Wiring stereo to stay on from key ON to ACC

[eecyclone]

I'm not sure if anyone else's boat is like this but on my '08 when I turn the key from ON to ACC mode, the stereo always shuts off for a few seconds. It doesn't matter how quickly I turn the key, there's always be a break in the music.

One of my stereo changes for this summer was upgrading to a bluetooth receiver. In doing this, I didn't want there to be a pause in the music when switching riders, etc. Especially with bluetooth, I was worried about having to repair or resync my phone to the receiver and additional delays/breaks in the music.

I purchased a PAC TR7 relay and enabled a delayed turn-off to the ignition (red) wire that tells the stereo when to turn on/off. I set the delay to 3 seconds which is long enough to turn the key from ON to ACC without the stereo shutting off while also not being too long that it's annoying to have the stereo keep playing when turning the key to OFF. The PAC TR7 was easy to wire in with only needing to use 4 wires (Power, GND, relay in, relay out), but took a couple tries to get the programming right for the delay I wanted.

Relay - $17 from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/PAC-TR-7-Unive...ywords=pac+tr7

PAC TR-7 manual (Mode 6 is delayed turnoff):
http://www.pac-audio.com/PACProductD...ons_010505.pdf

Real world results have been very satisfying, and if you have this issue like I did, I'd recommend adding the TR7 relay.

[Keith2230]

Nice. That's a great mod.

[JRW160]

Nice, I wired all of my stereo turn ons to a spare switch on the dash to get around this issue

[mullinsracing]

Great mod. Got mine working now.

[eecyclone]

How to for adding the TR7 relay to your stereo:

The PAC TR7 relay only requires 4 wires to be connected for time delay functionality, Black, Red, Green, and Blue.

Go ahead and connect the Black wire to ground of the stereo harness (black wire) and tape it with electrical tape. Wire the Red wire of the relay to the constant +12V of the stereo harness (yellow wire). Don't tape up the +12V constant wire yet as we will use it for programming.

Before you connect the other two wires, green and blue, we need to program the relay so it knows what to do. To program the relay, you will tap the green wire to the red +12V wire. On the instructions, delayed turnoff is function #6.

Programming:
1. Unplug the harness from the relay. Slide the programming switch to "on". Connect the harness again. The instructions say to "pulse" the trigger wire, this just means to momentarily connect it to the 12V wire. I simply tapped the wires together when I did my programming.

2. To select feature #6, "pulse" the trigger wire 6 times. Wait 3 seconds and the relay will flash its LED 6 times to confirm. If the LED blinks more or less times than desired, start over with step 1.

3. Once feature #6 was confirmed with the LED blinks, we need to set the time. Program the minutes. The LED will blink once to indicate minute programming. Pulse the trigger 1 time to start the timer programming. For the stereo delayed turn off, you will want this to be 0, so don't pulse the trigger wire. Wait 3 seconds and the relay will move on.

4. Program the seconds for the "tens digit". The LED will blink twice indicating the tens digit programming. Pulse the trigger wire once to start the tens digit programming. Again, you will want this to be 0, so don't pulse the trigger wire. Wait 3 seconds and the relay will move on.

5. Program the seconds in the "ones digit". I think 3 is a good number from my experience. I tried 5 and it was way too long, 2 seconds may be too short. Pulse the trigger wire once to start the programming. Pulse the trigger wire 3 times to set the relay to 3 seconds. After waiting 3 seconds, the relay will blink the LED 3 times indicating 3 seconds was programmed.

6. The LED of the relay will flash 4 times indicating that the timer is finished being programmed. Then the relay will flash for 3 seconds indicating that all options or timers have been programmed.

7. After the relay has finished flashing in step 6, slide the programming switch to the off position. Note: If you make a mistake during programming, you will need to start over from step 1.


Finishing the wiring:
Once the relay has been programmed successfully, you can tape up the +12V constant wire.

For the last 2 wires, you will need to cut the Red wire in the stereo harness.
The Blue wire connects to the stereo side of the red wire you just cut.
The green wire connects to the boat side of the red wire you just cut.

Tape up all the connections and test it out! You should have a working stereo that won't shut off when turning the key from Run to Acc or vice versa. Enjoy!

[Stoph68]

I guess that " turning the key from Run to Acc or vice versa." also includes the head unit not going out while actually cranking the engine?

[Spork]

Thanks for the update.

[eecyclone]

I guess that " turning the key from Run to Acc or vice versa." also includes the head unit not going out while actually cranking the engine?

Correct, as long as you aren't cranking the engine for more than your timer duration (3 seconds with my programming)

[abburns]

Good mod. I just ordered one.

[bcd]

I hate having to re-turn on the small radio remote to the left of the steering wheel on the fusion set up after restarting the boat. Sounds like this will fix that. I'll have to order parts. Great idea

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Stoph68]

Cool... Thanks

Just ordered mine.. Just what I was looking for.

[abburns]

I got the TR7, programmed and wired it up. Works great.

[JR8778]

Bought mine last year, but couldn't face crawling under the radio to put it in. Wired it in before the start of this season. Very pleased with the results. Thanks a lot for the instructions. The one with the unit were awful. Took a bit trying to count the lights while reading the instructions at the same time.

[Skyskiguy]

Don't know how I missed this mod. Just ordered the relay from Amazon. Thanks for the write-up!

[_ds_]

thx for bumping this thread. I somehow missed it last year. I just placed my order on amazon and hope to wire it up next week.