Stereo Wiring

[Nisswaguy]

So I'm replacing my "Pyle" radio that came standard in my IC fish house. I've installed everything on the new Pioneer radio and it works fine. My problem is figuring out how to wire it so that I can power off the radio and it won't stay on.

I have 2 main wires that come into the fishhouse. When I took them apart, the black ground wire from the Pyle radio was connected to two of them in a wire nut. I connected the new black wire from the Pioneer radio to the same two wires and re-wrapped them.

The red and yellow wires from the old stereo were connected to the other two wires and all wires were connected together within a single wire nut. I connected the new red and yellow wires to both of those wires and re-wrapped them. So although it works, I'm getting constant power. I'm not sure how I need to wire this in order for me to be able to turn the head unit off. Any help would be great.

Picture of the two main wires hooked to the single black ground wire and the other two wires that were connected to the red and yellow wires from the stereo and then connected together in a single wire nut.

[Wolffy]

Yellow coming from the radio is constant power, or the memory keep alive for the clock and presets. The red is the accessory wire. When power goes to that the radio will turn on. You could just put a switch on the red wire to turn off and on.

[djt311]

x2 put a switch on the constant power supply to the radio, or if you don't want to put a switch you can just pull the fuse if it is on a dedicated fuse or other thing that would not use constant power

[Nisswaguy]

Why was I able to turn off my previous radio and not this one? What's different?

[aczr2k]

Some Pioneer radios are never truly shut off unless you disconnect the power.

[Redlineracer12]

Yellow coming from the radio is constant power, or the memory keep alive for the clock and presets. The red is the accessory wire. When power goes to that the radio will turn on. You could just put a switch on the red wire to turn off and on.

This. More specifically put a switch between the red wire and the other three wires bundled together, which should be your two house wires and the yellow radio one. If you switch the yellow one, you will lose the clock/presets which may not be a big deal to you. The shack is probably wired like a house, so one of the wires is power coming to the radio, another is power going to the next device on the same fuse/circuit.

Car stereos use that red wire to shut the unit off with the ignition, some don't really have a true "off" while there is power to the red wire like mentioned.

[Hawg]

Redineracer is right, losing all the presets and time is a pain but it's the only way to go without keeping the power on. It really uses very little juice but if you don't use it regularly it will drain your battery. My Kenwood is like that also.

[Nisswaguy]

Would this be the correct wiring then?

[Nisswaguy]

Also, would taking off the faceplate of the stereo cut the power to the unit? I'm not opposed to wiring in a switch (if I know the correct way to hook it up), just looking for options.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

I put a switch on the yellow wire and flip it off when I don't have the house plugged in. It does lose the presets, but the stereo does use a surprising amount of power, to the point the batteries will be pretty low after 2 weeks or so.

[David Anderson]

Well, remove the black wires going to the red and yellow and you are correct. Regarding the standby current, it should only be in the 1 - 3ma range. Using an 80AH battery it should last over 20,000 hours on standby. Get a meter and measure the current through the yellow wire.

[Nisswaguy]

Is the diagram above correct if I don't want to lose the presets?

And would I just need to change the location of the switch to the yellow wire if I was ok with losing the presets and therefore not having any battery drain?

Also, does anyone know if simply removing the faceplate of the stereo cuts the power to the head unit, thus rendering a switch useless anyway?

[djt311]

just removing the face plate would not cut the small constant power, to test this simply remove the face plate with your current wiring. when you put the face plate back on the clock an presets will still be there thus meaning it is still drawing power for the memory. just like a car or boat stereo removing the face plate does not stop power being delivered to the unit.

[Nisswaguy]

I apologize for my complete ignorance of basic wiring, but would this be the correct configuration for installing a switch to the stereo to be able to completely shut power off to the head unit? Do I need to run a ground to the switch?

[john.wells]

Perhaps you could use a 9 volt battery for the keep alive memory wired independently from the main 12 volt power source. You should be able to find what you need at radio shack (switch, battery holder, wire, etc...), or on line, or even plunder from some device that uses a 9 volt battery that you don't use or is broken. I am not sure how long it would last, but you could wire a bunch together in parallel (all positives connected together and all negatives connected together to maintain 9 volts). I would think it would last for a weekend.

[john.wells]

The wiring you depict will create a dead short and blow a fuse. The ground wires need to be isolated from all hot wires. What you need to do find your constant power (positive) from your battery. If you don't care about if you retain clock and pre-sets, put a switch in line at this point. A simple on/off switch is all you need, but make sure you buy one that can handle the load (an under rated switch can get hot and start a fire without ever popping a fuse). Look in the manual for the radio to find out what amount of amps it draws at max, and get a switch that can at least handle double that. Connect the hot wire from the battery to one terminal of the switch, then connect both the red and yellow wires to the other terminal of the switch.

example- BATTERY POSITIVE---------(hot wire)-------SWITCH=======(red and yellow wires)===========RADIO

This will turn off the radio completely every time you flip the switch off, and you will lose all memory. If you want to retain memory (radio yellow wire) but kill the main power (radio red wire), just put the switch in line of the radio red wire.

Example: BATTERY POSITIVE----(hot wire)----CONNECTOR===(red & yellow)===<___(red)__SWITCH__(red)__RADIO

[john.wells]

[Nisswaguy]

Thank you for all the help! Hey John, why is that a big no-no? I only ask because that is how the previous radio was wired.

[David Anderson]

Thank you for all the help! Hey John, why is that a big no-no? I only ask because that is how the previous radio was wired.

John is 100% correct. Using your schematic, and if you say that is how the previous radio was wired, it would be impossible for the radio to work. Just simply hook it up the way John has it and move on. If you want proof take a pair of jumper cables and connect them to a battery. Then take the other end and short the red one to the black one, same as you are doing when you connect a black to a red on your schematic. Hang on! Actually I don't recommend doing it as unlike your radio which should have a fuse in it, the jumper cables do not.

[Nisswaguy]

David,

Thanks for the reply and the advice. Although I don't plan on trying your experiment, I appreciate most of the fine help offered in this forum from guys willing to help someone out.

There's a good chance I have my schematic wrong. I think I'm wrongly thinking that the two main wires that come out of the fish house wall are not ground wires. My new guess is they are the + and - wires coming from the fuse block which in turn would be hooked up to the battery. Therefore, it is my belief that the previous black wire from radio was hooked into the (-) negative of both of those two wires in a single wire nut.

I apologize for the lack of knowledge on wiring, as I've stated in this entire thread. I'll try and do a better job of explaining things so I can avoid the useless "advice" in the future and I don't have to waste your time or mine.

[john.wells]

David,

Thanks for the reply and the advice. Although I don't plan on trying your experiment, I appreciate most of the fine help offered in this forum from guys willing to help someone out.

There's a good chance I have my schematic wrong. I think I'm wrongly thinking that the two main wires that come out of the fish house wall are not ground wires. My new guess is they are the + and - wires coming from the fuse block which in turn would be hooked up to the battery. Therefore, it is my belief that the previous black wire from radio was hooked into the (-) negative of both of those two wires in a single wire nut.

I apologize for the lack of knowledge on wiring, as I've stated in this entire thread. I'll try and do a better job of explaining things so I can avoid the useless "advice" in the future and I don't have to waste your time or mine.

No need to apologize about lack of knowledge in wiring. You are by far not alone, and at one time I didn't know anything about it either. Asking questions and getting good answers, as well as doing some research whether at a library or through an internet search engine, will get you where you need to go! By all means, you are not wasting anybodies time....

[jsr426hemi]

When I was installing my distribution/converter box I tried to think of a way to be able to shut power off to everything when the shack wasn't in use in order to have virtually no drain on the batteries. I also have 3 electric jacks so no power means much much harder to steal. To the left of the power inverter is a red key. My positive lead from my batteries come to the power switch and then into the panel. So when I get to the shack I insert the red key and turn it and everything has power. When I leave I take the key out and everything is dead. Not sure if this could be an option for u but thought I would share it.