Sunday, October 9, 2011

24 volt socket

A while back I purchased a GPS that is setup with maps and routing for a large truck as opposed to a car.  This will help with routing, bridge weight restrictions, under-passes, narrow streets, etc that would impact a larger vehicle.  The other nice feature about this particular GPS is that it is dual voltage 12/24 volt so I could use it in the bus or car if I had to.  The bus chassis is 24 volts so I could not use my car GPS even if I wanted to.

I purchased an auxiliary (cigarette lighter) socket online and yesterday I installed it.  I disconnected the indirect lighting circuit as all of those lights were long removed with the normal bus interior and this circuit has a switch and is fused at 20 amp with a circuit breaker.  I competed with wiring and tested it today with the GPS... all works perfectly.  I added a label above to show this is for 24 volts only to prevent anyone from attempting to use it for a 12 volt device like cell phone or laptop charger.  This really will be a single purpose socket.  It is also mounted at the drivers panel next to my left knee, so it will be out of the way of other people anyway.  So in the event that I EVER get the bus on the road, I'll have the help of my GPS and can plan routing, watch speed, and can keep up with mileage.  At this point the bus has a speedometer but I am not sure how accurate it is and it has NO odometer so without the GPS I have no way of tracking mileage.  Finally one step forward.

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