Has anyone installed one of these kits. It has all the large wiring and this cylinder thing called a capacitor. It is used to help assist the amp and sub. In the instructions it states to use the resister (Included in the kit) for the initial charge of the capacitor. I emailed tech support and I guess it isn't there (tech support) as no one got back to us. How do you charge this monster? Do I just hook this resister to the pos side of the capacitor and then solder the other end to the huge pos cable?
At idle how long do I charge the cap? If I use my multimeter on 20 volts dc Should I have a 12 volt dc for a full charge? Oh so many questions!!!

Thanks in advance

I got this from this website

It appears that you can just replace your inline fuse with the resistor.

NOTE OF CAUTION: Power capacitors store a large amount of energy and they charge very quickly. You must first "charge" your power capacitor using a resistor before connecting it directly to +12 volts. This is done with the a 1k ohm resistor and a voltmeter. The exact value of the resistor is not critical but I would keep it in the 500-1k ohm range. I would recommend getting a 1 watt resistor if possible (your capacitor may have come with a resistor for charging). A lower wattage resistor will heat up too quickly. Also, do not hold the resistor with your bare hand. The current flowing through the resistor will cause the resistor to heat up and you could be burned. A good place to put the resistor is in the main power wire fuse holder. Simply substitute the resistor for the fuse. A diagram for the capacitor charging setup is shown below. You will need to place a voltmeter across the capacitor to monitor the voltage. Once the voltmeter reads 12 volts you can remove the voltmeter and replace the resistor with the power fuse.

The reason they do the resistor trick is that initially, a capacitor looks like a short when connected to a voltage until it's charged.
the larger the capacitance, the larger the current draw will be. It will read battery voltage when fully charged, so when you see it there, you can remove the resistor and replace the fuse.
DONOT short the leads to discharge it!!!! you will melt the end off a decent sized screwdriver and likely destroy the connections at the cap.
if you need to discharge it, remove the power fuse, and turn on the amp, it will drain it slowly down, or use any 12v bulb with
some jumper leads to bleed it off.
The better ones actually have a circuit board and relay on the top, and they will handle precharge and allow it to bleed down when the power is off.

If it is a newer capacitor, it should come with a charging card, and instructions for charging the capacitor. The card is attached to the posts on top of the capacitor, and the two leads that come off of the card are attached to power and ground. When first connected, the green LED on the card should light up. When the green light goes out, the capacitor is charged.

Capacitors that are not equipped with a charging card usually come packaged with a charging resistor. We recommend a 30 Ohm resistor. You will need that resistor and a voltmeter to charge the cap.

First, you will want to remove the main fuse for your autosound system (usually mounted as close to the car's battery as possible).

With all power removed from the main power line, go ahead and connect your power and ground cables to the capacitor. After you have connected the power cable and ground cable (and remote lead where applicable) to the capacitor you are ready to charge it.

To charge the capacitor, put the leads of the resistor in place of where the main fuse was in the fuse holder. You should hold the body of the resistor with a pair of pliers since it can get extremely hot.

After waiting a few minutes with the resistor in place, measure the voltage at the capacitor. Once the voltage at the capacitor gets to eleven volts, it's safe to remove the resistor and put the fuse back into it's place in the fuse holder.

If you see a little bit of a spark at the fuse when it is reconnected, that is normal. That's just the capacitor making up the difference in voltage that it needs, and should just take place quickly and then stop.

This is my meathod, a test light can serve the same purpose as a resistor but tells you when it is charged. You would just follow the above instructions for installation while using a resistor, only instead you would put the clip of the test light on one side of the fuse holder, then put the probe of the test light to the opposite side of the fuse holder. The light should light up at this point, and you will know that your capacitor is fully charged when the light on the test light goes out.

------------------
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum4/HTML/035163.html

If you dont have Huge amps getting a stiffening Capacitor is a waste of money. even in a fiero with it's bad wiring design a 50 watt amp will not dip the voltage enough to cause the amp to have trouble and produce less thump. (50 watt RMS at 0.05thd, not what most amps are rated at out there.) Also you dont need to buy the overpriced junk from the car audio shops. Look online for some of the larger capacity "computer" capacitors from the 70's and 80's that are sold at surplus electronics shops. you can get 90,000 and higher mFd capacitors rated for 14-19 volts for around 3-4 bucks each. No they are not pretty crome with lightning bolts and useless volt meters on them but they do the exact same thing. These companies selling 1-2 farad capacitors are insane, you do not need that kind of storage to stiffen an amp and they only serve to drain your battery as capacitors lose their charge fast just sitting there compared to a battery. If you drive your car daily it's not a problem, if you store your car it will be.

There is a place for them, If you have 4-6 1500 watt amps in your car you really need them. (Again 1500 watts RMS at 0.05thd)

I used to do competition car stereo stuff in college. Lots of the stuff sold today is snake oil just like it was back in the 80's... If you can hear the amps peter out on the deep bass notes then get a stiffening cap. if you cant, they will do nothing to your stereo but make your wallet lighter.

quote Originally posted by timgray: These companies selling 1-2 farad capacitors are insane, you do not need that kind of storage to stiffen an amp and they only serve to drain your battery as capacitors lose their charge fast just sitting there compared to a battery. If you drive your car daily it's not a problem, if you store your car it will be.

This is not neccissarily true. If you have the diode set up to the ignition switched portion of the car's wiring, once the ignition is turned off, the only possible place for the stored power to go is the other accessories on that switch, you can easily get past this by installing a diode before the capaciter (A Diode will only allow power flow in one direction). And whether it is needed or not, odds are probably not, but even if you do not see the lights dim or anything like that with the harder hits, a capacitor will ensure that you are getting a constant clean flow of power which will help prolong the life of the amp.

I got this cap for my son's 88. At idle with his sterio and amp/sub going the ses light to flicker with the bass. I figure this capacitor kit should help. And it made a nice Christmas gift...

I'm sure it did make a nice gift... my father actually gave me one for xmas as well but for a completely different purpose. I was wondering, how large is the capacitor and what power is the amp that it will be connected to? soundslike he needs it with the lights dimming while parked, while on the road he might not have much of a problem, but the cap will help with that and also help keep the amp runnin strong for the years to come

1100 watt sub and a 600 watt amp. The Scosche kit is a 500K.

good deal.... hes set to go did you have ne more questions about the install? i used to work at a car audio place during the summers

charge up a cap and let it sit unconnected for a few weeks.. it will lose it's charge from the electrons migrating from one plate set to the other. Competition vehicles that sat for a while between exibitions would have to have the Cap's topped off before connecting the battery to avoid blowing all the fuses when you got the car out of storage. many guys resorted to battery tenders to keep the cap's charged.

Capacitors are not batteries, they will not hold their charge for anywhere near as long as a battery can. They are for temporary power surges and filtering.

Thanks for all the advice. Everything seems to work ok. I sure wouldn't want to touch the two studs on this thing!! OUCH

My son finally got around to instaling the cap. It only will charge to 6.6 volts. I am guessing that he needs to clean up his ground or he was using the multimeter in the wrong place.