Whilst cleaning the garage out yesterday in preparation for the car going in on frosty nights, I found the following accessories that use the cigarette lighter. At some point or another, I found it necessary to have
1. Shaver that plugs in
2. Mobile phone charger
3. Cheap handsfree (bought from a petrol station)
4. Torch with magnetic back and long cable.
5. A floodlight with the "brightness of a headlamp"
6. Electric heated car scraper (yes, I know!)
7. Fan (bought in France (great for recirculating hot air!)
8. Dearer handsfree that had wrong connector for my phone (anyone got a Nokia 3410 cable for a Mr Handsfree unit?)
9. Tyre inflation compressor (still use this)
What other "essential" cigarette lighter (or to be PC - accessory socket) accessories do you have and, more importantly, do you ever use them?
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In the boot socket, coolbox.
In the rear seat socket, Sons mobile phone charger or Gameboy (sometimes with TV tuner), or Sony diskman (oh and it has an inline doubler to power the GPS re-radiating antenna)
In the armrest/box socket My mobile phone.
In the ashtray/fag lighter The Navman/Palm GPS sat nav.
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1. Shaver that plugs in 2. Mobile phone charger 3. Cheap handsfree (bought from a petrol station) 4. Torch with magnetic back and long cable. 5. A floodlight with the "brightness of a headlamp" 6. Electric heated car scraper (yes, I know!) 7. Fan (bought in France (great for recirculating hot air!) 8. Dearer handsfree that had wrong connector for my phone (anyone got a Nokia 3410 cable for a Mr Handsfree unit?) 9. Tyre inflation compressor (still use this)
Yes - 4 (never been used for over ten years - why do I still have it in my 'box of tricks' in my boot); 9 - used frequently!!
No - the remainder.
I have a battery charger for AAA and AA batteries for my digital camera and dictaphone. For some reason it works much better in the Honda than the Volvo.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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2. Yes
4. yes (Never used, I wonder how many ever are?)
And I'll add a car vac that will just about lift fresh cigarette ash, but nothing heavier.
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Am I alone in using the cigar lighter as a cigar lighter?
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Am I alone in using the cigar lighter as a cigar lighter?
Is this the "Arfer Daley" of the BR I ask?
I didn't know anyone smoked cigars in cars anymore, smokers usually smoke cigarettes don't they?
I am a non smoker, you can spot my sort at pubs because we fill the ashtrays with empty crisp packets. :)
Oh - yes I came to brag didn't I? We also use a mains power inverter, especially useful for the laptop as an in car DVD player for the children in the back. Great bargain - around £35 or so from Maplin.
We have the following afore mentioned cigar lighter accessories:
Jump starter, compressor
Mobile phone hands free kit (£2.99 from WH Smiths) - yes it's a cheap one!
Mobile phone chargers for various Nokias etc
Car fed torch
Cigar lighter
Erm - that's it folks.
It is interesting how manufacturers have finally cottened on to the usefulness of these 12v outlets in cars. The C5 I know has at least one other accessable from the back. RF's car seems to have a ring main fitted judjing by his posting on this thread.
If future generations should happen on this thread, this will probably remain its last posting, because its me and everyone leaves the room when I show up!
baby steps.....
(Unless you've seen Muppets from Outer Space you'll never understand....)
It's getting late...
H
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"Is this the "Arfer Daley" of the BR I ask?"
Only if I could borrow HJ's hat!
"The C5 I know has at least one other accessable from the back."
and my Berlingo has two in the front and two in the back - so there - so much for your bragging! (Means I can light 4 cigars at once! Actually I don't smoke in the car and since the ash trays in pubs are full of crisp packets I usually go outside for a smoke! - especially when you show up!)
And, thanks to me, you haven't killed off this thread!
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I think that there may be a gender divide here.
When I clear out a car, I don't find any electronic gadgets. But I do usually find:
a tape I'm embarrassed to own;
lots of half-empty packets of paper tissues;
packs of cough sweets, some of them looking very ancient;
spare packs of tights or pop socks, the latter usually with an odd number of remaining socks;
a comb and/or hairbrush;
a dog comb;
a few stray jelly babies, usually embedded in one of the aforementioned combs;
a long-lost favourite lipstick;
some little souvenir of a memorable trip, such as a restaurant card or pine cone;
a torch whose batteries expired long ago;
postcards from some place I'd forgotten ever vistiting
It's a bit like an unpurged-handbag, only there's a lot more of it :(
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Most embarrassing time was when my husband took his car back after my driving it for two months due to his broken hand. He and a work colleague went out in it one day - and decided to clear through the glove compartment during lunch.
They not only found a hairbrush, sweets, hair scrunchies, decent CD's and long lost lipstick - but also a packet of "feminine hygiene" products.
Poor hubbie was horrified to make such a discovery in HIS car, and promptly banned me from ever using it again. However, he did keep my CD & eat the packet of sweets, so all was not that bad.
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It's a bit like an unpurged-handbag, only there's a lot more of it :(
It sounds suspiciously like Mrs P's car. You don't know her, do you?
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Yours truly is a cigar smoker but not ever in the car. I hate to see people smoking and driving. IMO they are not in control.
I cannot resist a bargain . I spend a fair amount of time in the Gulf where 50 King Edward ( No - not the potatoes) Invincibles on sale in the Bahrein Duty Free are around £13 for the lot - your local tobacconist in the UK will want around £150...even UK 'duty free' at Gatwick want £85. The tax is worse than on petrol.
Guess where I buy my cigars.
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"RF's car seems to have a ring main fitted judjing by his posting on this thread."
One of the reasons I chose the model/level. Has 4. One in boot, one in rear of central arm rest/cubby for back seat passengers, One actually in the central cubby (with a nice little tray and power lead hole for mobile phone) and one of course in the ash tray.
Its about time manufacturers got together to agree a more practical and useful standard for power outlets, and when will they fit one under the bonnet for inspection lamps etc?.
(as getting to the battery terminals to clip things on these days means taking about 30 fasteners and 15 covers off)
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Its about time manufacturers got together to agree a more practical and useful standard for power outlets, and when will they fit one under the bonnet for inspection lamps etc?.
Is that not where the magnetic lamp with the long cable comes into its own!!!! :)
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and when will they fit one under the bonnet for inspection lamps etc?. Is that not where the magnetic lamp with the long cable comes into its own!!!! :)
A magnetic inspection lamp is no good for my car. Found out at the w-end the bonnet of the Vectra is made of aluminium.
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Oh thats what all those black circular plug things are covering...12V sockets!
Dont smoke and have never had any need to use them (no mobile phone and right foot works the emergency footpump quite well). In fact I am not aware that we have any equipment that has an adaptor to plug into one.
Luddites rule
StarGazer
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Luddites rule
What you doin using the new fangled "t'internet" then?
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Ah but the t'internet aint new, been using it for connecting Vaxes for over 20 years!
Mobile phones now...think I'll have to ask my 4.5 year old about txt messages as I cant really see the point.
Back to subject....lack of 12V appliances. I didnt get my first car until 1990 aged 25, but 12V sockets dont mix with a Lucas C40 Dynamo which cant cope with keeping the indicators flashing with the car at idle!
Didnt get a 12V socket until 1994 and didnt use it before selling the car in 1996.
StarGazer
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A VAX man ? Clearly one of the last at that age. Some time since I met one of those.
I guess you were also a notes man ?
And wasn\'t it the easynet ?
Mark
CSS
VMS 4.4 - 5.1
PDP, VAX & MicroVAX System Manager
(hell of a DCL wiz as well)
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The only good vax was a dyson......
VM & SNA rules............
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So good they replaced it with VSCS - which was also awful.
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Mark,
We had permission to run DecNet across JANET and indeed between the UK and Oz.
Dont remember notes. But
Vax 11/750 and 11/780
Dec Run Off languauge
DCL scripts
Interdata model 70
Microvax clusters and remember the big move from VMS 4.something to 5.0 when everything broke!
Still developing software for instrument control under VMS in 1995
and still using vaxes until a couple of years ago!
The Interdata model 70 is still going strong...over 30 years old. 2MB floppy disks 2feet in diameter and 32k of core memory with individual components on a single board.
StarGazer (even back then)
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I'm going to moderate myself in a second, but in the meantime;
V5 was a rewrite which stuffed up everything and everybody. VAXNotes was the forerunner of Lotus Notes and essentially what forums such as this are based upon.
It got pointless at 5.5 (I think) when VMS would no longer fit on either an RD53 or RD54 , which were the prevalent disks in MicroVAX amongst others.
Anybody every wondered why Windows NT is called that ? Briefly;
VMS Team Lead has argument with Ken Olsen
Ken Olsen cans openVMS project on the basis that here is no market for an open operating system.
Dave says "do that and I quit to write it for someone else"
Olsen cans it
Dave says "I'm off and will write something one better for someone else.
VMS -> WNT (each letter one more in the alphabet).
Ok, I'm moderating me now.
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Thank the lord for that...
If there was any motor related stuff in there, I didn't spot it.........
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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But mark,
You forgot to mention that NT is in fact a joint product of IBM and Microsoft. In fact if you crack open Windows NT (and hence XP) you will find large chunks of OS/2 code. In fact you can still find "copywrite IBM" in the NT source.
You can moderate me as well now
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The way this is going it should be in the computer related thread.
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If you really want to know, I have a grit filled spark-plug cleaner that plugs into a cigar lighter.
Bought it for a motorcycle.
Buy new spark plugs instead.
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I always find unused spares just after I've gone out and bought some more - things like bulbs, fuses, wiper blades, jubilee clips etc.
cheers, SS
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Wot about Univac 490 and Spurt?
Cue head scratching?
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Currently on sale in Halfords - 'Wheel Trim Security Kit' - 'Essential and easy to fit '
- half a dozen Ty-Wraps, a pair of Snips and a pair of disposable rubber gloves, all for about a fiver. Must put that on my christmas list !
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\"I ought not to let my mind wander - it\'s too small to be out on its own\"
www.mikes-wa
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Couldn't remember, so I just checked!-
Roll of duct tape
12 Large plastic ties
'Spider'wheel wrench
Set of bulbs/fuses
'Dayglo'waistcoat for breakdowns
Electric tyre pump
Scissors
Powerful torch
Red and white'Snaplights'(bioluminescent)
Mylar 'Space blanket'
Tow rope
All the above fit into the boot side compartments and wheel well on my Aerodeck.
P.
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