Installing Stereo

[mperm]

I just purchased a car stereo from walmart that I am putting in my boat and I need some help on it. I connected all of the speaker wires but the power wires have gotten me confused. The instructions say to connect one wire to a constant 12 volt source and the other to an ignition circuit or switched 12 volt source. Can somebody tell me how to do this because I only have 1 wire that was there before that has power. Could somebody tell me where to put the other wire?<br />Thanks

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: Installing Stereo

The wire that goes to the constant is for the stereo's memory, the other wire that normally goes to a keyed source supplies the rest of the power needed. Temporarily you can hook the 2 together and attach it to your existing single wire. The downside of this will be that the stereo will be powered on, not playing music but you will have the display on such as the clock, over a period of time this will kill a battery (personal experience). If the stereo has a removable face plate and you remove it when not using it this will solve that problem otherwise you need some way to shut off the 2nd power lead. If you run the 2nd wire to the ignition switch then that means you will have to have the key on (like in a car) for it to work and thats not a good idea.

 

[cuzner]

Re: Installing Stereo

If you have room in your fuse panel, might be an idea to run the the switched to its own fuse. you can also wire it to another wire, but I learned the hard way to not this, some electronics do not like to share and will not work properly, I put a seperate fuse panel, with independant battery wiring just for my electonics, cleans everything up, and stoped the interference with my fishfinder and gps.<br /><br /> Jim