radio installation issues

[TyGuy02]

I'm putting a radio in my boat and I'm just about done but I ran into a snag. Which wires from the harness are needed? Other than the speaker wires, there's the ground (needed), 12 volt (constant) power (needed), as well as 12 volt accessory and antenna power. It just doesn't seem to work with me doing anything! The manual doesn't help, thanks. When I have the 12 volt wire powered, the LED face changes to all black, and when the 12 accessory wire is also powered the LED face changes in a weird way (hard to explain), all possible LED units go black.

[Tator2k]

Alot of time, there is a yellow switched wire. This actually retains voltage to power memory settings of the deck. Both this and the constant need to be energized for the deck to work. The accessory and ant leads are extras that are not always used.

[LMITOUT]

Where did you connect the ground wire? This should have a connection directly to the negative battery terminal. Not knowing your set-up, but I'd guess there is a spot behind the dash where other electronics are wired that you can tap into.

As Tator pointed out, the only other wires you should need are the accessory and 12V constant.

[Tator2k]

I was going to say, I didn't want to drain my starting battery when I wasn't on the lake so I wired the constant and the hot together to a switch on my console. This way all I lose is the time and radio presets and my boat starts next time I put it in the water.

[FM_Mike]

+1 on not wearing down the battery.

Mike

[Farley]

Usually you have to hook up all wires except for the blue one, unless you have an amplifier, then that blue wire goes to the amp (amp turn on).

[Tator2k]

Correct typically there are two blue ones now. An accessory and an ant.

[Jeremy airjer W]

I wired mine on a switch as well accept for the memory wire. The radio draw on this wire is so low that you would never notice the drain on the battery. Unless the boat sat idle for a couple of months. That should NEVER happen!

[TyGuy02]

thanks for the help. I'm gonna try again after the opener. I have the ground connected to the battery ground. As for battery drain, I have a backup small deep cycle that I plan on using just for the radio. Keeping separate to avoid interference and as a backup if I forget to fully charge the main one for the powerdrive (W/ipilot, PUMPED!). Thanks again

[Dave]

as well as 12 volt accessory and antenna power.....and when the 12 accessory wire is also powered

I believe the 12-volt accessory and antenna power do not get connected to 12 volts.

The 12 volt accessory wire is to power an accessory when the radio is turned on. Same with the power antenna wire. As examples, they supply 12 volts to an amplifier (accessory) and power antenna when the radio is turned on.

Should need only a power and ground in order to make a radio work.

[Tator2k]

There's three wires needed on most new. 12 Volt Source(Switched) 12V constant (For Memory settings) and Ground.

[LMITOUT]

Accessory in this case means the accessory position of a key switch (think auto). Since there isn't a key switch on a boat this can either be wired through a regular switch or just tied directly to a 12V source (just like the constant/memory wire) but then the radio will have to be powered off/on each time it is used using its power button.

What you are thinking of is a remote turn on wire, which is typically blue in color as Farley mentioned.