Batboard

Have a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee that I am doing an install on.

The battery is under the passenger seat, so getting prime power is a piece of cake.

What my concern is in trying to locate a wire that I can pick up for ignition control of the radio. There is a large connector with all sorts of wires behind the kick panel at the passenger foot area on the right. Have found several wires where I can see that it is hot when you put the accessories on. Just want to make sure of what wire I am connecting to is OK to use.

Nice open space under the driver's seat to mount the radio. Nice of Jeep to provide such a nice space. Made a plate to bolt to the removable cover. Bolted the radio to the plate I installed. Even have space behind the center console in the back seat to coil up the extra wire. Just make sure it is out of the way of the air duct when you snap the rear cover back on.

Jim

This site is an excellent source of info for the 2011 and up Jeep GC. http://www.wk2jeeps.com/wk2menu.htm you could also get some good info from the Jeep Garage site but you would need to register to post http://www.jeepgarage.org/f73/

Jim202 wrote:Have a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee that I am doing an install on.

The battery is under the passenger seat, so getting prime power is a piece of cake.

What my concern is in trying to locate a wire that I can pick up for ignition control of the radio. There is a large connector with all sorts of wires behind the kick panel at the passenger foot area on the right. Have found several wires where I can see that it is hot when you put the accessories on. Just want to make sure of what wire I am connecting to is OK to use.

Nice open space under the driver's seat to mount the radio. Nice of Jeep to provide such a nice space. Made a plate to bolt to the removable cover. Bolted the radio to the plate I installed. Even have space behind the center console in the back seat to coil up the extra wire. Just make sure it is out of the way of the air duct when you snap the rear cover back on.

Jim

Jim,

I've got an '11 Grand Cherokee Overland sitting in the driveway which is my wife's chariot. I've been all over that car looking at things from the viewpoint of installing radios, emergency lights, etc. I concluded that for an ignition sense line for a radio, I'd just tap the hot side of the power outlet in the center console forward of the gear shift and cup holders. It's already run/accessory controlled and is fused at 20 amps so there would be sufficient current for the radio ignition sense and a low current charger for cell phone or similar.

Pulled my ignition sense from the rear 12v power port. Radios are all under the back seat and this was the easiest connection.

I made a U shaped flat plate bracket out of a 2U rack panel. This was custom fitted to the center console to cover up the small tray just in front of the center arm rest / storage space. Mounted the XTL5000 O5 control head on this flat plate I made.

Just remember that you need to ground the plate or control head bracket. I mounted the mic hangup clip to the passenger side of the head bracket. If you don't ground the bracket, the tone squelch will always stay in the monitor mode. The hangup mic clip needs to be grounded for the mic to tell the radio it is no longer in the monitor mode.

Jim

Jim202 wrote:Just remember that you need to ground the plate or control head bracket. I mounted the mic hangup clip to the passenger side of the head bracket. If you don't ground the bracket, the tone squelch will always stay in the monitor mode. The hangup mic clip needs to be grounded for the mic to tell the radio it is no longer in the monitor mode.

No you don't. You can disable the HUB functionality in CPS. Many of the newer mics (including the Manta keypad mics) use pads that are isolated from the center "knob", so the HUB detection actually comes from the metal mic clip bridging the round "knob" to those floating pads... no ground required.

www.the12volt.com is another good source of info for your ignition circuit. It's targeted at alarm installers, but has a lot of info that is useful to us as well.

No you don't. You can disable the HUB functionality in CPS. Many of the newer mics (including the Manta keypad mics) use pads that are isolated from the center "knob", so the HUB detection actually comes from the metal mic clip bridging the round "knob" to those floating pads... no ground required.

http://www.the12volt.com is another good source of info for your ignition circuit. It's targeted at alarm installers, but has a lot of info that is useful to us as well.[/quote]

Why would I disable the hub feature when I want it to work?

The mic on the XTL5000 that I have doesn't have the split hangup knob on the back of the mic. It requires a ground on the mic clip to be grounded to work correctly.

Thanks for the link. Problem is it doesn't have much in the way of current vehicle years.

Jim

Jim202 wrote:Why would I disable the hub feature when I want it to work?

One has to wonder why you post when you already have all the answers. You (incorrectly) stated that you MUST ground the mic clip. Not that you intended to ground the mic clip because you wanted HUB functionality. Please review:

Jim202 wrote:If you don't ground the bracket, the tone squelch will always stay in the monitor mode. The hangup mic clip needs to be grounded for the mic to tell the radio it is no longer in the monitor mode.

This is (obviously) incorrect.

Jim202 wrote:The mic on the XTL5000 that I have doesn't have the split hangup knob on the back of the mic. It requires a ground on the mic clip to be grounded to work correctly.

Funny... I'm holding an HMN4079C "Manta" keypad mic in my hand, and it does have the split hangup knob on the back of the mic. As I said, some models do, some models don't.

Jim202 wrote:Thanks for the link. Problem is it doesn't have much in the way of current vehicle years.

You have to dig just a little bit. For instance:
http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/for ... TID~134206
IIRC the 2013 and 2014 are basically identical vehicles, so the 13 wiring may still be accurate.