How long till the AMP turns off?

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hassy786

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Dec 7, 2013
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Hi,

I have a Car AMP connected to my computer. I am using a Car battery to power the Sub woofer and AMP, I want to know how long the AMP will keep running for until the battery runs out of power.

The battery specs are as follows:
Voltage:12V
CCA SAE:640AMPS
AH (20H): 96AMPS

The Car AMP is a Tornado 400Watt AMP and the Subwoofer is a NeXt 350 Watt Sub woofer.It is currently running and the volts are at 12.11V (I am using a Multi meter to check the battery voltage) I would like to know how many Volts the AMP will cut out at?

Thanks
 
Solution
Unless you draw about as much power as the charger puts in, the charger may end up over-charging the battery and cause electrolysis which would dry out the cells and release explosive hydrogen gas. That would be no good either.

If all you are going to do with the car battery is run your amplifier, you should use a plain 12V power supply and possibly a large filter cap to provide the high current peaks the amplifier may require instead of a hazardous car battery - those are not supposed to be used indoors.

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
Lead-acid batteries, particularly starter batteries, should not be deep-cycled since it will cause electrodes to degrade much faster. Starter batteries have thin plates designed for high crank current and deep-cycling them can cause premature plate failure. Also, acid/ion distribution in a partially discharged still battery will stratify over time, which will cause plates to deform when they get charged/discharged due to uneven ion distribution, eventually leading to an internal short.

As for the amplifier's cut-off voltage, check the amplifier's manual. It is probably in the neighborhood of 10V but if you want to get half-decent life out of lead-acid batteries, you should not discharge them beyond 12V.
 

hassy786

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Dec 7, 2013
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I was guessing somewhere near 10V.. So your saying each time I Want to use the AMP and Sub woofer I should keep the battery constantly charged? Charging the battery is no problem as I have a socket charger which runs at 4AMPs..If its just the case of keeping the battery above 12V then I can just use the charger while the AMP is turned on right?
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
Unless you draw about as much power as the charger puts in, the charger may end up over-charging the battery and cause electrolysis which would dry out the cells and release explosive hydrogen gas. That would be no good either.

If all you are going to do with the car battery is run your amplifier, you should use a plain 12V power supply and possibly a large filter cap to provide the high current peaks the amplifier may require instead of a hazardous car battery - those are not supposed to be used indoors.
 
Solution

hassy786

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Dec 7, 2013
65
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10,630


Not to worry about overcharging the battery as I have a 4 AMP charger which has overcharging protection so it will not overcharge the battery.
 
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