I'm using my cigarette lighter for an FM transmitter; need to provide power to my GPS unit. I don't want to use any splitters either..

I'm trying to do is hard-wire the 5V line for the GPS power supply directly to the fuse box of the car.

I could use some help with the electronics part. I’m sure people have done this for radar detectors etc..

Which fuse do I use? I looked at the fuse diagram and there’s a few unused ones. GPS requires a 5V / 1mA input. Will I need a converter of some sort to achieve this?

 

Reading your question, I think you want to hard-wire the GPS to your car’s 12v power. If that is the case, you can connect to an ACC power source, and you’re good to go. You don’t need to go to the fuse box; just pickup power from an accessible ignition-switched power wire. If your plan is mounting the GPS inside the forward/upper cubby or on top of the dash, you can use a power line going to your H/U.

I’ve hard-wired two different Garmin portables, and actually did this directly to a 12v power source in the car. Of course I left the GPS’s in-line fuse in place (just in case so as not to fry the 5-6v device connecting it to a 12v power source). An extra measure of protection is getting a power receptacle (i.e., cigar lighter plug) into which you insert the GPS’s power plug. That way you keep the voltage step-down that is built into the GPS’s power plug.

Here is a simple wiring diagram.

Notice that this diagram does not include an in-line fuse or connecting an added power receptacle to the power plug (that steps down from 12v to 5v) supplied with your GPS device. Instead this diagram shows wiring directly from the portable GPS device to the car’s 12v power.

Please forgive me if I don’t understand the question and this response isn’t useful.

--Spike

 

Just solder a wire with a 5 amp fuse to the top button of the gps cigarette lighter adapter and solder another, without a fuse, to one of the side arms of it. Tape the whole thing up. The button is positive, the arm is negitive. Easiesy way to fine a acc wire is to use one from the headunit or from the cars cigarette lighter. This goes for all cigarette lighters so sirius or XM units are a possibility also.

 

Sweet. Thanks for replies guys. Diagram really helps!
Need to use a voltmeter to determine what I will use for ground.

 

which wire coming off the cig lighter is the 12+ (or turn on)??

 

Dude, I'm in NJ, I have a multimeter, come by and I will tell you which wire in 10 seconds. That's all it takes. You've been trying to find out the answer since 12-01-2007, 09:16 PM.

But, if you remove the cig lighter, it will be the wire connected to the center pin terminal, not the barrel of the cig lighter. The barrel is the ground. Better yet, you could attach your remote turn on to one of the wires, if it doesn't work, then it's the other one.

 

red?

 

yes since then cuz no one has answered my question besides telling me the right way which nothing is wrong with my way. In anycase I believe you live in south jersey and I am in north jersey, its too far of a drive to do it right now. I do thank you for the offer.

 

So do you try to get 5V out to your GPS unit or 12 V?
Car battery will give you approx 12V (12-15V) so u will fry ur GPS with that voltage.
If you need 5 V /1 Amp (1 mA is way too low consumption for a GPS ) try the 7805 voltage regulator (http://www.radioshack.com/sm-5v-fixe...i-2062599.html)
it is really easy to hook up if you know some soldering and gives u a constant 5v on your GPS... hope it helps.