electrical gurus direct wiring
 

This is for all you electrical gurus out there. How would you go about wiring up things like a GPS and Sirius right to the car so you dont have to use a splitter in the cig lighter? I know I've seen several amplifiers wired into a cars fuse box in a fuse that is also powering something else and it has held up fine. But those were amplifiers and require a lot more amperage then a GPS or Sirius would. Could I just do the same and have them go into a fuse thats the closest to the amperage these things need? I'm kind of concerned about too much voltage frying these items. I dont want these things to blow up but I also dont have to have a zillion wires and splitters running everywhere.

Re: electrical gurus direct wiring
 

Just run a wire from the battery to a fuse, then to the wires for the radio. They only need 12v.

Re: electrical gurus direct wiring
 

I was only able to see one radio on Sirius' site before the section went down for maintance, but it said the stiletto 2 was 5v and 2amp, so 12v from the car should make that radio go tata. But then again we might be talking AC vs DC currents here and when it comes to AC vs DC...well i dont know jack. Basically my plan was to cut the power wire from the cig lighter power adapter and just have it go right to a fuse (or maybe the battery with an inline fuse.)

Re: electrical gurus direct wiring
 

I'd assume running a wire with a fuse/switch would be the same as plugging it into the cig lighter?

Re: electrical gurus direct wiring
 

Thats something else I'm unsure of, what size fuses to use. I'm not sure how to go about this because some car items use 12v, some 9v, and some 5v, etc, and at least with household AC if you go over on the voltage it will fry what you're plugging it into. Car items like GPS and cell phone chargers have things in the plug to help regulate how much is going to the item so not to blow it. I dont want to blow up over $500 worth of stuff:lol: but I want freedom from visible cords and splitters

Re: electrical gurus direct wiring
 

Check Radio Shack.... basically with a 12V DC system, you could theoretically run one heavy gauge wire from the battery, and use it to power everything you needed inside the car. Depending on what those were, You could use a 12 or 10 gauge wire with a 30-50 amp inline fuse, feed it into a splitter block hidden where your ashtray is, and just plug whatever you wanted into it, using bullet connectors or spade connectors etc. that have been crimped or soldered into the power cord for whatever device you are using.

Basically if it plugs into the cigarette lighter, its 12v DC, and you could hook it into the block.

Radio Shack would have a number of different power taps, you would just have to feed it 12V battery and ground, and then convert all your power cords to plug into it. If the device does not take 12 volts DC but plugs into the car cig lighter, then there would be a transformer in-line somewhere between the cig plug and the device... so you would still be able to tap in into the power block.

Re: electrical gurus direct wiring
 

I use to manage a RadioShack...:lol: I could answer all sorts of crazy questions, except when it came to damn DC stuff

Re: electrical gurus direct wiring
 

Don't start hacking into the existing loom and messing up your car. As previously suggested, run a separate wire from the battery positive, with an inline fuse close to the battery terminal. You advise that you will only be connecting low current devices, in which case a 15 amp fuse will be ample.

If you wish to do a flash job and anticipate connecting devices drawing fairly heavy current, use say a 12 gauge wire and 30 amp fuse, run to a multi fuse block within the car. You can then protect each item individually with lower rated fuses as suitable. There are fuse blocks available with convenient terminals, for separately connecting whatever 12 volt D.C. appliances you wish. This is often referred to as a fuse splitter.

The short wire from the inline fuse to the battery is not protected, which is the very reason for keeping it short, as well as away from possible contact with ground.

Re: electrical gurus direct wiring
 

There are also a myriad of cigarette lighter splitters that will power multiple devices plugged in using their supplied cig lighter plugs. This obviously allows the devices to remain portable, but if you wish to basically hardwire these devices in, the leads/plugs et al, could easily be concealed under the dash. Neat and clean. One could obviously run dedicated, heavier gauge wiring and in-line fuse from the battery if current draw on the oem wiring is a concern, wiring it to an aftermarket cigarette lighter socket.

Glenn