Powering my Sirius receiver.

Toronto_Guy · 10-04-2009, 09:38 PM

I recently had my 2008 Safari SE in for some repairs, and while it was in I had the techs install a satellite radio antenna on the roof and fish the wire over to the opening for my Sony deck.

My new problem, how do I get power to the Sirius Sportster? I was thinking that I could splice off of the power supply going to the Sony deck.

Everything I know about car audio could fit on to a postage stamp though. ;-)

Anyone with any experience with this, or cadio audio installations, that can point me in the right direction?

Cheers.

Minno · 10-05-2009, 07:34 AM

Yes, you can splice off the power going to your Sony deck. Just need to figure out which wire is 12 vdc and which is ground. For 12 volt systems, white is typically ground, but I'll bet you'll find more than white wire going into the Sony, since it has speaker connections as well. Look for a ground lug on the Sony - that will give you a clue maybe. A volt meter or test light will be your friend in trying to figure out which wire is 12 volts. Typically red or black, but check. Don't assume anything.

Chris

Denis4x4 · 10-05-2009, 09:22 AM

Instead of wiring your Sirius directly to the Sony, find the correct + & - wires and install a surface mount dual cigarette lighter fixture to plug in the Sirius and/or iPod player or cell phone charger.

SilverRanger · 10-05-2009, 10:53 AM

If there's a nearby 12v light fixture nearby, you may want to consider that option also. It worked pretty well for me. I just removed the cover and used a wire tap squeeze connector for the lead, and grounded the device to the frame.

Toronto_Guy · 10-05-2009, 08:49 PM

Thanks for the advice!

I may get to it this weekend. We're taking the Airstream out for (Canadian) Thanksgiving near Algonquin Park. It's actually our first real trip of the year. We had a baby in June, and a windstorm in May that did some damage to the AS. I wasn't planning on doing much camping with a newborn anyway, but the AS was sidelined for repairs for quite some time.

The good news was that I finally got some payback for all the money I've been paying towards insurance all these years. Repairs cost $25K when all was said and done.

In any event, my Sony deck is inside one of the cupboards. I plan to install a home docking kit for my Sirius, and drill a hole large enough for the antenna cord and the power cord behind the mount. If there's an "aux in" at the rear of the deck, I'll route the sound cables that way too. If not, I'll just use a very short male to male headphone cable and plug it into the front of the deck.

Ideally, I'd like all the wires hidden. I like the dual cigarette lighter idea... however, instead of surface mounting it, I may just hide it behind the deck and use it is a spitter to run power to both radios.

Cheers.