Connectors for car audio
Several types of connectors for car audio systems are used.
Splicing wires
used in car audio are mainly for power, ground, amplifier and antenna, speakers, phone and others.Power and ground
- ACC, supplies +12V power to car audio and other accessories, only when the car's ignition is switched on.
- Constant, also called BAT or Battery, provides permanent +12V power from battery. This allows the radio to retain settings when the ignition is switched off.
- Illumination or dimmer, when it is night and cars lights are turned on, head unit screen illumination is dimmed.
- Ground, abbrev. as GND, 0V, usually connected to the vehicle's metal chassis and body.
Speakers
- Right front speaker: gray.
- Left front speaker: white.
- Right rear: purple.
- Left rear: green.
Amplifier and Antenna
- Antenna: blue.
- Amplifier remote turn on: blue with white stripe.
Phone And Others
- Phone : the cable to mute when receiving a call, is brown.
- Back view, orange with white strip, works when reverse gear light is on and it is used to turn on back camera screen.
- Steering Wheel Controls, SWC or Key, brown with black stripe, usually employs CAN bus.
ISO 10487 Harness Adapter
Parts
Part 1 of the standard is dedicated to "Dimensions and general requirements" and Part 2 to "Performance requirements".Power (A)
The first connector A is always present, is usually black in colour, and contains pins for power-supply, off/on, optional control for a motorised antenna and so on.- On some cars the +12V Ignition and Battery positions are reversed, such as later Volkswagen Group cars, Peugeot 106, Vauxhall Astra, Citroën C3 and some JCB tractors.
- Pin 1 is optional; used for speed dependent volume control and possibly navigation.
- Pin 2 is optional; used for phone mute
- Pin 3 is optional; used for reversing lamp signal on Becker radios with navigation.
- Pin 6 is optional; used for vehicle instrument illumination
Loudspeaker (B)
Miscellaneous (C)
The connector C is optional. Sometimes it appears as one 20-pin connector, often red in colour, or it may be divided into three separate connectors which may be hooked together, in which case C1 is usually yellow, C2 is usually green and C3 is usually blue in colour. The contact spacing is narrower than the other connectors, so the C connector is sometimes referred to as mini-ISO.Note: ISO 10487 only defines the physical attributes of the connectors, not the pin/signal designations, which are manufacturer-defined.
The example above is oriented towards VW vehicles only.
Navigation (D)
The connector D is for satellite navigation systems. It has 10 pins.Quadlock
From 2000 and onwards, manufacturers, such as BMW, Citroen, Ford, Mercedes Benz, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Rover, Audi, Seat, Opel or Škoda have sometimes started using a 40-pin connector instead, called the Quadlock. The Quadlock connector consists of a block of 16 flat pins analogous to the two main ISO 10487 connectors. While the physical contact pins are the same, the pin allocation is not entirely the same, and the connector housing is not compatible. In addition to the 16 pins, like ISO 10487, there are minor connectors for optional equipment. They fit within the frame of the main connector, and has coding so that they cannot be interchanged. Minor connector B has 12 pins for audio output signals. Minor connector C has 12 pins for various audio sources such as CD-changers, MP3 players.| 1) right rear + | 5) right rear - | 9) I-bus antenna right front + | 6) right front - | 10) phone mute / illumination | ||
| 3) left front + | 7) left front - | 11) tel on / CAN Low | 15) 12V battery | |||
| 4) left rear + | 8) left rear - | 12) ground | 16) 12V switched |