My spiffy afternoon project

[Nothingbuta3Gthang]

I bought a Jenson power converter a few months ago from Best Buy. For anyone who doesnt know, it plugs into your cigarette lighter and converts the direct current from that into an alternating current. So you can plug anything that uses an outlet into it. At first it was cool to be able to use electronic gizmos in the car, but then I got sick of the wires being in the way. So I wanted to figure out a way to still use the converter but incorporate it into the dash somehow. So what I did was take two of those little filler plates next to the steering wheel (I think power mirror buttons and something else are normally here) and I cut holes in the front of them with a dremel. Then I pulled the outlet and switch out of the power converter and snipped the wires, and mounted the outlet and switch in the filler plates. I went to Radio Shack and bought a bunch of wire to extend the ones I snipped. I mounted the power converter behind the glove box, and ran the wire extension underneath the dashboard and connected them back to the outlet and switch, and then put the filler plates back in. And since the power converter needs to be plugged into the cigarette lighter, I pushed it back through its hole, and plugged the converter into that, and mounted it behide the ashtray. Now I've got to come up with an idea for what I'm going to do with that hole where the cigarette lighter was.....anyone have a suggestion? Any comments are also appreciated!
Thanks for looking!
-Craig-
See the pics here: www.angelfire.com/biz4/craigbrousseau

[TJ89Accord]

I just hooked up mine to the ignition, with a relay, and got poer from the battery. I cut off the cigarette lighter plug, and hard wired it to the car. I have mine under the drivers seat. I used a relay from the ignition so that if I accidently left on the power invertor, it will shut off when I turn the car off.

tim

[Nothingbuta3Gthang]

That sounds like a cool setup, nice that you cant drain your battery. This one I bought gives a warning beep when the battery is getting low, and automatically shuts off when the battery reaches a certain point, so it wont drain the battery.

[TJ89Accord]

Yah, I think thats what mine said too. That it will beep and then shut off. Mine is 175 watts. Its good for PS2s and small things like that. Thats all I need it for though. I like how you set yours up. I think instead of wiring it to the cigarette lighter you should wire it to the battery. That way you still have a cigarette lighter. Its really easy to do. If you are worried about cutting the plug off the end, you can get an adapter from radio shack that you can plug it into, and that will have a power and ground wire that you car wire to the battery, and the ground.

tim

[Nothingbuta3Gthang]

That would be pretty slick. I think I may have one of those adaptors lying around. Would you mind telling me how to wire it up?