On Dec 20, 9:56 pm, Matt Ion wrote:
Think about the alternative: the radio is designed so that you can turn off the
car, get out, lock the door, walk away... and the radio is still turned on,
running your battery down. Whether you're just scatterbrained and leave it
blaring, or had it muted or turned down and forgot it was turned on, THIS would
be entirely unacceptable and a MUCH faster way to run down your battery.
Way back when I had my Accord with the system in it, I wired my radio
through a relay controlled by my VSE Derringer/2 alarm so I could turn
it on and off at will remotely. It proved to be lots of fun--I would
walk up to my car and hit:
Button 1: disarm the alarm
Button 2: turn the stereo on
Button 1+2: pop my driver's door open [1]
By the time my door was opened, the music was already playing. It was
pretty cool for a beat-up 12-year-old car.
Another fun trick I used to play was to put in some obnoxious bass
"music" like D.J. Magic Mike (
http://www.amazon.com/o/asin/B000000FX1)
or Nemesis (
http://www.answers.com/topic/to-hell-and-back-rap-album) at
full undistored volume and turn the system off with the remote and park
the car in the grocery store parking lot. I'd then sit at the front of
the store and wait until people got really close to the car and then
turn the system on. When the bass started hitting and the sheet metal
and wiper on the hatch went nuts, it really freaked people out,
especially when they looked inside and saw nobody in there. A few
adventerous older people would even step in for a closer look, at which
point I would pop the door open...which always sent them scurrying.
Ahh, I miss those days.
So, Matt, as you can see...having your head unit wired to a "constant"
+12V can be a good thing. :-) It's also nice to be able to turn the
engine off and pull the key out of the ignition and listen to the
stereo without the constant *ding* *ding* *ding* *ding* *ding* *ding*
of the "hey-stupid-your-key-is-in-the-ignition-and-the-door-is-open"
chime. :-)
-dan
[1] I had a bad battery so I had to push-start my car until I got a new
battery. The easiest way to push-start a car is in its lowest
gear--reverse. I got good at it--I could start that sucker in about 10'
of space. Once, while at a gas station I push-started my car backwards
and the door caught the concrete pole next to the pumps and bent it
backwards. After banging it back into shape, unlatching the door would
result in it literally jumping open a few inches. :-)