I would like to switch 12 volt outlet to an always on mode rather than needing to have ignition on to work. Would like to charge cell phone and tablet while not in the car. Anyone know if a good fix for that?
I am interested to hear if the EE's in the audience think hacking the 12v is good policy. The brute force approach is to tap wires off the 12v batt posts. Some folks already hook up permanent wires to the 12v to run an inverter for power in emerg. In your case the better approach might be to have a one or more of those Duracell iPhone charging batteries and maybe hook that up so it charges the Duracell when the car is on. Then when the car is off you have charging station.
Not an EE, but this is so simple an ME can handle it. Lots of cars have always on for the 12V outlet (cig lighter outlet in the olden daze). IF the wiring is done correctly an IF a correct sized fuze is used, then there is nothing wrong with wiring it directly. Except, you need to consider that Prii have very small 12V batteries. That was timely question, I want to do exactly the opposite on my other car. It's 12V outlets are always on and I want then to only come on when the car is on. I can do that with a relay and a few milliAmps off of any convenient switched circuit.
What brand is that El D? I was thinking if you could plug in into cig lighter you could plug it in to the car. I guess if it has USB input that is good.
I see its a solar charger...for solar roof Prii Toyota could provide an outlet so you can charge stuff, or we need a hack into the solar output
Really good suggestions everyone. I like the idea of the solar charger. That I can take on backpacking adventures and possibly charge other things like camera batteries. Thank you. I will also try and trace the wires from the 12volt outlet but I think that will be a dead end for me without a wiring schematic.
My kids have a new Nexus 7 each one, and they want to charge their tablets at car, and when the car is off too. For now I'll connect to the trunk lighter, but later I might try direct connection to the battery posts. However, the current draw by tablets is very high for the thin wires used in USB chargers. Experiments done while charging a Nexus show that resistance on thin / long cables reduce current to the tablet and incresase the charge time. This might apply to many phones too. At 12v the current is lower, so I plan to bring a dual cigarrete lighter extension with thick wires to their underseats or their backrests. In this way I can keep the original 3ft USB cable and reduce charge time.
Sounds like you are saying there is an "always-on" cig lighter outlet in the back of a v. That would be a nice touch....don't think I have one in a Gen2. Don't know if this helps, but Radio Shack has cig lighter adapter that you wire up yourself (also some on internet).
Sorry for the confusion, but no, I don't have an always ON outlet. I'll use the switched one for now and do direct connection later.
Thanks everyone. I ended up not wiring direct yet. I did purchase a cheap 14 dollar solar charger that fits iPhone and iPad and my camera. Unfortunately the connector cables have trouble staying connected. The iPad starts to charge and then kicks the solar cell off some how. The solar option should work well but I'm paying for the cheap Chinese made product now. Maybe there are better ones on the market.
