Looking for USB sockets -Sorted

[9fingers]

I'm looking to tidy up the forest of wires need to power up modern tech in the car. A strip of 4 USB type A (flat ones) stacked side by side in some sort of package I can fix to the dash or centre console.

I can build the 12-15v regulator if necessary just looking for a tidy looking unit. It only needs to supply power so no USB intelligence or device negotiation needed

I expect modern cars come with them but mine dates from the cigar lighter socket era.

I'm considering buying a 4 way hub and cannibalising that but maybe there is a purpose made device out there that is currently eluding my Ebay/google searches.

TIA

Bob

 

[Robert]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Splitter-Charg ... ti+charger

or

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CoJoie-Charger ... ti+charger

any good?

 

[9fingers]

Thanks Robert, the second one looks a possibility. I was hoping for smaller with the sockets mounted end on as a narrow strip but a good starting point.

I must look at amazon a bit more for this sort of thing I just tend to ebay & google.

Bob

 

[Robert]

I read a lot of reviews on similar type devices after losing the car adaptor I had. My car has DAB radio and a lot of these adaptors are known to kill the reception. Not looked at these multi socket ones for that problem.

You can get simple plug type adaptors with 4 sockets on the top but that may not help with wires trailing.

 

[9fingers]

I read a lot of reviews on similar type devices after losing the car adaptor I had. My car has DAB radio and a lot of these adaptors are known to kill the reception. Not looked at these multi socket ones for that problem.

You can get simple plug type adaptors with 4 sockets on the top but that may not help with wires trailing.

Yes poorly design switch mode supplies are a pain. that is why I really want just a string of sockets and I'd roll my own power unit, I don't need lots of current.
Mainly satnav, phone as audio source and an fm transmittter with one spare usb for wife's tablet for time to time.

I'm still going to have trailing wires but at the moment is it is one cigar plug to three cigar plug lump and three cigar to USB adaptors which takes up all the water bottle/cup holder space that I'd like to free up.

Bob

 

[Rod]

Actually Bob your car is not that much out of date.
My 6 month "new" car has only one USB socket which takes my iTunes Music Library on a flash drive.
My phone I power from the cigarette lighter using a double USB adapter. The phones sat nav is much better than the inbuilt cars one.

Rod

 

[greeno]

I was looking for something similar for the truck the other week. Came across these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charger-Cigare ... Z8V1GME81C

Which I think is along the lines of what you're after. There are a few different designs.

 

[9fingers]

I was looking for something similar for the truck the other week. Came across these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charger-Cigare ... Z8V1GME81C

Which I think is along the lines of what you're after. There are a few different designs.

Thanks Greeno, that is the first time I've seen something designed for panel mounting - would be great for kit car but might be less easy to integrate into a existing dash with limited flat surfaces.
I've got something coming from HK now a whole £1.84 delivered! if it turns out unsuitable I've not exactly lost a great deal. Generally I only need it on long journeys and holidays so I'm not in a hurry.

Bob

PS Welcome to the forum. Hope you enjoy it here!

 

[greeno]

I think they come from the marine world hence the rubber seals.

Thanks for the welcome. I've been lurking a long time.

Like many I came off the back of mikes workshop build on UKW.

I'll probably do a workshop build thread in the future. The slab is down but mothballed til the spring.

 

[RogerS]

Actually Bob your car is not that much out of date.
My 6 month "new" car has only one USB socket which takes my iTunes Music Library on a flash drive.
My phone I power from the cigarette lighter using a double USB adapter. The phones sat nav is much better than the inbuilt cars one.

Rod

Rod

How do you access your library from the car system? It's bad enough trying to navigate iTunes on a Mac and so my mind boggles as to how one does it on a car.

 

[AndyP]

Only ever have iTunes or Android music on continuous shuffle. Bluetooth in the VW with phone or iPlod out of reach to avoid temptation.

 

[Rod]

From the iDrive or controls on the steering wheel, I can chose what tracks to play from the Library, CD player or Radio Stations.
The car also has 8 soft touch buttons that you can allocate to Radio Stations, telephone numbers or Sat Nav destinations.
With the Library you can chose Artist, Album, Track or Random play.
I often just pick an album and let it play.
The details come up on the Sat Navs screen.
The iDrive controls vehicle settings and live vehicle information (oil levels, fluid levels, tyre pressures, system failures etc etc), Media, Telephone, Navigation and Handbook.
On the steering wheel you have Cruise controls, media function, volume control, telephone control, voice control and floppy gear controls (which I have yet to use as the car is automatic).

Rod

 

[RogerS]

From the iDrive or controls on the steering wheel, I can chose what tracks to play from the Library, CD player or Radio Stations.
The car also has 8 soft touch buttons that you can allocate to Radio Stations, telephone numbers or Sat Nav destinations.
With the Library you can chose Artist, Album, Track or Random play.
I often just pick an album and let it play.
The details come up on the Sat Navs screen.
The iDrive controls vehicle settings and live vehicle information (oil levels, fluid levels, tyre pressures, system failures etc etc), Media, Telephone, Navigation and Handbook.
On the steering wheel you have Cruise controls, media function, volume control, telephone control, voice control and floppy gear controls (which I have yet to use as the car is automatic).

Rod

Mmmm..I'm sure you don't, Rod, but peering at some little screen while driving down a motorway?

I can tune my radio or put in a CD and NEVER, EVER need to take my eyes off the road. All done by muscle-memory.

.....

Cars do not need this cr ap

Too much Tech.

Unnecessary.

A major road safety danger.

 

[Rod]

I'm afraid most modern cars come with this stuff.
I never play with the iDrive whilst driving and keeping an eye on the Sat Nav is similar to glancing at the speedo etc as they are at the same eye level.
As I said, I can control the media systems from the steering wheel without even taking my hands off it.
My car is fitted with cameras which greatly assist parking and reversing manoeuvres in conjunction with the front and rear sensors. Then I do follow the screen closely together with the wing mirrors.
In it I can see the rear or front view at bumper lever (depending if you are moving forward or reversing) and a schematic of my car together with colour coding warnings with changes in beeping pitch the closer to the obstacle you are.
This feature has been very useful parking everyday in very congested and confined parking bays these last few weeks. Spaces so tight you have to do a 5 point turn just to get in or out of them.

Rod

 

[Tusses]

What car is it Bob ?
I'f fitted gadgets and switches in the dash speaker grilles in the past ..
do you smoke ? the ash tray is another usefel space, as is the coin tray in some cars

 

[9fingers]

What car is it Bob ?
I'f fitted gadgets and switches in the dash speaker grilles in the past ..
do you smoke ? the ash tray is another usefel space, as is the coin tray in some cars

It's a mk1 cmax. Ashtray long removed lol I've got something on order that might fit below the gear stick or if not can be robbed for parts to make a more compact unit to fit the same location.

Thanks for the ideas

Bob

 

[Tusses]

ok .. googled the cmax ! lol ..
do you have any unused switch blanks in the centre console ? should be room for at least 4 usb sockets in one of them, if you make your own mod.

 

[9fingers]

ok .. googled the cmax ! lol ..
do you have any unused switch blanks in the centre console ? should be room for at least 4 usb sockets in one of them, if you make your own mod.

No switch blanks are fitted in my centre console. Space taken up by electric handbrake switch and double decker storage of sweets and CDs
But as I said, I have a potential solution winging its way from HongKong so fingers crossed.

Bob

 

[9fingers]

Does anyone truly understand USB power distribution?

4 port usb hub arrived today and I dived straight in.

The two power pins 0 and 5v go direct from the input flying lead to the 4 sockets - brilliant!
My tests were as follows.

Plug the hub into the PC as a power source and plug the iphone into one of the ouputs. The iphone sparks up and starts charging. super

Plug the hub into one of those USB battery packs and the iphone is dead.

Plug the iphone direct into the battery pack and iphone starts charging.

So I can only conclude that the iphone must chat with the pc down the data lines AND that the battery pack must be able to chat to the phone sufficiently to convince it to start charging but when connecting via a hub where the data lines disappear into a multiplexer chip, the multiplexer does not chat to the battery and pass the OK to the iphone and so it won't play.

Off to try other devices on the hub now. I do have a bodge way ahead but why does the hub make life so awkward Grrr!

Rant Over

Bob

 

[9fingers]

Sorted!!

I took a couple of USB chargers apart that would talk to my iphone and various other USB devices and discovered that both had the two data pins simple connected to each other and nothing else. So it appears that the phone senses this state and treats it as a dumb charger (as distinct from a smart one where it might negotiate a higher charge current).

SO I duplicated this inside my cheap 4 way ebay hub (costing £1.88!) and lo and behold it will charge the phone and run all the other devices that I have.

Using some double sided tape this is now mounted between dashboard and gear stick console out of the way.



That's another little job sorted - onto the next one:-
An automatic switch for the car coolbox. This will detect the increase in battery voltage when the engine rises above tickover speed and switch on the cooler. On my car all the Cigar lighter sockets are permanently live and the coolbox current could easily flatten a battery overnight if left on.

Bob

 

[Tusses]

Good work Bob
The switch covers I was thinking of are top left and right in your photo ...
Can't see from the photo crop if they are free or not ?

BTW .. poundland usually have usb hubs if you ever need any more


Cooler ..
so you want some kind of leisure battery split charge relay ?
They charge when the engine is running only.

or do you want it to be voltage sensing ?

another option it the fuel pump wiring. Most fuel pumps have the power cut if the engine stalls , crash etc.

 

[9fingers]

I think it needs to be voltage sensing for simplicity of wiring. It can simply be a cigar plug in, cigar socket out lump tucked in the rear ash tray.
I knocked up a crude one a few years back for another car but it needed more hysteresis in the switching threshold to stop it oscillating.

The fuel pump is a good idea but I don't have an electrical one, fuel is sucked in by the engine pump being one of these obscenely high pressure diesels.

Bob

 

[Tusses]

ah .. diesel .. you can't even use the revs/sparks then

there is usually an AUX power feed, for the likes of the radio etc, that go off when you take the key out.
Couldn't get simpler than that.

All my cars are old .. but the charging voltage used to be 14.4v .. so if you set it at 13.5 or something you would get less hysteresis .. trim pot to tune it ?

or go analogue ! (I like anologue) the cooler wouldn't mind a varying voltage

Looking forward to see what you come up with anyway

 

[Tusses]

ooh ! .. another idea .. do you have a warning light on the dash for the battery/charge ?

if so, just relay off that

 

[9fingers]

Ok Lots of ideas but none fit the requirement for not fixed to the car and cigar plug in and out.

Hysteresis is desirable and the way to keep the decision circuit stable. The charging voltage is variable under the "smart charge" system it varies with state of charge on the battery as well as temperature - uses a silver calcium battery- expensive to replace and an intelligent alternator which communicates with another computer in the interior fusebox. - a chuffing nightmare to find out about to debug.

Maybe you don't have a modern ish car amongst your collection? The whole dash board is a computer in its own right and connections to individual leds can be risky as they tend to float at both ends as part of the self test. I even tried to remove an undesirable warning led from the safety restraint system and it detects the absence of a led and knows if you just fit a resistor in its place. DAMHIKT!
Dash board continually beeps if it not happy in any way. Absolute nightmare for the intelligent owner and the dealers can only replace the whole module and reprogram at vast expense. Any warning light in now an MOT failure. Ford could not fix the SRS light under warranty despite my moaning but the retrospective MOT rules on warning lights that came in a few years back meant I had to do a very devious modification. MOT says all lights must come on during self test, then go out and stay out throughout the whole test.

Bob

PS the right hand block on the dash looks like it is a blank but so far has failed to succumb to probing. I expect the radio will have to come out to release it from behind but if I used that, USB plugs and leads would foul the indicator stalk. The left hand one is little rack, three switches high to hold fuel cards credit cards etc that I never use.

 

[Tusses]

hmmmm... :eusa-think:

Just more reasons why I like old cars ! lol

our daily is a 1991 Golf , all the others are older !

if I wanted VDO , I'd go analogue with a variable output depending on input .. but as you see .. I am WAY old skool ! not kept up to date at all

now I need the popcorn icon