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It has always bothered me that the center console power outlet is always on. While it is a nice convenience when you have to charge your cell phone, it's a hassle for other devices that you would like to turn on and off with the cars ignition. For example, I have an ipod adapter plugged into the center console power outlet which is also connected to the aux stereo input in the center console. When you turn the car off the adapter should pause the ipod for you. The problem is the power outlet in the center console on the RX-8 is always on, therefor leaving my ipod playing nonstop all day long (unless I happen to remember to manually click pause on the ipod before getting out of the car). The solution? Use two add-a-circuits (available at your local auto part store) to swap the "hot" line from the front cigarette outlet to the center console outlet, and vise versa. Now my center console outlet turns off with the cars ignition and the outlet by the shifter is always on (useful for charging cell phone).
I would like to thank the fine folks over at mazda3revolution.com who gave me the idea of using the add-a-circuits to accomplish this (although they went about it a slightly different way).
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that's a good idea. Ontop of that it's clean, and looks easily reversible.
__________________ 2008 VW / Jetta Wolfsburg 2.0T / Reflex Silver Metallic Clearcoat. Current.
2009 Mazda / RX-8 R3 (FE17) / Aurora Electric Blue Mica. Traded
2001 Toyota / Corolla CE (E114) / Sandrift Metallic. Totalled - Not at Fault.
"My happiness can be measured by my odometer."
Yup it's very easy to put back to stock. Just remove the two adapters and plug in two regular fuses and it's like it never happened. You could also make both outlets always on or both switched depending on how you wired it up.
For this you would tap the two red wires from the add-a-circuits together. Plug one add-a-circuit into the always on slot (with two fuses in this add-a-circuit) and the other add-a-circuit into the switched slot (only one fuse in this add-a-circuit, as this will feed power to only one leg of the add-a-fuse that is plugged into the switched slot). Use a volt meter to check everything before connecting to make sure you are routing the power where it needs to go.
Is there a certain brand or size add-a-fuse you used? Brand doesn't matter, just make sure you get the mini size. And if I wanted to make both of my ports switched, I can just flip the above setup right? Correct.
The first two pics in this thread show a similiar product but it looks like the wire coming off is male, but I could only find add-a-circuits with female ends. What do I need to do to connect them to one another? Did you modify them in any way?
Ultimately I'd like to have it set up so both outlets are always on the switch. Would I just wanna strip off one of the female ends, and solder the wire to the other female end?
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