# Dimmer/Illumination Wire



## mrgixxer (Sep 27, 2009)

Hey guys, I have a metra wiring harness for the radio, there is an orange wire with a white strip that says Dimmer (which i have found is actually connected to the Illumination+ (positive illumination) wire when the car harness and metra harness is mated. I am hooking up a JVC KW-AVX820, and it also has an orange wire with a white stripe, which in the diagram is named Illumination wire. My question is: Should the jvc illumination wire be attached to the metra Dimmer wire, or is that going to short the circuit? (in other words is the jvc harness "looking" for a positive input or negative input?) Thanks in advance for all of your help, Bryan


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## schmiddr2 (Aug 10, 2009)

mrgixxer said:


> My question is: Should the jvc illumination wire be attached to the metra Dimmer wire, or is that going to short the circuit? (in other words is the jvc harness "looking" for a positive input or negative input?) Thanks in advance for all of your help, Bryan


Yes, attach it if you want dimming capability. It's positive and it is a variable power because the dimmer switch on your dash is variable.

EDIT: That is a nice unit. For your own piece of mind you can use a DMM to test the output of the orange/white wire. Just connect the red meter lead to the car harness orange/white wire and the black meter lead to a ground. Turn the dimmer switch; if you see a voltage change then you have the correct wire.


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## Qicker306 (Oct 2, 2009)

^ He's right. the nice thing with Metra harness' is that every wire is labelled. If it was the illumination ground wire it would physically read "illumination ground", if not it's not labelled "ground" it's your best bet to assume its positive.


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## mrgixxer (Sep 27, 2009)

schmiddr2 said:


> Yes, attach it if you want dimming capability. It's positive and it is a variable power because the dimmer switch on your dash is variable.
> 
> EDIT: That is a nice unit. For your own piece of mind you can use a DMM to test the output of the orange/white wire. Just connect the red meter lead to the car harness orange/white wire and the black meter lead to a ground. Turn the dimmer switch; if you see a voltage change then you have the correct wire.


thanks. As i stated i already know that the metra(car) side of the harness is 12v (and for reference it is not variable) i was just unclear what the radio side of the harness expected to see. Thanks again for your input, it was much appreciated.....time to go play


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