Knowlesys How To:In-Car Cig USB Car Spur

knowlesy

knowlesy

knowlesy

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Newcastle
So here’s my how to thread on USB Cigarette Mod, I’ve googled this and come across a few guides at intractables.com, lifehacker and looked around for information on USB (so Wikipedia). This part is purely how to spur off from an in-car cigarette lighter so you can have 2 center console internal usb ports in your centre dash; The idea for me is to put cables up out from my centre console and side pillar to power devices. This is Part 1 in the next part I will show how “I” will attach the USB adapter inside my car and pull usb cables through.


!!!WARNING!!!
All of these photos are from an Astra Mk4 (G), it’s your decision if you do this at all.
This is done on the cheap and if you have more than £6 to spare (that’s all it cost) there are some better options (for dedicated usb power in your car) on the bay and a few dedicated OEM car sites, however they price in at £60 minimum. Also I am no electrician. So I may be wrong.

Requirements

  • 1 x Inline Fuse 5 Amp Red - £2.99 – Local Car Shop (Note: 1x USB 2.0 can draw up to 5 Amp MAX in certain conditions, but in this case it won’t so just stick with 5 Amp for 2 USB feeds) – Known as Cable A
  • 1 x Insulated Black Copper Cable 15cm – £0.01 “Pennies” - Local DIY store (Note: One instructables.com guide used Cat5) – Known as Cable B
  • 1 x 2 Port USB Cigarette Adapter - £3 of the bay
  • 1 x Wire Snips
  • 1 x Screw Driver
  • 1 x Haynes Manual / Speciality Car Forums (And tools recommended by these for removing in-car lighter)
  • 1 x Soldering Iron & Solder
  • 1 x Thermo Sheath (I don’t know the size but length wise “enough to cover your joins” then to cover both cables) Electrical Tape Could be used but NOT RECCOMENDED.
  • 1 x Heat Gun


Guide

Step 1:
Use your Haynes manual or Car Speciality Forum to find out how to remove your cigarette lighter, then remove it.

Step 2:
Dismantle USB Adapter, remove the fuse and end tip and make sure the positive and negative cable are shown (Displayed in image below)


PICTURE 1 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

PICTURE 1-2 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

Step 3:
The “Inline Fuse” (Cable A) is an attempt to not blow your fuse on your in-car lighter this will be used as the positive cable the other cable(Cable B) as the negative, now put some large (your decision what’s large) thermo sheath to cover both cables so they are together using enough to cover what will be your joins later on. (Shown below)


PICTURE 2-2 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

PICTURE 2 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

Now get some smaller thermo sheath and cover each cable individually again only enough for the join from the cable to the usb adapter (Shown below)


PICTURE 3 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

Step 4:
Now de-solder the parts on the USB Adapter (Shown below)


PICTURE 4 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

Strip the cables using wire cutters or a knife so you have 0.5mm (suggested) bare cable on each cable of the USB Adapter as well as both sides of Cable A and Cable B. Now would be a good time to use the soldering iron to “Tin” the bare metal ends of the cables.

Step 5:
Solder Cables A & B to the in-car lighter DON’T FORGET TO TIN IN CAR LIGHTER
Note: The In-car cigarette lighter (back of it shown below) is usually setup with the centre being the positive and a connection to the outer shell being the negative (As labelled in the photo) I have also shown to roughly where I soldered Cables A & B


PICTURE 5 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

Both cables soldered


PICTURE 6 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

Step6:
Now it’s time to solder Cables A&B to the USB Adapter, as shown/mentioned previously (and below). The positive is the centre pin or bottom of the in-car lighter and negative for the outer wall so as labelled in the photo you must solder Cable A to the cable attached to the Centre Pin of the USB adapter and Cable B to the outer wire connector of the USB Adapter.

In this case :
Cable A solder to White Cable on USB Adapter
Cable B solder to Black Cable on USB Adapter


PICTURE 1 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

Sables Soldered Together


PICTURE 7 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

Step 7:
Its at this point you might want to pull the sheath over the joints (or use electrical tape for a temporary measure) and test the unit by reconnecting it to the car and testing a usb device.

Step 8:
If all goes to plan from STEP 7 you will want to now pull over the thermo sheath for the individual joints and use the heat gun on them to seal the joints, leave for 2 minutes and pull the bigger sheath over the two cables and again apply the heat gun to seal the cables & joints.

2 Joints Thermo Sheathed + Heat gun


PICTURE 8 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

Before the two cables are Thermo Sheathed


PICTURE 9 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

After Cables A&B are thermo sheathed


PICTURE 10 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

Step 9:
Now to put the USB Adapter back together (as I could only think this would be the best way to protect the innards). So now with the cables being sheathed they were a little to big so I had to cut away some of the plastic innards to make it fit. (shown below) then figure out a way to keep the USB adapter in your car from not moving and figuring a place to put the cables to attach.


PICTURE 11 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

So here is everything together:


PICTURE 12 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr


PICTURE 13 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

And here is a picture of it charging 2 devices


PICTURE 14 by kn0wl35y, on Flickr

Video of it working:
 
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