Mio 168 - Permanent power cable in car

[gareth71]

Has anyone installed any sort of permanent power/charging cable for a Mio 168 into a car?

Just below the point where mine normally sits is one of the fuse boxes in my Volvo, with some spare fuse slots on it. I got to thinking that it would be nice to take power directly from there to power my Mitac, instead of having the fag lighter cable draped across the steering column and across the front of the stereo ....

My first thought is to buy a second car charger, open the business end and extract the electronics and build them into a small box (I'm pretty handy with electrics/electronics), and mount this inside the footwell panels somewhere with the Mio connector emerging from a suitable point in the dash and a 12v feed taken from a spare slot on the fusebox.

If anyone's done this sort of thing, or has seen it done, I'd be interested in any comments.

[mallettron]

Brodit do a mount with the electronics built in, all you do is fix to a suitable fused 12v supply

http://www.gpsforless.co.uk/product_details.php?id=963&PHPSESSID=a4bf03af01abacdd8f33e0bada8c737e

Ive thought about doing my own, along your idea, but by the time Ive finished with the mount, connector, 12v etc I might as well buy one of these and fix it direct

Ronnie

[chrismaddock]

When I bought my car Ihad the dealer convert the cig lighter socket to permanent live so I could charge batteries when I'm not in the car.

When I bought the MIO168 I mounted the supplied cradle onto an air vent with tie-wraps and bought a retractable power cable which stays permanently plugged in with just a thin, flat lead running straight up the dashboard. It works a treat.

I subsequently cannibalised the retractable lead plug and fitted a switch to it so I don't have to keep unplugging before starting the car - to avoid the risk of surges killing the PDA or voltage reg in the plug. Even better.

KRs
Chris

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