I just noticed something when moving my Phatbox?

[todd1010]

I was moving my Audi Phatbox which is located in the trunk. I never installed it using anything but just sliding it in the open metal bracket. Anyways I was pulling it out and as the silver metal casing scraped (lightly) against the mounting bracket in the car. I saw tiny "sparks" like  there was some kind of interference!

Is that something to be concerned with? I know that some VW guys were have problems and thought I'd point this out.

[judb]

Sounds like a grounding problem, this could be bad long term so I would suggest getting it screwed in properly...

[FiftyPence]

Does a phatbox or Keg have to be screwed to something metal to provide an earth?

My kenwood music keg was just fixed in the trunk of my VW Golf R32 in the foam area under the carpet with some velcro pads.

[judb]

No, depending on the way you have it setup, the cable should provide ground back to the head unit which would then be grounded back to the car.. however if its sparking then it means that the case for the phatbox was becoming the ground for the phatbox, and possibly the head unit, which could be very bad.. so by securing the unit properly it shouldn't change grounding points back and forth.

With a car, there isn't really and earth type ground, it just feeds back to the negative batt terminal via the car body...

[todd1010]

And after my little incident, my Phatbox is not being recognized my head unit?

I'm going over to a buddies house to check if it works with his car.

[judb]

Your head unit does work properly right?

You might have blown a fuse some place.. I'd check the board on the inside of the phatbox if it wont work on a buddy's pc.. its likley fried something.

sparking like that is not good.

[FiftyPence]

I bet it looks nice though, somewhat reminiscent of fireworks  

[todd1010]

Your head unit does work properly right?

You might have blown a fuse some place.. I'd check the board on the inside of the phatbox if it wont work on a buddy's pc.. its likley fried something.

sparking like that is not good.

I tried in with the wires from my car and everything works in his car perfect, so its not fried. I put it back in my car and nothing. I think it has something to do with wire coming from the back of my head unit.

[FiftyPence]

If i were you I would go back to your friend and use his changer cable hooked up to your head unit and see if the box works then.

Thats at least one way to narrow it down to find out if it is the cable.

[vs2]

Sounds familiar.

http://forum.phathack.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=kegphatbox;action=display;num=1122535476

[todd1010]

Well I found out that the Phatbox actually needs to be grounded/mounted! I bought the Audi mounting brackets and everything is fine.