Attempting to hardwire to the cigarette lighter. Help!

[prady]

Ok so for next project i wanna hardwire the iphone car charger to the cigarette lighter. I dont want the ashtray with lighter socket open and cluttering the space. I dont want to go to the fuse box and take that route. I need suggestions on how to go about this.

Can i just splice the car charger and somehow stick the +ve & -ve at the back of the lighter socket?
Would i need to regulate the charge coz im sure iphone runs on less than 12 volts?

Anyone with experience help me

[prady]

To make it easier for u guys to answer my question here's what i am attempting to do.

The arrow in the image is to the wires which are connected to the back of the cigarette lighter. I wanna remove the entire tray with the charger and connect my own charger here. Need more space. Do you guys think there's a easy way to remove the tray and lighter without breaking them.

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/4235/img0085gc.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/339/img0085gc.jpg/)

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/707/img0087tp.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/687/img0087tp.jpg/)

EDIT: Not sure y pic got turned to the side but i hope u guys can see

[mithril]

You have to remove the HVAC control head, which in turn requires pulling the stereo HU, to remove the ashtray. Make sure you have your stereo's SAFE code before you do this. It would probably be a lot easier to tap off the rear cigarette lighter and run your charger up into the centre armrest. Routing into that console is pretty easy:

http://forums.audiworld.com/showthread.php?t=1715293
http://www.audiworld.com/tech/elec101.shtml

[nm3210]

For my garmin I "installed" a separate cigarette plug (http://amzn.com/B0006TIRZA) behind the fuse box. I tapped into one of the fuses that turns on/off with the key (fuel pump maybe); this may be another option for you. It lets me remove the entire car charger for the garmin and move it to a different vehicle if I need to (because I didn't cut anything up, just added a socket).

If you're going to be tapping into something, you should tear it down a little more than what you're doing. You're going to need to (as mithril mentioned) pull the whole console out. And like he said, it would be easier to tap into the rear one - especially being that the whole arm rest area is pretty easy and straightforward to remove and get at. Vent in the back pulls straight out and then start removing screws.

[prady]

So this is wat i am trying to accomplish (probably with a smaller dock), so this is going to permanently close the ashtray, so i thought i might as well remove the tray. I thought of running the wire from the fuse box but then its nearly impossible to hide the wire as it will come from the side. But if i can connect it from the charger in the ashtray then the wire stays hidden quite nicely. Suggestions ppl

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9618/cardock.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/707/cardock.jpg/)

[Vinchenzo51]

Why are you using the cig lighter for power in the first place?

Ground to any local ground. Then use the 75x switch power post under your dash. Its labeled with a yellow sticker that says 75x on it, just remove the drivers side lower dash and its right there.

Theres also someone on here that did what your looking to do, by cutting the shifter trim and flush mounting the dock. And I might suggest going with a universal dock that allows for the snap in holders so your not stuck with a 3GS for the rest of your life.

I'll find some links and edit my post in a few minutes


EDIT:
Like this
http://www.audizine.com/classifieds/data/71/large/P1010116.JPG

Using a dock like this
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC746LL/A
http://storeimages.apple.com/1966/as-images.apple.com/is/image/AppleInc/MC746?wid=326&hei=326&fmt=jpeg&qlt=95&op_sharpen=0&resMode=bicub&op_usm=0.5,0.5,0,0&iccEmbed=0&layer=comp

That way, with the interchangeable adapters you can use it with any ipod/iphone and any future ipod/iphone with the 30pin dock connector. The back of that dock connector has the regular 30 pin apple plug and also has a line-out jack that accepts a regular 3.5mm headphone jack, so however your head unit connects to an audio source, this dock will work fine.

And feel free to not use my advise, because this is coming up on my list of projects for my own car, so if you don't do it, than I will [evilsmile]


Oh and shame on you for your T-Mobile iPhone... Don't think I didn't notice... /end Apple Fanboy Rant

[prady]

Why are you using the cig lighter for power in the first place?

Ground to any local ground. Then use the 75x switch power post under your dash. Its labeled with a yellow sticker that says 75x on it, just remove the drivers side lower dash and its right there.

Theres also someone on here that did what your looking to do, by cutting the shifter trim and flush mounting the dock. And I might suggest going with a universal dock that allows for the snap in holders so your not stuck with a 3GS for the rest of your life.

I'll find some links and edit my post in a few minutes


EDIT:
Like this
http://www.audizine.com/classifieds/data/71/large/P1010116.JPG

Using a dock like this
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC746LL/A
http://storeimages.apple.com/1966/as-images.apple.com/is/image/AppleInc/MC746?wid=326&hei=326&fmt=jpeg&qlt=95&op_sharpen=0&resMode=bicub&op_usm=0.5,0.5,0,0&iccEmbed=0&layer=comp

That way, with the interchangeable adapters you can use it with any ipod/iphone and any future ipod/iphone with the 30pin dock connector. The back of that dock connector has the regular 30 pin apple plug and also has a line-out jack that accepts a regular 3.5mm headphone jack, so however your head unit connects to an audio source, this dock will work fine.

And feel free to not use my advise, because this is coming up on my list of projects for my own car, so if you don't do it, than I will [evilsmile]


Oh and shame on you for your T-Mobile iPhone... Don't think I didn't notice... /end Apple Fanboy Rant

This is awesome this is exactly what i wanted to do... link to the thread pls..

Man u got eyes to notice tmobile lol..