The Only Way YOU!!!! Should Use Car Audio Gear in Your Home!!!

Okay so there's a million guides on how to hook up a car amplifier and subwoofer in your home and when you look at amplifier prices for home stereos or the only other option being to buy a active subwoofer that has an amplifier built in it's not a cheap option and when you add up the price of a basic power supply and $150 on an amp and sub you can save a good chunk of money on this diy method. The big thing I've noticed in all the guides posted online is nobody talks about the ways to turn it on and off using a remote option. If you're not sure what I am talking about I'll explain. Car amplifiers can be a good option if you're wanting more bass in your living room, a cheaper alternative to home audio amplifiers, or if you have an extra amplifier laying around after an upgrade. With there being so many more options to pick from when looking at car audio compared to home audio the variety means you can pick one for almost any audio needs. With car audio there is a key feature that keeps the amplifier from draining the car battery when the keys are not in the ignition and turned in the starting position on the steering column (the steering wheel). So the amplifiers are only turned on when the cars turned on and when the car isn't running the amplifier is turned off. But when you follow any of the guides online showing you how to convert the car audio to use on your home stereo and I don't like the idea of leaving my amplifier on if nobody is watching T.V or listening the the stereo and I want the luxury of not having to get up and physically unplug the power or flip a switch. I want to have the convenience of my amplifier turning off with my home receiver and not needing any extra remotes and for it to be fully in sync with my receivers power. I will use this instructable to show how I accomplished that and lastly this is going to involve AC and DC voltages. At no point should you ever work on live (plugged in) equipment and use this as a guide at your own desecration. If you are not familiar with electrical safety handling techniques or have never worked with AC current then please do not attempt this. While these steps are broken down in a simple as I can make it and there is no way you should get shocked if my steps are followed the risk is always there and should only be done by someone who is confident they know how to handle electrical power and have the basic test meters to confirm safe operations.

The main equipment needed are 12VDC output power supply (There are steps to picking the right power supply and I will explain more in the steps below). A 4 terminal solid state relay that has a terminals 3 & 4 marked DC + and - and terminals 1 & 2 marked AC. The amplifier you want to use. USB plug with exposed wires at the other end. Last part being hardware and tools like insulted power wire, screw driver, wire strippers, and possible 1/4 inch screws (depending on your mounting situation)

1-Power Supply

2 - Amplifier

3 - Solid State Rely (SSR)

4 - USB plug with exposed wires

5 - Insulated wire

6 - Tools (screw driver, wire strippers and mounting hardware)

7 - External fuse even if your amp has fuses on its outside use one still. You can never have to many fuses and make sure it's rated just above the calculated amp draw which will be shown below.

First we look at the power supply and this is the most crucial when it comes to operation and keeping your equipment lasting its longest. Not just and 12 VDC power supply will work work (properly) and the voltage it not the only number you need to look for. The current rating is where you need to pay the most attention and this is part of why I stress the importance of electrical knowledge to be able to perform this correctly. While your basic 12V charing power supply for power tool chargers or your laptop power cord can put out the voltage needed a close look at the current or amperes rating are in the low single digits and any attempt to use these will at best turn on your amplifier and when the bass gets loud the internal safety relays will cut power turning everything off possibly flipping your house breaker. But at worst will lead to a fire and/or damage your equipment and possibly your home. The best power supply to use is a server power supply because they most if not all server power supplies are rated at 12VDC and even the smallest one can provide a current that most consumer amplifiers under $200 will pull. If you're not sure about amperage and voltage operation I think you should step back and get help or do some serious studying on amperage and voltage functions before attempting anything related to circuit operations. Since manufactures over rate what their amplifiers can do in watts and the reality is it's RMS watts is half what it's rated (and personally I think it's less than that) and some brands are worse than others with this you can still take it's rated watts and divide it by the volts your power supply puts out (from 12V to 16V) and thats the current you can assume will be pulled and my rule of thumb is to take 25% of the current you need and add that to the number you just got.If my amp is rated at 200 watts and my power supply will operate at 14.8VDC then the current rating then the amperes the amp will pull is 13.5 and to have a power supply that will operate that with no problems I will add 25% of 13.5 and add that to the 13.5 so 25% of 13.5 is 3.375 and I will round that up to 3.5 so our power supply I am looking for is able to put out a minimum of 17 amperes of current and use a fuse rated for a little under this number so if the amp draw gets close the fuse will blow and keep you from damaging your equipment or house. A power supply that can put out power above 17 is preferred since current isn't something you can have to much of and is safer.

The SSR you'er going to use has to be a DC in AC out not DC in DC out or AC in AC out. The point of a rely is to switch a big power item with a small power signal and this SSR lets you use a low voltage DC signal to switch a high voltage AC device and this will make sure you don't have any equipment on or in stand by burning un needed power when you aren't listening to anything and turns on when you are going to listen to music or watch T.V. and when you are ready to turn on your entertainment you don't have to get up and plug anything in, just turn on your source and everything turs on and off when you like. You're going to use the low 3 to 5VDC put out by your T.V or receiver to turn on and off the equipment with your T.V and/or receiver. The biggest thing though is that your T.V or receiver has a usb outlet on them. If you have an old tube T.V and are only using vintage stereo components then this will not work for you. But you take the USB plug and strip the wires back exposing the + and - wires and if you have one of the USB cables that don't use red and black to separate + & - than get a cheap multimeter and with the wire not touching plug the USB into a USB outlet and touch the leads of the multimeter thats turned to VDC function to each wire and if the number shown on the meter has a - symbol in front of it then the red lead is touching the negative wire and the black lead is touching the +. If the meter shows the voltage with no minus ( - ) symbol to the left of the numbers than the red lead is on the positive ( + ) and the black lead is on the negative ( - ) wire. Now unplug the USB and goto the SSR and on the 4 terminals 2 of them should be marked one has a + and the one next to it has a - and wire your USB positive to positive and negative to negative. Now take the power cord for your power supply and use terminal 3 and 4 as a interrupt switch in the middle of either the hot or neutral wire as used in the picture is shown.

Now connect the amplifiers remote wire and the amplifiers + to the + on the power supply and the amplifier - to the power supply - the power from the power supply to the wall and the USB plug into your USB outlet of choice. Some receivers have a pass thru feature that needs to be switched off and on through its internal menu to sync with the powering on and off with the remote. In my experience the USB on the receiver will stay on all the time if the pass thru is not turned off. Thank you for taking the time to red my first instructable and I will give thought to other audio related instructables. With there being so many ways to do the same thing in the home and car audio I have a hard time thinking of new ideas not really seen else where. In conclusion this is a way to get bass in your living room without having to fork out a bunch of cash for a bass amplifier or to put to use the extra gear you have laying around the reason for this method is so you don't have your power supply and amplifier using power when you're like me and to lazy (and forgetful) to physically unplug your power supply when done and if you are a stickler like me for unneeded power consumption this will give you assurance nothing is consuming power when it's not used and you or anybody in your house can enjoy full audio experience with little hassle.