Car audio settings battery backup

Question

I want to solve a very annoying problem I've had with the last two Sony car audio receivers I've owned. The problem being that days are spent getting all the sound setting perfect to my liking, which I write down, but if the battery needs to be disconnected there's no battery backup for the receiver's memory settings, so the settings are all lost. Astonishingly they don't have this feature, even for factory sound systems, but they do have it for home clock radios and the like. I tried one of those 9V battery connectors to the lighter, supposedly just for this purpose but it didn't work.

I bought a battery pack which will hold eight 1.5V AA batteries providing 12V and it has just a Black and Red wire to connect. The receiver's power related wires are Black (ground), Yellow (constant 12V to car battery, Red to accessory 12V panel (remote which signals the receiver On/Off when the ignition key is turned and Orange for illumination.

I'll only use the battery pack and connect it before the car battery is to be disconnected and not turn the receiver on. It's just to preserve the settings in the memory.  Would the correct wire connection of the battery pack be Black to ground and just splice in the Red wire into the Yellow wire going to the battery with a connector?

Thank you.

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 · Answer

I believe you are on the right track, but going about it the wrong way. I think you need a stronger 12vdc power source to ensure you have power to your system.

In my garage I have a garage door opener with a battery backup. The battery went below spec for the garage door and the garage door let me know about it. The battery for it is a lead-acid 12vdc battery. I replaced the old battery with a fresh one and that's all she wrote. Instead of recycling the old battery, I checked to see if it would recharge and it did. This battery had two tabs on it, one for positive (+) and one for negative (-) which I attached leads to. These leads have alligator clips on them which works great for when I need a separate 12vdc battery source for whatever reason. It is also rechargeable and maintains its charge for quite some time. This small 12vdc battery is more than enough to keep power in the system to prevent exactly what you're talking about.

To use it, I connect it in series just like you'd connect jumper leads or a battery charger. Then I am able to disconnect the battery without fear of losing any presets on electronic devices within the vehicle.

You can also find these in battery backup units (UPS) which you may have your computer connected to ... they are used in a lot of different applications. Here's an example of exactly what I'm talking about:

I used something like this to attach to the battery leads, clipping off the end opposite the clamps and attaching connectors to them:

Car audio settings battery backup

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