Technical More power!.... well, more sockets anyway!

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Technical More power!.... well, more sockets anyway!

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Today finally I had a day off coincide with dry weather so I got round to a job I've been meaning to do for a while, routing cables to my gadgets in a neat way and adding some extra power sockets :)

I removed the centre console which was a bit of a pain and involved some swearing to get it out without removing the gearshift surround. I then removed the driver's side A pillar trim, the small change pocket cover to the right of the steering wheel and the interior light.

I ran a single core power cable and a pair of coaxial cables up the pillar and round the screen to the rear mirror and pulled them through the interior light hole. These will be for the reversing camera / rear black box camera feeds and the monitor. Alongside these I also ran the cable for the front black box camera from the console area under the dash and up to the sun visor area and whilst the trim was off I ran lightning and mini USB cables to half way up the pillar.

I took a deep breath and cut holes in each side of the console near the leading edge, on the left side I mounted a 12v-USB adaptor, and on the right a 12v auxhilary socket, whilst at it, I also ripped out the irritating non-standard size fiat socket from the top and replaced it with a good old Maplin one :) ...no more plugs popping out whilst driving!

I then wired them all together using suitably thick cable, terminal blocks and lots of heat shrink and cable ties and whilst there, I added a cable to feed the rear camera which I will feed through to the boot another day, and also wired up the voltmeter which will sit in the top of my satnav binnacle when finished.

I'll add some 'finished' pictures when the inside of the car is tidy again!

Extra socket right hand side



Extra USB left hand side



New 'normal' 12v socket!



Power and video cables for monitor



Lightning and USB cables and Brodit mount (painted to match ;) )



Outside view..



Voltmeter...



...with engine running



To be continued ;)
 
Noice! :D

My 500C is a mess of cables right now with front & rear dash cam and my iPhone 5s mounted on the vents with a Kenu AirFrame. I'll have to try a mod like yours someday.

I look forward to seeing what comes next!
 
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A couple of pics of the dash cam fitted, I originally put it behind the mirror, but could not see the indicator LEDs and it stood out against the light coloured mirror from outside. Mounted here it gets a good view and is more discreet.



 
Camera fitting looks good, however I'm afraid I do not have the patience or the expertise to embark on such a venture.

I found A Brodit grille mount for the iphone works well to give good stability for the phone's video function.
 

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Camera fitting looks good, however I'm afraid I do not have the patience or the expertise to embark on such a venture.

I found A Brodit grille mount for the iphone works well to give good stability for the phone's video function.


.....ahh but I would never remember to start the app up every time I got in the car!
 
I bought one that looks exactly like that from Super Cheap Auto but the stock cigarette socket is too shallow, didn't make contact :mad:

....and that's why I was changing the stock fiat socket, I got fed up with plugging things in and then finding they hadn't charged when I reached my destination :mad: I've used the Hama branded ones before and they are bog standard ;)
 
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Nice job, I recently installed my dash cam but positioned it behind the rearview mirror, given my housing is black the camera is pretty well hidden. I used a twin USB 5v converter for power and took the feed from the 12v socket underneath. Agree with centre console being fiddly, worse part for me was getting the nut back on below the handbrake.

Ideally I would like to connect my iPhone to the blue&me usb but from underneath so to keep the cable hidden but not sure on adding another usb connection to this.

I may just utilise the spare USB I wired in for dash cam power as all I would miss out on is the music stream from my iPhone.

If anyone has any advise or has completed adding another USB to the blue&me I'd love to hear how you done this.
 
If anyone has any advise or has completed adding another USB to the blue&me I'd love to hear how you done this.

Try a PC USB hub, if B&M works with it, you're in business (you can adapt/ hardwire it later). Keeping in mind you'll only get 500ma out of it. If you just want USB power, you can tap into the USB 5v terminal at the headunit. Again, only 500ma.
 
I don't see any huge benefit of using a hub over what you are doing, use the headphone out of the iPhone to play spotify etc through the aux and keep the B&M USB for a flash drive with all your music on. Having seen the back of the B&M connector it looks enough of a pain to find the audio connections without finding the USB data lines and splicing into them...
 
In my experience, Aux in is terribly noisy.

The USB is easy to splice into at the back of the headunit, especially is you have the diagram :D
 
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