Cigarette lighter style 12v adapter to connect to battery? - Horizons Unlimited

**chris** · #1 21 Nov 2005

Am looking for Car Cigarette lighter style 12v adapter to connect to the bike battery. For example to juice a gps or recharge batteries for a phone or digi camera.

A mate reconned you can get them cheaply. One wire will connect to the + pole and the other to - and somewhere in there, there's a rectifier and/or fuse. Just tried the hein gericke website and it's useless. Any idea where to look? Am in the UK, but mail order from Europe is no prob.

My old airhead BMW had one, but that required a "BMW to rest of the world adapter" which I got from Motorworks. I now have a Honda.

Cheers
ChrisB

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TheBrightStuffDotCom

**praatika** · #2 21 Nov 2005

Hey!

If I understand you correctly, you are looking for a 12 V connector (cigarette connector)?

Have you tried the first local car spare parts shop?

Get a connector, some twisted wire (red and black, maybe 3 meters of each), a heavy duty fuse box (those rubber type ones, which can stand some spray water), a fuse for 5 amps, and some connectors to fix all those together.

Fix the black or (-) cable straight to ground somewhere nearby the battery. But not on it!

Take (+) voltage using your red wire from any (+) wire, which is alive when the ignition is on.

On 12 V connector, (+) wire goes into middle or centre pin. (-) voltage goes to circular or outer connector.

+Pasi

**kevinrbeech** · #3 21 Nov 2005

Have you tried www.maplin.co.uk, or as above, any car accessories retailer.

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Kevin
www.4x4-travel.co.uk

**Robbert** · #4 22 Nov 2005

What I did last week was:
-buy a 12V extention lead
-cut off the male plug
-soldured O ring (how do you call these things -that you sqeese tight on on electrical wire in english?) on
-Fitted 10 amp fuse in + lead.

takes 2 minutes to connect to the battery. The female end goes in the tank bag and powers a GPS.

**Frank Warner** · #5 22 Nov 2005

The car type ones will rust on the bike. If you don't mind spending a lot more then go to a boat place - they have ones that won't rust.

The bmw ones are a DIN standard - used on tractors ... some car places are starting to carry them - thay don't rust.

**Matt Cartney** · #6 22 Nov 2005

Yep, I had a car type one on a bike that was reasonably well sealed from the wet but filled with corrosion quite quickly. Surely someone does a sealed unit that can be fitted to any 12v bike?
Matt

**Bal** · #7 22 Nov 2005

Hi there,
I got mine from mailspeed marine - all the metal parts are brass and there's a cap for when its not in use.
http://www.mailspeedmarine.com/Produ...4-19e4c0b43cab
Hope this helps,
Bal.

**chris** · #8 29 Nov 2005

Bal
Tks for the tip. Ordered it last week. It arrived today. Looks exactly like what I require.
Cheers
ChrisB

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TheBrightStuffDotCom

**Hindu1936** · #9 10 Feb 2006

Suzuki sells them. the exec burgman comes w/1 and i had another installed.

**a1arn** · #10 14 May 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by praatika

Hey!

Take (+) voltage using your red wire from any (+) wire, which is alive when the ignition is on.

+Pasi

This may overload the fuse upstream, or even the main fuse if something like an air compressor is connected. Pehaps a relay using the wire mentioned abve as the control circuit may be better, the relay being connected directly to the battery with a 20A fuse in between.

Of course, you can even dispense with the relay (direct off the battery), but the lighter will then be powering the GPS even when the ignition is off - and may wind up discharging the battery if anything drawing a large current is being used while the engine is kept switched off.

**Wheelie** · #11 14 May 2006

I just did this operation. Mt suggestion:

12V cig adapter. I reccomend the marine type which is far more useful on a bike than a car type as it offers better environmental protection. Still, locate it out of the harshest environments (water, fuel, oil, heat, etc).
Locate it away from things that cause magnetic interferance, like your stator.
Run a red 2,5 mm² gauge wire directly off your battery. If you run it directly off the battery, then you can power stuff without having your ignition turned on (also a great idea for charging your battery, which I will get back to later). This is usually gauged for 18 Amps, which is more than enough (216 Watts). Your fuse box probably comes with a 1,5 mm² wire (15 Amp rated, or 180 Watts), so this should also suffice. Make sure that your wire is not of the one solid type, but of the type with many thin ones bundled together.
The juice flows out of the battery and into your socket through the (+) wire, and from your socket and iback into the battery through the black (-) wire (usually via the frame/ground).
Use a rubber inline fuse holder with a cap. These will ward off water, etc. Locate it close to the battery, on the red + wire, and out of the harshest environment (heat, water, petrol, etc).
Use a flat automotive fuse, not the spring type which will vibrate to pieces. I used a 7.5 amp, but a 5 amp will suffice, and is probably a better idea. (5 Amps x 12 Volts = 60 Watts).
I reccomend an inline switch close to the socket, on the red plus wire, before the socket. This way you can switch off any plugged in devices, which will keep running even when your bike is turned off if you wired straightly off the battery. I reccomend one with a built in LED light so you can easily tell if your gadgets are on or off. The ones with a light are however a bit more tricky to wire and will need some trial and error. Get a continuity tester (basicly a pen like object with a light bulb and an aligator switch and test it off the socket, as well as the switch - which will become obvious when you do). You could also use an automotive relay, connected to your ignition switch, which will turn the thing on or off, or just hook it up to any place on the bike with a continuous power feed, like your brake light. This way you don't risk leaving your bike with gadgets still turned on, draining your battery.
I wired my black negative (ground) directly to the battery...
If you wire directly off the battery, then you can put a male cigarette lighter on your battery charger/tender. Whenever you need to charge your battery, or put it on a tender, simply plug in the cigarette adapter. I also opted for this route as it was the simplest install, not requiering me to familiarise myself with the existing wiring harness. But if you are in the habit of forgetting to switch stuff off, then going the other way, ignition switched, is the way to go.
The switch also comes in handy when you fire up the bike as it is generally reccomended that you unplug sensitive gadgets from your cig adapter when you do this. It is said that an unclean power surge can occur when firing up the bike, screwing things up a bit. Wether this is true or not, I have noe idea.
Try to run your wiring where your other wires go (tried and tested). Take care to prevent chafing of wires, routing wires where they will be squeesed or bendt a lot, where they will move arround a lot, etc. Attach firmly with clips or ty-wraps.
Where wires run over sharp edges, such as holes in the frame, etc., make sure the edges or wires are protected by rubber. If not, vibrations will cause chafing and eventually wear through the insulator, causing a short, which usually allways happens in a place where it is difficult to detect visually.
When using electrical tape, stretch the hell out of it. This stuff is really good and is rated for hundreds of Volts, so no worries of using this as an insulator. You can offcourse use the heat shrink tubing which is superb, but in my opinion, too superb, making it difficult to render or modify anything you have done.

**Bossies** · #12 15 May 2006

As Wheelie implied a good bet is to look at sailing shops or a local chandlery. they sell various types of sockets and plugs etc including the standard 12v cig lighter type and the "BMW" Din plug. Also LOT cheaper that the "specialist" bike shops that sell them.

http://www.sailgb.com/c/12v_plugs_sockets_connectors/

**flashy_cj** · #13 16 May 2006

AEROstich has a sealed unit that looks pretty good and the one I will be using on my RTW. Reasonably prices as well.

***Touring Ted*** · #14 11 Jul 2006

http://www.nippynormans.com/products.asp?dept=279

**Wheelie** · #15 15 Jul 2006

I just got back from my trip...

I regret not having wired the adapter so that it would turn on and off with the ignition switch... it was a pain in the ass HAVING to turn it on and off at the end of every day's ride. I once forgot to turn it off for two days with my communication device still plugged in and ran the battery dead.

Although I can think of incidents where the separate switch would be useful in adition to an ignition operated switch, in hind sight I wouldn't have bothered with the separate switch and would have just have gone for an ignition type switch.

You could use a relay and still get power directly off the battery or tap into a wire that gets a constant feed when the ignition is turned on, for instance the positive feed that runs into your head light switch (in, not out), or for instance your brake light wire which allways has juice running through it...

It could however be wise to get some advice from someone who is a specialist with your bike. There may be certain switches, relays or other circuitries on your bike that might not agree well with having extra juice drawn through it.