# Wiring a minidsp and a pac loc?



## HellaciousA (Oct 7, 2011)

I'm going to start wiring up my new system this weekend, and the instructions for the Pac LOC are garbage, and the minidsp instructions are somewhat better but not by much. 

For the LOC, which wires do I tap into for power and ground? Should I buy a "add a circuit" for the #6 slot on the fuse block or is there another set of wires I can use for power/ground for the LOC that is part of the LOC's harness? 

For the rca's on the LOC, I take it the RF and LF will run to the input 1 and input 2 on the mini dsp? And then the LR and RR on the LOC will be for the sub RCA?

For the minidsp, does the dc isolator need separate power/ground wires than the main dsp board? How do I wire the dc isolator to the main dsp board? I understand that I'll be running a remote wire from the LOC to the dc isolator, and then from the dc isolator to each of the 2 amps i'll be running. 

If anybody has any pictures or diagrams, that would be great. Or if not, once I'm all done with this, I could probably make a basic diagram that could be added to a sticky thread or something. Thanks to anybody who can help.


----------



## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

With the exception of the two small grounds coming out of the unit, there is a blue wire, a black wire, and a yellow wire (or red, I forget) coming out of the PAC harness. The blue wire is your remote turn on wire. That goes into the input jack of your miniDC unit. The black wire is connected to ground; choose wherever you want. Some people recommend one common ground for all of your car audio stuff, but I just connected mine to a random ground anchor near the passenger side door sill underneath the carpet. You'll see it when you lift the carpet to run the wire. I ran my power wire for the PAC harness spliced into the power wire for the radio. In other words, I spliced the harness into itself to tap into the power line going through the adapter. The miniDSP isn't actually grounded on its own. The wires that power the miniDSP come from the miniDC. You'll find a clear wiring diagram here:

http://www.minidsp.com/images/documents/Product Brief-miniDC isolator.pdf

It helps to understand how it works. When your radio turns on, the remote power wire from the PAC harness signals the miniDC to turn on. The miniDC then sends power to the miniDSP, waits 3 seconds for it to boot up, then continues to send the remote power wire signal to the amplifiers. This allows the miniDSP to boot up fully before the amplifiers receive any signals from the RCAs. 

The PAC harness has four outputs; front left, front right, rear left, and rear right. The front left and front right go into the inputs of the miniDSP. Re rear left and rear right go the subwoofer. At least, that's how I did it. I disconnected my rear speakers (which I believe is what you were planning on doing). Set up this way, when you use the fader on the radio deck, you can move it forward to fade out the subwoofer, and move it backward to fade out the stereo speakers. It basically turns into a subwoofer control. 

Let me know if any of this needs to be clarified.


----------



## HellaciousA (Oct 7, 2011)

Thanks man, that helps out a lot. One more question, what color is the power wire on the pac that I should splice into?


----------



## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

HellaciousA said:


> Thanks man, that helps out a lot. One more question, what color is the power wire on the pac that I should splice into?


Either yellow or red. I don't remember exactly. I do remember it's a thicker wire than the rest of them though. 

Here, this pinout diagram will show you exactly which wire provides +12V to the radio:

http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/36-electronics/4369-here-radio-connector-pinout.html


----------

