Guest John Lough Posted November 25, 2005 Share Posted November 25, 2005 I wonder if anyone can help me with a radio problem on my new KonTiki 610 ? The radio cuts-out after 20 minutes. My dealer tells me that Swift have "undone" their modification to eliminate the cut-off as this resulted in a significant battery discharge, and that they do not have a solution to offer at present. It seems that Swift have told him to restore the original elimination wiring to resolve my complaint about the cut-off not being eliminated - not a good idea ! Surely this problem has been known about for enough time for a solution to be known which does not flatten the engine battery in a fairly short period of time ? Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Brian Kirby Posted November 25, 2005 Share Posted November 25, 2005 John Assuming you have a normal car radio installed, they all seem to take a small current to keep the radio "memory" alive when the engine is off. Although small, this discharge will flatten the starter battery over extended periods of time, i.e. when parked for weeks at a time during the "off" season. I suspect Swift have received a number of complaints on this score, so have now retired hurt. If you are able to hook your van up to a charger periodically, it might be worth investigating having the radio feed switched to the habitation battery. That way you get a relatively high capacity battery designed for slow discharge feeding the radio, and it gets re-charged when you hook up to te mains. If that isn't practical, get a switch installed in the radio power feed. You'll have to enter the codes etc when you reinstate the power, and the radio will probably have dropped its pre-sets, but at least you won't find the battery flat when you next try to start up. Hope this helps Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mike C Posted November 25, 2005 Share Posted November 25, 2005 Hello John, See thread "Boxer Radio" on this forum. Same applies to Ducato. The problem is caused by modification of the radio wiring (By Swift)to avoid the 20 minute cut off when the Radio/CD is being used with the ignition switched off. Sometimes the wiring has not been done correctly. Even if done correctly the radio is constantly on standby when switched off and drawing current. There seems to be several different problems arising from the wiring mods. Best course of action is to get a Car Radio expert to sort out the wiring. Regards, Mike C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dave Newell Posted November 25, 2005 Share Posted November 25, 2005 Hi John, It sounds like the trigger wire has been disconnected/cut. Modern car radios actually use non volatile memory ie they no longer need a power supply to maintain the memory. Many people are still under the illusion that the permanent feed is there to maintain the memory. The purpose, nowadays, of the permanent feed is to power the unit in entirety, the second power connection, usually from the ignition or accessory on position of the key switch is simply a trigger to tell the unit to switch to its last state. In other words if the radio was switched on when the ignition was last in the on position then it will come on the next time the ignition is switched on. The standard fitment radio for Fiat/Peugeot/Citroen has a twenty minute feature which allows the radio to play for twenty minutes if it is manually switched on while the ignition is switched off. It sounds like Swift have cut/disconnected the switched feed in an attempt to allow the radio to be used for longer periods while parked on site. I have seen this done several times but the common mistake is to either leave the switched feed disconnected entirely or to connect the ignition switch side of the cut to the permanent live instead of the radio side. Connecting the radio side of the disconnection to the permanent feed has its own problems in that it can cause a larger current drain on the engine battery resulting in flat batteries. Personally I would replace the standard offering with a decent quality unit and wire it from the leisure battery. That way you can use the radio while on site and not worry about flattening the engine battery. Regards Dave. www.davenewell.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest David Posted November 28, 2005 Share Posted November 28, 2005 Hi Guys, we had a problem with our radio on our Fiat, the radio cut out after 20 minutes. If you go into the radio menue you can shut this feature off, it also happened on a Citreon minibus we have at work. As for the live feed our dealer recognised this fault and sorted it, they did not understand why Swift wire them live. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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