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I did a search, but it put my search words together with OR instead of AND and brought up 10 pages of results. I'd rather get yelled at than search through 10 pages!
So anyway, I'm trying to hook up a PS2 in my car with a 300 watt power inverter and I want to know if there's a DIY on how to hook it up. It's pretty straight forward to hook it to the battery directly, but it'd be better to have it turn on and off with the ignition.
So option 2 is to splice into the cigarette adapter, but I don't know how to do this. Pulling the dash out to look at it is pretty straight forward, but I'm not really down with cutting wires that carry power around my car....is there a safe way to do it? Is there a certain part of it I should cut into? What about an inline fuse? I have no idea how to do it this way, can someone help?

 
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get an add a curcuit fuse from an autostore i got mine form canadian tire and put the fuse into the radio slot underneath the steering wheel then with the wire attached to the fuse connect the postitive to that. Then your power inverter has power when the car is on and in the acc just like ur radio would.. then find a ground and you should be set.

 
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Damn, sounds like a good idea. So let me know if I have this pieced together correctly....

1. Buy add a circuit from Canadian Tire.
2. Look under the steering wheel to find some sort of fuse slot and put the add a circuit in there.
3. Connect the positive (white) wire to the add a fuse.
4. Connect ground somewhere under dash to frame.

 
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yeah you can do it that way. But you could use a relay instead of connecting it directly on your radio circuit, cause if you using too much current it will blow fuse. it is really easy to use a relay instead. if you want me to draw a diagram, let me know. Also, as for wire, why u using house cables? what is that 10/2? i'd use stranded car wire for this aplication (12 gauge).

 
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Where would I get stranded car wire? Canadian Tire? Would 12 gauge be enough?

 
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anywere really, any car audio shop, or places like that, and yes 12 gauge is enough. you can do it with the wire you have there, it's just it is harder to work with a solid wire than stranded wire. yes you can get it at canadian tire or walmart also.

 
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Thanks, and I even have a tap in I was supposed to install with my flip out (handbrake bypass) I can use. So I'd need to pick up some 18 gauge as well? And The inline fuse install is pretty self explanatory?

 
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I also bought this today for $16.

 
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you don't need to get the 18 gauge, you can put bigger wire (if you buying 12 gauge for the rest, you can use that instead of the 18 gauge, but i think you can't fit larger than 16gauge in the tap connector). if you do it my way, you don't need the "add a circuit" that you bought, u should have bought an in-line fuse instead.

 
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since u bought the "add a circuit", u might as well not tap in the lighter wire, and use that "add a circuit" to get your power for the relay. Take out a fuse that has only power when car is on (radio, etc...), install that "add a circuit" in instead and then install the fuse you took out in (one of the slot, not sure, you'll have to check on the instructions or check with DMM, then install the lowest fuse (i think 3 amps) that you got with the "add a circuit" in (one of the slot, not sure, you'll have to check instructions or with DMM). now connect the wire coming out of it to the wire that was supposed to be tapped in the lighter wire.

 
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I got the wire that goes into the back of the cigarette lighter, it's yellow with a stripe on it. And I have a tap so maybe I'll do that, we'll see. Thanks for the info though.

 
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yea u could do it that way i hooked up my inverter the way i said and it has worked fine havent blown a fuse yet.

edit: im also using a 300watt power inverter as well.

 
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wow. youre doing waay too much work. you do know that you can purchase a power invertor that plugs into your 12 volt ciggarette lighter?

 
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or go to www.bestbuy.com you can buy a 12 volt adapter that will power your ps2.. thats easier than any other route.. what are you showing video on?? in dash? what model?

 
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I don't want the plugs hanging out of the cigarette lighter, I want it all behind the dash.
I got the Panasonic 7001.

 
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He could have done it that way but, that would be a ugly job. you always try to show less wires as possible, especially not a big plug in the cig lighter. it would be ok if you would have to remove it all the time, but for this setup, he wants it permanent, so it's much cleaner to hide the wires.

 
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Okay, so here's a little update. I've decided to guy buy some braided 12 gauge after work if Canadian Tire is open. If I get that, I'll hook up the add a circuit under the steering wheel (provided I can find where it goes). And that should be that after finding a suitable ground.

 
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put in the add a circuit, put in the smallest fuse u got with the add a circuit(i think 3 amp) for the relay. the 3 amp fuse goes in one slot and the fuse that you removed to put in the add a circuit goes in the other slot, i'm not sure wich goes in wich slot, I have one in my car but it's snowing right now, so don't feel like checking. you could find out with a DMM, or maybe it is marked on the instructions? Anyways after that, the ground, i always use the same spot for my leds and hu, etc...., it's a bolt behind the cig lighter plastic, there is a bolt with a small wire that is already grounded there, just add your ground wires there. after that just follow the diagram. Did you get a relay?

 
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No, no relay. Do I need one this way?
I was going to ground it where I grounded the SIDE BRAKE wire for the DVD player so I would watch it while I'm driving. It's one of the 2 bolts that hold in the head unit console to the frame.

 
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u don't need a relay, but in my diagram, i had showed you how to do it with a relay. if you don't use relay, the power from the inverter plus whatever else is running on the circuit you put the add a circuit on will be combined, so if you using too much stuff on the circuit, you gonna blow fuse, it all depends on what circuit you put it on, if you put it with lighter circuit, you will be fine. but if you don't put relay, the diagram is worthless, cause you don't need to run line from battery, plus the inverter is not connected on the relay, so i'll make you another diagram

 
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actually, u don't need a diagram if not using a relay, just connect the + of the power inverter to the add a circuit, then connect the - of the power inverter on ground.

 
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also, if not using a relay, instead of putting a 3 amp fuse in the add a circuit, put in the same size fuse that you took out to put in the add a circuit, so you will have two exact same size fuses in the 2 slots.

 
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just hook it to the radio fuse and put the original fuse in there with another fuse of the same amp in there casue it has 2 slots and just connect the power wire haha. when i first put it in i hooked it up to my power windows and i couldnt figure out why it wouldnt work then i looked at it then saw it was there so i moved it over to radio lol.

 
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So here we are again! I bought some 18 guage braided wire, think this would be enough? Better than the house wire?

 
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????

 
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the 18 gauge was for if you did it with the relay, you would need bigger wire than 18 gauge for the power wires. i'd get 12 gauge just to be safe. what set-up u going with? relay or not?

 
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no relay
Looks like it's back to Canadian Tire.
I don't even know if 12 gauge would fit in the add a circuit though. Like the physical wire.

 
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okay

get a 10gauge amp kit from www.hifisoundconnection.com, $10 + shipping

get a relay from Canadian tire

run the 10ga wire from your batt thru the firewall. the wire includes an inline fuse holder

connect the wire coming from the battery to terminal 30 on the relay. run a 10ga wire from terminal 87 on the relay to your inverter

go buy a pack of these http://www.dlcparts.com/frontend/pro...DAPTOR&ID=1130 and some male disconnects. put one of those taps on a switched 12v line, and run the remote wire from that kit to terminal 85 on your relay. put a wire from terminal 86 on the relay to ground

play ps2