cigarette lighter q

I just got a radar detector and I want to be able to power it thru my cigarette lighter socket and use my power outlet for charging my cell phone/hooking up my ipod, etc. as the phone holder is on the side closest to the powered one.

However, when I plugged the detector into the cig. lighter and turned it on, nothing happened. I checked to makre sure there weren't any loose connections and tried again, however, still nothing. So I then plugged it into my powered outlet and it came right on.

But is there a way to convert a cig lighter to a powered outlet? I've used it before with my ipod, GPS and Sirius and it seemed to power them fine.

Any suggestions? Thanks! :thumbup:

you do realize the lighter is only powered with key on right?

Brilliant!

kennzz05 said:

you do realize the lighter is only powered with key on right?

Click to expand...

Obviously not. What do you mean key-on?

the power point is hot all the time and the lighter is only hot when the ignition is in the "on" position

FoMoCo said:

the power point is hot all the time and the lighter is only hot when the ignition is in the "on" position

Click to expand...

Well why is it then that my other appliances such as ipod charger, cell phone charger, GPS, and Sirius satellite radio all work fine with the cigarette lighter, and the radar detector seems to be the only thing that *doesn't* work with it? Does it work on a diff. circuitry or something?

Fuse?

compare the plugs see if the depth is differant that may be the problem is the dectector new is it posssible it dosent work

maybe your lighter socket is slightly warped and/or the radar detector has a finicky plug? I dunno, I'm just throwing ideas out now...you could try rotating the plug in the socket to see if it will connect in a different orientation, if you have a multimeter you could check if the lighter is putting out 12v there could be some bad wiring/bad ground somewhere causing a voltage drop

NCjeepgirl83 said:

Well why is it then that my other appliances such as ipod charger, cell phone charger, GPS, and Sirius satellite radio all work fine with the cigarette lighter, and the radar detector seems to be the only thing that *doesn't* work with it? Does it work on a diff. circuitry or something?

Click to expand...

If everything else is working except the R/D, then it's a mechanical fit problem between the R/Ds plug and your cig. lighter socket. Either use the R/D in the accessory jack or you might try using a splitter device as shown below. If the splitter's plug "likes" the cig. lighter socket and the R/D's plug "likes" the splitters' sockets, then you're golden PLUS you've got some extra outlets.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062276&cp=2032056.2818117.2818328&parentPage=family

OR

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062269&cp=2032056.2818117.2818328&parentPage=family

OR

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062271&cp=2032056.2818117.2818328&parentPage=family

OR even

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062264&cp=2032056.2818117.2818328&pg=2&parentPage=family


Good luck!!!


:cheers: