Hardwiring GPS, need 5v power

[stahl]

I have a base 05, without nav system. Now, I have a bluetooth GPS receiver which has a power supply that plugs into the cig lighter. All these wires add up though, so I want to hide the GPS unit somewhere in the dash. It's got an MCX connector so I initially figured I'd get an external antenna, but after seeing Jahntassa's pic of the stock gps mounted on that bracket in this thread), I'm wondering whether my vibe would have such a bracket even though it doesn't have a factory GPS. And how hard it would be to get the dash off (doesn't look like I can install it the way I want to with the dash on)And the main thing -- what would I use to power the GPS? It's a Royaltek RBT-3000 and it wants 5v. The idea is that I take out the battery, have the device power switch always on, and when the car starts it automatically fires up and talks to my PocketPC / laptop via bluetooth. I already tested whether it would run without battery and it does.I'm just wondering if there's any wires that have 5 volts, or if there's some sort of 12-to-5v converter that I just clamp onto one of the wires that can be purchased at Radio Shack (I went to a local one, but they didn't have what I was looking for).I guess in the worst case I could solder my own pair of wires and a connector with the proper resistor or whatever those things are called, but I'm a complete newbie in that department.Any hints and suggestions are appreciated.

[ragingfish]

You're not gonna get a straight 5V in the car itself, but I couldn't begin to tell you how to build an adapter.Check the manufacturer of the GPS, many offer inexpensive 12V hard-wire kits with the transformers built in...

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by stahl » Now, I have a bluetooth GPS receiver which has a power supply that plugs into the cig lighter. I would wire in a new cigarette lighter type plug into 12V somewhere hidden, and plug the power supply that you already have into it. Maybe tape the plug into the socket so vibration of driving doesn't make it come loose

[stahl]

I checked for a hardwire kit and couldn't find anything. (Especially in the US I can hardly find anything RoyalTek -- then again, I did buy it while I was in Germany)I think wiring a new cig lighter plug will do it. Now I gotta figure out how to do that. I guess it's no harder than stripping the right wire and soldering on the new outlet.

[Jahntassa]

What I did was make a new bracket out of a hoodpin bracket (I do a lot of alarm installs, so I had these sitting around), but you could probably make it out of anything. Just bend something 90degrees and screw it into the vent structure. I'd probably bet the gps antenna holes are there already to give you a guide.My GPS requires 5v too, and because of it's extensive warm-up time (5 minutes, anyone?) what I did was get a cig lighter outlet with bare wires on it (Radioshack is your friend), and wire it into the constant power wire going to the radio. Then, I connected the 5v from the adapter to the GPS.Now, I used my XM power adapter, but I have the MiFi. The MiFi is the ONLY XM reciever (other than the Tao XM-2-Go and Pioneer AirWare) that uses 5v, so it will NOT work with other XM units..Anyway, yes.. a second ciglighter outlet wired into either constant or switched power.On testing, i'm not too worried about battery drain because the GPS I have only uses about 0.08 amps, which should be little enough to not cause too much of a drain.

[Myself]

A lot of cellphones take 5v as a charging input. Check around the bargain bin to see if you can find a lighter adapter for an obsolete cellphone that puts out 5v, and just hardwire it in.

[ullbergm]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »You're not gonna get a straight 5V in the car itself, but I couldn't begin to tell you how to build an adapter.Check the manufacturer of the GPS, many offer inexpensive 12V hard-wire kits with the transformers built in...Check out the LM7805 chip, its a basic power regulator, give it 12V and it will give you 5V back.There is only 3 leads.Power input (12V from car)GroundPower output (5V to gps)http://www.chipcatalog.com/Doc...4.pdf

[stahl]

Hey thanks for all the help. I've already taken care of it. Bought a cig lighter socket at RadioShack and hooked it up with it underneath the dash. Works like a charm.