power source for XM radio

Dream01x

Junior Member
hey,

i'm trying to wire an XM radio tuner for my pioneer head unit. it said on the manual to attach the positive end to any 12 V power source. Where should I put attach it? the battery itself? the fuse box? or behind the head unit and tap it into the wiring harness... and if I do , I should tap it into the YELLOW wire right? or RED? i'm confused...

thanks alot

 
Personally I would run a 4 ga wire from the battery along with a distrubution block connected to the end. Find a good spot ( i.e. - seat belt bolt) for the ground and run another 4 ga wire w/ a dist. block to that. That should be suitable for powering your XM Radio. Oh yeah this leaves you open to install a couple of amps once you hear how good your XM sounds and want to crank it all the time. (as well as any other accesories you might want to add on later)

 
Whoa, overkill. Find a switched and an unswitched 12 V source in your fuse box and use that. 4g for a tuner, no way!! The tuner should of came with enough wire to do this, might even just wire it straight to the battery for positive if your not comfortable with using the fuse box, but you will need to when you wire the switched power. Make your own ground as close to the unit as possible, just use a sheet metal screw for that. mtech2 thats nuts. XM tuner could run on a 16g wire and that might be consided overkill..

Personally I would run a 4 ga wire from the battery along with a distrubution block connected to the end. Find a good spot ( i.e. - seat belt bolt) for the ground and run another 4 ga wire w/ a dist. block to that. That should be suitable for powering your XM Radio. Oh yeah this leaves you open to install a couple of amps once you hear how good your XM sounds and want to crank it all the time. (as well as any other accesories you might want to add on later)
 
I have the exact same unit. The power cable that it comes with it is pretty long (like 10' or so). It also has an inline 2A fuse.

Since the unit only pulls 2A max, I attached it to a 10A switched circuit that I already had wired for my interior neons and radar detector. I used a scotch-lock and tapped right into it and was done with that part. Then I went over to the glove box and used a circuit creator (piece that a local O'Reillys sells for like $10 that replaces 1 fuse in your fusebox and gives you back 2). Just find a circuit that has power all of the time; it took me awhile to find a circuit that even has power while cranking the engine. If the receiver looses power, even for a split second, it will dump all of your present stations.

 
pull your HU and connect the power to the accesory wire (red), you can also connect the ground at the HU's grond. this way your xm will turn off when u turn the car off

 
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Dream01x

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