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Cigarette lighter - always on modification

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by tombellanca, Apr 4, 2008.

  1. tombellanca

    tombellanca New Member

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    I'm considering the Coastal Electronics unit to allow the under dash cig.lighter/power to be 'always on', rather than shutting off with the car.

    I have a stand-alone Sirius radio unit plugged into that outlet and may split it to also plug in a cell phone charger.

    How long might I be able to keep the radio turned on and/or charge my phone without risking running down the car battery? Overnight?

    My plan would be to manually shut down the Sirius the majority of the time, but to take advantage of the 'pause' buffer, shutting down during quick stops ends up being a bit of a bummer.

    Any negative experiences using the always on mod for the cig lighter???
     
    #1 tombellanca, Apr 4, 2008
  2. Steamboatsig

    Steamboatsig Member

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    Why do you need to purchase a product to change the cigarette lighter port to 12v constant? Just cut the current 12v switched wire, find a 12v constant source and splice. Done.

    The negative issue is with the Prius' measley 12v battery. It is very small. And even though your electronics draw very little amperage, it wouldn't take long to drain it. Would it last overnight? Maybe, but I doubt it.
     
    #2 Steamboatsig, Apr 4, 2008
    Lovemymia likes this.
  3. tombellanca

    tombellanca New Member

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    well $10 for the parts needed and clear instructions are a pretty small price to pay, imo.

    point taken.
    I guess I also want to avoid hard power-offs to the sirius unit when/if I forget to turn it off before powering down the car. I have a feeling that's not very good for the unit. <as long as I remember to turn it off before getting out of the car...>
     
    #3 tombellanca, Apr 4, 2008
  4. Steamboatsig

    Steamboatsig Member

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    Fair enough.

    If you lived closer I would do it for you. But anyway, take care.
     
    #4 Steamboatsig, Apr 4, 2008
  5. iLLa Prius

    iLLa Prius New Member

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    my moms car had a battery drain where over night the battery would be completely dead. I isolated the problem and just pulled a fuse out of the panel to solve the problem. Along my research and findings I stumbled across a device for your battery that will shut off once the battery gets too low. Its a smart battery device that knows how much juice is needed to start your car. If the battery drains down too far, the device shuts off all power to the rest of the car until you are ready to start it.

    Battery Brain Auto
     
    #5 iLLa Prius, Apr 4, 2008
  6. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    The coastal thing is not a "unit", it's just a bit of wire
    and a couple of those AWFUL squeezie splice connectors that
    melt if you run any serious current through them. And I think
    the full instructions are up on the web site, so you could just
    pull those down, find the connections, and solder yourself up
    a much better job than the kit does.
    .
    _H*
     
    #6 hobbit, Apr 4, 2008
    Silver Pine Mica likes this.
  7. tombellanca

    tombellanca New Member

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    is there a way to pull out the cig.lighter housing to give myself more room to work with?
    it seemed pretty tight down there when I had the glove box and vent cover off to do the sirius install.
    my hands are big and clumsy, so the more room, the better.
     
    #7 tombellanca, Apr 4, 2008
  8. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    That whole lower kick panel can come off, bringing the 12V outlet
    with it. There's one of those little push-in fasteners on the
    RHS in the passenger footwell, and then the whole thing just
    pulls straight off toward the back of the car. That opens
    up everything nicely, revealing the outlet wiring, the airbag
    and A/C controllers, etc etc.
    .
    _H*
     
    #8 hobbit, Apr 6, 2008
  9. rpiereck

    rpiereck Regenerator

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    I'm going to do this mod soon, where should I attach the live wire to? I was thinking of running it to the fuse box underneath the driver's side dash board...
     
    #9 rpiereck, Apr 23, 2008
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