New way to power auto accessories

Has anyone heard of an industry effort to develop and standardize a different method of powering auto accesories (ipods, phones, gps, etc) with a new type of connection rather than the "old world" cigarette lighter plug-receptacle?

The cigarette plug is unwieldy, and even with a multi-plug adapter, one is limited in the number of items you can connect for power.

A dash or console outlet with multiple receptacles to accept 2-3-4 plugs would be a great idea for the auto manufacturers. I'm sure if they wanted to include accessory mfgs (Apple, Garmin, Nokia, Motorola, etc) in their effort, this could be easily standardized.

Reply to
TonyTwoWords
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The amateur radio community has pretty much standardized on Anderson Powerpole connectors for the application. They are rugged, reliable, hermaphroditic, and difficult to misuse.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

A while back ARRL (I think) was trying to standardize on some connector readily found at Radio Shack. Read about it in 220 Notes.

Got a pointer for the Andersons?

Reply to
clifto

I think for many electronic accessories these days the USB plug is getting to be the standard, even if the device is not used with a computer. Otherwise, the 3.5 mm female power plug is pretty common.

Reply to
Don Stauffer in Minnesota

USB is 5 volts, 500 milliamp current. That's nowhere near enough for the kind of things we currently plug into cig lighters....

Reply to
Steve

That would be for 5-volt power only. You wouldn't ever want to use it to deliver a higher voltage, or somebody would fry something.

Reply to
mc

in about 15 varients of inner diameter, outter diameter, and tip length.

Reply to
AZ Nomad

And that's an aggravation, too. You'd think someone would have set up a standard by now for coaxial plug/jack power arrangements that keeps higher-voltage supplies from being plugged into anything that can't continuously take their voltage. You know, keep morons from trying that

18V supply on their 3V CD players.
Reply to
clifto

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