The 'E' Type Forum

Some while ago I saw on Angus's website a car that had been modified for touring - netting for the maps; pockets for stuff under the dash; a storage bin under the bonnet; and (get to the point!) USB socket.

As I tour a bit, I thought of all of these over the last winter. Eventually I rejected them all but the USB socket. But, how and where to mount?

On the interweb I found this little unit.



It contains a pair of USB sockets, a cigar lighter socket and a voltmeter.



And they were all wired together so that I could pulg the unit into the fuse board.



So far, so good. But I still didn't know where to put them. And then it struck me - take out the ash tray and push it in the hole.
And it fitted, snuggly, so that nothing more was needed.
Plugged into the ignition circuit, I charged phones and cameras, and had the satnav on a switched feed from the cigar lighter (unlike the permanently on feed from the E-Type's own cigar lighter).

And when I got home it all came out and the ash tray went back in.

The voltmeter was in interesting addition to the dash. But, it is too bright for night time driving.

Chris

I removed the USB/Cigar lighter sockets from the back plate (they are secured with large plastic threaded nuts) and mounted them in the glovebox. They are practically invisible yet always ready for use. Mine are permanently live. I would not bother with the volt meter though!

chrisfell wrote: The voltmeter was in interesting addition to the dash. But, it is too bright for night time driving.

What happens if you spill a cup of tea on an 88.8V kitchen table?

Toast?

Nah, you get a 'hot' drink

My car being positive earth I needed to fit a rectifier (behind the glove box) connected to a cigarette Lighter socket in the panel under the glove box. Cannot be seen and has worked well for about 5 years so far

Following an exchange on this thread :

http://www.myetype.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=168

I decided to be a right tight-wad (no rush) and ordered two of the things from here (can also be found on ebay.co.uk) :

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Prise-Allume-Cig ... 1741992850?

which includes free postage from Hong Kong, as improbable as that may sound. PayPal, so hardly much risk, seemed worth a punt for 10.96€ a pair instead of about £30 from the UK., since I suspect these are the same things as :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Double-USB-Pa ... 2c83ff1a65

Same things indeed, ordered 19th July, delivered 29th July.

The tight-wad price will help pay for unnecessarily changing the windscreen rubber that I damaged two weeks ago by cack-handed rushing.