Stereo Installation Question

DavidL · Post by **DavidL** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 9:43 pm

Trying to install a car stereo (Pioneer) on my Bristol 29. Question regarding how to connect it to power. The directions say the yellow wire (marked +) "to be always supplied with power regardless of ignition switch position" and the red wire (no markings) say "to electric terminal controlled by ignition switch (12 V DC) ON/OFF". I know I don't want this connected so it drains power so I plan to connect it to an existing wire than runs from panel to an old macerator. Not too sure which wires to connect to the existing wires. Any thoughts will help.

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:15 pm

The yellow constant-hot wire, as far as I know, merely powers the clock and any memory (presets) the unit may need. No real harm in mating it to the red if you're worried about drain, but that drain will be almost immeasurable. I wouldn't worry about the drain, run it to the battery switch.

The red should go to some switched source, and I personally would rather have it on the VHF circuit, but I don't suppose that it matters much. More importantly, run it all the way to a terminal instead of jumping it into an existing wire if you can.

Grab a copy of The 12-Volt Bible if you have a chance. It's not wasted on any boat owner.

JetStream · Post by **JetStream** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:18 pm

The yellow wire with power always on, is for the internal radio memory to remember your preset stations. If you don't mind always having to set them, you don't need to keep that hooked to power all the time. It is sort of an issue with boats in that when you turn your main battery switch "off", you really mean "mostly off", if you leave a bilge pump and radio still connected.

fusto · Post by **fusto** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 12:33 am

JetStream wrote:... It is sort of an issue with boats in that when you turn your main battery switch "off", you really mean "mostly off", if you leave a bilge pump and radio still connected.

Blue Sea Systems now even makes a special battery switch panel with a couple of 24 hr breakers just for these sorts of loads.
I got to install one about a month ago for a customer and its a pretty sweet little panel.
Sigh... I love their stuff.

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:39 am

I hope you don't mind me glomming another stereo question onto your thread. I'm probably going to install a stereo over the winter, so I might as well ask now:

What do you do for the antenna on a boat? Wire it to a chainplate?

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:00 am

If you will all ignore the fact that it is from WM, I have used this part on two different boats and it worked very well, and is easy to hide.

FM Antenna

Jason K · Post by **Jason K** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 12:56 pm

I did this recently. I originally intended to leave the yellow wire disconnected as I did not want a constant (if minor) drain on the battery. However, when I wired everything up with the yellow wire excluded, the unit would not turn on. I ended up connecting both the yellow and the red to the power source and it worked fine.

If I turn both the switch on the distribution panel and the master battery switch off, I lose the memory settings and it does not drain the battery.

If I leave the distribution panel switch on and turn the master battery switch off, I keep the memory settings. The unit powers off, though, so I'm not sure why this is happening.

I don't bother with presets and keep the whole thing powered off.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 1:25 pm

Jason

Regarding keeping your memory settings after you turn off the master switch but leave the distribution switch on, are you leaving the distribution switch for any other device on as well? It takes very little current (just a few mA) to keep the memory settings and if your distribution switches for other devices (i.e. chartplotter, gps, vhf, etc) are in the "on" position even after the master switch if off, the power supplies for those devices will bleed remaining current onto the distribution buss and provide enough to keep the stereo memory settings going until everything is bled down.

Regardless, I do the same as you and keep everything off. It makes me feel better to leave the boat with EVERYTHING in the "OFF" position.

Ryan

Jason K · Post by **Jason K** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 1:44 pm

I usually turn everything off at the panel and then switch both batteries off at the master switch. I was concerned I had some kind of stray current or something. I only recently discovered that the memory settings remained on when the distribution switch wasn't turned of and wondered why. It's obvious that it's drawing a current from somewhere, but I did not know where or whether or not that indicated a problem.

Thanks for the info; it's good to know that things are normal. It's the stuff you can't track down that keeps you up at night...

FloatingMoneyPit · Post by **FloatingMoneyPit** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 12:01 pm

Figment wrote:What do you do for the antenna on a boat? Wire it to a chainplate?

If you have a typical masthead VHF and RG8x coax going to your VHF, you can put a FM/AM/VHF coax signal divider just before the VHF. The Shakespeare version isn't cheap, but you might find a "non-marinized" one via Radio Shack or other electronics source. Otherwise I'd go with the $9.99 FM antenna wire described above.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000THV4OA/ref ... nkCode=asn

Hirilondë · Post by **Hirilondë** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 5:06 pm

Antennae:

I use the Shakespeare splitter for my VHF and stereo. It isn't any where near as good as they claim it is. What it does is keep your transmit signals from getting to the stereo, but it also reduces the signal both units get. The electronics sub we use at work highly recommends not using one. He says you will lose a lot of range on your VHF. A mast head antennae significantly increases the range of VHF, so I will keep it next year. As to the stereo I will do something else for next year, (hoping to hear a good suggestion here).

2 power leads:

Others have already explained how the memory lead works. I don't use it at all. I do miss having the presets, I lose the equalizer setting as well. But I like knowing everything is really "OFF" when I leave the boat.

Post by **Tim** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 7:29 am

Figment wrote:What do you do for the antenna on a boat? Wire it to a chainplate?

I bought an inexpensive auto antenna from Wal-Mart or somewhere ($5.99 or whatever) and located it inside a locker adjacent to the stereo. It works well and plugs right into the back of the unit, and it's easy to hide under the sidedeck, or wherever you have room in your particular situation. It does not need to be exposed outside the boat in order to work effectively.

Summersdawn · Post by **Summersdawn** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 3:48 pm

I simply have a wire that comes out of the antenna plug that runs forward along my dishrack, and then hangs down in the hanging locker. Works fine. I read that FM antennas need to be in intervals of 17.5" and AM antennas need to be as long as possible, so I simply made it as long as possible at a multiple of 17.5" to fit the desired space.

DavidL · Post by **DavidL** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:20 pm

Follow-up question. I've tried to connect the yellow or the red wire to a hot wire that used to go the head. It has a black and a white wire in it. It runs to the panel. Tried connecting to that and the radio wouldn't go on. Then tried running it directly to a battery, touching the yellow or the red wire to the batery terminal, still the radio won't go on. I didn't attach the ground. Am I connecting something wrong? Shouldn't I be able to connect it directly to a battery terminal? Any additional help is appreciated.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 7:20 pm

I didn't attach the ground.

That's kinda a requirement....electrons flow from the neg post, through the radio, back to the pos post on the battery.

DavidL · Post by **DavidL** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:11 pm

That's kinda a requirement....electrons flow from the neg post, through the radio, back to the pos post on the battery.

Sorry for being a slow learner on this. To clarify, to connect directly to the battery, I should attach the red wire to the neg post and the black ground wire to the positive. Then, on the boat, can I assume I attach the red wire to the white wire and the black ground to the black wire from the wire I am planning to attach it to (an old wire from the panel to the head).

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 11:22 pm

David,
Almost...

Red=positive,
Black=Negative.

To connect directly to a battery, run the Red wire from pos, through a fuse, to stereo. If you need to, you can tie the other power wire (yellow?) to this same lead. Ground (usually black, but I have seen green or green and black used before) wire goes to the neg battery post. Follow instructions to hook up appropriate speakers, plug in your antenna, tune to your nearest country station and you're all set :-)
Same idea on the boat, Red & yellow wire goes to the hot (positive) wire from your panel, Black wire to the ground (negative) on your panel.

In your case, take a volt meter and measure between the white and black wires, red lead to the white wire, black to the black. If the reading you get is positive, then the white wire is the hot, or positive, wire. If your reading is negative, the black wire will be hot. In either case, the other wire would be the ground.

DavidL · Post by **DavidL** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 7:50 am

Tony
Got it. Tried last night and found out I also have to attach the yellow wire to the positive post, red alone wouldn't work. Your simple explaination on how to figure out which wire is hot is very helpful. Thanks so much.

Hirilondë · Post by **Hirilondë** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:46 am

Wire colors are a topic all their own. The only thing I found to be true all the time is that you can't count on colors in any given boat to mean what you think they do. ABYC wants black, white and green to be used for AC only. They want us to use red and yellow for DC. But they further stipulate the use of other colors for specific applications like lighting and engine harnesses. The major manufacturers of marine cable don't necessarily conform to ABYC specifications. Raymarine wiring doesn't conform to ABYC color specifications. All you can do is carefully investigate what you have and ID each conductor by any means you have (even reading the instructions included with an electronic component, though only as a last resort :>) ).