Battery Qs Solved - Now Handbrake Light

[Jigwar]

Firstly, apologies if any of this is specifically covered elsewhere, I have done some extensive searches but to no avail....

I am following the Sticky: Fitting amp in rear storage bin (actually for a sat nav unit) and have some questions around getting direct power from the battery:

1. The yellow power lead from my unit is like this:

Is it a case of choosing one of the terminals and leaving the other dangling?

2. Presumably, I can't pass this lead through into the engine bay (seems far too unprotected), so what sort of lead should I be looking at for in the engine bay? (And any tips for getting this through the gromet ?! Looks a PITA)

3. How do I actually connect to the +ve battery terminal? Is there a specific connector? And presumably I just put it on the terminal before the main connector?

Any advice gratefully received.
Thanks,
Steve

[Anonymous]

A sat nav unit wont need the sort of power an amp does so you wont need to go directly to the battery.

you can take the constant power from the radio harness in the dash, if you have an aftermarket head unit then you can splice directly into the yellow wire from the harnesss, as this also is a constant 12 volt source.

If you still have the factory head unit then you will want the constant power feed from the factory harness, I think its the blue/yellow wire if I recall correctly, but you will need to check with a volt meter unless someone can confirm.

[Jigwar]

A sat nav unit wont need the sort of power an amp does so you wont need to go directly to the battery.

Thanks Perry, this could be good news - especially as the unit is actually up in the driver's side dash.

you can take the constant power from the radio harness in the dash

It's a hard-disc drive unit, is the power requirement likely to be fine for this in conjuction with what'll now be a radio/monitor?

if you have an aftermarket head unit then you can splice directly into the yellow wire from the harnesss, as this also is a constant 12 volt source. If you still have the factory head unit then you will want the constant power feed from the factory harness, I think its the blue/yellow wire if I recall correctly, but you will need to check with a volt meter unless someone can confirm.

I had the Sony pre-03 unit, but I know where to find the constant power thanks.

[Anonymous]

should be fine matey, I have 5 different memory feeds running from there  s;) s;)

[Jigwar]

Apologies for the particularyly rubbish photo, but it may jog someone's memory.......



I have removed the dials from the drivers dash and am now looking for the handbrake light wire going into the right (as the driver looks at them) dial. Does anyone know the colour/pattern?

And does this wire come from the handbrake and go under the centre console/cup holder area anywhere?

TIA

Steve

[Jigwar]

After a bit more digging, I found this under the handbrake........ (again rubbish photo   s:roll: :roll: s:roll:  )



However, the black&white lead coming off this switch disappears off towards the back of the car, seemingly not directly to the light in the dash. But does it reappear still as a black&white lead in the dash?

Hopefully this switch'll give me the ground when handbrake is on as required.

Steve

[northernalex]

Surely you can just splice it in from the wires that go to the fag lighter. Just cut the wires and put the sat nav in parallel..Thats what I did with my GPS reciever and it worked fine... Plus no power when the car is "off"


Get some spade crimp connectors from halfords.... sorted..

sorry if i've missed the point of this post .. am a bit pissed

[Liz]

Just to throw a ickle question in here - I tried to load up some pictures of my car onto my Sony NC9950 - yes sad I know but I thought it would be quite good having a picture of my car on the screen  s:oops: :oops: s:oops:  - it wouldn't let me access video mode because I haven't got it connected to the parking brake, for my safety it said  s:roll: :roll: s:roll:   if the specific wire from the stereo was spliced into the one pictured above would that work?

[aaronjb]

Yep, should do.. for that matter if all it's looking for is an earth connection, you might be able to just hook the wire directly to the chassis  s;) s;)

[Jigwar]

.....sorry if i've missed the point of this post .. am a bit pissed....

.......on a Tuesday night   s:roll: :roll: s:roll:    s:wink: :wink: s:wink:  

My Sat Nav wants all sorts of connections, including:
- constant 12v for permanent memory (getting from radio harness as above)
- speed pulse (getting from purple/white wire in driver's footwell ??)
- handbrake light (still having a dig around for this one)
- reverse light (in passenger bin I believe)

No idea why sat nav wants to know when handbrake is on.

For insurance purposes (I believe) I need to have my DVD monitor hooked up to the handbrake to be legal - but yes I believe you can just ground the connector and override this. Or pull the handbrake on one click, which in mine doesn't yet apply the brakes but does bring the light on.