What the best way of charging phones in a Fiat 500 I've tried putting a double USB socket in the cigarette lighter socket but it going on and off while we're driving
Is there anything we can buy to sort this??

Bit of cardboard

D

TONYHAMILTON238 said:

What the best way of charging phones in a Fiat 500

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A standalone powerbank and charging cable that's completely independent from any part of the vehicle's electrical system .

There is,,,
if you have "charger connection" issues, the answer is, a genuine make charger ( not some cheap Chinese one)for your type of phone, hard wired into the car, IE NOT using a charger socket, wires soldered to the 'charger' terminals, this way you will have no issues, blue tooth connection issues? don't go there especially if you own a APPLE, actually give up on that front.

Get one of these;


If it has the plug like the one on the right below, you're home and hosed - that lip will lock it in. If it has one like the one on the left, unscrew the nose-cap, take out the spring and shorten it a little, reassemble, then lever under the side contacts to bend them up a bit which will increase tension on the socket walls.


Or...use a bit of cardboard.

John202020 said:

.......... blue tooth connection issues? don't go there especially if you own a APPLE, actually give up on that front.

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Our bluetooth connection works fine.
Apple iPhone 5c

Mick F said:

Our bluetooth connection works fine.

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The OP's question was about charging; you can't charge a phone over bluetooth .

Amusingly, I once knew someone who actually tried to implement PoE using a wireless LAN connection :bang:

Mick F said:

Apple iPhone 5c

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There have been numerous compatibility problems with later iPhone variants.

These days, you may only be one software upgrade away from a technonightmare .

If it ain't broke, turn off auto updates. We now live in a world where version 2 is not necessarily better than version 1.

Pity there's no obvious way to do this to the car before letting a franchised dealer anywhere near it.

Mick F said:

Our bluetooth connection works fine.
Apple iPhone 5c

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Sorry, it seems to be the later phones that can give issues especially after software updates and seems to effect the SE more than others though not necessarily the Fiat other car makes suffer connectivity problems too with Apple.

TONYHAMILTON238 said:

What the best way of charging phones in a Fiat 500 I've tried putting a double USB socket in the cigarette lighter socket but it going on and off while we're driving
Is there anything we can buy to sort this??

Click to expand...

This is an issue with the fit of the charger plug into the car socket.
When cigar lighters were invented, in Europe, a size was chosen. Later the Japanese made their own size, slightly smaller diameter. This creates a problem for plugs. If they are made to only fit the larger size hole, they of course won't fit the smaller ones. So most are made to the smaller size. If the spring to hold it in is good, they will work fine. Many cheaper ones do not hold tight, so wobble and break the connection.

The answer is either a better quality plug, or as said above wrap it in a bit of cardboard. Be careful not to insulate the connections, or to start a fire.

Buy one of these or something similar to replace the lighter sockets, if you don't smoke then you probably don't need a lighter?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272101756205

John202020 said:

Sorry, it seems to be the later phones that can give issues especially after software updates and seems to effect the SE more than others though not necessarily the Fiat other car makes suffer connectivity problems too with Apple.

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The world has moved on a bit now and most manufactures are moving to android auto and Apple CarPlay, at the Geneva motorshow last week fiat announced the first 500 (abarth) to come with car play and android auto but it's probably not going to see general release across the fiat range for some time to come, for some reason fiat are still pushing their own infotainment system which in all honesty is not very good so to get CarPlay and and android auto will be a massive bonus.

What this basically means is that the car has standardised connection protocols to work with these systems and everything runs from the phone so if there is an update the car gets updated by default