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New wiring harness/plugs for tower


soonerbilly

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I think I might need to rewire my tower speakers. They keep cutting out and I can't figure out why. I'm thinking the amp is going into protect mode because my wires are too small. Does anyone make a quick disconnect harness or do you guys just make one? I really dread pulling wires through the tower but I think I need to do it before I melt a wire and do some damage to an amp or speakers.

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I'm having the same problem. When I turn up the power on the amp even to 50% it signals a 'short' and cuts out.

My setup:

Amp: Syn4 amp

Speakers: Pair of Rev 10 speakers.

I used this cable: (13 AWG 4-conductor portable speaker cable) https://www.parts-express.com/13-awg-4-conductor-portable-speaker-cable-1-ft--100-485

I used this quick disconnect:

male:http://www.parts-express.com/neutrik-nlt4mx-bag-speakon-stx-4-pole-male-cable-connector-black-chrome-metal-housing--092-338

female:http://www.parts-express.com/neutrik-nlt4fp-bag-speakon-stx-4-pole-female-chassis-connector-black-chrome-metal-housing--092-342

Here is what I have noticed first and foremost: (warning - rant)

The Wetsounds TC3 Swivel Quick Disconnect Clamp sucks. Seriously - For $150 a piece - they are a joke. They have 6 pins - only 2 of which are used for the speakers, 4 for lights that I don't have. 1/2 of the time I line up the grooves and push the speaker into the tower, one of the two speaker pins gets pushed in - so the speaker will not work. You don't know it is until you pull it back off to check or that speaker simply isn't working. If its pushed in, you can either use a needle-nose pliers to pull the pin back out or sometimes when it cannot be reached, you need to pull the speaker apart to push the pin back out. Is this what is causing the short for me? Possibly - I haven't gotten around to testing this. I bought it so that I could take the speakers off at the end of the weekend so that they would not get taken, but man what a pain these clamps turned out to be.

I soldered the quick connectors myself - and then re-soldered to a different identical set of quick connectors after having this issue the first time (thinking my work was the issue). All connections are double heat shrink wrapped and soldered... still having issues

So from that annoying rant, here is what I recommend - Keep it as simple as possible! I'm re-doing mine with only the wire mentioned above (one straight shot from the amp --> boat gunnels --> tower --> speakers with no breaks. If I really need to take the tower down, I'll pull the speaker cable out of the gunnel. This was recommended to me the first time around and after 6 hours of troubleshooting and messing with it, I wish I kept it simple.

P.S. If anyone has any specific troubleshooting techniques I can try, I'm all ears! (or ways to fix the TC3 Clamps)

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Well I don't have the swivels, so that's a plus? I might just run the wires on the outside of the tower till the summer and make it a winter project. Just the idea of being out there in the 100 degree weather rewiring this crap makes me sick to my stomach. Does anyone make a 4 point connection? When I do this I'd like to only have to do it once.

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I'm having the same problem. When I turn up the power on the amp even to 50% it signals a 'short' and cuts out.

My setup:

Amp: Syn4 amp

Speakers: Pair of Rev 10 speakers.

I used this cable: (13 AWG 4-conductor portable speaker cable) https://www.parts-express.com/13-awg-4-conductor-portable-speaker-cable-1-ft--100-485

I used this quick disconnect:

male:http://www.parts-express.com/neutrik-nlt4mx-bag-speakon-stx-4-pole-male-cable-connector-black-chrome-metal-housing--092-338

female:http://www.parts-express.com/neutrik-nlt4fp-bag-speakon-stx-4-pole-female-chassis-connector-black-chrome-metal-housing--092-342

Here is what I have noticed first and foremost: (warning - rant)

The Wetsounds TC3 Swivel Quick Disconnect Clamp sucks. Seriously - For $150 a piece - they are a joke. They have 6 pins - only 2 of which are used for the speakers, 4 for lights that I don't have. 1/2 of the time I line up the grooves and push the speaker into the tower, one of the two speaker pins gets pushed in - so the speaker will not work. You don't know it is until you pull it back off to check or that speaker simply isn't working. If its pushed in, you can either use a needle-nose pliers to pull the pin back out or sometimes when it cannot be reached, you need to pull the speaker apart to push the pin back out. Is this what is causing the short for me? Possibly - I haven't gotten around to testing this. I bought it so that I could take the speakers off at the end of the weekend so that they would not get taken, but man what a pain these clamps turned out to be.

I soldered the quick connectors myself - and then re-soldered to a different identical set of quick connectors after having this issue the first time (thinking my work was the issue). All connections are double heat shrink wrapped and soldered... still having issues

So from that annoying rant, here is what I recommend - Keep it as simple as possible! I'm re-doing mine with only the wire mentioned above (one straight shot from the amp --> boat gunnels --> tower --> speakers with no breaks. If I really need to take the tower down, I'll pull the speaker cable out of the gunnel. This was recommended to me the first time around and after 6 hours of troubleshooting and messing with it, I wish I kept it simple.

P.S. If anyone has any specific troubleshooting techniques I can try, I'm all ears! (or ways to fix the TC3 Clamps)

Jon,

Sounds like like there was a single incident where the speaker and clamp connector halves got misaligned upon mating. This forced that one wire terminal out of the connector. When this happens, the small metal (on the terminal) or plastic (in the connector) to bend or break. This is called TPA, which stands for terminal positive assurance device. Once the TPA is damaged by a terminal being forced out, that terminal will never stay in place until the TPA is repaired.

If the TPA is part of the terminal, they may just need to be bent back into place or just snip off the terminal and replace it. If the damaged TPA is part of the connector, it would likely require a new connector with new leads.

@ Billy,

What size cabling is your setup running now? I like to run 12ga for a setup like the Rev-10 bridged on a Syn-4.

For both of you gents, I would suggest making sure that none of the speaker leads are punched at the tower hole at the clamp.

Double check the setting. I know Billy's amp came out of the box with the cross-over filters and cross-over points set, but double check just to make sure nothing got bumped while mounting the amp, as it happens.

Gain levels can also cause clipping if too high.

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Hey Mike just come on down to Ga and help me rewire it all....... :biggrin: I'll check the wires because It just recently started doing this. It's driving me crazy.

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Jon,

Sounds like like there was a single incident where the speaker and clamp connector halves got misaligned upon mating. This forced that one wire terminal out of the connector. When this happens, the small metal (on the terminal) or plastic (in the connector) to bend or break. This is called TPA, which stands for terminal positive assurance device. Once the TPA is damaged by a terminal being forced out, that terminal will never stay in place until the TPA is repaired.

If the TPA is part of the terminal, they may just need to be bent back into place or just snip off the terminal and replace it. If the damaged TPA is part of the connector, it would likely require a new connector with new leads.

@ Billy,

What size cabling is your setup running now? I like to run 12ga for a setup like the Rev-10 bridged on a Syn-4.

For both of you gents, I would suggest making sure that none of the speaker leads are punched at the tower hole at the clamp.

Double check the setting. I know Billy's amp came out of the box with the cross-over filters and cross-over points set, but double check just to make sure nothing got bumped while mounting the amp, as it happens.

Gain levels can also cause clipping if too high.

Hey - Your 'diagnosis' is correct! After writing this, I actually contacted WetSounds and they admitted that until a few months ago, there were a number of these swivel connectors that were shipped with glue used to hold these pins in place that turned to jelly and could be defective and mine is likely one of them... so I have been told that they are shipping me new clamps. I'll let you know how it turns out! I'm glad that they seem to have very good customer service, because I was just about to take apart the clamps and fix it myself, but getting new ones seems like a better option if they follow through! Thanks for your help so far. I'll keep you posted.

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