I just purchased a pansonic head unit. CQ-8400U. I am having problems wiring this up to my 1985 iroc-z. This particular model has a dc/dc converter? What am I supposed to do with this? I already wired all the speakers and stuff. But I cant get it to come on. Is this because I have to do something with this dc/dc converter? Thanks!!

 

I would imagine you are supposed to hook it up.

Sorry to sound like a jerk, I don't mean too.

can you look at your manual?

 

The dc-dc converter is just a transformer that raises the voltage, probably to around 17 to 20 volts. I would be surprised if this was external to the head unit. The wires coming out of the back of the radio are the same as every other head unit. Yellow for battery, red for ignition, black for ground, blue for antenna/remote, and the various speaker colors.

 

In the manual it states "To ensure safety, ask a specialized contractor or dealer from whom you purchased the equipment to install it for you" in relation to the dc/dc converter. There are separate wires to connect to ACC and memory and ground. This DC/DC thing is a seperare item I have no idea what to do with. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

I did a google search for that model and can't even find it. If you can find a copy of the manual or at least a picture of it's wiring online, I'll figure it out. It can't be hard. Every radio in the world needs 3 things to function. Battery, ignition and ground.

 

You couldnt find it because its actually Panasonic CQ-C8400U.
I typed it wrong. Today I got it professionally installed so its all good. It just needed a harness and other stuff. Its NICE!

 

Actually you don't *need* a harness. You could have just cut wires and it would have worked just as well. Everytime I've bought a new headunit from an audio place they try to hassle me into buying the harness and letting them install it.

I could think of a million better things to spend my money on than paying someone 2 hours of labor to do a 15 minute job.

 

For $15, a harness is much more convenient and allows for a quicker, cleaner installaton. It's also yours to keep for the life of your car, next time you buy a HU, you can re-use the same harness.

I agree, it's easy to figure out which wires go where or look up the color codes, but why do that if you don't have to?

Besides, I could think of better things to do besides splice into the limited lengths of wires most cars have behind the HUs.

I used to be anti-harness when I was young and poor, but technically savy or not...those things just work so much better.

If the car came w/o a harness......then...no harness needed!

 

wiring a stereo without a harness is just asking for headaches. Nothing sucks more than when I have to install a stereo into a car that some moron already hacked the harness out of.

 

When i was installing in a shop, we had this civic with a rats nest of wires behind the HU, speaker wire, lamp cord....whatever else they had, wires with 3 or 4 inline butt splices....

These kids installed thier own stereo and they didn't even take the dash apart properly, they did it 'gurilla theft style'...basically just ripped the dash apart and tried to hang the new one in there or something.

We ended up sending them on there way because that car was just too trashed for us to be associated with.

I enjoy having the convenience of being able to pull the HU out and set it on my lap and do my work that way.

I also solder all of my connections, so I'd rather do it outside of the car if I can. Soldering in the dash is just too PITA for me.


Now, I think speaker harnesses are a bit much...those can be tapped easilly and the harness can stay like it is, there is no need to cut any harnesses in an installation.

 

I’ve had a couple of people bring me cars like that. I don’t even “F” with that, “you what me to do it your buying a harness, dash kit (if needed), a reverse harness and paying me to fix your screw up before I start to put the new HU in”. And that’s that. I had one guy walk away, good, one less mess to fix.

 

And as far as the purpose of the DC to DC converter, like Jim said all it does is take in (in this case) 12V and spits out a higher DC voltage. It may be a bit higher then 17-20Vdc. Some of the HUs that use EL display back lighting use external DC to DC converters for the EL. This could be as high as 250Vdc or so. They put the converter on the outside of the HU to keep noise out of the HU. The converter uses an oscillator that is some cases could interfere with microprocessor operation. The oscillator is running at a higher then audible frequency so it’s not a buzz you will hear but could trip up the processor.