[Matt Ion]

wrote:
On May 7, 4:32 pm, bertbarndoor wrote:
Hi, I have a Garmin Nuvi GPS unit which plugs into my car cigarette
lighter. On the one end it is a 12v cigarette adapter and on the other
end it is a mini-usb. It looks kind of ugly with all the wires hanging
out. My idea was to purchase an extra 12v cigarette wire/charger for
it and hardwire it to my car and run the wires behind the dash, but I
don't know how to hook it up.

Can I just splice the wire into the 12v ignition power wire that runs
to my stereo? Should I splice it in to the back of the lighter??? Will
it have a positive and a negative? How can I hardwire it so that it
will have current when the car is on (key is turned). I just installed
a new receiver, so I am kind of in the zone right now as far as where
all the wires are, so if anyone could provide some info on how to do
it, then that would be great.

Just to reiterate, I want to buy a 12v car lighter to mini usb to
power my Garmine GPS, cut the cigarette end off and hardwire it to the
ignition so that it is powered when the car is on... How could I do
this and how would be wired??

Thanks!@!

go to radio shack or other electronic supply house and just get a cord
w/ the right connector for the garmin then connect the negitive line
to the cars frame and the positive wire to the radios switched power.
that will make the garmin come on when the ignition is turned on.

You can do that if you want to fry your Garmin.

USB spec is 5VDC; the adapter for it would have a voltage regulator to
produce that output. Best way to do this would probably be to get a
cig-lighter extension cable (here's an example:
http://tinyurl.com/4rpdq9), cut the plug end off, and hard-wire that in
as described. Then you can plug the Garmin's lighter adapter into that
socket, and hide the whole thing inside the dash.