Hello all,
I'm having trouble with my Rockford Fosgate R500X1D car amp and was hoping to repair it myself if possible. I'm brand new to this so I'm looking for some suggestions for troubleshooting.
When I turn on my stereo, the power/protect light will not turn on. I have confirmed that there are solid connections to the main power, remote power, and ground (~12V in B+, ~11.5V in rem). I've noticed the protect light flash on a couple times as I've adjusted the power cable to ensure solid contact, but aside from this the light remains off. Disconnecting the RCA cables did not fix the problem so I'm fairly confident it's an issue with the amp rather than the subwoofer circuit. I took off the hood of the amp but didn't know exactly what to look/test for so I figured I'd get some advice before diving in. One thing I noticed was that some of the insulation had melted on a set of copper coils (see attached image). Could this be the problem or is there likely a short circuit elsewhere?
I apologize for my inaptitude and realize I'm probably underprepared to be attempting this repair, but this thing is going in the trash if I can't fix it so if anyone has suggestions for troubleshooting steps to further isolate the problem I'd really appreciate it!
I'm having trouble with my Rockford Fosgate R500X1D car amp and was hoping to repair it myself if possible. I'm brand new to this so I'm looking for some suggestions for troubleshooting.
When I turn on my stereo, the power/protect light will not turn on. I have confirmed that there are solid connections to the main power, remote power, and ground (~12V in B+, ~11.5V in rem). I've noticed the protect light flash on a couple times as I've adjusted the power cable to ensure solid contact, but aside from this the light remains off. Disconnecting the RCA cables did not fix the problem so I'm fairly confident it's an issue with the amp rather than the subwoofer circuit. I took off the hood of the amp but didn't know exactly what to look/test for so I figured I'd get some advice before diving in. One thing I noticed was that some of the insulation had melted on a set of copper coils (see attached image). Could this be the problem or is there likely a short circuit elsewhere?
I apologize for my inaptitude and realize I'm probably underprepared to be attempting this repair, but this thing is going in the trash if I can't fix it so if anyone has suggestions for troubleshooting steps to further isolate the problem I'd really appreciate it!
Attachments
Sorry I am not a professinal repair guy myself so other members might have more reasonable advice but some basic tests with a multimeter would be to short the cinch (?) inputs and measure the output voltage. There should be no DC voltage on the output terminals with the inputs shorted and I think there should only be miniscule AC voltage (a couple of mV at best). If there is a larger AC voltage the circuit might be oscillating.
Also learn how to test Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT) and MosFET output transistors with a multimeter. One of the output devices (transistors on the heat sink) might be blown (short between of the pin pairs) or open cricuit.
To me it doesn't look like the coil wire insulation is burned/melted in the pictures you've provided. It looks more like they glued the coil wire in place during manufacturing and rested the coil on the side that looks deformed, leaving that said deformation because the then still runny glue poured out again.
Also check the capacitors for shorts and if you own an ESR meter check their equal series resistance.
Cheers.
Also learn how to test Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT) and MosFET output transistors with a multimeter. One of the output devices (transistors on the heat sink) might be blown (short between of the pin pairs) or open cricuit.
To me it doesn't look like the coil wire insulation is burned/melted in the pictures you've provided. It looks more like they glued the coil wire in place during manufacturing and rested the coil on the side that looks deformed, leaving that said deformation because the then still runny glue poured out again.
Also check the capacitors for shorts and if you own an ESR meter check their equal series resistance.
Cheers.
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