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dunno what to do for the best. i need music in my van.ive 4 speakers already fitted there and a nice kenwood radio cassette with a 6 disc multichanger just sat about gathering dust. ive found a place for the head unit, in a top locker where i dont need to hack into any of the trim.its the electrics im struggling with for some reason. done this twice before in previous vans with no bother but today blown 2 fuses in the head unit.im taking my 12v supply from a swivel downlighter , tried what i thought was the right way to wire it and blew the fuse, reversed it next time, blew fuse again ??? no more fuses.

dont know whether  to abandon it and buy a cd micro system or carry on blowing fuses til i sort the wiring out. i would like the kenwood system in as its worked very well in the past but im not a sparky and blowing these fuses means im doing summat wrong ..

Quote: Originally posted by Custer on 20/9/2006

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The downlighters are normally mains voltage,,,,arent they??

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Oh Dear

A little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing !

no they are 12V,BUT AS SAID CHECK FIRST

easy way to check.if your not plugged into the mains,switch on the light if it works its 12v.if it does not work it could be mains supplied,unless the bulbs gone of course.its safer to check with a volt meter.

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/redirect.asp?redir=http://www.towsure.com/default.asp?t=92

deffo 12v . the only mains only lights we have are above the downlighters

Our van doesn't have a radio fitted (yet... one of those things I ain't got around to doing yet!).  But when I was looking to see where I could run the wires, I noticed that there is a spare 12v feed next to the fusebox. 

I've got a redundant Clarion radio\cassette player with 6disc auto changer if anyone is interested. It's quite old but works well. I wired it up in our old caravan with a pair of 80wt Kenwood 2way. Daren't have it up to load or we'd get kicked off site..

Make me an offer and I'll find out how much posting is.

Quote: Originally posted by Dartrader on 21/9/2006

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Hi, my uncle once wired a Radio / Cassette unit with Positive to Negative and it blew the fuse and continued to blow fuses when wired the correct way.

It had suffered damage to some of the semiconductors and was beyond economical repair, Diodes had gone short etc.

Sorry to say you may have a scrap Radio / Cassette.

Dave.

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sussed it out, gonna have a great sound system. found a box in a top locker , dismantled it and lo and behold theres all the pre radio equipment, connectors the whole lot. wired one speaker in and the aerial just to see if it all works and the sound was awesome just from one speaker (JBL 100W) and i have another 3 to wire in yet. the speakers that are in the bottom locker of the fixed bed have now had the wiring run to the front of the van but ive run them through a floor vent and underneath the van where they`ll come back at the front locker to a junction box to the head unit.dont want to see any wires at all. got a few more days work on it, the worst part will be cutting the hole out in the right place to accept the head unit.