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
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
1995brave wrote:
If they are original factory wires from Winnebago, they will be color coded and labeled with a number and letter. Go to the link I posted above and download the wiring diagrams. Winne has been very good at publishing information on all their RV's.
Well,
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.
Audio people who are really adept at car stereos, home entertainment etc. MUST have some sort of meter that can tell, right off the bat, which is the neg and which is the pos. Although most of those folks DON'T get them screwed up by extending them with wires that are not identifiable.
Scott
Well Gang,
I most certainly appreciate all the input here with experience. Two things here. One, I'm not on the project at this moment. I had to break loose of it and head over to San Diego for some family business. I will be back on this project tomorrow, Friday, in the afternoon. Second, while I have an array of answers and potential ways of checking the polarity, I'm still confused on a couple of things.
1. Using the "Battery" thing to test is to me, confusing. You see, if you have two wires, ALREADY connected to a speaker, then, connect say, a 9V (or 1.5V) battery to those speaker tab connections, that will make the speaker cone PUSH OUT, or PULL IN, based on which way the batteries terminals are connected, right? If you reverse the batteries connections, you'll get the opposite reaction of the speakers cone, correct?
To me, that doesn't tell me ANYTHING accept which is the POS and which is the NEG of the speaker. Those two tests, to me, DO NOT reveal which is the positive and negative OF THE WIRES, leading to the speaker. And most speakers are labeled with a + or - on the connectors.
And, I had to extend the radio speaker wires with other wire that I had lying around. I used the same gauge but, both wires are the same color since that's all I had. I thought I some previous clarification on which wire was positive and which was negative but, in all the miles of wiring that I've done with both the 5.1 system and the stand-alone radio speaker wires, I goofed up and extended the radio wires with the same color wires.
So, to those that have stated that there are definite markings of wires for pos and neg, there AREN'T ANY on my wires. Both wires are the same, for positive and negative. Again, I've been all over youtube and the net looking for an answer here.
Some have said to use a voltmeter on low DC settings and turn the radio on to see what the meter says. Then, someone comes along and says that won't work because the signal being sent on the speaker wire is AN A/C signal so, checking with a D/C voltmeter won't work, man, this stuff is confusing. I can rebuild engines, brakes, weld, cabinet build, fabricate, do brain surgery on myself (almost) and more but, when it comes to electrical stuff like this, I'm just not at the top of my game.
So we are talking about two speakers, and not the full surround array. Hook them up and listen. Reverse the wires on one speaker and listen again. Choose the best of the two.
So far, without discounting any and all other answers, this one kind-a sounds like the most logical way to tell if the "same colored" speaker wires are hooked up correctly to each of the two radio speakers. When I get back home tomorrow afternoon, I'll dive back into this project and check this out. I'll let all who are interested, know what I found out. Thanks a heap for trying to help me here.
Scott
I most certainly appreciate all the input here with experience. Two things here. One, I'm not on the project at this moment. I had to break loose of it and head over to San Diego for some family business. I will be back on this project tomorrow, Friday, in the afternoon. Second, while I have an array of answers and potential ways of checking the polarity, I'm still confused on a couple of things.
1. Using the "Battery" thing to test is to me, confusing. You see, if you have two wires, ALREADY connected to a speaker, then, connect say, a 9V (or 1.5V) battery to those speaker tab connections, that will make the speaker cone PUSH OUT, or PULL IN, based on which way the batteries terminals are connected, right? If you reverse the batteries connections, you'll get the opposite reaction of the speakers cone, correct?
To me, that doesn't tell me ANYTHING accept which is the POS and which is the NEG of the speaker. Those two tests, to me, DO NOT reveal which is the positive and negative OF THE WIRES, leading to the speaker. And most speakers are labeled with a + or - on the connectors.
And, I had to extend the radio speaker wires with other wire that I had lying around. I used the same gauge but, both wires are the same color since that's all I had. I thought I some previous clarification on which wire was positive and which was negative but, in all the miles of wiring that I've done with both the 5.1 system and the stand-alone radio speaker wires, I goofed up and extended the radio wires with the same color wires.
So, to those that have stated that there are definite markings of wires for pos and neg, there AREN'T ANY on my wires. Both wires are the same, for positive and negative. Again, I've been all over youtube and the net looking for an answer here.
Some have said to use a voltmeter on low DC settings and turn the radio on to see what the meter says. Then, someone comes along and says that won't work because the signal being sent on the speaker wire is AN A/C signal so, checking with a D/C voltmeter won't work, man, this stuff is confusing. I can rebuild engines, brakes, weld, cabinet build, fabricate, do brain surgery on myself (almost) and more but, when it comes to electrical stuff like this, I'm just not at the top of my game.
So we are talking about two speakers, and not the full surround array. Hook them up and listen. Reverse the wires on one speaker and listen again. Choose the best of the two.
So far, without discounting any and all other answers, this one kind-a sounds like the most logical way to tell if the "same colored" speaker wires are hooked up correctly to each of the two radio speakers. When I get back home tomorrow afternoon, I'll dive back into this project and check this out. I'll let all who are interested, know what I found out. Thanks a heap for trying to help me here.
Scott
