Paging the electronic-isti

On-board charger for an iPhone, via one of those things that plugs into
a cigarette lighter.

Bought the female half of the unit - the socket - from Maplins. Wired it
up to +ve and -ve terminals, with an in-line fuseholder bearing a 2A
fuse. Attached it to battery terminals (didn't notice at the time that
the device has a small 1A fuse built in).

It popped the 1A fuse. Replaced that with a 5A (all I had around). It
now seems dead. The 2A inline fuse I fitted is undamaged.

Questions: is 2A too much? I guess so.

Why would it pop the 1A fuse initially? These are two-wire devices, and
I assume that they'll work happily whichever way round, as it were. As
far as I can tell, it's all wired decently. Soldered connections, too.

 

Eh?

Not sure what you're asking - but fag lighter sockets need to be wired
the correct way around. Sounds like you've got the polarity wrong.

 

For AC, such as mains, yes. For DC no.

 

Oh, come on. Surely he... he wouldn't... no, really, he wouldn't, would
he? He *must* know about that kind of thing. Please.

 

He's a hack ffs.

 

(The Older Gentleman) wrote in

That would be true for AC e.g. an electric shaver type plug. Your bike is
DC. The fuse did it's job. Have you tried the charger in a properly wired
socket in your Subaru? It may need a rest if there is a thermal cutout as
it would not be happy with somewhere between 1 and 2A of reverse polarity
current up its chuff.

You need to connect the central terminal to the red +12V and the outer
sheath to negative.

 

Well, I know... but *surely* he knows about the difference between AC
and DC, after all the bikes he's had with dodgy electrics.

 

Nope! Electrics really aren't my thing.

 

Hm. Thought that's how I'd wired it, actually. I'll double check.

 

If it were wired wrong, then like most "cheap" 12v electrical items it's
prolly only protected in a very basic manner, i.e a diode to blow on reverse
polarity. This will indeed blow the fuse immediately, but it will sacrifice
itself in doing so.
Unless you can open it easily, I'd expect it to be toast I'm afraid.

--
Greybeard

FLHR -03 UK (95 cu-in Stg 2. Big Boy 2!)

Garmin Zumo 550, To get me home!

ukrm@foxtails[dot]co[dot]uk

 

you need to add a 53 ohm capacitor.

 

<G>

Bastard.

 

It is, and dammit, I had wired it up the wrong way round. I'd used
twin-core wire and... yeah, got a twist in it. I've redone it and will
just get a new charger unit today.

 

Nice!

 

Mmm, I did this[1] when I fitted a satnav to the Zed. It blew the satnav
fuse and the inline fuse too.

[1] Wired arse about face


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Join the club. It's the one thing I don't touch if I can get someone else to
do it.

My brother usually, and even he (who professes to be the "expert") managed
to get blown across the living room when he was (supposedly) sorting out my
thermostat.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Heh


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Now we know why your Elefant stead fried itself, "This heated vest is
very toasty".

Hope it's not the £19.99 dual ipod and iphone in car charger A24JH from
maplins.

 

The iPhone sucks 500mA. Don't forget to wire the right pins or your
iPhone will sit there any say "Charging is not supported with this
accessory" The Firewire pins are disabled in the iPhone 3G & 3GS
which is what most aftermarket iPhone chargers use.