So I tried hardwiring my unit into my car a few days ago, but I haven't been able to get it to turn on soley from the cable that connects to the cradle yet. I have attached the yellow battery + wire to an ad a circuit with a 5 volt fuse stuck in it and tried grounding the green pbrake wire several different places. Up until about a half an hour ago I thought this was the only circut needed and that it would entirely provide power to the unit, God I can be stupid sometimes.

Now I just realized that the big main fat cable also has a DC 5 volt connection branching off it as well, designed to actually have an adapter plugged into it. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this? Could I just strip the cable & solider the presumably red and black wires to an add a fuse and a ground? Or is there a simpler more clean-cut way? Should I go buy a plug for that 5 volt socket on the cable with wires already ready to terminate or what?

Thanks for the info!

My guess is that other connector carries the switched power connection and the ground for the unit. I installed mine using the ND-G500 amp that is optional and it includes a connection for this lead that provides the switched power and it must also provide ground since I see no other ground connection. If you can find a connector with the two wires that could probably work. Depending on what you want to do and your current setup, you may want to consider the ND-G500 (it is a good deal if you don't have an amp). I have seen it lately for $50 on the internet. It can power your factory radio if that is what you have (I did) plays your nav and music from the F500BT through your radio. It works really well with a few caveats, but overall I like it.

You are correct - the units has a 12v power on the green wire (I assume is for the MSN Direct receiver in the cradle and that's why it needs to be on all the time, so that it can download news), and also gets 5v from the cig lighter adapter.

I finished installing the unit yesterday and this is what I did:

- if you find the fat cable too thick, you can take it apart. I cut all the wires except for the yellow and the audio.

- the connector that goes into the cradle with all the wires, can be opened quite easily, in case one want to run/solder his own wires.

- the ground is the inner aluminum sleeve on the power cable. If you take that cable out (which I did) you can run two tinner wires for the ground and the 12v+.

Cheers,

D.