power ports

Dogsled · Post by **Dogsled** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 3:26 pm

I find myself heading to the junkyard to pull out old cigarette ligher ports from cars. Alot of my aux stuff looses ground or literally falls out of the power ports theyre selling today. After a few bumps the power lights go out because they lose contact, anybody find this an issue. They surely aren't as deep as the ports for cig lighters. Cheap junk.......

vtxcandyred · Post by **vtxcandyred** » Sun Jul 12, 2015 2:55 am

I went to the local parts store and picked one up and put it in the left fairing pocket and not one time has it "wiggled loose" But they ARE CHEAP.

Dogsled · Post by **Dogsled** » Sun Jul 12, 2015 11:10 am

The loosening seems to be they aren't as deep a the old cig ports. Also some items like my Garmin and i-pod have lager heavier ends where they plug in and stick out further. This seems to make them vibrate and lose contact somehow. I was just curious if anyone else noticed any difference. Nothing a trip to the junkyard for an actual cig lighter port can be had.

spiralout · Post by **spiralout** » Sun Jul 12, 2015 1:45 pm

I have two, one from Walmart in the left fairing pocket to charge either my Ipod or vape and one from O'Reilly in the trunk for charging my phone. I use a 1 USB port adapter for both and both are constantly vibrating out far enough to lose contact. I haven't tied a different model of adapter yet so I don't know for sure whether it's the port or the adapters that plug into them. They do seem awfully shallow compared to a regular old cig lighter, though.

Dogsled · Post by **Dogsled** » Sun Jul 12, 2015 5:55 pm

EXACTLY, what I'm talkin about. Picked up some old lighters at the junk yard today. Nice tight fit and deeper......better to hold them big Garmin plugs in......50 cents each from a box, bought 4. My ford vans oem power port is junk too, it's different from the cig lighter port. HA, they must think you smoke if you're drivin a cargo van. Yuppies today would prolly protest the dealership and sue them if they found a cigarette lighter in their new car.

I can slip the rain caps on from the new junk ones I'm replacing before I toss them in the trash. If I hadn't had them, I woulda just stuck cigarette lighters in the holes.

YouTube · Post by **WingAdmin** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 8:22 am

I don't trust the "cigarette lighter" style connectors for use on a motorcycle. This type of connector is a horrible "hack" that is a leftover from the 1970's, when people were trying to power their 8-track players and CB radios by plugging them into their cigarette lighters. They depend entirely on the springiness of the ground contacts (hopefully) holding the connector in place inside the socket tight enough to push the spring-loaded positive terminal against the internal contact. Vibration causes the spring loaded terminal to push the connector out until it loses contact.

Every one of these that I have on my bike, I have disassembled the connector, ripped out the contacts and springs, and instead soldered a pair of 14 or 16 gauge wires (depending on the current requirements) in their place. I then run those wires to a known good source of power, completely eliminating the socket and the physical connection that is required. I then stuff the thing in the fairing or wherever it needs to go. I've been doing this for many years, and have yet to have a single one fail as a result.

Dogsled · Post by **Dogsled** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 8:40 am

My cobra cam, i-pod and gps's have large plugs. What the heck is in those things. are you saying I can eliminate them and run them directly to a hot wire. OH, that's an issue, any modification would be no good because I use them for my van and other cars (that already have porweports) THAT also vibrate loose. The old car port have a steel ground sleeve, along with a tighter fit and deeper reach I never have problems with them. I need my stuff to be universal. I tell you, the postive button on the Garmin plugs don't even look like they are metal.....it's like they're chrome covered plastic. I feel a tight 'gripping' connection between my junkyard ports......(Prolly the rust buildup..

YouTube · Post by **WingAdmin** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:23 am

Dogsled wrote:My cobra cam, i-pod and gps's have large plugs. What the heck is in those things. are you saying I can eliminate them and run them directly to a hot wire. OH, that's an issue, any modification would be no good because I use them for my van and other cars (that already have porweports) THAT also vibrate loose. The old car port have a steel ground sleeve, along with a tighter fit and deeper reach I never have problems with them. I need my stuff to be universal. I tell you, the postive button on the Garmin plugs don't even look like they are metal.....it's like they're chrome covered plastic. I feel a tight 'gripping' connection between my junkyard ports......(Prolly the rust buildup..

No, you cannot cut them off and connect to those wires. For most modern electronics (satellite radios, GPS, etc.) the reason for the large plug is to contain electronics - usually DC to DC converters, that convert the 12 volts of your bike/car's main bus to 5 volts or 7 volts or whatever the device requires. Cutting this plug off completely wiring the device directly to 12 volts will destroy the device. That is why I cut the connector apart, remove the contacts, and instead solder wires in place of those contacts. This leaves the internal DC-DC converter circuitry intact, but removes the mechanical contact portion of the device, which is the usual cause of failure.

Dogsled · Post by **Dogsled** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:08 am

OH, ok, thanks.....I never knew what those big things did.......

deanbw · Post by **deanbw** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:14 am

you can get better quality power ports at your local marine supply store. You can get stainless there so they don't rust out, it will cost more than the cheap auto/bike shop ones but they last much longer.

dtrider · Post by **dtrider** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 8:59 pm

Most portable electronics these days use a USB port for charging, which means that you have to have a lighter to USB adaptor in order to use them. This adapter is one more connection point that can fail, so why not get rid of it. I found a USB port at CycleGear and installed it on the bottom of the right side passenger compartment. It's connected directly to the battery on the bike so it's always live. Now my wife can charge her phone or Kindle as we are going down the road and the connector holds securely enough that it doesn't come loose from vibration.

NVSB4 · Post by **NVSB4** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:16 pm

dtrider wrote:installed it on the bottom of the right side passenger compartment. It's connected directly to the battery on the bike so it's always live. Now my wife can charge her phone or Kindle as we are going down the road

By your wording, I assuming that it is on the outside of the passenger compartment, or at least I hope so.
I've seen a couple of wings with that passenger door missing because the hinge broke and the door fell off.

I was in Cycle Gear just today and saw one of the USB ports that connects to the Battery Tender leads.
So when you're riding, you can use it to charge whatever. I thought about getting one, but already have the lighter socket that I just installed.
I may have the same experience and get one of them later.

YouTube · Post by **WingAdmin** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 8:22 am

I put one of these in the trunk of my bike:

http://www.amazon.com/Featuring-Intelli ... ingdocs-20

I cut the cigarette-lighter plug off the back and wired it directly into my Electrical Connection Power Panel. It comes with high-strength velcro mounting pieces, and I used that to mount it at the back of my trunk.

Unlike a lot of cheap USB power outlets, particularly those with multiple outlets, this USB charger will put out a total of 8 amps, fully powering all five outlets at once. You can charge tablets, phones, basically any USB-powered device, and you can charge five of them at the same time, at the top charging rate. It's great, I plug my phone in, toss it in the trunk, and the whole time I'm riding, my phone is charging.

We actually got one of these for my wife's car as well, because it works so well.

This older picture shows that some outlets are Android specific and some are Apple specific, but the units I have don't have any such markings, and they all seem to work equally as well on all types of devices.

dtrider · Post by **dtrider** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 9:07 am

NVSB4 wrote:
dtrider wrote:installed it on the bottom of the right side passenger compartment. It's connected directly to the battery on the bike so it's always live. Now my wife can charge her phone or Kindle as we are going down the road
By your wording, I assuming that it is on the outside of the passenger compartment, or at least I hope so.
I've seen a couple of wings with that passenger door missing because the hinge broke and the door fell off.

Yes, I installed it under the door. Turns out that there is just enough space between the storage box and the outer shell for the body of the power port to fit. I cut a hole in the shell just big enough for the port to stick through and used some double-stick tape to secure the body to the inside of the shell. A little silicone caulk around the port and it looks like it was meant to be there.

You're right about the doors. The hinge on those doors is really a crappy design. My bike is in the shop right now getting the one on the left side replaced. My wife looked at it wrong and the door vanished during our trip last month.

Dogsled · Post by **Dogsled** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:37 am

This is sweet if I got it all straight. I can cut the cig light end off and hard wire it. You say I should have no problem running 2 gps units my i-pod and my cobra cam using computer style juacks. I can get rid of alot of bulky wiring and ports with this sweet setup. I run my lines fused through a relay, any fuse size recomendation. Cause if it is what I just explained I thought it was, i'm ordering one. Are there any that are more top quality that anyone knows about?

NVSB4 · Post by **NVSB4** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:46 am

WingAdmin wrote:I put one of these in the trunk of my bike:
I cut the cigarette-lighter plug off the back and wired it directly into my Electrical Connection Power Panel.

The link you gave to Amazon shows that it is Out of Stock and don't know when it will be available.
One that looks the same is on eBay here for $7.49 with free shipping.

You said in an earlier post that you can't cut off the plug and direct wire because of DC converters.
I'm assuming that there is no issue with this device, since it is working for you.

YouTube · Post by **WingAdmin** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:53 am

NVSB4 wrote:
WingAdmin wrote:I put one of these in the trunk of my bike:
I cut the cigarette-lighter plug off the back and wired it directly into my Electrical Connection Power Panel.
The link you gave to Amazon shows that it is Out of Stock and don't know when it will be available.

You said in an earlier post that you can't cut off the plug and direct wire because of DC converters.
I'm assuming that there is no issue with this device, since it is working for you.

oops, my mistake. I've corrected it to the link that is the available item: http://www.amazon.com/Featuring-Intelli ... ingdocs-20

This device has the DC-DC converter (12-24V to 5V) built into the box with the USB connectors, so you can cut the cigarette lighter connector off - however, you must connect it to a fused circuit, as that connector contains a fuse, and you are in effect removing that fuse by cutting the connector off.

I connected it to a circuit fused at 10 amps, which should be correct for the maximum current being drawn.

NVSB4 · Post by **NVSB4** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 11:07 am

WingAdmin wrote: oops, my mistake. I've corrected it to the link that is the available item:

Do you see any difference in the two?
The one on eBay is a different name, but has the same description and at half the price.

spiralout · Post by **spiralout** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 11:10 am

When I get around to replacing the ones installed now I'm going to use this type being I have no need for 5 ports in one place

wheeljam · Post by **wheeljam** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 2:09 pm

Spiralout where did you get that one?? I like the looks of that one better then the one I am currently using

spiralout · Post by **spiralout** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 2:54 pm

I'm still using the cig lighter type with USB adapters. That's just an image I found on Google when searching https://www.google.com/search?q=motorcy ... 66&bih=609

arnehoff · Post by **arnehoff** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 3:32 pm

Some of the vehicle electronics have a hard wire option you can buy. I got tired of the power outlet plug in for my Sirius XM in the left fairing pocket and bought a hard wire/5V converter ($13 on Ebay) and connected it to a fuse in my aux fuse block. Now I use one of those power outlet to USB adapters to power my Garmin from that place.

Dogsled · Post by **Dogsled** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 6:43 pm

NVSB4;
You seem right, I don't see any difference in the two. Dang I hate makin decisions like these when I can't actually see the products but they do look the same and Amazon and E--bay seem to just sell any bulk stuff and decide how much of a profit they think they can hit us with. I'll try the cheap on and see what it's like.

Dogsled · Post by **Dogsled** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 7:04 pm

Ahhhhhh I ordered the more expensive one. The cheaper one seemed to have different ports for different things and since I didn't understand wtf the were talking about. 22 bucks out the door for another experiment......

Dogsled · Post by **Dogsled** » Thu Jul 16, 2015 7:36 pm

got the unit scott recomended, only 2 days wow! I have a benchtop 12v power station I plugged it into. USB doesn't seem to have enough power to run a Garmin and keep it charged. Maybe my power station is low on amps or whatever the heck is keeping it from running AND charging. Doesn't even really want to turn them on into operating system alone. The i-pod and cobracam seem to work alright, I just don't know if they're charging..... I'll give it a vehicle test maybe more ampsa or whatever the heck my power station isn't doing.

This seems very well made and will eliminate 2 bulking cig lighter plug-ins at the least. If I were to guess I'd say the cheaper one comes from the same factory in Taiwan and you save a few bucks. That's the only report I have. I don't carry a phone with me but i'm sure it would charge that up.

I guess having four 12v powerports. I still can run my gps units, this usb and hav one left over. If I do any long rides and see the GPS units work and charge, i'll report in on that.

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