Audio Systems: dvd player, chevy silverado, answeres

Question
My roomate had a dvd player/cd player installed in his 2000 Chevy Silverado..They told him that it was illegal to ground it to anything else but the parking break..We tried grounding it to something else so it could be played without the parking break being engaged..(we know its illegal but who cares) WE CANT MAKE IT WORK OFF ANY OTHER GROUNDS PLEASE ANY TIPS, HINTS, OR ANSWERES!!??? PLEASE HELP ITS BUGGING THE CRAP OUT OF US!

Answer
Hi Fred,

This is a safety feature, as you know, but it's hardly "illegal" - it's just unsafe to run it while driving.  Whoever told him it was illegal is, well, an idiot.

The reason you can't ground it is because that connection does not actually "ground" it!  It actually gets a signal from the parking break that it detects, and when it gets that signal, allows it to play.  And that signal can be anything, there's really no way to know and it's not made public knowledge.  So without knowing what kind of signal it's looking for (could be a certain frequency, or certain voltage) there's no way fix this, I'm really sorry to say.  You'll have to hook it up to the parking brake, or do a Web search to see if anyone has figured out a work-around, but it's unlikely.  The fact they're telling you it's a "ground" is actually misleading, but no matter - you're stuck.  Cheers, Wink