orion 225 hcca fuse size?

hello guys. new here and would like to say I hope to meet new friends and gain great advise here. I recently bought an orion 225 hcca digital reference series amp. well, I have 2 4ohm dvc subs in parallel to it in bridged mono. I'm using like a 1 gauge or 2 gauge wire to this amp alone. and I have a distribution fuse block close to the amp. the first time I used it, it blew a 60 amp fuse right when the bass hit hard. so I adjusted the gain and db levels and such. put another 60 amp in and "pop" in about 15 seconds. and as you know, these amps don't have external fuses. so any ideas on fuse size I should use for this high current amp would be greatly appreciated!!

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BASSSS!

isnt that amp like only a 200 watt amp? why on earth would you have anything bigger than an 8 gauge wire feeding it? and if it is blowing 60 amp fuses then it sounds like something is internally shorted when the amp starts playing music. but if you want to figure out what size fuse it should have then you just take whatever the wattage output it is rated for and divide that number by 12 and that will get you in the right fuse size just for that amp.

found an online manual and it says that amp draws a maximum of 35 amps, so for it to be blowing 60 amp fuses instantly that means something is definitely wrong with that amp.

225 HCCA manual

ok. thanks guys. but, is that how many amps the amp draws consistently? and is that at 1 ohm or does it draw that much current at any ohm setting? and for the wire size, I've heard that bigger wire has never hurt anything by using it. that's what I had without buying more. thanks, David

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BASSSS!

soundnsecurity wrote:

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isnt that amp like only a 200 watt amp? why on earth would you have anything bigger than an 8 gauge wire feeding it? and if it is blowing 60 amp fuses then it sounds like something is internally shorted when the amp starts playing music. but if you want to figure out what size fuse it should have then you just take whatever the wattage output it is rated for and divide that number by 12 and that will get you in the right fuse size just for that amp.

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the amp puts out just over 450 watts at 1 ohm and suppose to be stable to .5 an ohm??

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BASSSS!

hmm, i guess my link somehow changed to some other page. but i honestly dont know about those power ratings because that amount of power doesnt match up with how the amp is built. the power wires that it comes with look like they are only maybe 10 gauge, which matches what the manual stated as the maximum current draw of 35 amps. if you multiply 35 x 14.4 you get 500 watts, so yea at one ohm you would do about 500 watts but that draw isnt constant because a speaker isnt a static load, the ohm load a speaker presents to an amp goes up and down depending on frequency it is playing. even if you had it at a half ohm and doubled the current draw to 70 amps you still wouldnt see double the power at all times so you still wouldnt be popping 60A fuses so quickly. and running it at a half ohm constantly would probably burn the original power wire from the amp being that its only 10 gauge.

if you want to do a test then replace that 60a fuse with an 80 and see if it still blows but dont leave that 80 in there permanently unless you want a possible fire. i still say that your amp has something wrong with it, either that or your subs have a short somewhere with in the voice coil.

A bit late, but I happened to pass by...

Re dividing output power by 12(V), I'd suggest dividing by 10 for an estimation of input current. Firstly - it's easy. Secondly - when typical 20% inefficiencies of amps and many electronic loads is taken into account, "div-10" proves to be reasonably accurate.
[ Thirdly - misc comments re the "div-10" Rule of Thumb: It is used mainly because div-10 is easier than div-12 or div-14.4. It's a general first cut (or engineer's/designer's) design rule. In practice it proves ok because rounding (usually up) to the next preferred value or rating means the same answer as an accurate calculation. When not factoring in inefficiencies - eg when used for fuses or cable sizing - it tends to factor in headroom - ie, that fuses or cables should not be generally run at above 70-80& of their rating. Of course final designs should use actual values and of course take into account if loads are resistive or constant power types, and voltage tolerance design (eg, whether 10V - 16V, 8V - 16V etc.) ]


And re bumpn's "is that how many amps the amp draws consistently? - I interpret that as no, amp draw varies with the amount of amplification, ie, the volume control. (And that's not proportional - twice the volume requires 4x or 10x (or whatever - dB refers) the power.)
And power does not vary with frequency, but the amp output may vary with frequency. (IE - power Watts is a true-average value = V(rms) x I(rms) {where V & I are at the same frequency}. But the amp may only be able to output 100W @ 100Hz compared to 200W @ 3kHz.)


Traditionally a good (or ideal?) amp would double its power for each having of output resistance (impedance). That has since changed - some amps are constant power irrespective of speaker impedance - but in practice both are subject to design/component limitations - eg, current limits, voltage limits, gain limits, filters etc.