car deck to booster pack

Make a long story short, im trying to install a car deck up to a booster pack ( the one with booster cables and have a 12v inlet). The reason for this is i have no power where i go camping and this is the best solution to have music! the link below i have a diagram of my set up. I cant for the life of me figure it out. The cd deck cant seem to get any power no matter what i do. Im not very familiar when it comes to wiring. If anyone can help me out, much appreciated!

Thanks in advance

Chuck

http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y172/SkuceGoose/?action=view&current=rockbox.jpg

I can't view the pic here at work, but it should be fairly simple to wire up; Just wire the large yellow wire(12+ constant) and the smaller red wire(12V+ SWITCHED) to the + on the jump box, and wire the large black wire(ground) to the - on the jump box. You'll just have to remember to turn the radio all the way off whan you're done, or else you'll run the box dead.

Are you trying to make it work off of the 12v accessory port, or are you wiring directly to the battery clamps somehow?

On another note; IIRC those jump boxes may not last very long when being used as a bettery. They aredesigned to provide alot of current ouput over a very short time period - not a long-low draw type situation like you'll be using it for. I'm not sure if it maeks a difference or not, I just wanted to throw it out there...

-Matt

I would wire the switch in between the + of the jump pack and the yellow and red wire of the radio.  I would also not use a switch with an LED, as an LED is just another thing to draw power from the small battery (it won't be a lot of current, but it is still current).

Ok, since you want to use a switch, then you would still hook up the 12v+ constant wire (yellow) up to the + of the jump box so it gets power all the time. Next, you want to hook the 12v+ switched wire (red) up to the switch, then come out from your switch to the + of the jump box. Hook ground wire (black) up to - of the jump box. This will make it wired the same as a normal install in a car.

There is no need to switch the 12v constant(yellow wire) whatsoever...

-Matt

Sure there is - the yellow wire provides power for the memory circuit of the radio.  He is going camping and trying to use a very small battery to play music over the duration of the trip.  Whenever he is not listening to music there should be 0 current draw on the battery.  I realize that the memory won't pull a lot of current, but why have the load on the battery?  The memory won't give him any benefits and he doesn't have the luxary of a convenient charge station in the woods.

It's not really a "very small" battery - it should power a head unti for a day or two straight wiothout ever being turned off. Also, he may be having to find radio stations that will work wherever he is camping, so he may need/want to keep the memory alive for the duration of the trip.

Bottom line - if you need or want to keep the memory alive on the headunit for the trip, then do NOT swithc the yellwo wire, only the red one. If you don't need to memory to be kept when you're not using the radio - switch both the red and yellow wires. But even at full tilt, the jump box should power the headunit for a day or so with no problem...

-Matt

I can start my car about 5-6 times with my booster pack without recharging it.  That is considerably less times then a charged car battery would start a car.  Booster packs, by both design and function, require a relatively small battery compared to what radios are designed to be powered from - a car battery.

Somehow I doubt he is going to be bringing an antenna along with him on his camping trip!