I decided to just quickly yank the HU today to have a peek at the connectors. Well, one of them is as expected - the regular power, ground and speaker wire connector (unplugged in the pic). The other though, I have no idea what the individual wires do. In the pic, the one I'm questioning is the one still plugged in. I assume it has to do with the built-in Sirius, but there are a ton of wires coming out of it for just the sirius. And dangit if I can't find it anywhere in the '07 Wiring Diagram book I have - that's why I'm stumped here. I'm REALLY hoping for a remote turn-on lead for my amps.......

If anybody knows or can find out what the wire assignments for this other connector, that would be great. I really wanted a remote turn-on lead for the amps......

 

I believe the one unplugged is power etc. The one plugged in is speaker wires(possible sirus two). Just my guess tho.


You should get the adapter first and go from there.

 

i have no idea what each individual wire does but i can tell you, you are on the right track the unpluged one is standard and the pluged in one is an auxilury for say a CD changer or your sirrius. sorry i couldnt help ya more.

 

No, the one plugged in isn't speakers. It's auxilliary stuff like telephones, CD changers, sat radio, etc.

I have no 07 diagram, but they didn't change the "main" radio connector. That expansion connector could be different than older ones though.

Still, that's not so many wires for the Sirius connection. You might need full time power, switched power, two grounds (power and communications or signal), a pair of audio wires for the left and right channels (which may be differentially signalled and not use the ground in the signal path and require 4 total wires).

Here's a probably a "worst case" (most wires) scenario:

2 grounds
2 power
2 communications
4 audio
------------
10 total

That's pure "educated guesswork", lol...

 

Looks like the 20-pin connector on the back of my stereo. I don't know what most of them are, but one should be the VSS signal for speed volume.

See this link: http://www.generation-edge.info/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=113

 

If I wanted to check to see if one of them was a "switched power" line or remote turn-on line - whatever the correct term is - for the turn-on signal to an amp, how would I find out? I do have a reasonably good volt meter. I just want a signal line to turn on the amps - my goal is to have them on ONLY when the HU is on so I don't constantly run the battery down. Don't really want any extra switches or other extra things I have to remember - trying to keep it simple and effective.

 

Switched power in this case meant switched by the ignition key.

But yes, you should use a voltmeter to determine what line might be switching on.

That doesn't mean it will drive your amps input properly though. Ford subwoofer connectors have an amp turn on line but it's only 5 or 6 volts and it won't turn on my subwoofer amp -- needs to be more like 10+ volts on mine.

 

Check this link, scroll down about half way.
http://www.installer-data.com/aacars...php?carid=2284

 

I think that website does have a connector that plugs in there - thanks. But I really want to know what the wire assignments are. In using a volt meter to check this sort of thing, how does one go about it? I don't want to fry internal circuitry in the HU. Would you use the needle-tip probes, one in the wire and the other contacting ground? Or would you remove the connector and check each individual pin? Looking for a little procedural guidance for checking the voltage to each PIN coming out of the HU there - one might be a remote turn-on lead after all - my amps don't require a lot of voltage - 5V I think is all they need.

 

Voltmeters as a rule aren't "intrusive" and you have little potential to damage anything. It's probably easiest to leave the connector in and use a probe to check each position with the radio on, and off.

And yes, you will measure to ground.

 

actually that extra plug has your VSS wire in it, steering controls (if you have them) and a few other data type things

 

this HU does not have VSS-adjusted volume. and steering controls are not available with any Ranger stock HU as far as I know - maybe Tremor, but I didn't think so.

 

Why didn't you take a multimeter to it, turn the key on and the radio off, then touch each pin with the positive lead of the multimeter with a good ground and try to find which one had 12V power with the radio turned off?

 

Dang...you beat me to it bigtime! Sorry for re-posting the info

 

I had a similar plug on my HU and it was hooked up to AUX input for a MP3 player etc.

 

Well the truck actually has both - has an MP3 3.5mm input jack below the climate controls and it has the Sirius - so I bet both are connected through this other connector - with both, I could see that many wires being used.

I'll get my volt meter out and give it a go - today had to change oil in the misses car and had some other stuff to do, weathe is supposed to turn to utter s#!t around here so I may not get to it soon. I'll try to remember to post up if I actually find a lead suitable for an amp trigger though....