah what the heck do these things do?

[Eric]

Capacitors are cool.

Think of it as a spring for your Trooper's electrical system. What a capacitor (heretofore referred to by me as a 'cap') does is store voltage, which it releases on demand when there is a dip in voltage due, in large part and by vast majority, a bass hit.

A good rule of thumb is to use 1 farad of capacitance per 400 watts amp output power. So, if your amp pushes 400 watts at 4 ohms peak, you're good with 1 farad. You can go with a smaller cap, but it won't have the same buffering effect.

I might be getting a touch ahead of myself here. When your bass hits, and you see the lights dim, that's a voltage dip. It's not a big deal usually, if you don't run the stereo with the Trooper turned off or run it real loud for really long periods of time. What it can do, though, if you are using it as just described, is confuse the ECU a little bit and work the hell out of your alternator.

If voltage dips too low, your Trooper will go into "limp" mode. Now, the battery's gotta be almost dead for this to happen, but it can happen.

Just keep an eye on your little voltmeter in your top left corner of the instrument cluster, and you should be able to monitor it safely. If you stay somewhere in the 12-13 volt range, you're golden.

Now, the voltmeter's not really a super-accurate gauge of your electrical system's ability to stand up to the abuse, but it will tell you if your alternator's working or not. If your Trooper is running, and you've got the headlights, AC, heat, stereo, and all other things that draw power turned off, your voltage should sit right around the middle on your voltmeter.

If it rises above the line on the voltmeter, it just means that the alternator's doing it's job and charging the battery.



To wrap it up = Think of a cap as cushion for your battery and alternator. It takes the edge off of the bass hits.

I forgot to mention the other and main reason for having a cap - it does WONDERS for your system.

It makes the bass cleaner, and lessens the likelihood of damaging bass drivers by clipping or running dirty power through them.