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Looking good, I just replaced the volt meter only with a volt meter and dual USB ports so now I am able to reduce the amount of additional chargers in the truck and also do away with the power thing I had been using also
It looks great! I've been very impressed with how fast this charger actually charges. It blows away any plug in style charger I've tried yet. The only thing I've found that charges faster is the Anker battery I carry with me when I travel for work, hunting or just need portable power.
Anker 20100mAh Portable Charger PowerCore 20100 - Ultra High Capacity Power Bank with 4.8A Output, PowerIQ Technology for iPhone, iPad & Samsung Galaxy & More – Black
I am looking forward to getting mine installed soon. It is sitting on my workbench right now though, next to a few other goodies for the truck.
The fast chargers are great. I bought a power point plug in type for each vehicle. On my Samsung S7 it charges right about 1% per minute. Which is much, much faster than the standard chargers.
well got my china one all installed, man its nice, ordered 3 more in all the other colors for other vehicles i liked it so much, wired right into the keyed power of aftermarket radio left stock plug dangling incase i wanna go back in and redo it back.
It warmed up to about 50 today so I pulled 'er into the garage and did mine. I ground the ears off the old power point with my Dremel and the hole for the recepticle wasn't quite centered in the housing so the USB unit would not seat down into the recess so I took the Dremel and a sander drum and ground the hole a little bigger. I went with the same one shown in the OP, it has two 2.4 amp receptacles. I was having ungodly long charge times with my plug in adapters and wanted to eliminate them the best I could. The 2.4's were the biggest I could find. Thanks for the mod.
I don't know why this thing turned sideways on me.
the power port on our cargo vans, e-250 and connect, stay hot all the time which is NICE.. now i can put my phone on charge and while getting stuff in house to service gas logs get some 10 or so minutes of charge if i need to take picture of something on the set that might need replace or to post.
I do have hours of my dash cam showing the back yard with the wind blowing etc.. LOL
Originally Posted by Sous
Hmmm, well I will have to check. I thought the cigarette light turned off with the truck, but I could be wrong. It has been forever since I had anything plugged into it, so I am probably wrong.
I still plan to test the cigarette lighter in my 2000 to see if it is ignition hot or hot all the time. I know it has been mentioned that the power draw from the LED is very minimal, but what about the draw for someone who does not use their truck a lot?
My truck gets driven once every month or two for the most part, and I am concerned about drawing down the batteries during the period the truck is sitting.
If the cigarette lighter outlet is hot all the time, the way I see it I have 2 choices. First is install a SPST switch in line with the circuit in order to provide a switched source for the USB charger.
Second is look to remove the LED capability of the USB charger by removing the housing, disabling the LED and reattaching the housing.
I didn't have time to get to installing the USB charger these past couple of weeks because my hydroboost wigged out on me and took up a large portion of the time I had allotted. Although, I do have the USB charger in the garage on a shelf waiting for the next mod session. I fully intend to see if I can remove the LED capability first because I would prefer the ports to be hot all the time, just without the parasitic drain.
I also plan to take pictures and document what I can while taking it apart. If I break it, I will get another and install it with a switch.
You can rest assured that both of those ports are hot all the time. I, too, wonder what the LED's will do to my batteries but mine rarely sits for more than a week at a time.
my truck usage in winter is teh same.. I might open the door once a month but not crank it for 2 months.. I do keep a HF battery trickle charge on them and check voltages along the way.. the other day I was checking and took charger off let them sit for couple hr and measured 12.74 V on them so took off charger and will let them sit for a couiple week or so and then check again. that way I am keeping them charged with out over charging.
I doubt the LED light would drain 2 large az honking batteries over a 1yrs period.
Originally Posted by Sous
I still plan to test the cigarette lighter in my 2000 to see if it is ignition hot or hot all the time. I know it has been mentioned that the power draw from the LED is very minimal, but what about the draw for someone who does not use their truck a lot?
My truck gets driven once every month or two for the most part, and I am concerned about drawing down the batteries during the period the truck is sitting.
If the cigarette lighter outlet is hot all the time, the way I see it I have 2 choices. First is install a SPST switch in line with the circuit in order to provide a switched source for the USB charger.
Second is look to remove the LED capability of the USB charger by removing the housing, disabling the LED and reattaching the housing.
I didn't have time to get to installing the USB charger these past couple of weeks because my hydroboost wigged out on me and took up a large portion of the time I had allotted. Although, I do have the USB charger in the garage on a shelf waiting for the next mod session. I fully intend to see if I can remove the LED capability first because I would prefer the ports to be hot all the time, just without the parasitic drain.
I also plan to take pictures and document what I can while taking it apart. If I break it, I will get another and install it with a switch.
I was looking for the draw of the LED since so many are worried about it. I found this in the Q&A area for the same charger from a different seller. Some food for thought: This charger is DESIGNED FOR AUTOMOTIVE USE (12V) , if the LED's were a concern regardless of long or short term vehicle use I doubt people would be giving them the reviews they're getting if they drained batteries short or long term. People stated they installed them in RV's, Boats and vehicles, although I'm not one for assumptions, one could assume that people aren't using they're RV's or boats everyday...
My truck had sat for almost 3 weeks, I started it yesterday unplugged and using the remote start (25 second GPR timer) without issue. Hope this helps those concerned about the LED's...
Really nice work, and the concept is adaptable for people's different needs and preferences. Personally, I like the approach of using the upper power point port for a voltage meter only. In my 12+ years of driving these Super Duty vehicles, I've found that I really don't like having cords strung across/through the drinks in my cup holder. For me, then, a dual charger port in the lower dash with a volt meter in the upper port provides me the best combination of all functionalities.
02-03-2018, 07:52 AM
