StrikeEagle

I have a TomTom One XL GPS in my car with a car charger. Right now it's plugged into the cigarette lighter, but I was hoping to hard wire it to free up the outlet again. The GPS also came with a USB cable to plug into a computer as well, so it has that type of connection. The thing that concerned me in hard wiring it, is that I'd give it too much power. My plan was to chop up a USB cable and wire the end of it directly to the power inside the car, giving it normal, unchanged power, at about 12-14 volts. I looked at the car charger that came with the GPS, and it says on it Output: 5V 2A. So now I'm not sure I can directly wire it as I had planned without frying my GPS. I'd be able to add resistors as necessary, but I don't see that that would help. Any ideas?

REDZMAN

I also need help in the same area, I need to do the same for my new XM receiver. Any help?

DTN

There is alot of room in the roof. Next to the sunroof console, I installed a cigarette lighter with a power adapter inserted into it, I taped the whole thing together and shoved it into the roof. It works well and provides power for my GPS.

Stocker

You have an adapter w/ 12V in 5V out, or you have 2 power sources?

Either way, the easiest way is to put the + to the center and - to the outside, and just put 12V to the cigarette lighter plug power supply. Resistors is a good way to screw yourself over, and the next step up is either buying a 12V to 5V DC-DC converter, or making yourself a regulator (hassle). You already have something that plugs into the lighter socket, use it! Hide the wires somewhere. Make them longer if you need to and shove the power supply behind the dash somewhere. If you use anything from 8 to 18 gauge wire it'll be fine as long as the wires are shorter than your car.

If you're afraid of the wiring, get a 12V power socket from the auto parts store and use the wires on that, connected to your cig. lighter power supply.

This is easy stuff guys, only 2 wires for 12V!

REDZMAN

That's how things are hooked up now, otherwise my stuff wouldn't work. It's sloppy, takes up a bunch of space, and occasionally they get loose and you have to take everything apart to put it back together.

I dont' want that, I want to HARD WIRE it all now.

Stocker

The ultimate solution is to open your power supply, take the guts out, hard wire (solder) 12V + and - wires to the input of the power supply input and, depending on the shape of the electronics, put them in a small project box, or maybe just cut off the bulky cig. lighter plug. Bury that in the dash somewhere, and run the power wire to the appliance. Silicon glue the power wire to the socket on the appliance so you can pull it out if you really have to, but it will hold itself. Wire the 12V to a switched circuit on the fuse box.

SplinterCeL

I just did this. Here's what I did:

1. Tapped into the positive on ignition wire from the cabin fuse box.
2. I ran the positive wire up and into the dash.
3. Ran a ground to the same location in the dash.
4. I did some checking on the power requirements of my gps and calculated the needed values.
5. Next, I did a little fabbing. My gps came with a traffic receiver built into the cig lighter plug, so it was larger than average. I took it apart and dremeled the interior until I had enough room. I then decided to leave in the receiver(just for kicks).
6. Checked to make sure this receiver was calculated in(it was because it was the normal plug).
7. Soldered the two wires and resistor onto the receiver board because power was fed out of it to the gps.
8. Ran the gps power cable through the dash so it would come up to the left of the cluster.
9. Dremeled dash to allow wire to come through.
10. Mount my new hard wired gps.


It's not too hard, just time consuming. I did it in about 5 hours including research.

DTN

^^ Forget all of that. There's no point. Just wire up another cigarette lighter either behind your radio, or in your dash, in the rear speaker wells, or in the roof. That cigarette lighter will power the power supply and you will be happy. Don't risk breaking the power supply. You may want to use it in the future.

A cigarette lighter port costs $3 at radio shack. A 12awg strand of wire will run you $10 from the battery to the roof or to the dash, or the rear speaker wells. A fuse costs $2. So for $15, and some electrical tape, you can hide the power supply somewhere inconspicuous, cause no damage to the power supply, and still have your proper voltage wire running from the power supply to the unit you're trying to power.

Don't put too much thought or money into something like this. You've already got a power supply. Just move it to somewhere you can't see it.

SplinterCeL

^DTN is right. I did it because I'm insane when it comes to keeping everything cleaned up and I was bored at 2 A.M.

tibbymat

i will take pics of how to do this... u can not cut the plug off and just wire it, you will fry your product.

u basically have to take the casing of the plug off and theres 2 wires at the tip of the plug. the black one is ground and the other (usually red or white) is power... wire those up and pop the casing back on and then ur good. it needs the resistors in line to down convert the power to 6volts. next sat radio install i get here at work i will take pics and do a DIY for you guys!