hooking up dimmer wire.
hooking up dimmer wire. I have been looking up schematics for my alpine cda-9847 and my formula. The alpine says to connect the orange dimmer wire to the instrument illumination wire. The gm harness has 2 wires it seems, one is dimmer and one is illumination. which one do I hook up? pin#6(brown/illumination) or 7(grey/dimmer)?
Tap into the dark green wire coming out of the back of the dimmer switch on the dash. That wire provides power that reduces when you turn down the dimmer ****.
it's also available on the stock harness secondary radio connection as a dark green if I'm not mistaken.
it's also available on the stock harness secondary radio connection as a dark green if I'm not mistaken.
Joined: Nov 2003
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From: Jacksonville, FL (originally from Toronto Canada)
The dark green wire at the dimmer switch is the variable output as Duffster said. However, it only goes back to the fuse panel where it feeds through the IP DIMMER fuse. The output side of the fuse is a gray wire - the same gray wire you'll find in the radio harness.
The two illumination wires at the radio are brown and gray. The brown wire is simple on/off - it carries 12V+ when the lights are on and nothing when they're off. The gray wire is variable - its voltage changes depending on the position of the dimmer dial. So, if you want the display to illuminate at the same level whenever you turn on the lights, use the brown wire. If you want the display to brighten and darken the same as the dash lights then use the gray wire.
The two illumination wires at the radio are brown and gray. The brown wire is simple on/off - it carries 12V+ when the lights are on and nothing when they're off. The gray wire is variable - its voltage changes depending on the position of the dimmer dial. So, if you want the display to illuminate at the same level whenever you turn on the lights, use the brown wire. If you want the display to brighten and darken the same as the dash lights then use the gray wire.
