Jump to content

ronnietucker

Featured Posts

1 minute ago, Paul C said:

It indicates when the car's ignition is on or off. Most stereos will turn off (as in, display goes blank and they produce no sound) when the ignition is off and if they were on when the ignition was switched on, come on again when the ignition is turned on again. But there also needs to be a permanent (eg battery) +12V connection to keep the memory.

Sooooo.... I don't really need the ignition wire at all then?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, WhiteSuit said:

Wired a Panasonic radio into my old boat with a single positive and loved it. Woke in the morning to hear the fridge failing to fire up properly. Turned out the radio drained two 110 amphr batteries in a matter of hours keeping the station memory working. Wired a switched live into it to act as the ignition. I am about to change the radio in current boat, there is a constant feed to the existing positive (fused) and the existing Sony has a mode to take a single feed which shuts off the power live when switched off. The Panasonic I am putting in will have two positives the power one I will again incorporate a switch to mimic ignition supply 

How did you know it was the stereo which drained it? If it was the stereo, it was either left on (still not that likely), or was faulty, to drain the batteries. Or some other issue such as the batteries were on their last legs, or you didn't close the fridge door properly, or something like that. Yes stereos use a little power to preserve their memory, but it really isn't much. I have measured it.

I wonder if you didn't inadvertently "power up" the ignition and it left, for example, the glow plugs on all night. That could drain the batteries.

3 minutes ago, ronnietucker said:

Sooooo.... I don't really need the ignition wire at all then?

No (but you'd need to join it to the other power wire, so its possible to turn the stereo on, not just have its memory powered up).

Edited by Paul C
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Paul C said:

How did you know it was the stereo which drained it? If it was the stereo, it was either left on (still not that likely), or was faulty, to drain the batteries. Or some other issue such as the batteries were on their last legs, or you didn't close the fridge door properly, or something like that. Yes stereos use a little power to preserve their memory, but it really isn't much. I have measured it.

I wonder if you didn't inadvertently "power up" the ignition and it left, for example, the glow plugs on all night. That could drain the batteries.

The radio was the only thing that changed. Fitted the switch, charged the batteries and everything was hunky dory after. We went out for our first cruise after and the marina owner lent us a couple of new batteries to sit on the swim in case we needed them whilst out, we were in the fens. Everything else worked for another 5 years with no problem after that. The Panasonic is Designed with a low current memory feed and the radio is live all the time the ignition feed is on whether the radio is switched on or not according to the brochure that came with the new one. It's never a problem in a vehicle situation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting! I know some stereos do this - they have, effectively, a "standby with a bit more power consumed than just to keep the memory" mode which they go into with ignition on but switched off at the controls, but even so, the power consumption should not be excessive - after all, what could the stereo be doing to inefficiently waste the energy needed to drain the battery? It sounds like a poor inefficient design. 

I did a proper power audit on the boat which included measuring the current of stereo off (but memory powered), stereo on but volume turned down to 0, and stereo on at a fairly normal volume. The figures looked fine and certainly caused no worry to me even if it were inadvertently left on at low/no volume. It was an Alpine CD/radio.

Edited by Paul C
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Typo error on my posts the newly installed radio in both cases is a Pioneer not a Panasonic. 

I only discovered text in the brochures of the Sony and new Pioneer when working out how to connect the new one as the Sony has both memory and main feed coming from the one positive. The Pioneer book specifically says that the main feed has to be on the ignition switch. I have never done a power audit on the radio but a car battery will be drained very quickly with radio on and engine/alternator not running. My current car doesn't have an ignition position to make the radio live without engine electrics live.

Couldn't afford an Alpine , Pioneer the next best sound quality per buck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, WotEver said:

Battery goes to the 1A fuse and Ignition goes to the 5A fuse. 

From the posts following this one it would appear that I got these backwards. Most posters are suggesting that the ‘main’ power feed is ‘ignition’. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, WotEver said:

From the posts following this one it would appear that I got these backwards. Most posters are suggesting that the ‘main’ power feed is ‘ignition’. 

Ah. OK. I'll probably only wire up the battery+ as the ignition wire seems pretty pointless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, ronnietucker said:

Ah. OK. I'll probably only wire up the battery+ as the ignition wire seems pretty pointless.

I’m not sure it will switch on without power to the ignition wire. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Both wires require power to make the unit play as designed  The battry + wire keeps the memories alive.  The Ignition wire is the main power feed. 

It may actually work if only the ignition wire is connected but is likely to lose its memories/station presets when switched off.

The ignition wire will have the bigger fuse, because it provides the watts for high volume settings. I get very confused by music power numbers but a 12v unit with a 5A fuse can produce up to 60 W of noise/heat/light. A 1A fuse will not give  more than 12 W in the same set up.

N

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, BEngo said:

Both wires require power to make the unit play as designed  The battry + wire keeps the memories alive.  The Ignition wire is the main power feed. 

It may actually work if only the ignition wire is connected but is likely to lose its memories/station presets when switched off.

The ignition wire will have the bigger fuse, because it provides the watts for high volume settings. I get very confused by music power numbers but a 12v unit with a 5A fuse can produce up to 60 W of noise/heat/light. A 1A fuse will not give  more than 12 W in the same set up.

N

 

As explained before, the battery + (the one which is live all the time) supplies the VAST MAJORITY of the power. If you measured this wire with an ammeter, it would show pretty much the total power consumption of the unit. It powers the memory (when the radio is on or off), the radio tuner/CD player, the amplifier, the display lighting etc.

The ignition + will actually carry very little current (hence the smaller fuse) and is MERELY there to indicate when the ignition is on or off. Obviously it is not powering the memory, but neither is it powering the amplifier, lighting or tuner/player's main power-consuming components either. Its just an indication for the stereo that the ignition is on. Think of it as powering a small, (solid state equivalent of a) relay for all but the memory.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, Paul C said:

As explained before, the battery + (the one which is live all the time) supplies the VAST MAJORITY of the power. If you measured this wire with an ammeter, it would show pretty much the total power consumption of the unit. It powers the memory (when the radio is on or off), the radio tuner/CD player, the amplifier, the display lighting etc.

The ignition + will actually carry very little current (hence the smaller fuse) and is MERELY there to indicate when the ignition is on or off. Obviously it is not powering the memory, but neither is it powering the amplifier, lighting or tuner/player's main power-consuming components either. Its just an indication for the stereo that the ignition is on. Think of it as powering a small, (solid state equivalent of a) relay for all but the memory.

That is in direct contradiction to the rest of the posts, all of which state that the ‘ignition’ feed is the one which supplies the power for the unit. 

I assumed it was as you wrote but everyone else says the opposite. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 31/03/2018 at 15:54, ronnietucker said:

I'm trying to replace the old radio cassette player in my boat with a bluetooth thing with built in speakers.

I'm confused by this car stereo thingy - don't you have an iPhone? *wink*

:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, WotEver said:

That is in direct contradiction to the rest of the posts, all of which state that the ‘ignition’ feed is the one which supplies the power for the unit. 

I assumed it was as you wrote but everyone else says the opposite. 

Maybe its different for other makes of stereo (I've kinda bought only Alpines recently) but having measured the relevant currents, its true for Alpines. I can't see the technical advantage/logic in passing more than a small amount of current through the ignition circuit if there is also another circuit which is more directly connected to the battery.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Paul C said:

As explained before, the battery + (the one which is live all the time) supplies the VAST MAJORITY of the power. If you measured this wire with an ammeter, it would show pretty much the total power consumption of the unit. It powers the memory (when the radio is on or off), the radio tuner/CD player, the amplifier, the display lighting etc.

The ignition + will actually carry very little current (hence the smaller fuse) and is MERELY there to indicate when the ignition is on or off. Obviously it is not powering the memory, but neither is it powering the amplifier, lighting or tuner/player's main power-consuming components either. Its just an indication for the stereo that the ignition is on. Think of it as powering a small, (solid state equivalent of a) relay for all but the memory.

 

29 minutes ago, WotEver said:

That is in direct contradiction to the rest of the posts, all of which state that the ‘ignition’ feed is the one which supplies the power for the unit. 

I assumed it was as you wrote but everyone else says the opposite. 

Paul is correct as I said earlier. Why would you put hight current through the ignition switch? And, if fitting the stereo as a replacement in a newish vehicle, there may not be an ignition, any a Canbus connection, to the old stereo requiring an adaptor to supply the ignition. These generally will only supply milli amps. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Paul C said:

Maybe its different for other makes of stereo (I've kinda bought only Alpines recently) but having measured the relevant currents, its true for Alpines. I can't see the technical advantage/logic in passing more than a small amount of current through the ignition circuit if there is also another circuit which is more directly connected to the battery.

I agree with your logic which is why I originally said to connect the ignition circuit to the smaller fuse. But then all the other posts stated that it was the other way around. I don’t have one to hand to check but I believe what you’ve said about your Alpine and, as I’ve said, I would have expected that to hold true for all makes. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I agree with your logic which is why I originally said to connect the ignition circuit to the smaller fuse. But then all the other posts stated that it was the other way around. I don’t have one to hand to check but I believe what you’ve said about your Alpine and, as I’ve said, I would have expected that to hold true for all makes. 

Well, "all the other posts" are wrong then! Its not a popularity contest, its a fact which can be easily scientifically deduced using an ammeter. As I have done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Paul C said:

Well, "all the other posts" are wrong then! Its not a popularity contest, its a fact which can be easily scientifically deduced using an ammeter. As I have done.

Good :)

Then I stand by my original post to connect ‘ignition’ to the smaller fuse. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

15 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Then I stand by my original post to connect ‘ignition’ to the smaller fuse. 

 

On 31/03/2018 at 16:55, WotEver said:

Battery goes to the 1A fuse and Ignition goes to the 5A fuse. 

Erm...   :D

 

Edited by ronnietucker
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The power load to raise and lower an automatic aerial could be considerable, especially when the telescopes get dirty and gooy. So I'd say that that side of things is powered from the ignition side as switching the ignition on and off with the set switched on usually makes the aerial go up and down as well as turning the set on and off. I can't see a 1amp fuse being strong enough to work those aerials without blowing. Maybe there's an internal relay that does it.   Of course if you have a Del Boy wire coat hanger aerial just tape  up and isolate that wire.

Edited by bizzard
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.