General Stilo cigarette lighter socket

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General Stilo cigarette lighter socket

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I'm not sure if this is something that affects all stilos across the board but I find that my lighter socket doesn't provide a very secure fit for my FM player/ iPhone charger. Every time I hit a bump it will shake loose and the song will stop and all I hear is static and I need to push it home to make it work again. Is this typical of the lighter socket? It's a little but annoying!

I was thinking about wiring in another socket of another car provided it is safe to do so? One that provides a better fit for my accessories!

Mark
 
It's because there are two sizes of lighter socket in the world - the European size, and the slightly smaller American/Japanese/Asian size. The difference is barely a millimetre, but it's enough to make most accessories a loose fit in any European socket, since they have to be designed to fit the smaller sockets found in cars from elsewhere in the world. [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette_lighter_socket[/ame]

One solution is to purchase an aftermarket socket, since they are usually the smaller size. Rather than replacing the original, I prefer to get one that's cable mounted - you can just have it sitting somewhere around the centre console that way, or run the wiring up the left windscreen pillar and out near the rear view mirror. That's a good place if its for a windscreen-mounted accessory.

-Alex
 
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Same with mine, everything except the cigaretter lighter just pops out of the socket.

To overcome the problem, I fitted a USB charging port in place of the useless coin holder.
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Same with mine, everything except the cigaretter lighter just pops out of the socket.

To overcome the problem, I fitted a USB charging port in place of the useless coin holder.
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That so needs a guide mate, great addition to the car
 
That so needs a guide mate, great addition to the car

I don't think it warrants a guide.

It's just a BELKIN cigarette lighter to USB adaptor fitted in a bit of wood with a 20mm hole and shaped to fit the space where the coin holder was, and painted black. Powered from the original cigarette lighter power supply wire and earthed on the handbrake lever mounting bolt.

Get a genuine BELKIN adaptor, the first one I bought was a fake and started smoking as soon as I connected it.
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If you're going to do it, genuine BELKIN ones are £10 in Halfords or about £2 to £3 on eBay. Fake ones are 99p on eBay. As far as I can tell, the genuine ones have an internal chamfer on the plastic around the oblong hole where the USB connector shows through. Fake ones don't have the chamfer.

I used three pieces of 2mm MDF for the wooden bezel because it's easy to shape. One piece shaped to fit the recess on top of the console and two more pieces glued under it to form a step that fits into the cut out in the console. Cut the 20mm holes before shaping the pieces otherwise there's nothing to hold while drilling.

Only the BELKIN adaptor is short enough to fit. Longer ones won't fit because the rear heater duct is under the coin holder cut out. I cut the adaptor in half (easy with a Stanley type knife) and took the spring and positive pin out, then soldered the positive wire directly to the small PCB inside.

I also took the metal negative connector out and soldered the earth wire to the PCB, but on reflection I shouldn't have because I could have used that somehow to hold the adaptor in the wooden bezel. Currently I have to hold the adaptor down with a finger when unplugging the charging lead.

Stilo USB charging adaptor v2 is on the drawing board. ;)
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Few more pics.

A rubber washer under the lip of the adaptor means that a Jack Daniels bottle top make a perfect dust cover. A must if you smoke. Since the European Directive that tobacco companies have to make all cigarettes self extinguishing the ash falls off everywhere.
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Great pics, cheers mate, I'm gonna give this a go over next couple of weeks.

Ive got a soldering iron but need to actually learn what to do, and also buy some solder lol.

The "coin holder" that since ive owned the car i thought was some kind of vent. It dawned on me today after staring at it thinking , well i havent got a "coin holder" then cocking my head i realised ah you stand them upright in the rubber gaps LOL Doh! Does it just pull out ? Dont want to damage anything.
 

Yes... 14/0.30mm is 1mm², which is suitable for up to 8.75 amps in short lengths. The Belkin adaptor is just over 1 amp so you could use thinner wire, but the commonly available red crimp connectors are designed for 14/0.30. Thinner wire would be more difficult to get a good crimp connection with.

You don't need twin core, as shown in your eBay link. 2 individual wires would be OK and any garage would probably give you a metre each of red and black for 50p.
 
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Me again :)
Davren, I am getting all the bits together to replicate your setup Just waiting on some bullet crimp connectors to come and just need to know a few things. As i am a complete novice at these kind of things.

On your Photo's I take it the red wire is to the Live point and the Black to the Earth points on the Belkin.

Which Wire on the Cigarette Lighter feed is the Live?

How did you Connect the new feed onto it?

You mention the Handbrake mounting point for the Earth. IS this what i have circled in the photo ? Can I not just add it to the cig lighter as it has an earth wire already ?

Sorry if these are dumb questions but i want to be sure lol.
 

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On your Photo's I take it the red wire is to the Live point and the Black to the Earth points on the Belkin.

Yes.. I wired it with conventional colours, red for live and black for the earth. You'll need to remove the spring and pin from the BELKIN adaptor and solder the red +ve wire to direct to the small PCB, otherwise the adaptor won't fit under the console. The rear heater trunking gets in the way.

Which Wire on the Cigarette Lighter feed is the Live?

How did you Connect the new feed onto it?

Live on the original cigarette lighter is pin 2. The middle pin with the blue wire.

I took the blue wire and it's terminal out of the white plastic block and soldered the new red wire to the terminal. You need to solder it quickly because if the terminal gets too hot for too long it will loose it's springiness and may not make good contact with the male spade terminal on the lighter. Before soldering it, I prised the two small prongs open that crimp the outer cable to the terminal, then tinned the stripped end of the red cable, and the terminal. I then crimped them back together with both the original blue and new red wire. Providing the two tinned parts are touching, you then just need to hold the soldering iron on them for a few seconds until the solder flows.

I that seems a bit complicated, or you're not confident with a soldering iron, you could cut the blue wire and fit a male bullet connector to the end attached to the lighter, and fit the new red wire and the other cut end of the blue wire both to the same female bullet connector, then plug the two together.

You mention the Handbrake mounting point for the Earth. IS this what i have circled in the photo ? Can I not just add it to the cig lighter as it has an earth wire already ?

Yes... that is the point you've circled, and yes... you can connect the earth to the black earth wire at the lighter using one of the two methods described above for the red +ve wire. I just found it more convenient to use the handbrake lever bolt.

Have you managed to get a genuine BELKIN adaptor? I bought another one from an eBay seller. I asked before buying it if it was genuine BELKIN as shown in his listing picture. He said yes, but when it arrived it was another fake.
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Righto Update
Still waiting on bullet grips
I'm Hoping its a genuine one , i think so from your description.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130646724267

Found the guide to help me strip the console out , phew :)
1st Stage done
Took the opportunity to get acquainted with console removal and take the picture to show you my questions, As per your suggestion it was very easy to push out the coin holder from behind, also took all the plastic into house and gave a good scrub lol.

So I have just completed the 2nd stage of getting this sorted,
Belkin cut in half, Soldered Red to the Spring Area, Blinkin spring basically popped out of the board with next to no heat from the solder iron, Left a small oblong hole which I then fed the already tinned red wire through the back side and folded it back before soldering, seems a very solid connection. I have left the Side grips on , as with the board the grips clip had a small rectangular hole in the center section of where it grips onto the usb earth housing. Tinned the wire fed it through and again bent it back on itself before soldering. Then put it all back together and used the soldering iron to remelt the seams (Which i now regret, what happens if it don't work, i should have used tape.)

Stage 3 I will be Getting the Wood Template sorted,
I was thinking maybe getting a block of square shaped wood approx the height of the adapter but just small enough to sit in the coin holder hole so when its in i can twist it to a diagonal so the console acts as the stopper and it sits on top of the vent housing then put a 20mm hole in to the depth of the adapter make a slight angle on the top edge so that the adapter sits flush then glue a wood spacer to fill the hole in the console then a top onto that so it looks like your finish. In theory It should stop you having to hold it in place whilst you plug in and out. although the spacer will have to have a slightly smaller hole to lock in the adapter probably 18mm.

Will keep you updated as i progress lol, thanks for the idea :)
 

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A 5v circuit is very simple, and USB sockets from computers are fine. I installed a pair in the centre console, with a little assembly behind it to step-down the voltage.
 

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