how much draw on memory, yellow wire

i've got a clarion cmd4 marine radio. the yellow wire is showing a draw of 3 volts. the battery has been draining heavily and im sure this is too much draw for memory. i couldnt tell how many amps were drawing. also when i tested the draw with my test light, the light was pretty bright. its impossible to get helf from clarion techs.

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owner of
Motion Marine & Car Audio
the florida keys

you dont measure "draw" in volts, it must be in amps.

Volts means nothing as the unit will be a 12v unit which should draw 12v on the memory wire.

turn your meter to the amps setting and hook it up in series with the power wire to find out the current draw. you should try to have as much stuff unhooked as possible to help isolate the problem. test, then hook up something new, then test, son and so forthe.

how many amps should the memory draw?

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owner of
Motion Marine & Car Audio
the florida keys

depends on the head unit.... a lot of the older head units only used the memory circuit to supply backup power for the presets and clock... the current draw was roughly 100 ma... many  newer head units use the backup power circuit to power the output stage for a more stable supply without potential turn-on pops... in this case the current draw could potentially be 10-15 amps.....

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Kevin Gerry
Certified Electronics Technician
MECP First Class Installer

Owner/Installer
Classic Car Audio
since 1979