[kmarei]

i was adding an amp for my rear speakers yesterday
and cleaning up my wiring etc
after i was done the MS-8 keeps turning off with "Voltage is too high" on the screen. only happens with the engine on, if the engine is off it works fine
i measured the voltage, it's 14.5-14.6v with the engine running.
i believe the norm is 14.4

any ideas?
i read the manual, it says of you get that message there might be something wrong with the car.
what's the average voltage you guys are getting?
and is the voltage adjustable from the alternator?

[kaigoss69]

Originally Posted by kmarei

i was adding an amp for my rear speakers yesterday
and cleaning up my wiring etc
after i was done the MS-8 keeps turning off with "Voltage is too high" on the screen. only happens with the engine on, if the engine is off it works fine
i measured the voltage, it's 14.5-14.6v with the engine running.
i believe the norm is 14.4

any ideas?
i read the manual, it says of you get that message there might be something wrong with the car.
what's the average voltage you guys are getting?
and is the voltage adjustable from the alternator?

About 14.1 - 14.2 for me. Since 14.4V is what amps are rated for, 0.2V above that must be in the expected tolerance so I would not expect the MS-8 shutting off at that point. Perhaps you have some spikes that go above what you measured? No harm I guess in having your charging system checked by the dealer. Also, have you tried using the turn-on delay? - Perhaps if there are spikes within the first seconds of turning on the engine, you can have the MS-8 wait it out, so to speak?!

[kmarei]

the only thing different now, vs the last 6 months, when i first installed the ms-8 is, the rear speakers are no longer being powered by the ms-8
i got a small amp for them, since my other amp is powering the front, center, and subs.

the delay is only adjustable for turn off, not turn on
just checked the manual
weird that it was working fine till i organized my wires

[fdriller9]

Mine is between 14.4 and 14.8.....usually chills around 14.5 though.

[kmarei]

i redid the calibration
i thought maybe the fact that it was powering the rear speakers in the first calibration
and now it's not might make a difference
after doing it it works!
fingers crossed that was the real reason behind the error message

[kmarei]

nope, same thing again today
called JBL
they suggested using thinner gauge wire, especially since i am not using the built in amps, so don't need such thick wire.
so if the max it can pull is 16A (from manual) i can use 16 gauge wire
the reason is thinner wire has more resistance than thicker wire (i was using 8 gauge)
if i use 6 feet of 16 gauge wire, i should get a 0.2v drop
so it should be at 14.4v

weird solution but will try it

[kmarei]

Finally figured this out
Had to use a resistor on the power line to bring the voltage down
Used 2 1ohm 10w resistors in parallel

Voltage is now 13.8

For future reference, the MS-8 draws 1amp when you're not using the internal amps