Main power tap

[BrantlyJ]

I'm going to install my Alpine deck in the next few days. No amps or anything, jus the deack and an XM reciever.

Anyways, in the Cavalier I routed the main wire direct to the battery. Was a pain in the ass due to going through the firewall. It worked fine however I had a slight engine hiss that I could only notice during dead air fromt he radio or in-between songs on a cd.

In talking with the local audio place they claim they tap into the main power wire under the dash.

What do you all say?? If everyone agrees that the battery is the only place I will go through it to get it there. If the wire under the dash will carry enough power I will do that. If the wire under the dash is ok, which one is it??

BTW the deck is 60x4 watts

Thanks,

Brant

[Ziggo]

Why not use the power wire connected to the stock radio? Just get a harness and you're good to go.

[BrantlyJ]

I tried that once a long time ago and the radio lights would flash with the bass beats. The stock wire won't carry enough power.

Brant

[blast]

Originally posted by: BrantlyJ
I tried that once a long time ago and the radio lights would flash with the bass beats. The stock wire won't carry enough power.

Brant

Did you ground the radio. or just used the antenna for ground?

[BrantlyJ]

blast,
Yes I do ground it.

Keane,
yes I did buy the wiring harness. However everytime I have wired the constant 12v to the harness I always get the flashing radio lights. If I do the harness with the main 12v and ground going from the radio directly to the battery and the ground to a point under the dash I have always gotten better performance and no light flickering.
If I ever want to put the stock radio back in I just disconnect the harness and cut the main 12v and I can still plug the stock unit in.

Confuse you yet? lol hope not.

Brant

[blast]

nope no confusion yet, but I don't see how you would get the lights from stop flashing by running a wire straight to the battery? what size wire do you use? lets say it is a 16-14 gauge wire running 6-8 feet or so there is resistance on it? right... by connecting straight to the factory smaller size wire, but a smaller run, that is fused connected to larger gauge, will give you the same result.

Keane - mine shinning a light on this one for me....

[BrantlyJ]

I always solder my connections..... Maybe the harness was bad. I dunno. All I know is that it dimmed when going through the harness and didn't when I went right to the battery.

Just for you I'll wire it into the harness and see what it does. :) I'll report back tomarrow

Brant

[BrantlyJ]

ok, got the radio and the XM installed. ran main power through the harness. works fine. Guess I owe ya a beer lol

one more question though. the radio had to plugs, one was the main harness and the other only had one wire. white w/blue stripe. the guy at the audio store was worried it was an amp turn on wire but I was under the impression we didn't have amps from the factory. However the wiring harness I bought did have an ampturn on wire so I just left it alone. everything works great and those stock speakers aren't half bad when you have something decent driving them.

Brant

[Ziggo]

That single wire with the smaller harness is for the AVC (automatic volume control) for the stock radios, IIRC. If that's not it, it's something equally unimportant. Nothing to worry about.

Glad to hear everything's working out :beer:

[Ziggo]

By the way, where did you mount your XM antenna?

[BrantlyJ]

what does IIRC mean??

For the moment I have it on the deck lid. However when I have my windows tinted I'll have to move it. The tint has some kind of metallic crap in it that prevents fading. XM won't go through the tint. I asked about painting it to match the car but it turns out that all silver paint has metallic flakes in it. so once again can't do that.

As for now it will stay in the window. When I get it tinted next spring I'll put it on the roof and just have to live with a black lump on top of my silver car. Oh Well.......

Brant

[BrantlyJ]

Originally posted by: Keane

Originally posted by: BrantlyJ
blast,
Yes I do ground it.

Keane,
yes I did buy the wiring harness. However everytime I have wired the constant 12v to the harness I always get the flashing radio lights. If I do the harness with the main 12v and ground going from the radio directly to the battery and the ground to a point under the dash I have always gotten better performance and no light flickering.
If I ever want to put the stock radio back in I just disconnect the harness and cut the main 12v and I can still plug the stock unit in.

Confuse you yet? lol hope not.

Brant

No confusion here. It honestly sounds as though you didn't have a good connection (either on power or ground or maybe on both) when you were connecting to the factory radio wiring. An aftermarket headunit draws very little current and in most cases doesn't draw any more current than a factory radio. If you eliminate improper connections or the wrong wires being connected, there is no reason for the radio lights to dim on the aftermarket headunit but not on the factory radio.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with running a 12V constant wire straight to your + (positive) battery post as long as you fuse the wire properly, but it's entirely unnecessary and overly time-consuming. That's why car stereo shops don't do it.


I was think about this today while doing some stuff around the apt. The probalem was with my old car. A Cavalier. The first time I did it I wired the main power useing the harness. I got the dimming lights. I remember that all the wires in the cars harness was a relativly small gauge of wire. Even the power wire was small. In talking to an installer he said GM was known for using smaller gauge wires to save money. I did notice that the Cougar harness had wires at least the same gauge as the harness I was using.
I have a feeling the Cavalier wire was to small and couldn't carry the current needed to power my deck. However the Cougars harness is sized properly (maybe cause of the "premium" radio?) and is able to handle what the radio requires.

Brant
:banghead::beer::biggrin::beer::banghead::beer::bi ggrin::bowdown::biggrin::beer::biggrin::beer::bang head:

[BrantlyJ]

opps, tried to put an emotion in my post and something went way wrong lol

Brant

[Ziggo]

IIRC means "If I Recall Correctly". Something I picked up on these boards. LOL, acronyms are so annoying!

ROFL! LMAO!

Anyway, right of the bat I was thinking that you had your previous stereo problems on another car. Lots of people here hook up tons of other electrical accessories to the stock wires and get no problems. That's why I suggested trying the harness first.

[BrantlyJ]

you are correct, I did have problems with the Cavalier. I haven't missed that car for a second. :wiggle: Glad I came here and asked first. Saved me a big headache. I love this place. :bowdown:

Brant