Belkin Tunecast Universal FM transmitter

[odnam92]

So despite the title of the product, it doesn't seem to be as universal as it claims. Here's my story, I'm trying to get my transmitter to work on the cigarette lighter in my car. Unfortunately the transmitter will not power up in actual cigarette lighters only in the ones that are for accessories, and usually labeled as 12V. I'm pretty sure it's the adapter that detects the slots for cigarette lighters and the ones for accessories. Pretty much what I want to do, is get something like an old cell phone charger, take the adapter off of that and replace the one on my transmitter. I'm not entirely sure if just doing that would work though. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Resqueline]

Why on earth do you think there's some magic cigarette lighter slot detecor circuit in the adapter, rather than the cigarette lighter slots being oxidised and/or powerless?

 

[odnam92]

Why on earth do you think there's some magic cigarette lighter slot detecor circuit in the adapter, rather than the cigarette lighter slots being oxidised and/or powerless?

because I've tried it on multiple cars and it does the same on all 3. The cigerette lighter works fine, because an old cellphone charger I have works on that slot.

 

[Resqueline]

I've been around cars & electronics for decades and I've never heard about such identification systems nor can I imagine how one would go about detecting the difference.
Multiple "faults" however are quite common. So I still suggest the problem lies in oxidation/rust in the center of the cig contact, and the physical properties of the plug.

 

[odnam92]

I've been around cars & electronics for decades and I've never heard about such identification systems nor can I imagine how one would go about detecting the difference.
Multiple "faults" however are quite common. So I still suggest the problem lies in oxidation/rust in the center of the cig contact, and the physical properties of the plug.

From what I can tell, the plug is fine. It's the adapter. Other adapters such as cell phone chargers, air compressors, etc. work fine on it. But we've strayed off from what I'm trying to do. My question is whether or not replacing the adapter would power the device. If so what steps should I follow to do that.

 

[Tesla]

Of course, Resqueline is correct ... all 12 volt car sockets are the same (they will all power a 12v plug-in accessory device).

However, I have seen some accessories that only have one ground tab on one side of the neck push the positive contact point off-center to the point it doesn't make contact, or for some other reason, the 2 contacts aren't physically making contact with the car. Sometimes a piece of plastic/nylon lid on the opposite side helps.

You could get an adapter that plugs in that splits it to 2 sockets. That might have a better socket.

On my FM transmitter what you want to do wouldn't work because it's very small and all one piece. If yours is 2 pieces with a wire between them, I suppose you use the plug from the above test splitter HOWEVER you will have to make sure there is no additional circuitry in the original plug that might be stepping down the voltage or protecting the end unit. I would think a lot more trouble than it's worth ...

I have a Maximo FM Transmitter unit for my Sansa MP3 and it works fine. In my 94 Honda I have it plugged into the only 12v socket in the car (was originally for cig-lighter).

 

[odnam92]

Ok well, I've opened up the tuner, and from what I can see, the wires to the power plug are identical to that of the cell phone charger. only difference is that one of the wires on the tuner is white, and one on the cell phone charger is black. I'm assuming that both are probably ground so it wouldn't make much of a difference. Also both plugs have a red wire.