Cigarette lighter casemod

In the past when I’ve needed 12v DC to power something, I brought out my large, heavy 10 amp power supply left over from my ham radio days. Most commonly I do this to power my GPS while I program it from my computer for an upcoming trip. It would be nice to be able to power 12v items directly from the computer, since it already has a power supply built into it. So I rigged something up, and thought I’d post my work here in case anyone else might be interested.Here’s what you’ll need -

• 4 pin male molex connector - you can’t cut this from an old power supply, those are female ends. You can pirate one from an old CPU or case fan, though.
• fuse holder - I had some around, you can buy one from Radio Shack or salvage one from somewhere
• cigarette lighter socket - I bought mine from walmart for less than $5
• one of your 5.25″ drive bay covers

I wired the molex connector up to some spade connectors, which then connect to the power socket. The spade connectors were included with the socket I bought. You’ll definately want to fuse this socket, you wouldn’t want to screw up your power supply if something went wrong with a device you had plugged in. In the worst case senario you could end up damaging your computer components too - so be sure to fuse it. No more than a 10 amp fuse, 5 would be better. I didn’t have any 5’s around so I used a 10. Oh yea, and be sure to use the yellow wire on the molex connector, not the red one. The red line is only 5 volts. I used wire crimps to hook everything together, but you could soldier it if you have lots of time. You could tape it if you don’t have soldiering equipment or wire crimps, but make sure it’s taped well enough that it won’t come apart!