thermoswitch ideas

Hey everyone,

I have a 2002 Saturn Sl2.  I've had an occasional problem with my sub amp cutting out from overheating, usually only after driving close to an hour.  I've eliminated woofer impedence, ground, and gain settings as possible causes.  I believe my trunk is too isolated from the interior, and gets no airflow. 

I don't want to have to drive with the back seats folded down.  I also don't think simply rigging a fan to blow across the heat sink would do the trick, because that heat would just stay there in the trunk.  I'll still install one, but it will be in addition to venting into the passenger compartment.  

I'm in the process of running some ductwork to my trunk.  I'll be using a couple small 12v computer fans (3") rigged at the ends- one pulling air into the trunk from the passenger compartment, the other pulling air from the trunk back into the passenger compartment.

Here's my question:  Does anyone have a good source for thermoswitches?  I don't want the system to kick on until the amp heatsink reaches maybe 100 degrees.

Any alternate solutions would be welcome as well. 

Thanks.  Geep.

http://www.bcae1.com gives you a plan for building a thermoswitch. Look at number 65, good fun.

Thanks,

wow, you guys are awesome.

Chris, that's how I'm going to hook this up initially until I have time to wire something up.

Dwarren, that's probably what I'll do.  I wish I understood what was going on, I only get some bits and pieces.  The circuit is designed to kick everything on at around 150 degrees, but I want it to kick on a little sooner.  I guess I can draw up the diagram and have Radioshack help me source the parts I need. 

Steve, that site's got some good stuff.  I think I'm going to try and get everything locally first, and if I can't, then I might go that route.

geep, set up an account with them.  I did a couple years ago when I ordered unmarked Dynamat from them...just made up a company name.  I found them to be very good to order from.  They have 4 warehouses across the US, ship same day and charge only the actual shipping cost. 

It looks like they have some thermo probes that you can run back to the amp that you can set at the temp range you want.  You should be able to work something up with a relay on the remote wire...in fact, you've given me the bug to look into this myself.  I'm not having overheating problems, but I wouldn't mind working this out just for the fun of it.