Problem with New CD player and Radio

[mbowman]

Hey guys! Happy New year. My wife purchased a new stereo for my Boat and I'm having some problems with it. Does anyone have any advice on these things.
The unit comes with a wiring harness with a ton of wires. Most of them I understand but no where does it say, "Positive or Negative" There is a "black" wire for the "ground", a "yellow" wire for constant power from the battery, and a "red" wire for the ignition switch. Well we don't have ignition switches on our boat.
At first I connected the ground wire to the ground on the boat (a wire connected to the chain plates and an old thru hull for the old head) then yellow to positive and red to negative. when that didn't work I swapped them around, red to pos and yellow to neg. That also didn't work. So I started just touching wires together.
When the black "ground" was on the neg and the "yellow" Constant power was on the pos the stereo came on for just a sec flashed a few times then went off.
Then I noticed that my volt meter on my instrument panel had dropped down to 10 volts. I'm running a single 12 volt battery which only runs lights, builge, and now stereo. I also installed a solar panel this week which in the last two days charged up the battery to almost a full 12 volts.

The stereo document said it would only run from 11 to 16 volts. could that be my problem?
Oh by the way: I know i have power to the two pos and neg wires. I connected a light to it and it worked.

I'm kind of confused right now.
the two pics are the new installed radio and my new solar pannel

Any help would be appreciated.

mike

[bill@ariel231]

you are in the right track, 10V DC is probably too low to function.

not having your manual in front of me, the color codes you pulled from the manual are a good guess:

Black is ground (run a fresh lead back to the battery, keep this separate from your hull bonding system)
Yellow will provide 12V for station memory (always connected)
Red will be 12V for operate power and possibly display lighting (this should be switched)

you'll want a separate fuse for both the red and yellow lines.

if you can post the model number or the full wire list the board can offer better assistance...

good luck!

[mbowman]

Thanks Bill for your information.

But I have a couple of questions....

Right now the Black is in with the switch. So that doesn't need to be. I should run a fresh lead you said back to the battery neg.

But the RED should be in the switch. So just ignore the black thats in the switch now?

And if the Yellow is on constant, put that on a fuse too? I usually power off my boat when I leave which will drop the power to all the fuse panel. so the yellow still wouldn't be on constant.

If I leave the constant on would that drain my battery?
I guess the solar panel would take care of that.

Next question. if I don't care if the memory is lost, i.e. station presets, etc. do I have to connect the yellow constant?

mike

[bill@ariel231]

if you don't need station memory, then the yellow and red can be tied together and the power applied thru a switch. I don't know about the details of your unit, but a cd player that i wired 10 years back required both the power leads applied in order to function.

If you do connect the yellow and red separately, I suspect the 12V yellow power for memory and the clock is likely in the milliamp range and therefore not likely to drain your battery during the active part of the boating season (your manual should have a value printed)

as for the ground, it's good practice to leave that connected at all time (unfused). although small, there is a potential shock hazard if the power and ground are both switched.

[mbowman]

OK, that makes sense! Tie the yellow and red together into the positive on the switch. And I'll take the black (ground) to a dedicated Negative to the Battery.

Thanks So much! I'll check that out on Friday. Maybe by then the Solar Panel will have charged the battery.

Hey have you used the Solar Panels before? If you did what results did you find?

[bill@ariel231]

Nope, can't say i have any experience with solar panels in boats... good luck with the cd player

[mbowman]

Well folks, it works! After taking Bills advice, and allowing my Solar Charger to top off my battery, the CD player worked fine. I connected the two positive leads together and the neg to the battery and it started playing.
The only problem was the battery seem to drain very quickly. Has anyone else had a problem with CD players draining their Batteries?
By the way, the Solar Charger did a great job of charging my almost dead battery.

Hey what type of batteries do you folks use?

Thanks again Bill for your help

mike

[Maine Sail]

My guess is that you did not install a solar charge controller. Basically at night a solar panel will work in reverse and drain your battery that's why you should always have a charge controller installed to prevent draining.

[Maine Sail]

If you do connect the yellow and red separately, I suspect the 12V yellow power for memory and the clock is likely in the milliamp range and therefore not likely to drain your battery during the active part of the boating season (your manual should have a value printed)

Yes the memory drain is very, very minimal: