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Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 am

Hey folks. Maybe you can shed some light on what is happening in my van.

Recently i blew up 2 ipods from 12V outlet in the dash (took out cig lighter and put in a stock VW 12v outlet) Did not know what happened to first one so plugged in second...presto, 2 broken iPods. This occured a few months back......

In the interim I rewired the outlet to the leisure battery, thinking this would solve issue...thought it might be a surge or something, but today plugged in the Garmin GPS and it blew the charger itself. Thankfully it did its job and protected the GPS unit.

Can anyone shed some light as to what is going on here? This is getting expensive !!

Many thanks....

Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:52 am

No idea why, but I had the same thing happen.

Twice.

You would think I would learn after the first time.

Now I don't run anything off the 12v that involves charging a battery. Items that run off the 12v directly seem to work fine, but any thing that has a battery that automatically gets charged is a no-go.

The only way I would do it now is with a power inverter.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:08 am

No ideas from me.

If you do not get much response here, you might want to send a PM to Dogpilot, one of many 12 volt experts on this fine forum.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:14 am

It's not the outlets, it's the voltage you're letting your ipod get.
What kind of cord are you plugging into the outlet and your ipod?
Unless you got them wired backwards.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:27 am

Apple is changing the voltage rating on iPods... I remember hearing that in a VW training class. Later ones should be more robust.

Me? I just use Shuffles. They have long battery life. I just plug them in with a cassette adapter or "line in" on my Rabbit Convertible. Works like a charm. I get about 6 hours of music out of the 1 gig model.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 9:14 am

Check the polarity of the outlet....the center point should be positive red.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 9:34 am

My guess is that these devices are seeing too much voltage. I'd be very surprised that is a polarity issues, even the cheapest devices have a diode to protect for this.

I would start by looking at the voltage regulator on your alternator as a source for over voltage. Get a multimeter on the battery terminals (or better yet, the back of the alternator) and look for any high voltage.

I cant think of any other potential sources and if I understand the aux battery setup (to-do project for me) hooking your sockets to it will not solve the problem as alternator = main battery = aux battery when the ignition is on. Batteries cant generate 'spikes' so the only remaining power source is the alternator.

Personally I would not connect any consumer electronic devices directly to a 12V system. A quick search online turned up nothing but a 12V-12V regulated psu will smooth glitches and protect expensive gizmos.

all the best!

Wed Sep 02, 2009 9:48 am

Older iPods used the firewire power supply internally, which can handle up to 33 volts. If your van put out 33 volts a lot more stuff wold be toast. Newer ones go through the USB power supply, which is 5 volts, so the power adaptors must regulate to that.

So if I was a betting man, I too wold vote for polarity reversal. I, electronic wizard that I am, wired one of the three in my van backwards. Careless and in a hurry.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 10:55 am

I misread "(took out cig lighter and put in a stock VW 12v outlet)"

As the OP took out the cig lighter and put IT (the ipod adapter) in to the socket.

That would have been the right way to go. Get one of those car adapters.

I'm not sure how you wire an ipod directly in to 12V, and yes, if you could do that it would blow the ipod. They make 'car adapters' for a reason!

As for the garmain. I'm also going to assume that the 'charger' portion of the story is a 12v adapter... OP??? and if so, being garmain, they will have polarity protection or sensing (I could be wrong but their not known as a low-end crappy brand that would skimp on a 10c part)

But yes, if the OP tweaked with the electrical system and now things are blowing up.... undo. Although, I somehow think thats not the problem. More details SirIvor70 please!

Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:57 am

Thanks for the comments folks.

First off I must check to see I dont have them wired up incorrectly. Darn good idea.

More details....took out the old cig lighter in the dash and replaced it with a 12V outlet that came out of a Jetta. You know the ones....12v written on the cap and can be found in the trunk I believe. Also put one in the stove panel in the rear and wired them both up to the new leisure.

The ipods fried earlier when the cig lighter was wired to the main battery so makes me think it could be the regulator on the alternator....second thing to check !!!!

When I refered to the "charger", with the Garmin am referring to the 12V cord that came in the box. Am travelling through France right now and the Garmin worked beautifully for 6 hours and then the charger died...little red LED just went blank. So sounds like the reg then, since if it were wired incorrectly, then would have died immediately ?? Correct ?

Thanks for the assistance folks.

Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:38 am

If they died while the engine was off, then its probably your wiring.
If they ever worked with your new jetta sockets then its not your wiring.

If your alternator regulator is on the fritz you are having or are going to have far greater problems. First and foremost chlorine gas in the cabin (o;

While a bad regulator is an outside shot my spidey senses doubts the OP wired up new sockets, never had them work and fried all their electronics and then wondered what the issue might be.

Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:02 am

> plugged in second...presto, 2 broken iPods.

> I had the same thing happen.

What are you folks plugging in to the cigarette lighter? I know you said an iPod, but, iPods dont have cigarette lighter plugs, so, what are you using between the iPod USB plug and the cigarette lighter?

I have used a Radio Shack 70watt inverter plugged into the cigarette lighter, and then plugged in the 2 prong AC power plug and USB cord to charge my iPhone.. It got really hot, so, I dont trust the Radio Shack inverter to regulate voltage properly..

I now have a cigarette lighter plug (the male part that plugs into the socket on the dash) that accepts the USB end of my iPhone cable (iphone and iPod use same cable to connect to USB power source).. I have not blown up my iPhone yet..

In another vehicle (not a Vanagon) I have a radio that has a USB socket. I have plugged both my iPod, and my iPhone USB power cord into that port and both devices are still working fine.

Moral of the story, you need a regulated power supply, not sure you can trust a 70 or 140watt Radio Shack inverter to do that.. And Im pretty sure you cant trust the socket on the vanagon to do that, though, I still dont understand how you plug an iPod USB power cable into a Vanagon dash cigarette lighter socket.. there must be another device in line.. and it may not be regulating properly..

Please share your solution
Jonathan

Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:36 am

They do make car chargers for iphones and ipods that plug into the 12 volt outlet and directly into the device. No usb needed. I have two and have no problems.

Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:30 am

Yeah.. I have a monster cable adapter that plugs into my ipod and cigarette lighter. This unit charges the ipod while also allowing you to tune to a radio station and play the ipod through the stereo.

Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:34 am

im having some issues here too - aux battery powers everything (radio cig lighter interior lights etc). when i plug my mp3 player to my usb adapter, the battery simply wont charge. the lights are all on but it appears as thought he voltage is wrong and the bettery int he mp3 doesnt charge. it charges when plugged into the computer.... so its either the adapter itself (usb-cig lighter adapter) or the voltage. I will be buying a new adapter today to see if that is the problem.

Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:05 am

If your 12 volt car cord stops working, you should check the fuse first.
Most come with a fuse in the lighter plug part, unscrew the spring loaded tip and there should be a round fuse in there.

Another thing I would and do avoid are the cheap knock-off chargers, and batteries for small electronics.
The kind that are all over Ebay.
They seem the screw things up, or not work for very long if at all.
Spend the extra and get the OEM stuff.

Fri Sep 18, 2009 10:51 am

I second Art's reply about off brand iPod or USB supplies from 12V. They can be just a plastic box and not much else. I did get a little inverter that does 100 Watts and has a USB charging outlet as well. I can't remember the name off hand, but I got it at Fry's for about $50. It is really thin and small and will power a laptop when I don't want to fire up the über-inverter as well.

Fri Sep 18, 2009 12:05 pm

The first thing would be to take an accurate voltmeter and measure the voltage of the system while running. It should be in the 12.5-14V range.