Philips R681 Wiring

[John S]

I've just tried to re-install my radio after having it repaired locally. I was foolish enough not to note the original wiring procedure on removal. I need to know where the positive and negative wires go, memory etc.
Also, does the radio work without the speaker terminals plugged in? What colour wires correspond to which function? (just to double check).

This radio does not have a harness, the wires are plugged directly onto the terminals and the wiring diagram is incomplete i.e. partially scraped off.

PS:I've managed to install two amps, 1 sub and a top of the range stereo in my other car but this has got me stumped!

John

[e692wtt]

I have in my hand a radio harness removed from 'Twiggy' my just-scrapped 2.0SLX, and the Haynes manual for the same car (looking at the 1989-on Supplementary wiring diagram for the radio/cassette unit [all models]).

At the back of the radio cassette unit, with the unit 'upright' if viewed from the front (as it would be if it was installed), if memory serves there is a vertical 'hole' that has the terminals for the feed and earth wires to go in, to the right hand side as you look at the rear of the radio? (If memory *doesn't* serve, hopefully this still makes sense).

From top to bottom, the wires you need to attach are Black, Green, Red with Orange Tracer, (then a missing terminal in the harness connector I'm looking at - don't fit a wire to the terminal if there is one...), then Purple, (then another missing terminal? no wire in the harness connector I've got here, again).

So, from top to bottom, in the harness I've got here:

Black
Green
Red with Orange Tracer
nothing
Purple
nothing

And if memory serves, the two connectors for the Red/Orange wire and the Purple wire will have smaller female connectors as well (this is the case on my Monty which uses an R671 and wiring originally off a Peugeot Philips DC681) to help.


For the speaker wires, these go in a group of 4 connectors to the left of the 'harness connector' with the feeds and earth, and going clockwise from top left of the 4 sockets, the colours are:

Grey
Blue
Yellow
Orange

The last 2 are for the front speakers. the first 2 for the back, so if they are wrong it's dead easy to suss what's going on...

And yes, the radio cassette will work with the speakers disconnected, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Hope this helps... :)

[John S]

Any info on Philips wiring is useful at the moment as I'm having trouble getting it to work. Maybe I've damaged the radio or something. If it doesn't work tomorrow I'll be sending it back to the ICE shop and they can test it to see if it's working.

thanks again,

John

[H48HPE]

Remember to plug the areal in, if you dont not only will you have no reception but the radio wont even power up at all


Andy.

[E_T_V]

Remember to plug the areal in, if you dont not only will you have no reception but the radio wont even power up at all


Andy.

Why won't it power up if no ariel is connected. All mine do just fine.

I've not seen the radio in question though. Does it have ISO or DIN connectors? (are there two square plugs or lots of little ones for thje speakers and a long one for the power etc?

Late maestys have ISO wiring I think. Early ones have DIN.

[John S]

The radio has one plug for the front speakers and one for the back. It should have a long harness for the rest of the connections although mine has been cut at some point, so the connectors are on the terminals individually, hence the confusion. It is a DIN system I think.

John

[H48HPE]

after a quick check, my philips r670 will power up without an areal. So was partly wrong there but Im positive that some sets wont power up without an areal. I remember this because i thought one was broken and it wasnt, it worked when i put the areal in, that was when my dad had maestro.

What radio is it that you are trying to fit?

what connectors are in the loom? have you touched a live to earth and blown one of the two radio fuses in the fuse box? s the little cartridge fuse on the back of the radio still ok?

Andy

[H48HPE]

Im half dead here,half of my last post has already been answered in the post above it and the title of the thread answers the one about which radio it is

:banghead: :D :laugh:

[Ricky]

Remember to plug the areal in, if you dont not only will you have no reception but the radio wont even power up at all


Andy.
Some don't, a very odd few though, I had a blaupunkt radio (originally from a nissan primera?!?!?) that needed to earth through the aerial, and my 405 had to have every radio earthed through the aerial (very dodgy french wiring!), which might have had something to do with why it used to do odd things eg. turn off or randomly change stations occasionally if the wipers were on..... :horror:

Still, thats looooong gone now!!

Ricky.

[John S]

Update: It switched on today with illumination but I can't seem to get any data coming up on the display. And yes, the aerial did need to be connected for the unit to work!

[H48HPE]

I thought that the aerial might have something to do with it!

Anyway, onto the next problem,

firstly, what was wrong with the set to make you send it away for repair in the first place? (might help with other problems to know what they were doing with it when it was repaired)

when you first switch on, if i remember correctly a 'C' appears on the screen, at this point you enter the code. if you enter the code incorrectly a 30 second delay comes on before you can have a second go, this is shown by each segment of an '0' iluminating one after the other for 30 secs, if you then fail to enter the code correctly again, the delay is 1 minute, the time you have to wait increases with each mistake.

Have you got the instructions for the radio, so you know about code input etc??

if there is no display at all, there could two probable reasons

the display is broken or its control circuitry. Or the screen illumination bulb has blown.

A simple explanation of how the screen works may be beneficial. it works by making the black segments of each digit 'see through' to cause them to illuminate.Directly behind the screen is an orange sheet of plastic that glows orange when the bulb behind lights up. so when the digits of the display become clear the orange backing can be seen, but only if the bulb is lit.

as a quick test to see if the bulb has blown you can switch the set on and shine a torch directly onto the screen from about an inch away, the orange plastic can be seen through the clear segments of the display and will probably show some sort of information if the set is working.

If the above doesnt work and the bulb is lighting behind the display then you should suspect the display itself. this is another crap design where the electric contacts on the display dont make good contact with the ones on the radio itself, this means that not all the required segments light up. I cure mine of this problem by pressing the area of plastic just above the screen, it tends to get a result and makes the terminals conduct through. I found that packing tissue paper between the plastic front and the top of the screen helped mine keep good contact.

To be honest, I suspect the bulbs blown behind the display though, as it would be very unlikly that all the segments of the screen were not working.

Avoid spending too much money getting these types of set fixed at a shop because they can sometimes be repaired easily enugh by DIY.

the screen on the philips radio in my works van is not working as the bulb has blown, its a similar story in a couple of R570s ive got too, so a common problem

Andy

[John S]

The tape has had a new motor put in it. At the minute I can get the display to light up and the speakers to 'pop' when it switches on, but no digits!
I'll try pushing the area above the display.

Cheers,

John

[H48HPE]

do you know what the code is? and how to activate it??

[John S]

I've got the code but I can't see any digits, even though the illumination comes on. :banghead: I'm going to take it back to the shop to see whether the radio still works - I may have broken it, not sure though. The radio has not got it's harness you see, the wires being plugged directly onto the connectors themselves. If i've put voltage through the wrong connector it may have damaged the unit. If it works at the shop, I'll get the proper harness.

John

[H48HPE]

if you connected live and earth the wrong way round then yes it will have damaged the semiconductors inside. the 'pop' sound from the speakers when you switch on sounds like its OK though.

I think youve got the best idea in taking it to the shop to check it. the proper connctors shouldnt cost too much, If you go to the scrap yard you will probably find them in any rover car from the the same period,

andy

[H48HPE]

Ive photographed my setup so you can see exactly where all the wires should be (incase it helps)

Speaker colours are from the top left of the picture clockwise

yellow/black
yellow/pink
orange/black
orange/pink
grey/pink
grey/black
blue/pink
blue/black

other wires in the larger connector are:
black green and purple as shown in the pic, no tracer colours on those.

this is for an R670 but the connections will be similar. Rich Smith talks of another wire in that connector, on a harnes plug I have (a spare) its a red/black one and according to the diagram on the case of the radio (there is a light bulb symbol) one would assume that this is for illumination. The R670 doesnt require this lead but yours might do. it is connected to the terminal just below the green wire.

[John S]

Yes, it is just the same. I managed to get it working just now and it sounds great! Not bad for '89 anyhow. Reverse play is actually better quality than forward play for some reason, but both are O.K. All I need now is an FM CD autochanger and an amp. I've actually got an amp that'll do the job though (4x 100w) with RCA -> line converters. Still need to tighten up the aerial though as it causes the radio to switch off if I jolt it when ejecting the tape etc. So far so good................