[jbinpg]

I made one of these up using a small project box, the smaller 10 watt SWAD regulator rather than the 25 watt one and a cigar plug. Works great. I use a portable battery booster as well and it lasts for many hours even on cold winter nights. I anchored the regulator in the project box with industrial velcro. If you want an alternative to soldering the tiny contact pins on the regulator and have access to computer parts, hunt around for the three prong leads that connect older IDE CD-ROMs to the motherboard. Should slip right on.
If not, you can use two of the smaller Power and Reset two-wire switch cables and leave one of them unconnected.

Jack

[LaurenOE]

Very Nice!

[mtansley]

I'm still a little concerned about the fact that the regulator can be adjusted. Worried about it getting changed somehow and screwing things up. I'm entertaining the idea of removing the potentiometer from the regulator, measuring the resistance that is giving me 8.3V out of the regulator, and then replacing the potentiometer with a fixed value resistor. Then no worries about accidental voltage changes. No rush to do that just yet, but if I do go down that path I'll post back here with how that goes.

Isn't there some sort of almost paint-like substance that manufacturers sometimes put on adjustable pots to stop accidental movement but it can still be adjusted with a screwdriver?

Or even a bit of nail polish?

[Ex Finn.]

Isn't there some sort of almost paint-like substance that manufacturers sometimes put on adjustable pots to stop accidental movement but it can still be adjusted with a screwdriver?

Or even a bit of nail polish?

We used, still do, nail-polish to lock down potentiometers, just let is dry before closing up the enclosure.

[Tom S.]

That sounds like an awesome idea. Can you please test it and let us know about the total timing of car battery with this adapter and without the car engine running?

That's almost impossible to state. All cars take different batteries. Case in point my truck, a diesel, has two batteries, each one larger than those found in many small cars. It also depends on the battery condition and age. Lastly, it would depend on the kind of battery.

Suffice to say that on a battery in good condition, it would run for a long time.