Remote power aerial .. from 1985 car .. has three out wires only, red, black and white. wires need reversing to up/down the rod but they dont behave as expected an d i cant figure the wiring for a DPDT switch .. or do I need a more complex switch.. i would have thought just two engine wires that reverse polarity would have been enuff...?

 

Hi

Looking at the S57 wiring diagram, it looks like they dont reverse polarities at all. Its just a changeover switch apply battery to one lead for up, battery to the other lead for down. Third wire is earth.

 

the earth seems constant, but found other two whites (brown, white) confusing. applying white alone to (+) does nothing while applying brown to (-) retracts and touching the combination of both brown and white to (+) extends.
does that make sense? is it then a case of removing the white wire via switch or applying it to get action?

 

just viewed a video on youtube which said black was constant, red (?) was 12v constant or ignition and other wire connected to radio unit to activate when tuner on..?

 

Firstly the colours seem to have changed between your first post (red, black, white) and post #3 (brown/white, brown, additional whites?).

How many wires are coming from the motor, and what colour?

Do you know if the motor you are dealing with is an original Jaguar or a replacement antenna someone has installed. If the later it will probably require some adaption as it comes from the real world outside of Lucas.

Have you checked the voltage behaviour of the wiring with the antenna disconnected?
e.g. what wires have voltage with ignition on (if any) with radio on, does the voltage go away instantly when the radio is turned off ? or does this car have the delay relay fitted so it goes away after 15secs or so.

From you post it sounds suspiciously like the brown and white wires are just the up down connection and the combination of the two is just a moment of confusion

 

yes, sorry the wires did change, I confused them with the switch I was using.

they are black / brown / white

from the unit. as you say it seems to have a moment or so to think about things between action, like a hesitation and then wire > action pattern changes I get confused. it seems to take the ground and white/brown on (+) to extend and removing the brown wire and connecting the brown alone to (+) causes retraction. I think I get so confused as I test it. I think its playing with me. however as times on the extend motion it seems to have doubt or low esteem or projectile failure and starts to retract before remembering the direct it was headed in and heading out again.

I am not certain if it is an original or aftermarket. it has a number like 0030 on the unit which is hard to read.

 

image

 

Its easy to get confused in these situations and more so if you arent familiar with the item you are testing. I think the antenna is an aftermarket unit (other viewers may correct me). This is just based on a look at the very excellent jaguarclassicparts.com web site and comparing with the stock antennas of the era you said the antenna came from. This also aligns with the colour code being different to stock.

I would start again with the bench testing. Starting from scratch there are two possible modes of operation:

- The old Jaguar way which simply put +ve on one lead to extend the aerial and then switched that +ve to another lead to retract the aerial. They used the aerial lead from the radio to power a relay , that did the switching required.

- The generic industry standard way has no relay, that function is built into the aerial. The 3 wires have the function of earth, power (permanent 12V), and trigger (apply +12v aerial up, remove +12V aerial down).

Test with these configs in mind one at a time (start with the 2nd one as its seeming more likely) and write down what you are testing so you know what you have done.

 

Thanks for that info.
seems to be generic industry standard then.
So it appears that the black gets earthed while the white is a constant 12v and the brown introduced/removed voltage. a simple on/off switch actions this and with white and brown connecting to (+) the rod extends and with the brown (+) withdrawn the rod retracts. my radio has a blue cable out which is a constant supply of 12v and the car body seems to work for earth.
I wonder where the trigger voltage is drawn from?

 

The normal modern colour code for the aerial control wire is blue. Retest the blue wire to see if its really constant +12V or goes on and off when you turn the radio on and off. You probably werent looking for a switching wire when you tested it and just found it had 12V and you had the radio on.

If that fails and your radio has no other switched aerial lead you could just put in a switch and control the aerial manually. I will probably do this with mine if the radio ever comes out again, as we mainly listen to music on a USB stick and have no need for the aerial to be up most of the time.

 

i expect the blue should be a trigger when the radio came on but its a cheap head unit so maybe not one told the designers that
same, USB music hardly listen to radio.
one child asked what 'radio' was, I said it was 'granddad's version of wifi'