Stereo switched live..where?

[re2500]

I've discovered that, although it works great, my new alpine slowly drains my battery if the stereo perm 12v and ign 12v are both wired up to perm 12v. If I disconnect the ign 12v there is no current drain, so I need to find a suitable switched 12v either that or wire in an isolator switch ( not ideal).
I have used the search and read about the thin red wire on the ignition, but after some multimeter tests have found that this doesn't give me 12v on my car when taking key In and out (my Ign wiring and switch have always been a pain)
So basically is there another place behind the dash I can get a decent switched live from??

[newsh]

To get the thin red wire to go live you have to turn the ignition on, just momentarily will do it, the wire then stays live untill the key is actually removed. If not you need a new ignition switch If you want a wire that just goes on and off with the ignition then you can use one of the thicker red ones off the back of the ignition switch

[re2500]

Cheers bud! You've confirmed what I'm doing is correct. And reminded me that I have a spare ign switch in the 80 I'm stripping. So I'll swap it out and see what happens. I'm sure your right with the switch, because the multimeter does flicker a little momentarily as I initially turn the key!

[Christophski]

I think this is the same issue I have since fitting my Alpine.... Which is the ignition one on the harness for the radio itself? Will diconnect it for the time being until I get round to sorting the issue properly!

[re2500]

I think the Car harness battery 12v goes to the red wire on the Alpine harness. The red wire then has two bullet connectors on it, and i had this connected to both the red wire from the stereo (switched live) and the yellow wire from the stereo (Batt Live) in order to get the stereo to power up. With this configuration i was getting about 250mA drain from the battery (even with the facia removed). When i disconnected the red wire from the stereo (switched live) the drain dropped to 30-50mA.
Im not sure what ive written makes much sense, ill draw an MS paint diagram and upload it.

[re2500]

Heres some rubbish diagrams

1. How i wired it up to get it to work
2. How you can disconnect a wire to stop the drain
3. How i intend to wire it up following Newsh's suggestion of using the thin red wire as a switched live.

HTH

[Christophski]

Cheers bud. Does the stereo work if you disconnect the red wire and leave only the yellow one working as in fig 2?

In fig 3 I take it the jump over the yellow wire is a join or does it just "Jump" over the wire?

[re2500]

It doesnt work in fig 2 im afraid both the red and yellow need 12v in order to power up the stereo.

in fig 3 it is NOT a join, its a jump, the red wire is simply connected to the ign.

[Christophski]

Cool cheers. Will have a look at that when i get a moment

[BLAMM0]

what i did was connect both to permanent 12V, just put a switch on the ignition wire (yellow?). so now no power drains, and not everybody can turn on the radio without knowing the secret

[re2500]

I thought about that, but i know i'll forget to turn it off and get stranded with a dead battery!

[Error404]

I have mine wired same as Newsh. I had to swap red & yellow and run a switched live from the ignition switch (its skinniest red wire coming from the switch).