Aftermarket head unit won't turn on without ignition

[Mateus109]

Just a quick question,

I've fitted a JVC head unit to my Mk1 Oct vRS and it works fine but it will only turn on with the ignition on (unlike the factory radio which turns on regardless).

Is this normal?

The other option I've tries is to have the live wire feed into the ignition wire but this means the radio is on all the time which is a bit annoying. It would be nice to have the radio turn on/off with the ignition but also to be able to turn on the radio without the key.

Cheers,

M

p.s. It's a real squash getting two ISO leads, aerial power adaptor, etc all in that small space behind the head unit!

Edited 23 August, 2011 by Mateus109

[SkoDave]

Don't have an Octy but I do know it is normal for the unit to only work with the ignition switched on. I believe this is meant to protect the battery from being drained if you accidentally leave it on. If it worked without having the key in the ignition before, I can only assume it was wired incorrectly, but again, I've got a Fabia and not an Octavia, so can't be 100% sure about this. Hope that helps.

[Mateus109]

...it is normal for the unit to only work with the ignition switched on.

Thanks SkoDave, the Skoda radio could be turned on without the key but maybe this is just a feature available to Skoda units. Thinking about previous units I've installed in other non-Skoda cars, I don't think they turned on either without the key. I think because the Octavia OEM worked regardless, this through me.

I've tried all sorts of wire connection combinations and this works the best so far, so I'll leave it as it is.

[M22RCO]

That's the canbus system that prevents that

[mannyo]

After market headunits tend to only switch on / off with the ignition and will not function with the key removed. There are exceptions, for example Blaupunkt headunit but the exceptions are rare.

[Mateus109]

Thanks for all the replies.