Mobile Phone USB charger install

[IT]

Bluetooth handsfree is great but leaves a large void when it comes to powering your device.

You either end up with a flat phone battery, or you have cigarette lighter adapters strung across the car and a combination of spaghetti and sporty driving means the loose fag lighter connection causes your phone not to charge at all.

Then, when you arrive at your destination, you need to remove the charger for security so people dont decide to investigate your car further in your absense, and then theres the second D2 problem where the cigarette lighter isnt switched with the ignition, making flat batteries possible. The rear lighter switches off with the controls on the drivers door panel designed to make the rear safe with children, so again not right useful on a family day out...

The mini usb connector has become popular, and recently the micro-usb connector has become the agreed standard between many companies going forward, so a USB connector in the car makes loads of sense.

It simply needs to be switched with the ignition, and to give a +5 supply from the cars 13.8V supply.

Right, enough theory, lets do it. First, we need a ground and here is a really useful ground post. Its easily accessible and normally used purely for the audio loom, so easy to get to and doesnt disturb anything major whilst you undo the 10mm nut to secure your new connector on:



+12 comes courtousy of the passenger foot well. The green arrows shows the ignition feed, which is again easy to tap into with a quick removal of a 10mm nut. The green circle shows an independent fuse holder I have installed to make sure things are safe in case of short etc.



We then take the +12 round the back of the relay box and along the tranmission tunnel, where it meets it the ground. Note the use of the fabric tape to make sure the wires are all double-insulated for safety.



Now, we need to sort the regulated power drop to 5V for the USB connector, so heres a quick circuit I knocked up:




haha, ok I'm not that good - I bought one of the cigarette lighter to USB adapters and pulled it apart. I then soldered on the ground and +12 connectors to give me what I need, which in turn are soldered onto the ground/+12 feed I just put together. I intentionally ran higher rated cables than I needed for this project as I might change its purpose later. Its fused at a very low rating so will protect these smaller wires into the 5V converter



I then use PVC tape to insulate all the metal bits above, and then I wrap the whole lot in fabric tape to make it neat, and safe. Its now ready for part 2 of the install, which is the presentation of the USB connector somewhere which is 99% complete, and I'll share with you shortly..

[gninnam]

Yet another brilliant write up and foto montage

[IT]

My USB connection is going to go in my passenger armrest. This has a number of advantages:

1) Its out of the view of prying eyes and draws no attention
2) I can put my phone / pda / camera whatever I'm charging in there and it cant fall out no matter how I drive
3) I can leave my phone in there when I pop out of the car for 5 mins and noone is the wiser
4) Its one of the biggest self-contained storage areas easily accessible by the driver so it will accomodate even the biggest bricks

Right, thats why. Heres the how.

Start by dismantling the armrest. The leather trimmed side panels of the armrest just prize off, you can see the 3 lugs on the side here which need to be worked loose for it to come off. Once the sides are off, there are two small torx screws which need to be removed. They hold the plastic insert tray inside the armrest (already removed in this photo)



Once the 4 screws (2 on each side) are removed the tray should lift out and you can look into the back of the armrest and see the below. The armrest is held on by a locking pin which is in turn held in by a single torx screw. Remove the torx (circled) and then pull the pin out by pulling it towards the front of the armrest. Not the armrest is in the 'down' position before you will see this screw and pin.



Once the locking pin is out, lift the armrest fully up and it should pull off the shaft sideways relitively easily leaving the other one behind looking like this:



The USB surface mount panel came from Maplins and requires a single round hold drilling, and then it taps in with 2 small screws. Its quite deep though and some care is needed to make sure that the position it is in doesnt foul on anything when the plastic insert is put back in, and also check the lid goes up and down too !! There is a metal wall right in the middle of the armrest behind the tray hence the install to the right hand side...

You could just run a cable in and leave it dangling, but that wouldnt look as good...

The square hole is from the original cable that was factory fitted. A square grommet will fill that hole back up again.



My armrests are from an early facelift car with factory phone, but not the later 'cullman' style that are interchangeable. This gives me a fairly flat surface to work on. In contrast, take a look at the later style armrests here, you can see that it is not so flat:



Once all apart, feeding the cable through is a doddle. Feed it in from the shaft side and it will pop out freely inside the armrest. Once its in place, you can start to re-assemble using the reverse of the steps followed so far:



All back together and pending install....



I fed the cable down the center console and plugged it into the ignition fed USB connector we left dangling before. Once connected it was all fabric taped up to stop rattles and make sure it doesnt come apart accidently. This is what it looks like when installed:



And a final check, pop in a USB powered phone and check it charges when the ignition goes on:



...... and, of course it does...

[Oli18]

This is a really tidy mod! Very cool

[IT]

Thanks Oli... I'm pleased with it....

Couple more mods to come yet....

[PsYcHe]

Really neat install.

I thought about something similar, but with a powered USB hub in case I ever got round to fitting a USB Media adapter or car PC (then I got a Phatbox, much easier )