fitting car stereo on yacht

[Johnboy2004]

hi folks just bought a jvc car stereo for my 22ft yacht. any advice on fitting,
there is a mass of wires and connectors at the back of the stereo,,,

any advice on fitting?

cheers

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[pandroid]

Its fairly straight forward. Depending on how old the unit is, you may be able to get a manual <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.jvc.co.uk/download.php?type=6>here</A>

If not, you'll just have to work out which wires go where, or find someone with a similar unit. Unfortunately there's no common formula for wire colours, although its usually possible to work out which are loudspeaker connections and which are power. Apart from the (round coax) aerial connection, thats all you need.

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[sailorman]

if u have the room / space a "micro system " is imho much better
u get 3 band radio , cassette player, c.d. player all for say £80 c/w remote control
j.v.c.
awia
both do 12v models

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[Shakey]

Possible downside to a micro system is that you can't mount it the same way as a car stereo, also it might not handle the motion as well causing the CD player to skip all the time.

I'll stick to a wind up radio!

<hr width=100% size=1>At the end of the day - Sunset.

 

[sailorman]

i use one aiwa no probs at all. the only down side is to maintain the "pre-slects" u have to have a permant power supply.

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[tritonofnor]

From memory JVC use the following coding : Black Earth, Red Positive, Yellow auto aerial (ignore)occ. light blue!, orange (occ. yellow!) permanent live (only necessary to be permanent if you don't want to lose the presets), and then two pairs of green wires for front speakers, and two pairs of grey ones for the rear set. If you're only using one set, then there may be a change over (removable plug) on the back for this as there is with some Blaupunkt gear, or just leave one set unconnected. Make sure that speakers are wired separately (i.e. don't use common speaker earth connection) as this can cause irrepairable damage to amplifier outputs. Hope this helps. Use a Sony car stereo on the boat myself, and it's great.

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[DavidGrieves]

I put a car radio / CD player in my last boat, I would agree with the advice given by others, it's worth connecting the perm' live but do it through a fuse. I was more concerned about fitting an antenna for the radio, I brought the coax out of the radio and up behind the head lining, I removed the outer part of the coax and left the inner core and its insulating cover then threaded it back and forth under the head lining. I used a 6m coax extension from Halfords. I worked well and didn’t cost much. You can now buy a little adaptor that allows you to plug your coax into the VHF coax and share the same antenna. When it comes to speakers you will get a lot of conflicting advice, you can buy "marine quality speakers" but as with anything "marine" you will pay top dollar. Marine speakers apparently have plastic cones inside and others have fiber cones. I got a couple of speakers from Halfords again paid about £10 and guess what? Yeah plastic cones, and even if they don't last as long as a marine quality one I can replace them several times before I'm out of pocket.

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[roger]

Lots of good acvice in these posts. An ordinary car aerial can usually be buried under the headlining out of the way.
The speaker quality does make a difference. I replaced mine this year with a better larger pair and the difference in sound quality is considerable

<hr width=100% size=1>Roger

 

[Johnboy2004]

hi folks thanks for the info

i tested it with a 12v psu in the house and got it working ok. theres two positive wires and one earth or negative.

the main problem is that when you switch it off it looses all radio station that u programmed in..... from reading the manual this is what i plan to do....

connect the permanent positive and earth wire.

also then connect the accessory (positive) via a switch to the positive power supply,
so when i switch off this switch the radio goes off , and when i switch it back on i still have all my radio presets...

is this correct?

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[Benbow]

But when you leave the boat you presumably turn off your batteries, you will then loose your presets anyway.

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[freebird1]

I would look at the current drain too. I don't know what your battery charging situation is, but i've found that car stereos are a suprisingly high drain on the battery. As with all electircal items, a few nights on board without a charge in between could leave you struggling to start your engine, especially if you only have one battery......

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[Guest]

Portable boom box

29.99 out of Argos ....... 12V, Battery + manis supply.

As with all things there are times when a CD will skip- but haven't had many instances yet.

If fitting a car system - as I have done in plenty boats - and worked very well ...... I always preferred the non-digital display type ..... tried to get with rotary pointer dial. That way the memory presets are purely mechanical and you don't lose your favourite stations when power is off. Difficult to find such radios now - but they are still around. Aerial - I fitted rubber duck aerials -never had a problem with them ....... standard coax to transom and fited to transom deck under rail. But later just lodged it under the side-deck in the cave locker in cabin on previous boat ...... worked a treat.


<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ... and of course Yahoo groups :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/

 

[Guest]

Rotary pointer dial

Get hold of the older style radio without digital display .... normally the presets are buttons on front lower that pull out when you tune to station .... get it tuned, push button back in to remember. Then when ever you want the station - press the button in and pointer skips to the preset position tuning the radio. All mechanical and doesn't matter if power was off or on before ......


<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ... and of course Yahoo groups :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gps-navigator/

 

[Joe_Cole]

"connect the permanent positive and earth wire."

Sorry but I may be miss reading what you are saying.

If you mean connect the permanent positive TO the earth than I think you should be careful!

If you mean connect the permanent positive to +ve and the earth to -ve then OK.


So long as the wires are connected before the master switch then your presets should be stored. The power consumption for holding the presets is very small indeed so no need to worry about that. The main "power" wires for the radio should be connected AFTER the main switch.

Once installed the radio should switch off when you switch off your master switch, but the presets will be retained. Don't forget a small fuse in the line to the battery.

Joe

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[Benbow]

Some boats have permanently live systems for things like automatic bilge pumps. I would avoid this because when the battery switch is off, I like to know that everything is off! I certainly would not add such a system just for a radio to keep its memory.

But if you do (!) then you *must* put a fuse *immediately* after the wire comes off the main supply and you must physically secure the fuse and the wiring to it very carefully.

Car stereos that are designed to be removed to prevent theft used to be very popular a few years ago. They have batteries in them to hold presets, I have one of these in the boat that has held its memory without external power for 6 months. I am not sure if they are still available but they seem like an ideal solution to me.



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[William_H]

Hello Johnbou For an aerial try just a piece of wire about one meter long into the earial socket centre hole and then hidden near the hull. I think you will find it adequate in a fibreglass boat. As for the positive supply required to keep the memory for the preselects with car radios I have tested the current drain on a small battery over several weaks may discharge your battery. Not a problem with large battery banks and frequent charging but for a little boat it may be a problem. regards ole will

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[Johnboy2004]

hi folks

this is my power situation.
i have a 75ah battery, with charging from engine ( honda bf 5 outboard 3 amp).

i have the following other equipment.

garmin gps 76s
inverter 150w for laptop. not used continuously,
nav lights & cabin lights.
clipper navtex
raymarine st40
compass backlight
all run from the battery.....
and this new stereo that i wish to fit,,,,, model JVC - kds 6060
with 2 x 150 watt speakers.
i am also waiting on delivery of a fixed vhf.
firstly a question -- am i using too much on my battery?

i was also considering getting a solar panel for charging while sailing....any ideas?
how do you find them?

also if you have any ideas, on what configuration, how to power the above, info greatly appreciated,
the boat is a beneteau first 211.

cheers

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[derekh]

red switched 12v
yellow perm 12v
black to neg.
white, grey purple and green pairs of wires go to 4 speakers.
ignore orange which is illum and blue which is for auto ant activation.
pm me if you require user manual or jvc wiring diag. We have them all in stock.
We stock a little memory back up unit which we supply to petrol lorries and school buses which are isolated from the batts when not in use. these charge when in use and hold memories when not.

<hr width=100% size=1>Work ? don't be daft , the suns out.

 

[kinta]

I have a car aeriel extention lead pluged in to my radio, this works perfectly well most of the time. if I find myself in a bad reception area I uncoil it and put the end overboard. The water then acts as an aeriel, giving perfect reception. A few inches needs to be cut off now and then to stop it from rusting.

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[Johnboy2004]

is it possible to get an adaptor box, to fit the stereo and the speakers into?
so that i dont have to go cutting any wood work on the yacht to fit it in?



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