Car charger

[A7JoJo]

I noticed on the car charger that the output is DC 5v-6v with 600 mA MAX . Is it possible to run this on an Austin 7 by bypassing the 12v to 6v circuit on the charger .Thanks .

[AustinWood]

I have a cigar lighter socket fitted and use my car chargers in that. It works fine with my Tomtom One V1 and also using a USB adapter charges my smartphone. Most seem to be 5.5V and there seems to be enough headroom to 6V for them to work.

[A7JoJo]

Thank you for your reply. Can you tell me what voltage your car operates on and how you wired up the cigarette lighter? Many thanks ,Colin.

[AustinWood]

The car is six volt. The socket is wired straight across the battery with an in-line fuse.

[Chris KC]

When I suggest such things to my youthful colleagues they give me funny looks and point me at products like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HETP-Portable-C...way&sr=8-7

[garryruck]

On a past trip some years back I powered my car Tom Tom sat nav with a socket taken directly off the 6V battery. Apparently they operate at 5,5V and above Managed to get there and back without losing my way!! Also in the absence of a properly accurate speedo I used a cycle computer from Lidl wired up just to get a longer wire from the rear wheel from the sensor!! I think it cost about £5.

[AustinWood]

My son has a Power bank. It went flat part way through a weekend away.

[Andy Bennett]

Just to note that the cigarette lighter socket needs to be one of the fully insulated 'stand alone' sockets, then it doesn't care about positive or negative earth, it just works on 6V difference.
Been using one from Maplin cost £2:99 for about 10 years on a number of Tom Toms. Wired as noted above just to convenient supply and earth. Mine is hidden in the glove box, wired from behind so it cannot be seen but sat nav can easily be plugged in.
All with usual caveats that some have previously said that the lack of voltage regulation has blown sensitive electronics in sat navs especially on starting surge.

Andy

[AustinWood]

I think using the appropriate charger plugged into the socket should protect the device. Could blow the charger possibly.
I've done many thousand miles using the Tomtom with no problem.

[A7JoJo]

Thank you for everyone's contributions . I have a few alternatives to consider.