[FunWithFire]

I will be going on a road trip soon, so I picked up a cheap Tom Tom One today. I like having the GPS in the upper left hand corner of the windshield. I don't have time to mess with it now, but I would like to hard wire the power cord to the GPS so I don't have to deal with that wire. The cigarette power cord is a mini usb plug. The unit will also charge with an actual USB cable that came for syncing up with a computer. I thought that USB was only 5 volt, so I don't know if the cigarette plug is converting from the car's 12 volt to 5 volt. I am also talking completely out of my ass.
So what would you suggest on getting the power needed up to the driver's side sunshade? Should I hack a USB cable? Is there a power source to tap in to under the steering wheel?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dragon]

They don't seem to have a hard wire kit... before you chop up the USB cable, I'd call TomToms TechTechSupport...

If you can crack open the tip of the cigarette adapter to ensure it's just positive/negative and a fuse- you may be OK to hardwire it.

 

[Ecoterragaia]

you could buy and install a cigarette power outlet under the dash and wire directly to the battery with an inline fuse. Another option may be to find an empty fuse location that's hot when the ignition is on. There are two on my car in the top row of fuses, and I use one of them to power the blue LED backlights on my boost gauge. Check the amperage usage on the GPS and make sure that it it isn't higher than what the fuse would be for (you may melt wires if you do). It shouldn't be though because electronic equipment usually uses on the scale of milliamps, and I think the lowest fuse would most likely be 5 amps. I am not sure of this, but I don't think that the plug for the lighter is what provides the resistance for the GPS unit, I believe it is normally the unit itself. I wouldn't go tapping into wires though, you don't want to disable anything.

 

[Collin1.8]

yes you can go buy a female end cigarette outlet at any best buy and just tap it into the power and negative of the back of any cig lighter. its not going to mess anything up at all. i work for best buy mobile installationn and we do that all the time. the cig outlet is like 12 bucks. its really simple, but make sure to solder so it wont come undone. or if you want to you can tap it into your acc/ ignition wire and ground wire on the back of your sterio. if you have an aftermarket sterio then it will be the red wire and the black wire. not the yellow wire! yellow will keep it on 24/7 until you turn it off manualy, but with the red wire it will only turn on when your turn the keys to acc or all the way to ignition. AND it will turn off when you turn your car off. but if you have a stock sterio you have to look for the stock wire color codes, just call up best buy and ask, they can tell you. any other questions just ask.