Installing an additional cigarette lighter in a car

The cigarette lighter is an essential attribute of any car. Often there is a need for an additional cigarette lighter, located in the trunk or on the panel, next to the main one. Through a splitter you can connect up to 3 different devices to one cigarette lighter. The additional cigarette lighter is connected directly to the battery. After reading the article, you will learn how to connect the cigarette lighter in your car correctly without harming your car.

How does a cigarette lighter work?

A car cigarette lighter is two devices - a heating element and a connector (plug) in a convenient housing. It can be directly connected to the battery, so the device works even if the ignition switch is turned off. In addition to its main purpose, the plug is often used as a 12/24 volt outlet to which a splitter is connected to provide power to a laptop, phone or other devices. A splitter is also connected to it, so you can simultaneously charge a laptop, phone, or use a DVR. The power splitter or power supplies of these devices are inserted into a plug that provides a reliable connection to the cigarette lighter socket contacts.

What you need to insert a cigarette lighter

If you decide to install an additional cigarette lighter, you will need the following tools:

• drill;
• set of metal drills;
• metal crown, the diameter of which corresponds to the selected cigarette lighter;
• round and flat files;
• soldering iron;
• solder;
• rosin;
• pliers;
• side cutters;
• Screwdriver Set;
• heat-shrink tubing;
• switch;
• fuse;
• the wire;
• a regular cable splitter (220 volts) from a hardware store

Where is the standard cigarette lighter located in a VAZ 2110 car?

The standard cigarette lighter of the VAZ 2110 has a long socket, but modern devices are designed for a European cigarette lighter (short). If you need to install an additional cigarette lighter, you must ensure that it is compatible with new devices. It is possible to connect a second cigarette lighter either by running a separate wire from the battery through a 15A fuse, or in parallel with the standard one. The placement of the cigarette lighter in the car interior depends only on your imagination.

What to choose?

If you are thinking about purchasing a car cigarette lighter splitter, then you probably already have a fleet of in-car electronics that you need to connect. This allows you to roughly imagine the required number of connectors. For example, if you simultaneously use a DVR, navigator and radar detector, then it is logical to look towards models with three 12-V sockets and two USB ports. In this case, the main devices will be occupied by all the car cigarette lighters, and there will be a couple of free USBs left for charging a smartphone or tablet. The maximum possible configuration is four 12-V connectors and two USB ports.

When choosing, you should also pay attention to the cable length. It can reach three meters. If you don’t need extra cords in your car, then you can get by with a model without an extension cord, but in this case it would be wise to choose a splitter with a variable angle. In this case, it will be more convenient to connect devices; besides, in some cars the sockets are hidden in niches: in this case, you cannot do without such a design.

Installing an additional cigarette lighter on a VAZ 2110

The simplest way to install an additional cigarette lighter is to install the cigarette lighter in place of the socket of a portable lamp. It already contains a permanent “plus”, you just need to remove the socket, not forgetting to disconnect the battery, slightly increase the diameter (by 1 mm) and install an additional cigarette lighter in the socket. Another way is to install a cigarette lighter in the VAZ 2110 tunnel. In stores you can easily find cigarette lighters with a cover, fuse, and wiring.

Test program and methodology

All devices were tested for maximum current load. To do this, their output sockets were loaded with reference resistances, providing a load current of 10 A (or 5 A, if specified in the instructions) at an input supply voltage of 13.5 V. We monitored the thermal conditions of the devices and the integrity of the fuses (if they existed at all).

If there were USB sockets, the output voltage was checked, as well as the actual current output at a load corresponding to the average consumption of a smartphone with navigation and DVR programs turned on. The standard charger of such a smartphone produces a voltage of 5.24 V and a current of 1.75 A. The limiting parameters for ensuring a positive energy balance were considered to be a voltage higher than 5.0 V and a current greater than 1.15 A. These are average parameters that are strongly influenced by brightness display backlight or data exchange intensity. The presence of nest illumination was assessed separately.

Don't burn out at work: how to connect several gadgets to the cigarette lighter?

Who is guilty?

Physics and electrical engineering clearly state: in order to transmit large currents through detachable connections, the connectors must have a significant contact area, low self-resistance and be sufficiently tight. To understand the essence of the processes occurring in the car cigarette lighter socket and the corresponding plug of a 12-volt gadget, let’s disassemble the plug and take a look at its guts.

The cigarette lighter connector is two-pin. Minus – “ears” on the body, plus – central plug. On the downside, there were never any questions - the springy sides of the plug usually fit very tightly into the socket, and this contact calmly withstands the current, which allows the standard fuse in the “fuse box” to pass through, on which the cigarette lighter circuit hangs. But the positive contact is an unreliable guy...

Firstly, the contact area of ​​the plug tip with the mating part of the socket is insufficient for currents above 3-5 amperes. The contact part of the “plus” in cigarette lighter splitters is found in two versions: in the form of a ring “rivet”, a la a hardware eyelet like on bags or sneakers, or in the form of a simple flat metal bottom. When choosing, these two varieties are clearly visible when you take the splitter in your hands. Which option is better? Oddly enough - none.

The fact is that the positive “nose” of cigarette lighter plugs also comes in different shapes. Some are rounded, some are almost flat. Obviously, the quality of contact will be higher if the “rivet” coincides with the semicircular “nose”, and the flat bottom coincides with the flat “nose”. But hardly anyone will select the type of plug on the gadget to match the type of their splitter - such “troubles” go beyond the bounds of reason.

Secondly, inside the cigarette lighter plug, the positive potential passes on the way to the load at least three consecutive not very reliable contacts, based only on the force of the spring: “tip-spring”, “spring-fuse”, “fuse-plate” (the one which the wire is already soldered). The contact provided only by pressing the planes against each other is unreliable, and with any distortions its area decreases, causing local heating.

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The participation of the spring in the transmission of current is a complete disaster, since from an electrical point of view it is a piece of steel wire about ten centimeters long included in the circuit. This is an area of ​​increased resistance and voltage drop in a powerful circuit, which means it is a source of heating and potentially poor contact. Sometimes the springs in the plugs heat up to the point of losing their elasticity - its pressure weakens, and heating begins in the deteriorated contact in the fuse. As a result, the plastic of the plug body, and sometimes the splitter itself, softens.

What to do?

Alas, we must admit that the cigarette lighter is not intended for long-term power supply of powerful consumers. A power strip supplying multiple high-amp loads operates under heavy and potentially dangerous conditions. Is it possible to somehow guarantee reliable operation of powerful gadgets in the car through a splitter? Alas, the greatest reliability can only be achieved by connecting a single consumer to a 12-volt socket without any splitters. If you cannot do without using a “tee,” you can reduce the risk of problems, but only partially and with a fair amount of fuss, which not everyone will like.

The fact is that if you connect, say, a pair of powerful “emels”, a thermal mug and a tablet to the cigarette lighter splitter, the current through each of the plugs will be, although high, but on the whole relatively tolerable. But the total current passing through the splitter’s own plug can be fifteen amperes. This is already an excessively large current, and a rare plug “digests” it safely for a long time. Therefore, if you start “tuning”, then you will have to slightly modify the splitter plug.

The idea is to eliminate numerous unreliable contacts from the plug, based only on the elasticity of the spring. You will also have to remove the fuse. This will not affect safety, since the individual fuses remain in the plugs of the gadgets connected to the splitter, and the cigarette lighter circuit also protects the standard common fuse in the car’s “fuse box.”

To modify the plug, you need to disassemble it, remove the fuse, and replace the spring with a longer one. The “nose” and the flat contact must be tinned and connected to each other with a piece of stranded wire using a soldering iron. It is on this principle that the graphite brushes of any electric motor are made - the wire passes through a spring, becoming a “bypass” for the current, which does not cause a voltage drop and heating. And the spring serves only the role of pressing the contact, and not the conductor.

The method is quite effective, but whether it’s worth the trouble is a moot point. It may be easier to prevent overload of the splitter by using it only to power low-power gadgets, and plug powerful consumers such as seat heating into the cigarette lighter directly and alternately.

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