Would I be right in thinking that to test a car radio you'd just touch the yellow + and the red + to the + of a 12v battery, and the black to the - of the same battery? I don't have a 12v battery but I have a 9v.. should that evoke any kind of response?
It should all light up and act like normal, right?
To be honest, it depends. If it's a basic radio no extra media features and stuff it'll probably work fine on nine volts, just with reduced range. If it's a deluxe one with GPS, USB, all that fancy stuff in it, it can possibly break it.
Also some radios have a protection that won't let it run unless it has the correct amount of voltages so you have enough to start the car with.
Yea, you have the wires right, but I've never tried it with a 9v battery. I would recommend a 12v if you can find one.
It would light up but not work like it shoud.
Because it needs +12v
Can't you also use a computer power supply to test it? I believe I've heard of people using power supplies to test out things like car radios.
Comp power supply has 12v... open up your desktop and grab one of the empty molex plugs. Two grounds, a +12, and a +5 wire if I remember right.
Or wire 8 AA's in series, or a 9v and 2 AA's in series.
Or touch the wires to a car battery.
Or use a spare cig lighter plug with wires hanging off, cut and connect to a car's cig lighter.
Or use a vehicle battery charger or booster box.
Or, lastly, find an old cell phone or RC car battery charger that outputs 11-14v or so and use that.
Lots of options!
You can also chain the 9v with a two AA's.
If I'm not mistaken, negatives connect to positives and it should alternate as you go through. Don't trust me on this though, I'm not 100% sure.
so I got 2 positive wires and a ground wire.
The red wire is `ACC+`
The yellow wire is `Battery 12V(+)'
and the black wire is 'Ground'
Am I right in assuming that I should have the red and yellow wire on the positive side of the batteries, and the black ground wire on the negative?
Am I also right in assuming that the yellow wire is used to keep the radio `on` in sleep mode to remember the settings etc, and the red wire is only technically on when the ignition is started (when the radio should be on properly)?
The red wire I would guess is the one you connect to the ignition normally so that when you start the car the radio turns on automatically so when you connect that to the battery you're just turning it on.
Not entirely sure but that's my guess
Yes Garry, The Red would go to the ignition and the Yellow would go straight to the battery to power its memory, just to save your radio stations or the last played track number on the CD etc.
When you go to test it wire both the Yellow and Red to the +ve and the Black to the ground (0V).
If your doing it with a PC PSU wire both yellow n Red to the Red on the PSU and Black to Black
I wouldn't recommend trying a 9V battery as what may happen is the radio will draw more current because it cant get the voltage. This could stress some of the components and damage them.
If your going to test it only use 12V!
I don't see how hooking it up to a 9v would do anything other than not power it...It's like putting AA's inside a D cell maglight or something, nothing will happen because there's not enough power. Therefor i recommend a 12v, pop your hood and just touch the wires like you said in your OP, but i honestly, again, don't see how using a 9v would actually cause damage. I mean it would be kinda like putting dead AA batteries in a remote, not enough juice left, only half the shit works right and even then doesn't work half the time.
We're dealing with different things here than a simple remote.
Example.
I used to have the amp for my sub installed in my car with a switch to turn it on / off, the setup was wired so I could turn it on/off no matter if my car was keyed on or not.
I left it on one night, and the next afternoon when I went to drive my car it was dead, and I found my amp fuse blown.
The amp has a given amount of power it wants to consume, essentially. At 12-14v it pulls X amount of amps. At 7 volts, it pulls 2X the amount of amps to consume the same power (thus popping the fuse).
Amp flow that is too high will cause circuits in the radio that are manufactured with only a small tolerance for over current may not be pleased.
Is it possible it may do nothing? Yes. Is it possible it may get mad and pop the fuse or a circuit board tracer? Yes.
Gambling man?
Ok, I couldn't get anything to work.. but when I plugged it into the PSU.. Bingo!
[thumb]http://puu.sh/basu[/thumb]
If anyone else is trying this. The PSU hard drive/cd drive plugs.. the yellow is 12v, black is ground (both), and the red is 5v.
Nice job, clever solution.
What's that radio out of? Is it stock or aftermarket? If it's aftermarket, it looks nice for one. No flashy lights or anything.
[QUOTE=garry;33825946]Ok, I couldn't get anything to work.. but when I plugged it into the PSU.. Bingo!
[thumb]http://puu.sh/basu[/thumb]
If anyone else is trying this. The PSU hard drive/cd drive plugs.. the yellow is 12v, black is ground (both), and the red is 5v.[/QUOTE]
Looks a lot like the Pioneer unit my dad has in his Buick.
Got it to work in the car. Turns out the car doesn't have 2 12v outputs. It has one. So I put both wires into that.
It all works perfectly now.. but the radio doesn't turn off when the ignition goes off. But I don't think the old one did either.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/APDgy.png[/IMG]
I know how it should be. None of the outputs on the leads were registering any different with the ignition on. The stock radio was the same.. you had to push a button in to turn it off.
Maybe it automatically turns it off after like 10 minutes.. or when the car is locked. I dunno I didn't play with it long enough to explore that. Was just happy to get it working!
The headunit in my Jeep is like that too and it's annoying
also your title is kinda long, Garry :v:
Most will not turn off if the yellow and red wire are hooked together they use different wires.
My radio works independently from the ignition so the radio can be used while the car is off. That being said I don't know if your radio has an on off button like mine does.
What kinda car is this? O.O
If it only has a constant, you run the red wire to something that turns on with the car... cig lighter (on most imports.. it's gotta be switched), ignition harness acc wire, etc.
If it only has a switched then you run yellow directly to the battery, or constant hot at the ignition switch, or whatevs.
Make sure to fuse!
Then radio works without any nonsense.
the two headunit I fiddled with had a yellow wire (permanant 12+V) and a red wire (ignition switch 12+V (aka, ACC. I took it from the cig lighter) ).
The yellow is usually there for the HU memory (settings and tracks, blablabla)
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