New way to power auto accessories

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

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?

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.

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

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.

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

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