testing a drivers polarity
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=16589
Printed Date: June 19, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Topic: testing a drivers polarity
Posted By: Orbit
Subject: testing a drivers polarity
Date Posted: July 22, 2003 at 7:45 PM
have 2 JL 12 w3d4 in a sealed divided (air tight) enclosure. vc wired in series and drivers are wired parallel as the documents suggests with a JL 500/1 seeing 4 ohms. I noticed while watching these drivers at normal listening level that they were not "pulsing" together, almost seems like they are 180 out of phase. I figured that being wired this way they shouldnt be doing this. (I have checked the wiring) Wondering if there is some test that can be done to see if there is some sort of defect or something...? Hey, thanks for reading this...! have a good one.
Replies:
Posted By: esmith69
Date Posted: July 22, 2003 at 10:05 PM
Only thing you can do really is to use a speaker popper and hook up its positive and negative connections to what are on your enclosure as positive and negative. Then watch to see if the cone moves away from the magnet, or towards the magnet. If it goes towards the magnet, then that particular pair of speaker connections is out of phase. If it moves away from the magnet it is hooked up correctly. Actually I forgot to ask you....are these hooked up in such a way that there is only a single speaker terminal on exterior of the box? Or is there a separate one for each sub? ------------- Ethan
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Posted By: emarald
Date Posted: July 23, 2003 at 12:42 AM
Take one penlight AAA battery and connect to sub, if it moves out then subs polarity will be same as the battery, aka you have sub + on bat + etc. ------------- I need more power.....
Posted By: Orbit
Date Posted: July 23, 2003 at 6:04 PM
Ethan, They are wired directly to the amp bypassing the terminals on the enclosure. The cable comes from the amp and is soldered to one driver and then another shorter cable runs through the divider and is soldered to the other driver. Is a speaker popper the same thing as what Emerald was describing? I figured that hooking them up to a dc source would reveal if they were wired out of phase, but dont want to damage anything in the process. Thanks for the quick answers guys, I really appreciate this and finding this website. Sean...
Posted By: esmith69
Date Posted: July 24, 2003 at 11:00 AM
Yea it is the same thing basically. Some people swear by only using 1.5v batteries but i've used a 9volt and 12v many many times without any problems. I mean obviously once you locate the proper speakers you don't want to keep on "popping" them repeatedly unless it's necessary. I've never used a power supply to accomplish this as that not only seems like too much power going into it, but the battery is portable and just always more than sufficient for me. Do you know if the subs are hooked up in series or in parallel? ------------- Ethan
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"Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success"
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Posted By: Orbit
Date Posted: July 24, 2003 at 6:02 PM
subs voice coils wired series but subs are wired parellel to each other
Posted By: tamu130
Date Posted: July 25, 2003 at 6:59 PM
hook up a multimeter to it and see if it actually reads 4 ohms. if it doesnt then that is your problem. if it does, i draw you out what it should be wired like.
Posted By: NowYaKnow
Date Posted: July 27, 2003 at 6:35 AM
You could also try disconnecting 1 driver and listening to the system. If those subs were out of phase with each other then the system will be noticeably louder with just 1 sub playing. Good luck
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