Ok, so just tried hooking it up to 1R, and it worked great, car on or off. I really have no idea what power gremlins were working before, but it sounds great now, distorting only at the loudest of volumes. It easily drowned out my 1500rpm (cold engine) idle before distorting.

Here's my ghetto test, complete with twisted on extension to reach the MS harness:

 

why you gotta ruin my harness?

 

I was thinking about using a vampire tap. Maybe even two.

It's funny how pretty the left side of that plug is (Scott's work) vs. how ugly the right side is, with crimp connections and vampire taps. A lot of that is left over from my bandaid days. Most of the vampire taps aren't even in use, just afraid to take them off.

 

Glad you got it to work! Now you should write a guide on how to install it so I can do mine, lol

What is this 1R you speak of?

 

I'm surprised nobody notices that it's a 5A amp (60W), not a 0.5A amp.
IOW, run a wire to the battery and install a fuse within a couple of inches of the battery terminal.
The fact that it works with the 0.8A transformer is because you're not using all the power it can deliver. Double the sound level needs twice the power. Hence, you can achieve a very high sound level although you only have 0.8A

 

It's not a switch power source, the amp would never turn off and it would drain eventually....

 

I was just going off of what was written on the body of the amplifier: "12V.5A"

In north America, we use the decimal instead of the comma to separate tenths of numbers from whole numbers. So whereas in most European nations, half an amp would be ,5A in the US and Canada .5A is half an amp.

Admittedly, 5 amps would make a lot more sense. 500ma is, well, not a lot of current.

Curly, is this thing fused? If so, what's the fuse rating?

(Wouldn't it be funny if this thing actually does draw 5 amps, and being wired into the ECU's supply, it causes a processor reset every time there's a loud musical transient while he's driving down the road?)

Behold the magic and wonder of the $5 SPST automotive relay.

 

just sayin'

 

You mean 1R is not a switched power source? Because it turns off when I turn the MS off...

Maybe it's not 1R. Does it look like that's what I'm hooked up to? I read the MS harness diagram quickly and thought I was right in saying 1R...

No one's commented on whether or not this is a good (smart) source... I'm hesitant to run a $10 China amp to anything related to my MS.

Joe, it is not fused. It would be though. That's my next question, Ben mentioned running a fuse, and I have a inline fuse holder, but what size fuse?

 

so add a relay energized by the switched 12v

beaten by Joe, thought there was a delete option

 

Yes, 1R is switched. Brainey was talking about wiring the amp directly to the battery (which I still maintain is the best possible solution, obviously with a relay inline.)


I commented on it, and rather sardonically I thought. Specifically, I said "Wouldn't it be funny if this thing actually does draw 5 amps, and being wired into the ECU's supply, it causes a processor reset every time there's a loud musical transient while he's driving down the road?"


The more I think about it, the more I'm agreeing with Frank. There's no possible way this thing can operate on 500ma. That's less current than Hustler's mom's cheapest motorized ***** draws.

I'm thinking that the Belgain guy is right, and some lazy dipѕhit in a Chinese sweatshop simply made a typo when she was creating the silkscreen, inserting a decimal where there shouldn't have been one.

As such, you should probably fuse the device at 5A. Fuses don't blow instantaneously at their rated current, and unless you're playing a sine wave at maximum volume (or a modern hip-hop album, which are essentially the same thing) the amp is not going to draw rated current continuously. If the fuse does blow, then replace it with a 7.5 amp unit.

 

Gotcha, 5a it is.

I read your reply, and half heatedly laughed out loud, didn't know it was a serious concern. I guess I'll find out.

Can't open the doors in my puny garage though, so it'll have to wait for the weather to chill out, perhaps tomorrow. It's currently rainsnowing.

 

So for anyone interested in a cheap amp, this one works fine.

I ended up tapping into that 12v source feeding the MS, soldered in a fuse, and it's working great. It's still distorting at the loudest of louds, but it's still easily audible at freeway speeds in my stripped car with a solid motor mount, so there's really no point in it getting louder. Can't ask for more for $10 really.

 

I wired up an amp very similar to this one (except it cost me $40 not $12, I think I got ripped). I wired to the 12v source that was originally meant for the radio. I also wired an on/off toggle in line as well so I can turn the amp off when not in use.