Radio Memory Power

We are trying to figure a way to put in inexpensive but blue tooth enabled stereo in our 2001 Gem. The original had both main power and memory hold wired to the main power lead.

  • Is there a direct always-hot power lead anywhere? If so, is it hot during charging too?

  • Is there an easy way to tap a few mA while charging?

  • If the answer to these is no, has anyone found a relatively compact/self contained battery backup system to hold the preset memory, clock etc?

Thanks!

R. Gray // Pasadena California

As far as I know, there is no always-on power source on the GEM using the DC to DC converter.

Most responses I’ve seen regarding this subject either don’t save the memory settings when powered off OR wire it to a separate backup battery to maintain the memory settings. I wouldn’t think the memory settings power requirements would be too exotic - maybe just a 9v battery?

You might consider tapping off the 1st battery. (The one with the ground going to the chassis).

The draw for radio memory is almost nil.

Hey man I asked the same thing a few months ago… I dont thinl any body want to helpunless they are selling. .ok so what I did Is run one wire to the battery termanal positive behind the drivers seat…I wired the memory backup wire with the srandard wire . There is a negative wire all ready in the dash area ther are two wires togather use the green with the brown stripe for the negative. .do not use the frame…if you cant find the green/brown wire you can run a negative all the way to the negative side of the same battery. .it works great on my 09

If you need a constant 12v just do what others have recomend. Tap off any battery it self. You should be able to get a 12v constant from a single battery. It would be nice to swap where you pull the 12v supply from. That way your not drawing down the same battery over and over

For later model E2’s and most other models, remove the gray top dash piece first by opening the engine compartment and removing the three torx screws located directly below the windshield. From inside the cab, the gray dash piece is held on with velcro where the gray top meets the bottom white panel. Slide your fingers under the panel and pull towards you and then up to release. You may now remove the entire gray dashpiece. Next, remove the white bottom dashboard cover panel by removing the three hex head .screws located on top. Lift straight up and the white panel should come free. The fuse panel will now be plainly visible and accessible. To the left of the fuse panel you will see 8 spade terminals. The sixth spade terminal is constant 12v and is the only terminal that stays live (even with the key off). This spade #6 is fused by position #10 in the fuse panel (labeled “radio”). It is a 10amp fuse and controls the parking brake lockout switch. There are essentially three ways to tap in to this circuit. 1.) Use a “Posi-tap” connector on the red wire with white trace going to spade 6. or 2) Use a Y spade breakout adapter at spade 6 and plug-in your own spade wire lead to the adapter. or 3) Buy ($3) what is called a 10amp molded “pigtail fuse tap” made by Accele Electronics mfr part #5710PT (using this method you would not need to remove the dash panels, depending of course on how you want to route your new wire. Don’t be tempted to use the metal fuse tap tabs that you would find in Radio Shack for example. There is probably an extra 5amps or so that is available from fuse 10. This method will probably work on most of the other later GEMCAR models, not just the E2, but I can’t say for sure.