I finished hardwiring the power and antenna for my satelite radio earlier today using an FM Direct Adaptor and now I'm being paranoid.

The car kit for the sat radio comes with a cigarette lighter adaptor to power the unit (5 volts). In hard wiring the sat radio to the vehicle radio power, the cigarette adaptor is plugged into a female adaptor that comes with the FM Direct Adaptor kit, then wired into the vehicle radio pos & neg wires. This is done so the 12 volt is converted to 5 volt for the sat radio.

Prior to the hardwire install today, I used the sat radio for a few days with the cigarette lighter plugged into the dash and I recall the adaptor getting warm to the touch, but not exactly hot.

After finishing the hardwiring conections, I gathered and tied all the excess wire and bunched them around the FM Direct Adaptor and Cigarette Lighter Adaptor with Female Adaptor and taped the whole bunch to the wiring harness under the radio with the idea that everything is secured and there will be no rattling down the road.

Now that everything is stashed behind the radio bezel, I'm wondering if the heat generated by the Cigarette Lighter Adaptor buried in the bundle of wires and wrapped in tape could generate enough heat to cause a fire hazard or other problems.

Any thoughts?

 

I'm not familuer with that kind of equipment but I can say from the electrical standpoint that you should check the unit for expected current draw.
The plug getting warm is an indication of a good amount of draw.
Question is is that right?
If it's never more than just feels sleightly warm then there should be no worry if the unit has an over current fuse in it's line.
In this case the 'lighter' fuse is no protection because it's to heavy for your load.

 

I did the same thing with my sat radio a few years ago and havent had any problems. the current draw is minuscule so i wouldn't worry about it.

 

My guess is that the adapter was getting warm because it is in effect a small transformer. It is converting your 12V to 5V for your satellite radio. Shouldn't be anything to worry about as long as it wasn't hot to the touch. Otherwise, it's normal for a transformer to put off a little heat.

 

Your radio probably generates a lot more heat than the power inverter.

If anything, you'll get a "Hot CD" message on the radio if the inverter warms the radio up too much.

 

Well, I went back inside the dash today and moved the cig lighter adaptor to a different spot. Now it's secured to a metal part of the dash frame off by itself with plenty of free moving air around it.

Over-kill? Probably, but that's usually how I do it. I also cleaned-up my wires and secured them better when I was in there. I'm sure it would have been fine the way it was.

I think the adaptor gets warm as it disipates the heat generated by converting 12 volts to 5 volts. Probably not enough heat to be a hazard, but I had these visions in my head of the wire-harness melting down when I'm 100 miles from home pulling the camper and the whole family with me.

Well, I'll sleep better tonight. Thanks for your responses.