Bumpncarstereo

can you post a picture of the socket you have? Is it maybe a snap plug terminal?

Bumpncarstereo

Yes, it does. The normal plug in charger for a cellphone or a tablet is 2.1 amps.

A bunch of people seem to be using a 12v to 120v inverter and using that to charge their tablet with the wall outlet charger. Those require about 20 amps for a 200/400 watt inverter if I am not mistaken.

Tyssa'sRide

I'm pretty sure a 400 watt inverter is drawing about 3.3amps

Roxerroneous

You're right - for the 120 VAC side of the inverter, but I think he was referring to the 12 volt side (which would be about 34 amps for a 400 watt inverter).

Tyssa'sRide

There is no way the wiring in there could handle 34 amps.

Roxerroneous

I can't speak to the wiring as I don't know what gauge it is but power = volts x amps. 400 watts divided by 120 is 3.3 amps on the output. To get 400 watts to power the output you need 33.3 amps at 12 volts. Or to look at it a different way, since the voltage is 10 times higher on the output then the current has to be 10 times higher on the input.

Miltonseanster

This is the socket I bought.

Tyssa'sRide

I keep thinking full load! These things are probably only drawing about 200mA on the 120 side. That equals approx 25 watts. Very far from the wattage numbers we were talking!! Couldn't get my head around why these fuses weren't popping!!!

Roxerroneous

Yeah that's true! Like you said, if you only need half an amp on the 120 you'll only need 5 on the input. They trust the user to choose your connection based on your load - which is why they supply battery clamps and a cigarette lighter adapter with most high wattage models. You have the power to run a high amperage load of needed (via the battery clamps) but if all you need to charge is your cell phone, use the cigarette lighter port!

Now that I think about it, the topic that spurred this is the charging requirements for a tablet which is USB based. Since that's only 5 volts, the 2.1 amps more than likely applies to that. So you'd only REALLY need a 10.5 watt inverter to charge as quickly as possible!

TX03SuperCrew

I just discovered this thread a week ago and was amazed at all of the great work here. I knew instantly I wanted to do this. So as I read every page of this thread and ordered my parts at the same time. This YouTube video is the result. The only thing I couldn't get done was removing the hazard/airbag assembly off. Any tips are appreciated.