My speakers whine!

[philwsailz]

Awesome Phil - Thank you! One question based on everything that I have read is should all the grounds (relays, amps and H/U) go to the same battery?

In general the relay grounds, (from the terminals labelled 86) can go to wherever they are convenient. The ground connection of the relay is just there to complete the circuit for the relay's coil.

The head unit ground however really needs to go to the negative terminal of the amplifier. That is important. Yes, you do want all of your audio power from the same battery; wiring the H/U to the amp(s) shoudl take care of that, but double check...

I refined the pic one more time... To further clarify the grounding... I drew a negative wire between the battery and the amplifer...

[philwsailz]

I'm not enthused having my stereo wired to the ignition switch. When stopping to pick up a boarder/skier I shut the engine down. However, even a rapid turn of the key through OFF to ACC kills the power for a moment and causes the whole sound system to cycle. I'm considering wiring the sounds to an unused dash rocker switch instead of to the ignition switch and using MUTE to pause the sounds while communicating to the person in the water.

I can't think of another way to keep the stereo power up when turning off the engine. Am I missing something, perhaps like an ignition switch that has OFF-ACC-IGN instead of ACC-OFF-IGN?

I do not know of an ignition switch that has the connections as you describe, but it is worth a look. You might find it and that would be cool!

I was about to suggest using your kill switch lanyard to stop the motor; that would keep the stereo on, but the stereo would go off when you went to crank the motor again...

If you want the stereo to stay on, use a switch. just wire it in like the relay shown connected to the key switch. The switch would connect to the wires that re connected at terminal 87 and 30 as shown.

Make sense?

[SPBFAN]

The other option other than this is to eliminate the Key switch completly. But then you are turning your stereo on and off from the Head unit rather than having it hooked to the key. Great schematic Phil.

[SPBFAN]

I do not know of an ignition switch that has the connections as you describe, but it is worth a look. You might find it and that would be cool!

I was about to suggest using your kill switch lanyard to stop the motor; that would keep the stereo on, but the stereo would go off when you went to crank the motor again...

If you want the stereo to stay on, use a switch. just wire it in like the relay shown connected to the key switch. The switch would connect to the wires that re connected at terminal 87 and 30 as shown.

Make sense?

Put in one relay take the Ignition switch out of the loop I don't have the graphic tools phil has. Then you can turn off your tunes at the head unit and get the boats system completely out of the stereo loop.

When it gets a little warmer I have one last thing to do to mine and that is to put in a battery isolator for charging. Then my system will be 100% out of the boats electrical system with the exception of the Battery isolator that will control the charge rate of the batteries. The boat will have it's own batteries and the stereo will have its own.

[SPBFAN]

In general the relay grounds, (from the terminals labelled 86) can go to wherever they are convenient. The ground connection of the relay is just there to complete the circuit for the relay's coil.

The head unit ground however really needs to go to the negative terminal of the amplifier. That is important. Yes, you do want all of your audio power from the same battery; wiring the H/U to the amp(s) shoudl take care of that, but double check...

I refined the pic one more time... To further clarify the grounding... I drew a negative wire between the battery and the amplifer...

I have also learned that the Clarion decks need to go away. They have a very week RCA signal out the back of the deck. This requires you put in a line driver to boost the RCA signal into the EQ. It is one of the biggest culprits for static especially when running the WS-420. So it is time to get new decks in our boats.

[noworries]

If you want the stereo to stay on, use a switch. just wire it in like the relay shown connected to the key switch. The switch would connect to the wires that re connected at terminal 87 and 30 as shown.

Make sense?

Indeed, I like the idea of relays, and hate the several second "reboot" of the stereo every time I touch the key.

[da.bell]

Indeed, I like the idea of relays, and hate the several second "reboot" of the stereo every time I touch the key.

Or, you can call Tom at Lightning and ask if they would modify your stereo to meet your needs. Not sure if they will charge.

[talltigeguy]

I CAN'T FREAKING BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!



I just got back inside from spending my Saturday Morning wiring crap like we discussed. With great anticipation I turn on the radio...still with my very high pitched whine. The noise is so high that I cannot even tell exactly where it comes from. So I unplug the tower speakers altogether...still whining. I lean down with my ear against the interiors, doesn't sound like it is actually coming from those speakers either, but the sound is pervasive, I can't tell where it is.

For some stupid reason I put my head in the engine box...THERE'S MY NOISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My extremely high pitched noise is not even coming from the !@#$% ^&&** stereo!!!!!!! It comes from the engine. I apologize that I am a complete moron. Anyhow this was a good exercise.

...So why does my engine make that noise?

BTW, trying to get extra wires into the amplifier terminals is a beeatch. The 4 guage wires I use are the exact size of the holes on the amp. I managed to stuff them in with a tiny screwdriver and that seemed to work, but since this wasn't the source of my problem anyway, I think I'll be moving them to the distribution block I am ordering today. I am worried that they won't stick and might come out at the worst possible time. Does that sound reasonable?

[evil0ne]

...So why does my engine make that noise?

Because it's a MC

Is it the fuel pump priming sound? Does it keep happening until you remove the key? I thought you had the stereo wired up so the key didn't have to be on? Have you put a fake a lake on it and fired it up to see if it is off once the motor is running? Hope you get it worked out quickly.

[chpthril]

Um, isn't the WS-420 is a line driver, so wouldn't it be counter productive (as far as induced noise goes) to add an additional line driver in between the H/U and an EQ such as the WS-420?

Main Features:

4 Band Parametric Equalizer with 2 Zone operation
2 Independent Zones for separate adjustments of tower and boat speakers
Dual Volume Control for independent volume of tower and boat speakers
Talkback Microphone with separate volume control
Auxilary input
Dual Illumination (red or blue)
Subwoofer volume control and frequency adjustment
12 volt line driver
Conformal coated circuit board

It's been my experience that the stereo system acts as an antenna, and picks up and amplifies the villain known as White Noise, that lives naturally within electrical wiring. I would think that a low line voltage would be more of a signal clipping condition then creating static. If you have static in your system, it may be amplified by a line driver, depending on where it's getting in. Along with the wiring and relays that we've talked about here, using quality RCA's, and more importantly, how we run them, will go a long way in preventing the introduction of unwanted noise. Also, it seems that the more components we add to our audio system, and the sensitivity of them, increases the chance for noise, making the steps outlined in this thread all the more important

[chpthril]

I just got back inside from spending my Saturday Morning wiring crap like we discussed. With great anticipation I turn on the radio...still with my very high pitched whine. The noise is so high that I cannot even tell exactly where it comes from. So I unplug the tower speakers altogether...still whining. I lean down with my ear against the interiors, doesn't sound like it is actually coming from those speakers either, but the sound is pervasive, I can't tell where it is.

For some stupid reason I put my head in the engine box...THERE'S MY NOISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My extremely high pitched noise is not even coming from the !@#$% ^&&** stereo!!!!!!! It comes from the engine. I apologize that I am a complete moron. Anyhow this was a good exercise.

...So why does my engine make that noise?

BTW, trying to get extra wires into the amplifier terminals is a beeatch. The 4 guage wires I use are the exact size of the holes on the amp. I managed to stuff them in with a tiny screwdriver and that seemed to work, but since this wasn't the source of my problem anyway, I think I'll be moving them to the distribution block I am ordering today. I am worried that they won't stick and might come out at the worst possible time. Does that sound reasonable?

Because it's a MC

Is it the fuel pump priming sound? Does it keep happening until you remove the key? I thought you had the stereo wired up so the key didn't have to be on? Have you put a fake a lake on it and fired it up to see if it is off once the motor is running? Hope you get it worked out quickly.

X2 on the fuel pump being the source, typically not heard with engine running but is powered up when the key is in the 'ON' position.

[chpthril]

I have also learned that the Clarion decks need to go away. They have a very week RCA signal out the back of the deck.

Any recommendations? Clarion, Sony, Alpine, Kenwood all seem to run about 2V's!

[dogbert]

...So why does my engine make that noise?

LOL, maybe that whine we keep referring to isn't coming from the MC owners...it's their boats

Tall, my guess would be that your whine is coming from your alternator.

[chpthril]

Put in one relay take the Ignition switch out of the loop I don't have the graphic tools phil has. Then you can turn off your tunes at the head unit and get the boats system completely out of the stereo loop.

.

Where is the relay getting it's switched power? If Terminal 85 is wired to battery +, the relay is energised 24/7 supplying power to the head unit till the battery(s) go dead.

I took my head unit off the key switch 2 years ago for the same reasons Noworries stated and simply moved it to an unused rocker switch. A word of caution with using the H/U's power button as the 'ON/OFF' for the system, some Clarion head units have a cooling fan that will run as long as the H/U's switched red wire has 12V's. I'll bet the H/U has a small current draw as well, this may run a battery dead in a week or so. The H/U's red switched power wire needs to be switched

[talltigeguy]

LOL, maybe that whine we keep referring to isn't coming from the MC owners...it's their boats

Tall, my guess would be that your whine is coming from your alternator.

LOL! I should have seen that one coming.

I think the whine is basically a non-issue at this point because the only time I will have the key in the on position is when the engine is running and I am not going to be able to hear the whine (if it stays) over the engine noise anyway. So with the key in the acc position, I am just fine.

I also moved the red wire to the an unused switch on the dash and that works great...as long as I remember to shut the switch off. It will be my own secret way that no one else can figure out how to turn on the radio...Who would guess that the 'wash down' switch would turn the radio on.