# What's wrong with these pictures!? (Audiopipe APSM-1300 design flaw)



## Brian10962001 (Jul 11, 2009)

I picked one of these little amps up for 2 of my friends installs, they have been solid little power houses in both cases. My neighbor wanted one to run a pair of 12's so I advised him that these were pretty solid. His first one started flickering "power protect power protect" less than a day after install, his second one didn't make it much longer. I noticed that there was no warranty sticker on the second amp so we took a look inside, pics below speak for themselves! (We did no modifications to this amp, it was mounted to his trunk floor, install was done properly, same symptoms as last time with power protect flashing).





Notice in the bottom picture the peculiarly placed capacitor! Apparently they don't abide by the "higher voltage is fine unless it won't fit" and it's folded nearly in half by the bar holding the mosfets to the heat sink. I'm guessing it was "just" close enough to spec to keep the amp running for a while until it either shorted to the case through the bar, or leaked out all of its dielectric.


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## Aaron'z 2.5RS/WRX (Oct 24, 2007)

Nope sorry, the pics just aren't speaking to me... 

What's the problem?


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## Moon Track (Mar 10, 2011)

my version , the squeezed capacitor


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## Brian10962001 (Jul 11, 2009)

Beyond squeezed, it may be a bit hard to see because of the power wire, but it's crushed and almost folded through in the middle!


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## Moon Track (Mar 10, 2011)

It was too late when I had figured that I can give opportunity for other members to participate in this quiz. Where I can take my prize? 
Seriously speaking. The assembling lines, often there are so strict rules for personnel that only “robots” can work there, and you have one of their masterpieces, not two.
You can mark this capacitor and tag the picture by model and words describing the fault, I suspect that many people will be grateful to you .


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## Brian10962001 (Jul 11, 2009)

Title's added, click on the last thumbnail for the "spoiler" (note it was a total accident that the thumbnail doesn't have the graphics I added LOL)

Just to clarify I have 2 friends that are currently running these, one at 1 ohm on a pair of Phoenix Gold RSD's ported, one at 2 ohm on a 10in Type R ported. Both of those amps are running strong and have shown no issues. The third and fourth amps of this model that I installed gave problems. The amp that first did the power protect shuffle was purchased for my neighbor making it the 3rd one I had installed, this is the fourth on (sent the original back and got a replacement) and it is also doing it. I think it's pretty safe to assume that the one before this had the same issue considering the same failure, but I can't say for sure.


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## Brian10962001 (Jul 11, 2009)

UPDATE: Audiopipe accepted the warranty return on this amp, they sent an RMA yesterday it's getting packed up and shipped back, I'll keep everyone posted on how it turns out.


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## rdunnit (Mar 31, 2009)

Reminds me of when I worked for an IFR (I first worked as an customer service electronic technician on customer communications service monitors and then as a electronic technician on the manufacturing floor)
When I worked on the manufacturing floor it was a really awesome job and at times it was simple and at times it would test your abilities to the limit. When it was easy was when there was a manufacturing "mess up"; such as an IC being soldered into place upside down with the "legs" (leads) hanging there in mid-air not even attached to anything. A real ***** was when there was an IC that wasn't quite making full contact or if someone assembled a wired connector wrong or backwards. I really loved the manufacturing floor. I didn't like the phone support customer service. It was kind of cool to see the manufacturing process from start to finish even though it was at a small scale compared to audio. I miss repair work and installation very much but health reasons have stopped me in my tracks. About 7-8 years ago I got into audio amplifier design (personal hobby) but my health got even worse and I haven't messed with it for about 7 years. I was going to design and build my own 4-way active crossovers and my own car audio amplifiers. It has been a passion of mine since I bought my first car system---a cheap Kraco underdash 8-track and a cheap pair of ":surface mounted" 6' speakers!!! LOL


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## Brian10962001 (Jul 11, 2009)

rdunnit you should enjoy this:
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...-you-dont-know-anyone-who-has-setup-like.html


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