ducati321

o dear... well, that changes things. thanks for the tip - i guess i'll be installing a resistor.

actually, what did you mean precisely about installing a resistor from Left Front to Ground. sorry - i'm a bit new to this stuff. (but I got this far, so i'm not useless). if you could just elaborate on the specifics on what should be done.

kb1gtt

What I had was a 2001 Jetta with the Monsoon system, but when I bought the vehicle the previous owner took the radio out. All I had was the OEM connector sitting there. I then obtained and installed a radio that claims to produce 50W for the speaker outputs. At this point my wiring harness was the typical purple wire connects to the other purple wire ect. I then ran into the problem where the amp wouldn't turn off.

When I make my harnesses I typically use flat spade connectors to connect the radio harness with the harness that connects to the OEM connector. Because I did this, I was able to change my connections fairly easily. I ended up making a separate small harness with the resistor included in it, that I could connect and disconnect from my spade connections. But this extra harness was only because I was experimenting and thought I may need to take the harness apart.

If I were to do it again, knowing what I know now, before I put the spades on the OEM connector, I would twist the resistor leads with the wires from the car side of the harness with LF- then crimp on the spade, I would take the other resistor lead and twist it with the gnd wire, then crimp on my spade. Then I'd heat shrink, electric tape or what ever, such that this resistor doesn't short with anything else like dash components. Once the spades were done, I would then connect it to the radio harness by pushing the spades together.

Balkos

First i want to say thanks for the great write up.

I had a few questions. I marked up your picture to clarify some thing i wasn't sure about. Also Is there anything else attached to the circuit board (or at least i think thats what the brown thing is)

So this unit requires a power source to work? I am assuming that is just a DC jack? and you splice into somewhere in the cars power to put a male connector to plug into that to give the unit power?

Attached Images

 

ducati321

The "What is this" - that's the 12V input from the car.

The other thing is where the regulator goes, but it looks that is actually the heat sync ON the regulator. they don't come with heat syncs, that's extra...

I didn't put one on mine...

Balkos

ok one more question. maybe a stupid one. I know once the unit is assembled there is an IN side and an OUT side. But what about the Ground loop Iso? does it matter which end you connect to?

kbyrd

The isolator has no "direction" that I could tell. As far as I know it's just a DC filter. The only reason my whole circuit has a "direction is that the 5VDC has to be injected somewhere and you don't want it flowing back to your sound card.

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trititan

to help others out, i have a crude wire diagram of how i did it




it looks like



for me anyways. on my box i have 6 in, for front rear and center. the center are the same as the front, and i don't use it, caused more problems.

as for the power in, u do not have to have a + and a -, only the 5v to the - side of the front left channel is all you need.

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psionyx

Has anyone tried one of these?

Balkos

I think something like that can only be used if keeping your stock HU.
In order to turn your amp on you would still need some kind of voltage going in???

allbodies

So I there any problem with just running 5v from my m2 staight to FL-?

ducati321

M2 as in MK2? they didn't have monsoon systems, right?

allbodies

No, as in the m2-atx-hv. I have a VW b5 passat.

leperkuan

I believe this topic needs to be touched on some more, sorry if this thread is 10 yrs old but its still something people do. for test reasons im going to use a cheapo mp3 player and i guess what i want to do is put it where the factory head unit goes. I have the aftermarket harness to install a new head unit and im wondering if i could just tap into that. now where im confused is the 5v that turns on the amp. Does the amp not turn on with an aftermarket stereo?
So im guessing things i will need would be, male headphone2rca left&right, Ground loop isolator and a 5volt regulator. out of the ground loop with rca left&right to the aftermarket harness and 5v to the aftermarket harness.

Where im lost. Where the 5v goes into the harness( i would have to research more)
Since its a mp3 player im loosing my front/back (surround sound) capabilities as to where i could have a dolby 5.1 sound card with front and rear outputs.

this is already starting out as a headache and im most certain a aftermarket amplifier would be easier BUT then again i would be splicing into the wiring .
I just feel this could be cheaper
I guess subwoofer output would be on the sound card to



seems like a headache but i thought i would put my 2 cents in.
final opinion Delete monsoon, replace with aftermarket amplifier.

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EvilMonkey

you would have to replace the speakers too

Bugbyte

I replaced myVW OEM HU with a Sony Xplode aftermarket HU without knowing that you need the +5v to make it work. It still has the Monsoon amp in the back and works just fine without modification.

That may be atypical, but that's my experience.

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