Who knows how to check speaker wire polarity?

[FIRE_UP]

Ladies and gents,
I'm in the middle of changing out TVs, both front and rear on our '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the C-7 330HP CAT. Now, a small amount of history here. Winne and Itasca, in that era coach, utilized a dash toggle, to switch the make-believe surround sound system in the coach, get sound from the dash radio or, the TV. Well, I've taken that switch completely out of the loop.

The surround sound system, is now a true, 5.1 surround sound with a new, Home Theater/DVD system. I have installed two new, completely separate speakers, to be used for the dash radio only. However, I kept pretty good track of wires and colors for the TV section but, some how, I got goofed up on the wires for my new speakers for the radio.

What I'd like to know is, is there a way to check the ends of the wires, that attach to the speakers, for polarity? That is, which one is (+) and which is (-). On the radio end, they are buried in a loom and go into the back side of a 10 or 15 wire plug, that goes into the back of the radio. So, I cannot get access to that end to see which is a negative wire for each speaker and which is a positive.

So, what I have is, two wires, that are next to each new radio speaker. I have hooked them up to the speakers, and the radio sounds pretty good. I've been on Youtube and all over the net, trying to find a testing method for what I need. But, all I find out is, the use of a small battery to send a signal to the speaker to see if it pushes out or, pulls in, when the battery terminals are touched to the speaker terminals. This does not answer my question. I need to know which wire is positive and which is negative, coming from the radio?
Scott

[Tom_M1]

FIRE UP wrote:
I extended the wires as stated earlier. The factory yellow and white wires are not involved in this setup. There only two wires. Both are the same exact wire. The origin, from where I extended them, is also buried deep within loom and covers that have been re-installed. To trace these wires all the way back to the radio would be a serious pain in the a$$. This is why I asked about ways to just check them at the speaker.

The OP would prefer not having to dig into the wire loom or pull out the dash radio.

As stated earlier, just play some music and listen for a bit, then reverse the wires on one speaker and determine which way sounds better.

[SCVJeff]

Jacksons wrote:
attach a 1.5 volt battery to the 2 wires, if the cone moves out mark the pos wire, if the cone pulls in mark the neg wire

see page 1

[Jacksons]

attach a 1.5 volt battery to the 2 wires, if the cone moves out mark the pos wire, if the cone pulls in mark the neg wire

[SCVJeff]

femailyetti wrote:
any Home Depot or Lowes has Tone Generators, mine reads out on a dc meter. use it to trace wires on fire and burg systems on a daily job. You may have to switch to the continuity checker part on some models to get a dc out.

https://www.lowes.com/search?searchTerm=tone+generator

http://www.homedepot.com/s/tone+generator?NCNI-5

Fox n' Hound tone generators do not determine polarity on two wires. He's not tracing them, he is trying to figure out how to phase up all the cones. Very different thing..

[femailyetti]

any Home Depot or Lowes has Tone Generators, mine reads out on a dc meter. use it to trace wires on fire and burg systems on a daily job. You may have to switch to the continuity checker part on some models to get a dc out.

https://www.lowes.com/search?searchTerm=tone+generator

http://www.homedepot.com/s/tone+generator?NCNI-5

[vermilye]

The best and simplest way has been mentioned a couple of times - use your ears. Out of phase (i.e.when one of the speakers is connected reversed from the other) is fairly easy to detect by listening for a null (i.e. dead spot) half way between the two speakers. More noticeable at low frequencies, and, even more noticeable over headphones.

Again, it doesn't matter which way the polarity is connected as long as it is the same to all speakers.

[wa8yxm]

Tom_M wrote:
It would help if people would actually read all of the first post. The OP is connecting speakers to his dash radio, not his Home Theater. Also the wire he used to extend the wires has no markings.

Again, Twin wires normally do have a marking, can be hard to figure out.

And the only difference between "Home theater" and "Dash radio" is.. Well, the words.. Procedure is identical no matter which device you are connecting to, . "Audio source" is the generic.

But the ohmmeter method works 100% even if there are no markings.

THere is another way too but it does not work for me for some reason.

[Tom_M1]

femailyetti wrote:
You can use a tone generator on one end of the wire to find the wire, when you find the wire, use a volt meter on the dc scale at the end of the wire, label the wire at both ends which is positive at the time.
Hook the positive labled wire to the positive termanial of your amp output, then hook the positive on the other end to the positive speaker terminals.

Virtually nobody has a tone generator handy. Plus a tone generator puts out AC voltage so a DC meter would not function.

[wnjj]

If there's any way to know which is positive and negative at the radio you could use a ohm meter along with a long piece of wire that reaches from one of the speaker wires back to the radio. Perhaps you can find a pin out for the 10 or 15 on connector at the radio online?

Even without the pin out, it's likely that the speaker wires are something related like orange and orange with white stripe for one speaker and similar for the other. If you identify which 4 wires head to your speakers using the ohm meter, as long as you make both sides the same it will work.

Will the factory wiring diagrams show the colors and function as they leave the radio connector?

[D_E_Bishop]

Scott, Winnie has the complete wiring for your rig on line in there public access archives. You can download them and the schematic will tell you what the OEM colors are and where they connect to the Winnie system and the Winnie identifiers or go to Magnadyne and look up your radio.

If you have your MOTOR HOME COMPONENT INFORMATION sheet it will tell you what radio you have. If you don't have that sheet, I believe you can download the one for your rig using the VIN for the search in Winnie's archives.

The schematic and the component sheet are great to have around and in the archives are also a COMPLETE PARTS LIST. That is fantastic to have too.

[SCVJeff]

magicbus wrote:
That's what I would try. Set it on low range DC, put it across the wires and turn on the radio. If it shows positive you are POS on POS. If it goes negative your meter wires are reversed. This should let you mark the wires coming from the radio.

So this is assuming that the radio 'pops' when you turn it on? I can't think of an auto radio that pops in the last probably 30 years to detect. Second, assuming the amp does surge on power-up, that this is being done with a DVM since there are very few of us that even knows what a Simpson is ( 🙂 ).... that would have a be an extremely fast sample rate, or just lucky to catch it. Certinaly not with a Harbor Freight $5 special

[femailyetti]

You can use a tone generator on one end of the wire to find the wire, when you find the wire, use a volt meter on the dc scale at the end of the wire, label the wire at both ends which is positive at the time.
Hook the positive labled wire to the positive termanial of your amp output, then hook the positive on the other end to the positive speaker terminals.

[time2roll]

Tom_M wrote:
Also the wire he used to extend the wires has no markings.

Maybe that is the issue. Get the right stuff.

[Tom_M1]

It would help if people would actually read all of the first post. The OP is connecting speakers to his dash radio, not his Home Theater. Also the wire he used to extend the wires has no markings.