in car/caravan entertainment question

[mel]

thought i would call on the expertise on the forum

ive fitted a cheap radio / cd player in my caravan , in readyness for the weekend

but i must be missing something

simple enough to do
one pair of speaker wires {left}
one pair speaker wires {right}
yellow {with fuse} to battery positive
black to ground {earth }
heres my problem , what does "red to acc " mean ???
ive got no numerals on the screen and there is clearly power getting to the radio . a cd will load and eject . but wont play

confused
mel
all help appreciated

 

[The Welsh Workshop]

Hi Mel, most car radio/cd players require 2 positive feeds.
One which is a permanent live and another that is switched by the ignition.
I suspect that the red wire is the switched one.

Cheers Matt.

 

[RogerS]

Matt's right. On your ignition switch you should have a terminal marked Acc...for accessories. This supplies power when the ignition switch is in the first position...

 

[mel]

thanks matt and roger
as the caravan has no ignition i doubled up the positive feed
and hey presto
works a treat
it was late and i was tired , thought that may have been the problem
but didnt want to ruin a new radio
thanks again
mel

 

[Blister]

thanks matt and roger
as the caravan has no ignition i doubled up the positive feed
and hey presto
works a treat
it was late and i was tired , thought that may have been the problem
but didnt want to ruin a new radio
thanks again
mel

This extra wire is live with the ignition / radio off

it will retain any channels you have stored in the radio memory , so when you switch back on they dont all need to be re tuned :wink:

 

[The Welsh Workshop]

Hi Mel
By doubling up on the positive feed you will need to switch off the radio/cd after every journey.
With the switched feed from the ignition it will automatically switch off the radio/cd.
It's worth finding a switched feed as if you forget to switch off then you may be left with a flat battery???

cor blimey, I feel a bit switched out now...lol

Cheers Matt

 

[JFC]

You could fit a small fused switch next to the radio to take the extra wire before it's connected to where it needs to be so it doesn't drain the battery . Or if like on the boat you have a fused switchboard just connect it up to that first .
Jasonpartpboatbodgerupper .