How to wire up a car stereo on a boat?

luckypaul

luckypaul

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I'm fitting a car stereo on my boat. (Sony CDX-DAB500U) (Colvic Watson 29)
Head unit and speakers fitted and now for the wiring.
Two questions.
One.
It comes wth multi pin connectors which it would seem just slot into a modern cars wiring but that's no use here.
There are 3 wires coming out of the unit.
There's a black one which says its ground (earth) which I think means its the negative one,
and then there's a red one for the "switched power supply" and a yellow one for the "continuous power suppy" and the advice I need to check my cars auxiliary power connector diagram to know how to connect them and that if my car doesn't have an "ACC position" these two join together . . . . and if I have any questions and problems not covered in the instructions I'm advised to consult my car dealer.
And so with no Colvic Watson dealer to hand can someone out there help me out.
I think I probably just join the yellow and red together but someone once told me that wiring up a car stereo the wrong way can instantly destroy the thing so I think I'll wait a day or so and see what advice I get.
Two
And would it be a good idea to connect it into a lighting circuit that runs past the head unit or would it be better to run some new dedicated wiring through the boat?
Many thanks in anticipation of your expert advice.
Paul
Yacht Rhubarb
Cardiff
 
The 'continuous power supply' is to ensure the radio keeps its memory of channel settings when the other supply is off. This means a continuous very small drain on the battery. For a car this might only be for a day until the radio is used again but for a boat (mine at least) it could be weeks.

I was probably unnecessarily cautious but ran both wires to a single switch and fuse. If I left this switch on, the memory would be maintained but, when I didn't expect to be onboard for a while, I switched it off - loosing the memory of course.
 
davidej said:
The 'continuous power supply' is to ensure the radio keeps its memory of channel settings when the other supply is off. This means a continuous very small drain on the battery. For a car this might only be for a day until the radio is used again but for a boat (mine at least) it could be weeks.

I was probably unnecessarily cautious but ran both wires to a single switch and fuse. If I left this switch on, the memory would be maintained but, when I didn't expect to be onboard for a while, I switched it off - losing the memory of course.
Click to expand...

The forum decided that the memory won't be lost....
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...emory-Supply&p=4050645&highlight=#post4050645
 
I have a two similar Sony radios, one DAB in the camper and a non-DAB in the motor-sailer. Both have yellow wires for permanent connection. The latter loses memory instantly when disconnected, so definitely no internal battery or similar device. Don't know about the DAB one.

You will need to identify the speaker connections from the diagram, then cut off the outer plug and substitute a chocolate block for connection of the speaker wires.

I would run new wires back to the panel, it's not a good idea to join lots of equipment together on an existing wire, which may not have the capacity to supply it.
 
luckypaul said:
I'm fitting a car stereo on my boat. (Sony CDX-DAB500U) (Colvic Watson 29)
Head unit and speakers fitted and now for the wiring.
Two questions.
One.
It comes wth multi pin connectors which it would seem just slot into a modern cars wiring but that's no use here.
There are 3 wires coming out of the unit.
There's a black one which says its ground (earth) which I think means its the negative one,
and then there's a red one for the "switched power supply" and a yellow one for the "continuous power suppy" and the advice I need to check my cars auxiliary power connector diagram to know how to connect them and that if my car doesn't have an "ACC position" these two join together . . . . and if I have any questions and problems not covered in the instructions I'm advised to consult my car dealer.
And so with no Colvic Watson dealer to hand can someone out there help me out.
I think I probably just join the yellow and red together but someone once told me that wiring up a car stereo the wrong way can instantly destroy the thing so I think I'll wait a day or so and see what advice I get.
Two
And would it be a good idea to connect it into a lighting circuit that runs past the head unit or would it be better to run some new dedicated wiring through the boat?
Many thanks in anticipation of your expert advice.
Paul
Yacht Rhubarb
Cardiff
Click to expand...

Go to Halfords with the radio and buy the adaptor that plugs into the output from the radio. Then use the flying leads and the colour codes that are shown in the Sony book and wire accordingly. If you do not have the instruction book you can usually do a Google search and find a PDF to download.

I tried push on's onto the pins and got in a dreadful state and would have saved a lot of time and grief if I'd gone and bought the appropriate item before I started.
The perpetual live will save you constantly retuning the radio and generally will not take a huge amount from the radio - well that's what we did and it seems to work.
 
davidej said:
Well maybe I am out of date with my advice but then what is the continuous supply required for??
Click to expand...

KAM

Keep alive memory
It stores all your preset stations so that you don't need to search for them every time you lose the power supply. It usually is around 10 milliamps. Just under 2 amps per week.
 
Last edited:
As said, as it's got the continuous supply, it will need to be connected to maintain the memory. Run a supply from the battery side of the isolating switch through a very low amperage fuse and connect to that. I have left mine on for months without it making any noticeable difference to the battery charge state. Also as said, definitely get the proper connector as these are standard and all the colours will correspond with the wiring diagram making for a very easy job.
 
I would not connect the "continuous supply" at all as it will slowly drain the battery. With any modern radio it only takes a moment to press some button that allows you to reset all the stations that are local and that you want to listern to. Unless you have shore power chargeing your batteries most of the time it is not worth the drain on your batteries.
 
mine is permanently connected as is the vhf, navtex & bilge sensor. i only use shore power when i am o/b
Oh i do have a windgen :cool:

MrCramp said:
I would not connect the "continuous supply" at all as it will slowly drain the battery. With any modern radio it only takes a moment to press some button that allows you to reset all the stations that are local and that you want to listern to. Unless you have shore power chargeing your batteries most of the time it is not worth the drain on your batteries.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
MrCramp said:
Ok I missed that off my "unlesses" !!

If you left your boat on a swinging mooring with no wind-gen or solar-gen i bet you would not leave the continuous supply connected.
Click to expand...

Thats what I do (Leave the memory on) its only about 10ma some times Im not aboard for two weeks or more, do you disconnect your car battery when you leave for a that sort of period time, I bet you dont.
 
pampas said:
do you disconnect your car battery when you leave for a that sort of period time, I bet you dont.
Click to expand...

I never used to, mainly because I wasn't confident that the 'security code' I had for the radio would prove correct. However when the radio (along with the alarm) drained the battery flat over 8 weeks I was relieved to discover the code WAS correct :) . Unfortunately the battery was severely wounded . I now disconnect battery completely for anything over 4 weeks.
 
Gwylan said:
Go to Halfords with the radio and buy the adaptor that plugs into the output from the radio. Then use the flying leads and the colour codes that are shown in the Sony book and wire accordingly. If you do not have the instruction book you can usually do a Google search and find a PDF to download. .
Click to expand...

+1.
It makes the job easier and, if you ever need to remove the radio, it's just a matter of unplugging it.

I was a cheapskate and got the adaptor on E-bay. But there wasn't a fantastic saving.
 
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