Always on power outlet problem

[theking11863]

So recently I acquired a dash mounted usb charger that I wanted to use in my 4runner. When I bought it, I was just going to run it straight to the battery, but later realized this was a bad idea due to an always on light that's built into it. So instead what I decided to do was cut the positive out of the cigarette lighter outlet and plug that into the charger so that its on only when the key is in, and have the outlet run straight to battery. Cut and wired everything up and it appeared to be working.

Well earlier today I decided I was going to charge my phone while wiring other things so I plugged it into the outlet using my old adapter. Long story short I turned on my interior lights and my phone stops charging. If I turn the lights off my phone charges again. I then proceeded to cut the old ground for the lighter and run it directly to a body ground with no improvement.

Anyone have any ideas why this is happening? As far as I know no fuses blew and everything works fine until the lights get turned on. The next thing I'm going to try is running the ground from the outlet to the usb charger (currently just using a body ground) and see if that solves it. Thanks in advance for any advice


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[RAD4Runner]

...what I decided to do was cut the positive out of the cigarette lighter outlet and plug that into the charger...

Sorry... UNclear. Why cut original wiring? Why not just tap into original wiring?
You mean you disconnected original cigarette lighter socket from ignition wiring? And where are you getting your power now, because the charger is not connected to the battery, either?
Ang how do you plug the cigarette lighter outlet into the charger? The cigarette lighter outlet is a female outlet.
Schematic would help so others trying to help can visualize what you have in front of you.

 

[flyinhawaiian01]

yeah, I agree, need a lot more detail here. I'd suggest pics of this charger, as well as the wiring you've done so far with this and the cig lighter outlet.

To me, it sounds like you've tapped the ground wire into the dimmer wire if your lights are controlling the charger, but I can't be sure until I saw (or at the very least, the wire colors), what you've tapped into.

 

[theking11863]

Sorry for the miscommunication guys. To clarify, only one wire was changed, the positive from the lighter outlet was cut and connected to the usb charger. The lighter outlet is now powered by a new wire that runs directly from the battery. The lighter and the usb charger are two separate things. The charger will be mounted in one of the old switch blanks.

I cut the original wiring instead of tapping into it because I like the idea of having an always on lighter as I've gotten used to having one in my Firebird. So usb charger is only active while the key is there and and the lighter is hot 24/7. I also did this because each circuit only has x amount of power available and if you tap into it too much you'll start causing problems later as my friend discovered with his suburban. Because of that I try to avoid tapping into things as much as possible.

Here's a old pic of the charger. It just has two connectors for wires, a positive and a negative. Excuse my dirty center console, it has since been cleaned very well

I've also figured out what the problem was and fixed it. I'm just doing too many projects and pulling too many things apart all at once is the issue


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