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Switched Cig Lighter?

Actually no cigarette lighters in the vehicle - just the outlets.

But I use one outlet for my iPod adapter: low draw.

I'm getting tired of unplugging the thing every time I shut down the engine.

The quick-and-dirty would seem tb to drill a hole in the bottom of the dashboard the size of the adapter and just hard-wire the thing to the same source that the radio is connected to.

A little quicker and even dirtier: wire one of the outlets to said radio source and live with the fact that if somebody forgets and plugs something with a high draw into that outlet, a fuse is going to blow.

Can anybody comment on what seems like the good-right-and-holy path here: namely installing some sort of relay switch so that the cigarette lighter outlets go through the relay switch and the switch is hooked up so it's turned on/off by the ignition key - maybe by just wiring the trigger part of it into the radio source or some dash light's source that goes on and off with the ignition key?

Reply to
(PeteCresswell)
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For low current you could tie it to the AUX in the distribution center ( under the drivers side dash ). My DRL relay is tied there and switches on and off with the key.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

The easiest way I can think of is:

Wire from the radio fuse, with a commercially available lighter socket, with fuse taps that are also available.

Then ground the negative wire to the lower dashboard bolt, usually a 10 or

13 MM head on it.

The wires on the aftermarket lighter sockets, with an extended cord are: Black/white tracer = Positive, Black with raised ridges on wire = Negative.

I hope this helps.

Reply to
Refinish King

Auto Zone, which I use for non critical parts, sells a tap fuse kit that plugs into a fuse box and has a second different fused lead coming off it. It piggy backs two fuses into one. Just plug into a switched fuse and run the wire to the power port in question. I use them to power radar detectors to perm. wire them instead of lighter cords. I just don't use a PCM type circuit but find another non electronic circuit.

Reply to
Repairman

Per Repairman:

It's finally starting to dawn on me that the amp capacity once one gets behind the fuses, is probably about the same on all circuits.

Truth or fiction?

i.e. If I find the circuit that's feeding the radio and plug in on the other side of the radio fuse - and fuse my own circuit - will there be a capacity issue if somebody plugs (heaven forbid...) a cigarette lighter into one of my cigarette lighter receptacles?

That's where I was going with the relay switch - I figured I had to hook into some special higher-capacity circuit back there.

Reply to
(PeteCresswell)

Those fuse tap kits come with a selection of fuses. If the main circuit is a

10A you can put a 5 amp fuse in the second fuse that protects the lead off it and not have any worry about popping the circuit your tapping into. That's why I like them, properly fused the vehicle is protected and it's a plug 'n play deal for those small amp. accessories. Someone sticks a lighter into the port, small branch fuse does it's job without blowing the tapped into circuit. With low power stuff like MP3 player relays are overkill. I'd only worry about using relays when powering high amperage stuff and that I would power right off the battery.
Reply to
Repairman

Why not just wire a toggle / rocker switch to the outlet?

Reply to
Commentator

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