Cigarette lighter: Three birds with one stone.

[pethier]

1. My iPhone battery tends to not last the day when I am out.

 

2. Sometimes at an autocross, I'd like to use my little air compressor.

 

3. I'd like to use a battery tender in the garage without removing the bonnet.

 

I don't smoke, but I'm putting in a cigarette lighter.

 

I had been thinking already about the first two birds, and then I remembered that they all were similar to the situation with my Cayman.  They had been resolved when I bought a used genuine Porsche cigarette-lighter charger for a decidedly-non-Porsche price.  The Cayman, of course, has two such ports from the factory.

 

All need to do is drill a 7/8" hole in the dash in an area where the charging cord does not interfere with gear changes, and a smaller hole in the firewall for a couple of wires directly from the battery.  This will be a short run.  A bit of wire, a grommet, an inline fuse, and I will have a circuit independent of my cutoff switch.

 

I hope I remember to take pictures.  

 

 

[inchoate]

I'm sort of thinking about doing exactly the same thing.  I've started tuning using an Innovate Motorsports LM-2 and it's working well for idle mixture but I'd sort of like to do some road tuning as well.  A 12v outlet in the cockpit would make that a lot more convenient.  What are you thinking about for the outlet?  I've yet to find something that I like.

[7Westfield]

I put one in the Westy, but up under the dash, on the firewall

it's a combo lighter/usb 

[CBuff]

I was thinking of something like this over the winter. 
 

[pethier]

3 hours ago, inchoate said:

I'm sort of thinking about doing exactly the same thing.  I've started tuning using an Innovate Motorsports LM-2 and it's working well for idle mixture but I'd sort of like to do some road tuning as well.  A 12v outlet in the cockpit would make that a lot more convenient.  What are you thinking about for the outlet?  I've yet to find something that I like.

Disregard

 

Edited September 10 by pethier
photo method did not work

[Vovchandr]

3 minutes ago, CBuff said:

I was thinking of something like this over the winter. 
 

 

I have that 12v attachment metal part and for the life of me cannot figure out how to make it attach. Maybe early years dash setup was slightly different of the fuse box has different shape?

[pethier]

3 hours ago, inchoate said:

I'm sort of thinking about doing exactly the same thing.  I've started tuning using an Innovate Motorsports LM-2 and it's working well for idle mixture but I'd sort of like to do some road tuning as well.  A 12v outlet in the cockpit would make that a lot more convenient.  What are you thinking about for the outlet?  I've yet to find something that I like.

Just a plain old 12v port from AutoZone. 

 

Drill or punch a 7/8" hole through the dash. Insert the core.  Reach forward of the dash and screw on the outer shell.  Put a negative wire with a LuCar female on the outer shell.  Put a positive wire with a LuCar female on the inner core. Run the wires through a rubber grommet in the firewall to the battery (don't forget a fuse on the positive side) and Bob's your uncle.

 

 

 

[pethier]

Not planning on fishing around under the dash for the port.  The choke, the ignition, and the heater control are quite enough, thank you.

[Marek]

I ditched the dash cigarette lighter on my Seven (in part because it was poorly wired) for an Anderson Powerpole-terminated direct connection to the battery.  A variety of sizes are available; but I am using the 7.5A version which is sufficient for any reasonable battery tender.  Their PanelPole1 makes for a nice, water tight, dash mount.  USB ports are also available.

 

My connection is under the dash.  In place of the cigarette lighter I mounted an inexpensive digital voltage meter (at the time I lacked confidence in the alternator - since resolved).

[pethier]

Port is mounted.

 

There is an existing 3/4" hole dead-center on the dash, below two gauges.  Nope.  Too small, too low for the unit to clear the steel tube at the bottom of the dash. Just put back the rubber plug.

 

Left of that pair of gauges is a pair of rocker switches.  The bottoms of these switches are higher than the bottoms of the gauges.  Bottom tube plus the aluminum/vinyl dash skin that wraps under it is 1.100".  By coincidence, that is the the diameter of the outer shell of the power port.  Radius of power port is therefore 0.550".  

 

0.550" + 1.100" = 1.650"

 

Round up to 1.750".  Set my Starrett angle-head to 90 degrees.  Pop in a rule and set it to 1.750" with my caliper.  Scribe a short horizontal line roughly directly-under the gap between the rocker switches.  

 

The depth gauge on my caliper is just a little narrower than half the distance between the rocker switches.  I pressed this gauge against the left edge of the right switch and scribed a line where the opposite edge of the guide crossed the horizontal scribe.  Reversed the procedure for the other switch.  The two vertical scribes were very close together.  I drilled a tiny hole between the two vertical scribes and directly on the horizontal scribe.  Followed that up with a 1/4" drill hole.

 

Grabbed a conventional 7/8" hole saw and worked it by hand to score the vinyl.  Probably didn't need to do that, but taking no chances.  I happen to have a five-carbide-tooth 7/8" hole saw designed for trepanning metal.  I had used that when mounting the ports for my trailer camera.  Chucked it in a drill motor and started making aluminum chips all over my lap and inside the car. 

 

Installed the inner core and rubber plug in the hole, then threaded on the outer shell.  Did a little back-and-forth to get the text on the rubber plug right-side-up and to get the male spade for the ground on the bottom of the shell.

 

Shop-Vaced the aluminum chips off me.  Shop-Vaced the aluminum chips (and the usual small stones) out of the footwell and off of the seat.

 

It looks like I will have lots of clearance from the phone cable while practicing my left-hand shifting.

 

No pix yet.  I forgot to bring my phone with me.  My second daughter is worried that I will get stuck in the car.  No problem.  I have the shop land-line cordless...

 

Next stage:  Run wires from battery to power port, using  grommet and an inline fuse.  This is not a racecar, so having the power port independent of the external shutoff is not an issue.  Autocross rules don't care if you have an external shutoff.

[pethier]

BTW, the covering on the dash is very tough.  I had to use the carbide end of my scribe and it took several passes.

[7Westfield]

these things are wonderful   you can even get squares + rectangles

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/395511275921?_skw=chassis+punch+7%2F8&itmmeta=01J7HP4VBXTEZPZ807RPH7XJGK&hash=item5c164f2191:g:~eUAAOSw~~Rmha4U&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKmn83xckk9EK9TJfe45wruyOj%2FRktZFNZuf8666GZ6X5xjdUAuB9lmL1cfUC7s8yVgTj4hzxu6Oh%2FArBctEQirZDPOtpYiy3psTAETCl8Oyjw0o51RbPmA3Mt6w0xwL0UD9D2rY%2Fg10cZrb5uQ7IDj3LhfGpBCgaqidaokKpTisfaDV%2BTs3UmRLJSiZuw5dyGV9PRdkRhLmxEahKlJFdrxLzJIK9IK%2FgTuQDFkz6R39QTMYVUKVSnSvECgdAxzXCbo%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR4i2k7a8ZA&edge=1

[toldfield]

https://www.mcmaster.com/products/chassis-punches/

[pethier]

49 minutes ago, 7Westfield said:

these things are wonderful   you can even get squares + rectangles

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/395511275921?_skw=chassis+punch+7%2F8&itmmeta=01J7HP4VBXTEZPZ807RPH7XJGK&hash=item5c164f2191:g:~eUAAOSw~~Rmha4U&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKmn83xckk9EK9TJfe45wruyOj%2FRktZFNZuf8666GZ6X5xjdUAuB9lmL1cfUC7s8yVgTj4hzxu6Oh%2FArBctEQirZDPOtpYiy3psTAETCl8Oyjw0o51RbPmA3Mt6w0xwL0UD9D2rY%2Fg10cZrb5uQ7IDj3LhfGpBCgaqidaokKpTisfaDV%2BTs3UmRLJSiZuw5dyGV9PRdkRhLmxEahKlJFdrxLzJIK9IK%2FgTuQDFkz6R39QTMYVUKVSnSvECgdAxzXCbo%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR4i2k7a8ZA&edge=1

i first used these when I worked at 3M Central Research circa 1970.

[IamScotticus]

I've wanted to do this,  but with a real cigarette lighter.

I wanted people to think someone could smoke underway in a 7.

Just wait, someone will say they do, 😄

Yea, #6 can do that.

Edited September 12 by IamScotticus

[toldfield]

I bought the cigarette lighter socket I installed at West Marine but I don't see it on their website now.  Aircraft Spruce has some, one of which is stupidly expensive.

[pethier]

6 minutes ago, toldfield said:

I bought the cigarette lighter socket I installed at West Marine but I don't see it on their website now.  Aircraft Spruce has some, one of which is stupidly expensive.

Just go AutoZone and spend six bucks. /s

[toldfield]

Well yeh...

[pethier]

 

 

Port is comfortably left of the centerline so my iPhone cable will be well-clear of my left arm.

I have a bunch of battery minders lying around. Each of them came with both a pair of clamps and a pair of terminal rings.  The rings will be used as-is.  As for the clamps, first I labeled the wire for the black clamp POS POS POS.  Then I labeled the wire for the red clamp NEG NEG NEG.  No, that's not wrong.  Then I cut off the clamps.

 

Here is the complete wiring harness for the project.  The rings will get stuffed one at a time through a grommet in the firewall.  Figured out yet why the labeling is not wrong?

 

A well-dressed harness.  The connector and its grommet is at the lower left. The port is rated at 7 amps.  Fuses come as 7.5 amps.  I don't have one anyway, so I put in a 5-amp fuse.  It has tested OK for my air compressor.  I will address that loose wire in another thread, as it has nothing to do with this project.

 

 

In the engine room, I tied the wires to the plastic air horn to stop them playing with the steel horn brackets bolted to the heater box.

 

Before I connected the rings to the battery, I confirmed the polarity with a voltmeter and my Porsche charger.  See, I told you those labels were not wrong.  

Edited September 12 by pethier
Adjusted exposure on last photo.

[theDreamer]

I know I’m late to this party but I thought I’d share what the Original Owner of my car had done about electrical outlets. He sent a three page letter of instructions for changes, additions and corrections to George Alderman et al. He wanted the assembly people to add, fix or change things which included the following:

Auxiliary Electrical Outlets. Please mount (2) outlets on the inside of the firewall on the passenger side to accept detector and phone.

These are up against the box between the heater vents and the fuse panel. I find them very easy to use whether I plug in an old style cigarette adapter, (like on my old Garmin) or one of the new style USB adapters to charge phones.