Basic question

[Jcb]

Not so long back i fitted a new kenwood headunit in the nova. I had the problem of it losing it's memory everytime ignition was off, but manged to re-wire the block and get around it. However, the radio still can't actually be turned on when the ignition is off. It is powered, but stays on stand-by, is there a way around this one?

[carls nova sri]

just wire it up as constant live with the memory wire that will sort all your problems

[philly]

when you say it stays on standby do you just mean that it stays lit up. or it turns on but wont go to cd or radio....

im guessing you swapped the red and yellow wires around?

[Jcb]

if i'm honest i don't remember which wires i swapped. i mean that with no ignition, it will stay with ---- on the screen and when the face plate is removed there is a blinking red LED, pressing anything at this point has no effect. It will only react when the ignition is turned and the rest of the electrics kick in.

I think it's a matter of anyone having a similar kewood headunit that solved the problem?

I don't want to have the keys sat turned in the ignition everytime i want music without the engine being running.

[carls nova sri]

you need to wire it up on constant live

[Jcb]

being no good at all with electrics, any ideas with what colour wires go where?

sorry

[carls nova sri]

red from car to red and yellow on cd player

[Jcb]

oooh magic, thanks very much for that! What about the wire which is currently on the red and yellow on the headunit?

[carls nova sri]

just tape it up

[Jcb]

sounds easy, i'll have a bash tomorow and see how it pans out.

thanks alot pal

[carls nova sri]

no probs keep us posted

[Jcb]

it appears that that the red from the car is currently attatched to the yellow on the HU. this must have been the switch i made before. but the thing still goes dead when the ignition is turned off. it does however retain it's memory unlike when i first fitted it with factory instructions.

[Pigeonrat9]

You may have sorted it by now but if it helps;

You should have a red and a yellow on the loom from the HU. The yellow is designed to be connected to a permanent live, ie. always receiving power from the battery regardless of whether the ignition's on or not - this is how it remembers your radio presets, previous station etc. The red wire is intended to be connected to a circuit which becomes live when the ignition is switched on, so the radio is controlled by the ignition. You usually need to reverse the red and yellow wires as Vauxhalls generally have them the other way round. This should keep your memory and allow the radio to be controlled by the ignition, but you WON'T be able to use the radio without the ignition on.
If you want to do that, you'll need to connect both the red and yellow wires to the red permanent live wire on the Vauxhall loom. You'll be able to use it without the ignition but you'll have to remember to turn it off manually each time you stop.

[webber40]

hows it going? its the most annoying thing when u lose memory!!

[Jcb]

well i need to find a way to split the red wire coming from the car to go into both the red and yellow on the HU. not sure how i'd do this as it's all in a block connector.

[dannyb]

Just cut the red and yellow wires in the headunit loom, and run them both into a bullet connector which will join with a bullet connected to the red one from the car. Better still, solder the lot together. Maybe practise with a bit of choc block first so you are sure it works and the wire combo is right, then solder?

[Jcb]

i'll have a look at doing that, dosen't sound too taxing. does that mean ill have a lose, ummm, red? wire on the headunit loom? Tape it up?

[Jack]

When installing headunits, I usually wire in my own independent power supply. If there's a red and yellow power feed, I just wire both into that one power cable lol