The scenario:
You're listening to some sweet tunes pumped through your van's stereo system while having a few beers with friends by the fire. You've had a great night and it's 2am before you know it. You put out the fire and turn your ignition off (like the responsible adult you are) before you "PTFO." Everything was going swimmingly until you set out for the trail the next day and your trusty van won't start. Here is how I plan to avoid this situation:
Do electrical work at your own risk! I am not a professional. If you see anything wrong with what I am doing I would love to hear from you. This being said, I have not had a problem (otherwise I would not be sharing)-so hopefully it's all gravy baby!
Its simple really, you program the time, and weather you would like it to cut the connection or complete the connection during said time. I have it set for 2 hours and to complete the connection during those two hours (disconnecting afterwards). The timer needs a positive and negative power supply to operate itself. This can be a different source than the power you would like to supply to the source (in this case the stereo) but it doesn't need to be. I added a switch inline to the timer so that I can control when to turn it on and off. You can run the negative directly into the source, bypassing the timer. For the positive supply, you run it in, then out of the timer and to the source. I use my house batteries to power the source so I just spliced right into the positive and negative on the wiring harness on the stereo, leaving the ignition from the van also connected. As far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with doing it this way. The van/alternator powers the stereo as I drive, and if I want to listen to music while parked I flip the switch on the timer.
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I ordered DeVANdra without a radio, but wired with speakers. I will be spending a lot of time with DeVANdra and the music and navigation experience are very important to me. The factory options didn't impress me so after much research, I settled on a Pioneer AVH 4200NEX. Android Auto sounded appealing but turned out to be a complete failure due to its counter-intuitive limitations. The head unit is fine, but Android Auto sucks! Anyway, here is my radio installation with some helpful hints. You will need:
For the Most part, the instructions that come with the Metra kit are fine, but there seems to be some odd translation issues in a few spots, so hopefully I can make this process easier for you. First you will need to hook up the kit harness (meant for Ford, should be cross-compatible with a Ford Fiesta) to the harness that came with your radio. The wires on the radio harness should be labeled and/or the instructions that came with your head unit should list what the colors mean. Click here As for the Ford harness wire colors. Most are pretty self explanatory. Why a micro-bypass is important: Pioneer and Android have certain arbitrary restrictions while you are driving. In my humble opinion, these restrictions do more to distract the driver then if they where not there in the first place. A micro-bypass makes the radio think you are parked when you are not. If you decide to use a microbypass, follow the instructions that come with it carefully, and let the micro-bypass instructions override any other wire connections made. Along with the microbypass, I suggest a handy little Android app called AppRadio Unchained. The standard AppRadio app meant for the Pioneer radio is very restrictive. ARUnchained allows for full Android mirroring. It functions just like your phone, because it is. There are a few different ways to connect the wires, but having done this a few times in previous vehicles, I prefer to solider my connections. The crimp connections can be unsure and forget about the old twist and tape method. Soldering assures a long lasting, solid connection! For more info on soldering, click here. It really isn't hard, just remember to put the heat shrink on the wire (don't shrink it yet!) before you solder the wires together! |