Thought I would give this a go as an experiment. I've been keen to fit some power outlets in the middle row to keep the kids happy and to maintain mine and the Other Half's sanity while travelling on long trips. Seems that there are a lot of devices that require a conventional cigatte style outlet but more and more seem to utilise a USB outlet. I had looked around for a plug in unit that I could permenantly mount in the vehicle that supported both outlets. I did pick one up reasonably cheap BUT it wasn't quitre what I was after. Went for a walk at lunch the other day and found Aztronics not far from work.
While having a look I found they had the Baintech style 12v outlest at a very good price when compared to ARB who sell them indevidually for twice the price:
I was also very pleased to find a USB socket on a lead that would be suitable to mount on something other than a circuit board.
So I have descided on an experiment to build a simple circuit to power the USB socket from the existing 12v. USB sockets rely on 5v so I purchased a simple 5V Regulator that will accept anywhere between 7v and 35v to push out a constant 5v with a maximum current rating of 1A.
That parts were very cheap so if this fails I'm not too fussed. The USB socket lead was about $2.50 and the regulator was less than $2.00. Tomorrow I will solder this up and try and power this from an old 12v plug and see how it's looking. If the multimeter is reading correctly then I might connect up my daughters MP3 player and see if it charges it. If that is successful then into the car with it altough I will possibly also look at some sort of lighting option. If all successful then I intend on mounting this on the back of the centre console somewhat like Matty and Loz.
While having a look I found they had the Baintech style 12v outlest at a very good price when compared to ARB who sell them indevidually for twice the price:
I was also very pleased to find a USB socket on a lead that would be suitable to mount on something other than a circuit board.
So I have descided on an experiment to build a simple circuit to power the USB socket from the existing 12v. USB sockets rely on 5v so I purchased a simple 5V Regulator that will accept anywhere between 7v and 35v to push out a constant 5v with a maximum current rating of 1A.
That parts were very cheap so if this fails I'm not too fussed. The USB socket lead was about $2.50 and the regulator was less than $2.00. Tomorrow I will solder this up and try and power this from an old 12v plug and see how it's looking. If the multimeter is reading correctly then I might connect up my daughters MP3 player and see if it charges it. If that is successful then into the car with it altough I will possibly also look at some sort of lighting option. If all successful then I intend on mounting this on the back of the centre console somewhat like Matty and Loz.
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