# If there is no illumination wire present, can I just tap into the 12V?



## e=mc2 (Dec 4, 2013)

2006 Chevy Impala
Sony CDX-GT565UP

I have soldered all the correct colors together on my harness to my Sony radio. There is one wire left on the back of my Sony CD player. It is illumination, and I don't see any spot to hook it up. I want to retain illumination functionality. 

Do I tap into constant or accessory?

Thanks.


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## SPLEclipse (Aug 17, 2012)

The point of the illumination wire is to dim the brightness of the headunit when it senses that you've turned the headlights on. If you connect to either a 12v constant or 12v switched wire it will always be dim. You could put a switch in to manually dim it or tap the headlight switch if you wanted. I don't think I've ever used the illumination wire in any install ever, lol.


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## e=mc2 (Dec 4, 2013)

SPLEclipse said:


> The point of the illumination wire is to dim the brightness of the headunit when it senses that you've turned the headlights on. If you connect to either a 12v constant or 12v switched wire it will always be dim. You could put a switch in to manually dim it or tap the headlight switch if you wanted. I don't think I've ever used the illumination wire in any install ever, lol.


Thanks.

I thought hooking the illumination up would dim the cd player as you dimmed the dash lightsdown


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## SPLEclipse (Aug 17, 2012)

It can if your car is equipped with that function and the deck is equipped to handle that signal. Some decks just use it like a remote wire; it's either dim or full power. Some will accept a voltage range to be able to dim along with the increased voltage on the wire. It might mention this in the manual, or you might have to contact Sony to get an answer on what kind of signal the illumination wire can accept.


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## NealfromNZ (Sep 3, 2013)

I've either tapped into the back of the dash light dimmer circuit or cig lighter illumination circuits. Whatever is closer to the head unit.


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