Date:         Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:30:15 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Problems with cigarette lighter?
Comments: To: "Katherine J. Maas" <katherine@KJMAAS.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <C8969CAC.6E257%katherine@kjmaas.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 11:21 AM 8/22/2010, Katherine J. Maas wrote:
>Anyone else had problems with cigarette lighter blowing when you plug in a
>computer with an inverter/adapter? I got a Mac adapter from Mike Gyver and

Lighter socket may have an internal 8-amp fuse,
non-replaceable.  Suggest installing some power outlets on a fused
circuit closer to the battery.  If there's a way to avoid using the
cigarette-lighter-type sockets, do it; because lighter sockets are
very good for lighters and about as bad as you can get for anything
else.  They're an accident of history, like the Qwerty keyboard.

Lighter-plug connections will do much better if you a) make sure
everything involved is shiny-bright and b) tape the plug firmly into
the socket so that the springy pin on the end is always compressed.

Two-pin trailer connector pigtails are a cheap and electrically good
method.  However they're ugly and you have to convert your plug-in
wires.  If you make up a short pigtail with a trailer connector on
one end and the lighter plug on the other then you can use it both ways.

Yours,
David