Why does fuse keep blowing

[1moreamp]

PM me Perry

[imhondamatt]

I find it awsome to find people out there looking to help us newbs. Thanx again. But.... I still am not sure what to replace. or even test.

[1moreamp]

Originally posted by imhondamatt
I find it awsome to find people out there looking to help us newbs. Thanx again. But.... I still am not sure what to replace. or even test.

Open up the bottom panel and look toward the RCA end and then look just to the right and left of the center of the board. These first sets of heat sinked FETs are your outputs. Ohm them out with a ohm meter the ones that read very low ohms < like 1 to 5 ohms > are shorted.

I replace entire sets on any side that has issues with new parts. The only thing is that most times the driver chip has also failed because the rails peeled back onto that IC in the middle of the board < HIP-4080AIP> is its number. ~$5 bucks at Digi-key last time I checked. Use this Link to find the parts you need:

http://www.findchips.com/avail

Just type in your part numbers and this search engine will find your parts and their price and availability.

Hope this helps, Its just a beginning

PS upload a clear pic if you can I red mark them when needed

[imhondamatt]

Well i put the ohm meter on them. If im looking at the board with the rca's on top.... The left side fets read. 0.00 anyway i put the leads.

On the right side i get a ...... I reading. i think it means infinite.

Am i on the right track. I also found the driver chip you were talking about. I guess there is no was to test it so i will buy a new one.

[1moreamp]

Recheck the fets and compare one sides readings to the other. The shorted ones will read low ohms on the two that are side by side in pairs.
If in doubt then lift the center lead and read them again. The IRF3710's are the output fets. And these get shorted.

Also buy two of the HIP-4080AIP's . The reason is why they put these in a socket. NO one uses sockets unless the device has a high failure rate and that failure rate is also present at the time of build up. In other words the chip is so static sensitive the amps often fail on start up right on the assembly line, so they socket the device for easy replacement, from the beginning.

All the HIP-4080 amps have this chip socketed. Thats a lot of amps, and since sockets cost money it a fair assumption that it was needed more than wanted.

[Cxrazy]

wow, this thread helped me out a lot!

found out which one of my FET's blew, ordered the chip, and it would be here soon!

I only have one question. Turns out I blew the FET by running the sub bridged on a 2ohm load, which it isn't stable at. Its a MTX Thunder302. Funny thing is, I ran it like this for about 6 months.

How should I go about running my 2 10"s safely with this amp?

Heres the spec sheet:
http://www.mtx.com/caraudio/archive/thunder302.cfm

Thanks!

[ppia600]

In stereo, or just bridge one and use the other for backup

[Cxrazy]

apparently the amp can run in both bridged and stereo mode.

I can run one bridged, and one normally and achieve a desired effect? I guess we'll see...

I also wonder if my box is made wrong. It's 1.7 cubic feet, and a sealed enclosure filled with whatziewhoozit, the polyester stuffing stuff. This is for 2 10" kicker solobarics. The OLD round ones, before they started putting all that plastic on em.

[Clipped]

Originally posted by justonemoreamp
I can do one better my friend Perry I have the schematics from Zenon in China where these were made.

i just pictured the president of Zenon sitting in his office saying out loud... "All your bass are berong to us..."

and it probably does...

[Dan2]

Originally posted by Cxrazy
apparently the amp can run in both bridged and stereo mode.

I can run one bridged, and one normally and achieve a desired effect? I guess we'll see...

that means one sub will work twice as hard as the other one.

just run stereo subs.