Amp turn on wiring
 

I'm adding an amp to my system using the Sir Nuke wiring harness / reverse harness method. I've got the wires routed and the power and ground connected, but I dont know which wire to use for the turn on. There are three on the wiring harness. According to the label they are:

Yellow - 12volt battery/constant
Red - 12 volt ignition/switched
Blue - power antenna

I've tried all three, but the amp wont turn on. I'm checking my ground this afternoon, but I think I have a good connection. Which wire did everyone else use for their amps?

I tied my amp turn on wire to the ignition lead. Not the greatest solution ever, but it works. Defnitely double check all your wiring, and make sure that you have a good constant power (battery) and ground connections for your amp in addition to the turn on wire being hooked up to constant power.

I'd strongly suggest that put in a switch. Unless you are going to be powering your front and rear speakers with the amp. If not, you are proabably using your amp for woofers. Then I doubt you would want your amp to be ON all the time. Its best, in my opinion to splice the REMOTE WIRE to your DECK's constant power and add a SWITCH to turn your amp ON/OFF when you want.

Oh and don't forget to add a fuse on your REMOTE WIRE, close to the SWITCH.

It doesn't make much sense to wire it that way, why go through the hassle of wiring a switch when you can just run it off the ignition? I'm not sure about the stock HU, but my deck has a remote out. If the HU doesn't, use ignition because it's practically the same thing, except for when you turn your radio off, the amp will still be on when your car is running, but it doesn't matter.

Just run it to the Iginition, it'll turn on when your car comes on, and off when the car goes off (and key is out of ACC position).

It makes perfect sense. I surely don't want the sub on all the time. When just listening to the radio, I don't turn on the amp. Honestly, I only use the amp/sub maybe 10% of the time I'm in my car. I just want it at certain times.

And it's not that much of a hassle. Just wire a toggle in the remote turn on. 2-3 minutes soldering, 5 minutes mounting the switch somewhere.

pantherES, totaly agree.

funkdaddysmack:

Wiring your REMOTE to your ignition...assumes your a total music junky and that for every second you spend in your car, you listen to a powered speaker. I totally doubt this. In that case, why have a powered source ON along with all your other electrical systems in the car. Why not control the power to the amp by a mere switch that; both looks cool and tells you that your not putting unnecessary stress on your battery.

But is the amp just for a sub here? Or did we add an amp to the all the speakers? Maybe I missed that...
Another method would be to use a current senseing relay to "sense" current when you turn on the headunit, which will then turn on the amp for you. It is as close as you can come to a remote turn on circut in the Protege running the stock headunit.
And it will make a fine sounding system...:cool:
Check out www.davidnavone.com, he sells very nice versions of this rely, or do a search for amp relay on the board, members here have built similar circuts a la radio shack....
David is one of the better minds in audio, and he makes really nice stuff, but one does to the pay for the privilige!!

Let us know how you opt to go!
:D

I'm not a music junky and I really don't see what's the problem with listening to the radio with the amp on :)

IMHO the only true reason why you should have the amp OFF while driving is when you have the radio/CD off. If not, you might hear noise coming from the speakers all the time while driving.

I agree with you, I just think it's weird to have the amp be able to turn off whenever you want to... But that's just me, if I'm listening to the radio, I still want my sub to hit... Do whatever you'd like though :)

Didn't mean to jump on you, I just always have music on in the car, I figured most people do :dunno:

Well, it's not really wierd that you can turn off the amp whenever you want to, because that remote on thingy is still more or less a switch. The question is when do you want it to turn on/off.

Yeah, I have music on 99% of the time too, so I guess the switch is for that 1% when you turn the radio/CD off because you want some peace and quietness or really want to focus on your driving :D

But then with everything off, you hear road noise anyway, so might as well hear something nice -- I'd just lower the volume. :)

My opinion anyways...

The amp is powering my speakers, no subs. I need the space in the hatch. I'm planning to add a switch later, but first I just want to get the thing working. When the amp is off, I'm assuming I can still listen to the radio, just unamplified, right? Or does all signal through the amp cutoff with the power?

But for the wiring, which wire do I splice into? I dont know which are keyed to the ignition.

um...no...lol

If your powering ur speakers with your AMP and you turn your AMP OFF, the speakers wont work. In this situation I'd suggest SPLICING your REMOTE to your POWER WIRE from the DECK. This way the AMP will turn OFF and ON with the deck. :)


Unless you have a wiring diagram, your gonna have to take a guess and eliminate all the other wires. I have installed on a number of differenc cars and noticed that the POWER WIRE is usually a BLACK cable with a THIN RED STRIPE running along the wire horizontally.

I assume Opus has a P5 or 2002+ ES, as he states he is using Nuke's method. If so, he is using his stock deck and there is no wire going to/coming from the deck that turns on and off with the deck. If he has another car, then there may be a lead from the deck that he can use. Assuming he has a P5 or ES like me and Nuke, he has to use either a) a switch as you suggest, b) a sensing relay like Dave suggests, c) ignition power, or d) battery power. d) is obviously a bad choice because the amps will be on always. Any of the other 3 should work. I spliced my amp remote into the ignition lead that runs from the harness into the deck, and have had no problems or noise issues. If I redid it, I would use the current sensing relay so the amps would be off when I am not using the stereo, but I would only need to flip one switch to turn on my stereo....

Dale.

Thanks, I should have known that. :dunce:

DaleK: so you spliced into that wire on the right rear of the unit, separate from the harness? Or was it one of the wires running through the harness?