I have wired in a bluetooth phone kit on my new 111 vito and taken a permanent live off the cigarette lighter. I also plug in my PDA/sat nav and have noticed that sometimes the charge light flashes.
However i now have a mobile phone charger which when plugged in works fine, but if I get an incoming call and my car kit or if my pda is plugged in the phone tells me to unplug it as the charging is bad.
I had a similar problem with my old 110 but put it down to the van being old.
It seems that there is a voltage drop when more than one item is being used.
I have wired in a bluetooth phone kit on my new 111 vito and taken a permanent live off the cigarette lighter. I also plug in my PDA/sat nav and have noticed that sometimes the charge light flashes.
However i now have a mobile phone charger which when plugged in works fine, but if I get an incoming call and my car kit or if my pda is plugged in the phone tells me to unplug it as the charging is bad.
I had a similar problem with my old 110 but put it down to the van being old.
It seems that there is a voltage drop when more than one item is being used.
Has anyone come across this themselves?
Hi chriskedwards
First of all it sounds like a short !
But first you say you PDA sometimes flashes, It depends on which make of PDA as mine flashes when charging, and on constant when charged.
But you will need to do spme checks, ie voltage and current, on each item there should be a sticker saying what the rating is, we need that info?
Don't forget you cigarette lighter socket is limited to 10Amps (120 Watts)
All the items work fine when plugged in on their own.
There isnt an overload problem. My HP PDA has a constant orange light when charging and it goes green when charged, however it sometimes flashes orange and doesnt take charge.
My Parott Bluetooth works fine as its hard wired, with a permenant live off the cig lighter.
My phone charges with the parott on but goes funny when the parott comes to life when receiving or dialing a call. The phone beeps loudly and askes to be taken off charge.
My mate has the same van and is fitting a parott today so i will check my phone on his van over the weekend to see if it works.
i will look at the ratings of the items and get back to you
I have a parrot 3200 ls colour. It worked ok with my old nokia. I now have a sony W850i(not the issue here but a much better phone).
I have used the dreaded scotch blocks, but have used them before with no problems.
On my old Vito (110 cdi) I plugged my nokia n70 in for charge and i think the charger blew, I took it back and they replaced it. i then used the new charger and the whole van cut out. I phoned the AA and a fuse had blown which controled the main electrics to the van and cut everything off.
I know kt sounds weird, but I was convinced it was the charger.
Maybe Merc have an issue with the ciggy lighters. If I have time tomorrow I will phone my merc garage to see what they say.
First, does your parrot kit work ok? (what happens when you turn off the ign?)
(why did you not wire it to the radio?)
As Bazw says the scotch locks arnt the best connector, but the comment where you say it blew a fuse I think is a bit of a clue, what size fuse was it?(Amp)
And my thoughts are have you wired the Parrot correctly, which colour wire did you connect to the ciggy lighter wiring, and on that point which wire did you connect it to?
I don't think its the socket its self, I think it the way you have wired it.
the parrot works fine with regards to permanent and switched live. I am an electrician so should know these things.
The parrot gets its switched live off the radio but the permanent live to the radio is only 5 volts, therefore i had to get 12 off the ciggy lighter. I phoned parrot and they told me to do it this way.
Cant remember the colours but I think they are hard wired into euro blocks which fit directly into the back of the radio. I may have cut the permanent live to lengthen it to the ciggy lighter.
i really don't think its an overload problem.
Why should the socket not be giving me the problem?
I haven't altered that wiring, and its the output of this that's causing problems.
Cheers
the parrot works fine with regards to permanent and switched live. I am an electrician so should know these things.
The parrot gets its switched live off the radio but the permanent live to the radio is only 5 volts, therefore i had to get 12 off the ciggy lighter. I phoned parrot and they told me to do it this way.
Cant remember the colours but I think they are hard wired into euro blocks which fit directly into the back of the radio. I may have cut the permanent live to lengthen it to the ciggy lighter.
i really don't think its an overload problem.
Why should the socket not be giving me the problem?
I haven't altered that wiring, and its the output of this that's causing problems.
Cheers
Hi mate, Your Parrot is getting its switched live of the radio, I take it you mean that it is using the 12v from the ignition, to the radio, therefore when the key is turned a 'remote' 12v is used to turn the thing on instead of it being left on a permanent 12v and it draining the battery. that should be ok.
Usually such devices have 2x 12volt inputs, Take an Audio amplifier as an example, while it maybe perfectly fine for you to connect the 'remote' 12volt to the ignition 12v to activate the amp to switch on, it will not be appropriate to connect the amps main 12v at higher amps to this as it will blow the fuse, set fire to it or damage the devices.
The permanent live to the radio in not 5v, its always 12volts.
However i now have a mobile phone charger which when plugged in works fine, but if I get an incoming call and my car kit or if my pda is plugged in the phone tells me to unplug it as the charging is bad.
When your phone is on standby it is drawing minimal current together with the rest of your devices, however, when you have an incoming call, your phone AND your parrot are now drawing a lot more current thats why you experience this problem. It's an overload problem mate.
Just take a appropriate gauge wire and connect it to a better 12v supply, supplying you with a higher amps.
Even run a new wire through a fuse directly into the battery, being careful to use the correct fuse, correct gauge of wire and making sure wire won't be damaged along its route where it can cause a short or worse a fire! use rubber gromets through any metal holes.
I always use wire that is several times the rating needed, this way not only is your load safe, but also if/when you decide to add your next gadget onto the same load, then you won't overload it or need to do it all again.
Hope this helps mate
__________________
MERCDADS = Mercedes Dealers Are Donkeys
Linear Mode
