Fosgate 1500bd Troubleshooting

[HiredGun]

WARNING, NEWBE and SOFTWARE GUYS working on hardware.

I am troubleshooting a 1500bd that I picked up locally for about $60. The amp will power on, but will not produce any real sound. The cone of my sub will move and make some noise, but no volume or sound really.

My first attempt to check the power supplies would suggest that the FETs are okay (checking the resistance between legs, none appear shorted where they should not be).

One curious thing is the RCA connectors. Should the ground of the RCA connector have a connection with the ground of the amp? It seems that the outer sheaths are not connected to anything. The connector seems a little flimsy, I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the connector.

Thanks to anyone willing to respond.

[mike49504]

First thing is to check the rca shield ground to see if its broken..

The legs that solder to the board between the rca connecter and the board itself break often seen this alot of times..

take the board out of the heatsink and place 1 meter probe on the outer shield of the rca jacks and place other probe on the leg of the rca ground on the bottom side of the board wiggle the connector around carefully to see if it has a connection and the conection remains intact if not unsolder the connector from the board


Then we will proceed to the next step

[HiredGun]

Mike, thanks! The ground for the RCA connectors is broken on both channels. It's broken where the part connects to the board.

1500bd RCA 1.jpg

Now the question is getting a part that will fit in its place.?

1500bd RCA 2.jpg

[mike49504]

You can either find a replacement or unsolder the rca jacks from the board..


I usually flip them over once unsolderd from the board and take a resistor and bend the lead a lil and solder a new leg on them clip the resistor part off and put them back in the board works for me everytime

[Pioneer621]

I am sure there are better methods to repairing that, but I have used stranded 22 gauge wire that I tinned & bent to shape & then soldered to what was left of the ground connections on the RCA jacks. (pics below)

The tinned 22 gauge wire seemed pretty solid & less likely to break again, but I am thinking now you could use small short pieces of stranded wire soldered to the ground on the RCA & the board ground with some slack so the wire can move slightly which may be less stressful on it. Maybe some others can offer better suggestions on how to make the repair reliable.

Here are the pics of the repair I did a few years ago; these were from a Rockford Fosgate POWER 550S.

[HiredGun]

It looks like there is a part on digikey that would fit. I'll give the repair a try first. Good pics! Thanks.

[seankane]

I have new RCA jacks in stock. If you would like to purchase some PM and I will get you set up. The repair you did looks very nice, but new parts are always good too!!

[HiredGun]

I was able to clip a few legs off of an old rectifier, bend them, and solder them in place. The new legs aligned reasonably well with the case and the amp is now working!!

One additional question, is it possible to buy the speaker terminal part? The one on my amp has a stripped thread and the black casing is cracked. I suppose I could put some teflon tape on the threads.?

DSC_0056.jpg

[Perry Babin]

Someone may have some they can sell you but I don't think they're available as new parts.

You can go to a 5mm screw if it's not stripped too badly.

[seankane]

I have the terminals and the black plastic covers, several of each. PM me if your interested.