I'd like to find the most effective route to run a wire to power a USB power supply. My wife's '14 R57 has the Cravenspeed phone bracket (mounted behind the gauge cluster) and an iOttie wireless charging cradle. I've been using a long USB cable plugged into the socket under the center console. I'd like to use that socket for a USB thumb drive, so I need to power this phone from somewhere else.

I'd like to use an in-line 12v-USB adapter, like one of these:

I'd like to use an add-a-tap to power it from the fuse panel. I've got a setup like that powering one in my Cayenne and it's been working quite nicely.

Trouble is the fuse panel is on the lower right side of the cabin and the phone mount is on the upper left of the dash. A preliminary 'poke around' doesn't reveal an obvious 'easy route' for getting the wire from one side to the other. I've seen various online videos about popping off the plastic trim bit on the face of the dash, along with how to remove the whole radio.

Does anyone have a recommended 'easy' path to pull a 12vdc pos/neg pair from the fuse panel over to the left side? Or, barring that, a known-good source of switched 12vdc readily accessible on the left?

 

I would use the cigarette lighter socket for my switched power source. The socket just pops out of the console. From there you can run your wire(s) back under the front of the console up to the left side of the dash, Good luck.

 

That's an interesting approach, splice into it from there. That would work.

I usually try to avoid altering the existing wiring whenever possible. If only because I've owned used vehicles where someone "did things" to the electrical system, making a lot more work for me later. I find it better to use add-a-tap or other extending adapters rather than vampire or otherwise invasive splices. Makes/costs more work/money, to be sure, but less trouble should electrical gremlins develop later.

I'll have a look at the back of the socket, do you recall if it used plain spade style connectors or something more modular?

 

My 2010 has 2 common spade connectors: one for 12v and one for ground.

 

Ah, good to know. When there's a spade in the connector it's sometimes possible to use a double-male adapter to tap into the circuit. Like these:




With sufficient care as to make sure the contacts remain safely insulated from everything, of course.

 

I followed Dave's suggestion and tapped power from the 12v accessory cigarette socket.

I popped up the socket. Use a non-marring tool or be very careful with a thin screwdriver. It'll come right up. Underneath you'll find a plastic connector plugged onto it. I pulled the connector off the socket. I then removed the two wires from the black plastic connector. I had to use a thin flat screw driver to push outward on the plastic to allow each wire connector to clear a plastic tang inside. I did this on each wire.

Then I plugged them onto some extending lugs, into which I'd crimped the +/- wires for a 12v-USB power supply.

I had to remove them from the plastic connector housing because of the L-shape offset the connector uses. I'd imagine this is to avoid anyone from plugged it in wrong (polarity matters). There wasn't enough clearance left over down inside the console to keep the factory connector on the wires. But with the plastic removed there's enough room for the wires and the extensions.

Before I plugged them onto the socket I used electrical tape to tightly wrap them individually. This to avoid any chance of them shorting against each other. Crimp the wire into the extender, push the factory wire onto it, and then wrap that. Do that for both the positive and the negative. Plug them each onto the socket. I did not wrap them any further as the friction fit is tight enough to keep them in place.

There's enough enough room underneath to hide the in-line power supply. To lift the console you need to pull up the round liners at the bottoms of the cupholders. You'll see a torx screw under each side, remove them. This will let you pop the console tray up. You do not need to remove it for this task.

I had already run the USB cord down from the phone mount in order to use the factory USB socket. Now with this power supply that socket is free to be used for a ultra-small USB thumb drive.

This thumb drive has a VERY low (and rounded) profile. This keeps anything stuffed into that space from getting snagged on it.

(my wife is notorious for wrecking USB connectors, thus all this effort).

I used these stacking extensions:

I crimped two of them on to the leads for this power supply:

Make sure you get the polarity correct BEFORE you re-connect anything. You do not want to wire it backwards as that'd blow the power supply and likely the fuse. Positive goes onto the center lug of the socket.

The socket is powered only when the ignition is running. Not just when the radio is on. So you don't "have to" remove power from the battery or anywhere else to do this job. Just make sure the car is off and the key is out of the ignition. But if you're safety conscious feel free to remove the fuse that control this socket (which one, I don't know)

The end result is the is powered when the engine is running and there's now plenty of music stored on a thumb drive.

The J.River Media Center program does a bang-up job of managing all the music tracks, doing conversions, file renaming and syncronizing to the thumb drive. Sometimes how media is stored on the computer is different than what's work best on a radio. JRMC handles the conversion effortlessly.

 

That is the exact thumb drive I've been using in mine, for exactly the same reason (low and rounded profile, not the wife part). Works great.

 

So that would be a small eh?

There are supposedly some that are even more closely fitting but I wanted something that could be removed reliably. My goal isn't a flush-fitting card, but I could see where embedded (machinery, retail, etc) systems might benefit from that. It doesn't stick up high enough to act a lever against the socket should something be wedged in that cubby. It has just enough of a lip to allow easy installation/removal without tools or frustration.

The downside is trying to use the 2-line text display on the radio to dig through the media is tedious, at best. It works but it's nowhere near as nice as using a larger touchscreen or even a player on your phone. But my wife understands how to use it and my 8 year old is inspired to learn to use the setup software. So, with luck, I'll be off the hook for babysitting it.

The one thing I need to investigate is how to best name the media tracks to suit that kind of text navigating.

It's really disappointing BMW/Mini skimped on implementing a bluetooth music audio profile in the system. I've debated using the AUX port with an in-line BT receiver. But then it's back to having to use the phone to control it and that's not really all that safe. Especially since the wheel controls won't work with it. Oh, I know, there's a bunch of third party spit-and-bailing-wire solutions that could be thrown at this. None of which would pass muster for the wife's daily use.

 

I did this in my '12 R56

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4300627