Yellow wire on stereo

[Bayou Dave]

On my last boat (actually 2 boats ago) the radio would drain my battery because there was always power to the memory of the stereo. Other than putting in a seperate on/off switch, would just eliminating the yellow wire keep the stereo working but no memory? Or do I need to put the red and yellow together for the radio to work?

 

[bruceb58]

Just hook them both together and have them connected to a switch on your dash.

 

[Bayou Dave]

Just hook them both together and have them connected to a switch on your dash.

I agree that a switch would work. Does the yelllow wire have to be attached at all for the radio to still work?

 

[bruceb58]

I agree that a switch would work. Does the yelllow wire have to be attached at all for the radio to still work?

No idea but since you are switching the red wire, might as well connect it as well.

 

[Twhjelmgren28]

So, I was just screwing around with my boat wiring - trying to get it all organized. I can tell you that on my Dual radio, I had to have the yellow wire connected to a positive source in order for the radio to work. It's a good idea to just connect them both to a switch as Bruce said. In my case, I have the red wire connected to a switch and the yellow to a constant positive but I may just have to wire them both to the switch also.

 

[Silvertip]

You still lose station memory every time you flip the power off if you have them connected together. But unless the battery is on its way out or the boat is not operated for a couple of weeks, that station memory wire should not kill a battery.

 

[tlombard]

Ugh. You just reminded me that I might have forgotten to turn the battery selector off when I pulled my boat out Memorial Day. Hopefully I don't get down to the lake Saturday to find a dead battery. I would think that with the dual battery setup, the memory on the stereo shouldn't drain both though.

 

[H20Rat]

The yellow wire is the MAIN power source for a radio... The red is a ignition/key source that just tells it to turn on. no yellow = no radio.

So, like Silver mentioned, a normal healthy battery should have no problem with a couple weeks. Also, if you have a marine specific radio, it may have an internal battery backup for the memory. I know mine can sustain a couple of weeks before it dumps the memory and settings.

 

[Leardriver]

I like to completely disconnect electrical when I am not using the boat, except for the float switch auto bilge pump. I just accept as an aggravating part of boating that my presets will never be set.

 

[bruceb58]

The radio on my pontoon boat does not need a back up power source.

 

[spoilsofwar]

My Rockford Fosgate marine head unit also doesn't need power to save station presets or settings. If it does this by using an internal battery or not, I don't know. I always just assumed it saved that information to a nonvolatile internal memory.

 

[Bayou Dave]

The yellow wire is the MAIN power source for a radio... The red is a ignition/key source that just tells it to turn on. no yellow = no radio..

That answers my question. No yellow no radio. Thanks for the info.