Another Tablet Cubby Thread (Nexus 7)

[SouthArk370Z]

Originally Posted by Mr&Mrs

Ok so if I tap into the power going to the outlet....

1) Is it ok to hack up a Micro USB and tap in with it?
2) Will the outlet still have power to charge something? If not it kind of defeats the purpose of tapping into it.

3) How the fudge do I tap into it, I cant seem to find a diagram for it.

* 1 - Not sure what you mean. If you mean take a cord with a uUSB connector on it and wire the other end to vehicle power, then the answer is no. The car is 12V and USB is 5V. Fortunately, there are umpteen gillion 12V-to-USB converters available in just about any form factor you can imagine. You should be able to find a small unit that can be easily hidden. Just make sure it has some room to breathe.

* 2 - Unless you cut the wires, you will still have power to the lighter. It would be super easy if you didn't want to keep the lighter powered. All you would have to do is snip the wire(s) and butt splice them.

* 3 - One of the wires will be +12V and the other one is ground. The wires will be color-coded, but I don't know the colors off the top of my head. IIRC, there is more than one stereo/GPS/nav/tablet install DIY that explains it well (and gives some routing tips). If my memory is faulty, let me know and I'll look it up in the FSM. I wanna say that you just unscrew the inner part of the lighter and pull the housing out from the rear to get access to the wires.