Cigarette lighter adapter

Hello Richard,

I've come across ciga lighter sockets with ceramic inserts (the real lighter socket, not the el cheapo plastic version).
The center contact on them is in the middle of a depression in the ceramic (a 5mm wide groove across the surface).
Some plugs have a wide flat center pin which can get caught on the edge of this groove, and thus won't make contact.

A possibility?

Best regards, Peter

The camper may have merrit plugs (not sure of the spelling) which is why some male plugs have the ceremic adapter on. You can get a conversion unit from Jaycar so you can convert standard cig plugs to merrit plugs, cost about $10.00.

Hi I did some testing today.

I think I know why these things don't work.

When ever I put them in the fuse blows.

The USB adapters have a 1 amp fuse aparently this is standard according to the guy from Jar Car.

I even tried a new one today and it just blew - I smell like I have been playing with crackers. It does not seem to have a fuse like the others.

I had not noticed this before as with my old adapters as they did not smell when they blew like the new one.

I was hoping to use it to recharge phones etc but looks like I can't.

All these things work OK in car battery.

Richard

Are the sockets in the Trailer wired Reverse Polarity - centre is earth ?

This won't affect lights, but electronics won't like it !

My saga still continues with the 12v adapter. I have been chasing other issues so did a final test again.

As mentioned I have 2 12v outlets on my van - one internal and one external.

The only thing I have been able to run on both is a 12v light I have.

The internal one sometimes lets me run a usb adapater charger.

I have been through quite a few fuses and even a coup,e of adapaters during this exercise.

I just did one more test.

This will sound strange but what I did was

1) connected a 300w inverter in to the 12v plug to give 240v
2) I then connect a USB adapter to the inverter (the one you normally plug in to the wall at home)
On the internal one it worked!
Just to be sure I plugged a 12v USB directly in to the internal plug and it worked again - as mentioned this sometimes works

I then felt encouraged to try the inverter on the external one.
No popping sound this time but it did not work.
I checked the fuse on the inverter (which was 15a) and found it had blown
So I am not sure what is coming out of the external plug but it is a lot more than expected.

Why the internal one works now and again I am unsure.

This is a new van and I have contacted the builders but have not yet got a response - hopefully next week,

My son who is a sparky is coming around tomorrow and I will ask him to have a look but he can't do much as really a warranty issue - even if I have travel 1000km to get it fixed along with a leaky front storage door

I will let you all know if this ever gets resolved.

Richard

Remember I mentioned that every time I put a 12v adapter in to my external 12 v outlet the fuse blew.

I finally got my son to have a look at it today and he found that the builders had put the +ve and -ve leads around the wrong way.

So when he put a meter on it it read -13.7v. This is not a problem for lights but is for anything that had some sort of electronics in it.

It also mean the side of the van was live if you touched the internal edges of the plug. The internal plug was OK.

An easy fix - was just a matter of switching wires around although we pulled out the plug - a bit of pain to put back..

Any way I think it is fixed - time will tell

Thanks to all who had responded

Richard