Additional Phone Charger Ports

[Petrlol]

Good morning all,

I just added two more USB ports to the front console, heavily inspired by this video:

From the thread here:
Center console removal - Tesla Owners Online

Watching the video he notched the wires on the back of the cigarette lighter and soldered to them. I found a way to do it without modifying any of the existing wiring. This harness is a perfect fit. You unplug the wire from the back of the cigarette lighter, plug it into this harness, then plug the harness into the cigarette lighter, and you have a fused 10amp power out.

This harness is 3 wire (has a blue wire). It isn't used or connected in the Model 3. So you can just ignore it. There are no modifications needed to the car wiring or the harness wiring.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B087KP7QJH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here's the charger I used, but you could use any of the hundreds on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QZZP2PT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[AxlxA]

Thank you very much. I might do this during my next free weekend!

I'm deciding to either do a 12v socket or dual USB C ... 12v socket would future proof I guess.

Where did you route the wire? Fished it or drilled a notch on the passenger side?

 

[Petrlol]

Thank you very much. I might do this during my next free weekend!

I'm deciding to either do a 12v socket or dual USB C ... 12v socket would future proof I guess.

Where did you route the wire? Fished it or drilled a notch on the passenger side?

I was able to do it all without removing the whole console.

Take off both side trims and both side metal pieces. Take off the carpet panel on the passenger side. Use a pry tool to pop off the console panel where the key card reader is. From there you can see the cigarette lighter.

Take out the 4 screws on the cupholder and pull upward. That pops the entire cupholder assembly out and gives you access to easily route out of the cupholder area over to the passenger floor.

I'd advise to put the new outlet higher than I put mine as there was a piece of plastic behind the new plug that was a pain in the butt.

You can see the back of the plug from the passenger floor. It's not easy. But it's doable. I was even able to screw the retention ring on the back of the plug to secure it. Took like 15 minutes of being a contortionist. But it worked.

The only modification to the car was the 1 1/16" hole for the socket. No other drilling or wire changes.

 

[AxlxA]

I was able to do it all without removing the whole console.

Take off both side trims and both side metal pieces. Take off the carpet panel on the passenger side. Use a pry tool to pop off the console panel where the key card reader is. From there you can see the cigarette lighter.

Take out the 4 screws on the cupholder and pull upward. That pops the entire cupholder assembly out and gives you access to easily route out of the cupholder area over to the passenger floor.

I'd advise to put the new outlet higher than I put mine as there was a piece of plastic behind the new plug that was a pain in the butt.

You can see the back of the plug from the passenger floor. It's not easy. But it's doable. I was even able to screw the retention ring on the back of the plug to secure it. Took like 15 minutes of being a contortionist. But it worked.

The only modification to the car was the 1 1/16" hole for the socket. No other drilling or wire changes.

I bought the harness you recommended. I needed a 12V instead of a usb plug(i'll end up pluggin in some USB adapter anyways later but i left it as 12V for more versatility, ie qc3.0 vs future devices with PD support. maybe even chargers that can charge laptops at 30W or whatever. Unfortunately the 12V adapter i bought requires just a little bit of a wire stripping to fit. But i'm looking forward to this project very soon!

 

[crackers8199]

I'd advise to put the new outlet higher than I put mine as there was a piece of plastic behind the new plug that was a pain in the butt

I'd advise not to drill it with the console in place for this exact reason... you risk hitting something behind the console with the drill.

pulling the console is ridiculously easy and it will make this entire project much easier (and remove the risk of hitting something you don't want to hit) if you drill it from the back instead.

Center console removal - Tesla Owners Online

the above post shows the exact measurements to drill it from the back, without any chance of hitting any wires or plastic you don't want to hit.

 

[Petrlol]

This is good advice. I was able to see the back from the floor and move a couple cable out of the way. But yes it's risky and you have to be super careful.

 

[crackers8199]

This is good advice. I was able to see the back from the floor and move a couple cable out of the way. But yes it's risky and you have to be super careful.

do you have any pics of the harness installed?

 

[XLR82XS]

Nice install. I avoided console modification by utilizing these. They work perfectly.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PH2WXKT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Petrlol]

do you have any pics of the harness installed?

Should of taken one but no. Once you have access to that area, it was a simple plug and play.

 

[AxlxA]

You're not

Nice install. I avoided console modification by utilizing these. They work perfectly.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PH2WXKT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You're not gonna get the same charging rate as the 12V mod.

 

[Petrlol]

I've tried various hubs and items like XLR mentioned and while they worked, occasionally if I had my phone plugged in, the T5 SSD plugged in, and my wife would plug her phone in the dashcam would go offline. Not sure if it was just a lack of power or what. It didn't happen all the time, but it was annoying enough that having dedicated power for the phones that was separate from the dashcam was warrantied in my mind.

Maybe it doesn't happen to others. I even got one of those stealth hubs from taps or w/e and it was still buggy. This is rock solid.

 

[crackers8199]

Nice install. I avoided console modification by utilizing these. They work perfectly.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PH2WXKT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

these will absolutely work but you'll never get the fast charging rate with them. it will only ever charge at 5w.

if you're ok with that, then that's great...just don't expect the USB hub to give you enough juice to fast charge your phone. that's the entire point behind adding the 12v outlet up front.

 

[AxlxA]

I wish people understood the charging voltages a little better. Those Tesla USB are weak!!! You must modify if you want the fast charging that most phones have these days.

Also splitting power in a hub is gonna cause problems. Older USB hubs for computers usually come with a power adapter too to offset it. But these single USB hubs are not going to be reliable. These USB ports are 5v. No more.

 

[AxlxA]

Ok I've done it. Took me 3 hours as a complete newbie and with no help. I now get power up front.

Tips.

Driver carpet panel(pull it from under/bottom or from rear, not front. There's a clip in the front that you can't pull out like the passenger side.

Def have to move to seats forward all the way for the rear side bolts.

USB cable at passenger side needs to be pushed to pull out. The clip to push down is on the interior side of the console.

The side trims(silver and black) of the console needs to be removed for the cup holder/card reader trim to come out.

The rear panel I had to wedge something above this trim to pop off that clip holding it tight.

When removing trim, double check all the clips came off with trim because every piece had dislodge and stayed on the car not trim. My cup holder one even broke off the plastic that held the metal clip. Whatever its snug enough that went back on fine.

The harness worked great. Downside is quality sucks. One of the connector piece on the harness kept dislodged from the connector, I had to push it in by the wire to make it connect to the car plug.

Routing the wire was easy. I put the console sideways to see under it better. Routed between the vent and the console passenger side bracket where the bolts go.

Drilling hole, 24mm down from the second plastic ridge. I unmounted the USB data hub before drilling. No issues putting anything back in.

Putting everything back on took me 20mins.

 

[crackers8199]

Ok I've done it. Took me 3 hours as a complete newbie and with no help. I now get power up front.

how'd you get the power from the harness back to the outlet? looks like those wires are too short...just cut the end off and crimp/solder an extension on each side?

 

[AxlxA]

how'd you get the power from the harness back to the outlet? looks like those wires are too short...just cut the end off and crimp/solder an extension on each side?

The harness wiring gets it down to where the USB plug is, then the 12v socket I bought has a long red/black wire that lets me connect it up. I did have to strip the wire on my 12v plug cable side because it came with circle pad ends.

The harness white plastic end has screw down clamps that will help you engage the next wiring. So some have done USB adapters directly but I think another 12v adapter is ore versatile.

 

[crackers8199]

The harness wiring gets it down to where the USB plug is, then the 12v socket I bought has a long red/black wire that lets me connect it up. I did have to strip the wire on my 12v plug cable side because it came with circle pad ends.

The harness white plastic end has screw down clamps that will help you engage the next wiring. So some have done USB adapters directly but I think another 12v adapter is ore versatile.

nice. i'm planning to do the USB because the only thing i ever intend to plug in there is the wireless charging mat, but i totally get wanting to do a 12v for more versatility. i figure if i ever want to swap it out, it's so easy to pull the console that it's not a big deal to change it in the future if i want to. drilling the hole and the wiring are the hard parts, once that's done everything else (including swapping it out if you ever want to do that) is easy.

i'm thinking about buying the harness and modifying it to remove the fuse and the extra wire (basically buying it just for the connectors and to avoid having to cut any wiring inside the car). it's been a while since i watched jon's video, but i am pretty sure he says in there at some point (or in one of his other videos) that adding a fuse isn't really necessary as long as you use the right gauge wires, because the car's circuit breaker will protect everything. maybe that's crazy, but i don't think he fused anything here...

any idea what gauge the harness is? i didn't see anything on the amazon listing that said what gauge the wiring was.

edit: was actually ingineerix on youtube that mentioned that, although it was pulling 12v from VCLEFT. maybe this does need to stay fused, although jon definitely isn't fusing anything in his video either...so who knows?

 

[AxlxA]

I left the harness fuse in. It is tucked right where the USB cable connector is down by passenger side so I can access it with only taking off the carpet. For me, I never liked to splice wires. I want clean adapter that snaps. The wire was 18g off my 12v but dunno what harness gauge is.

For your USB install, I will say even though it's not hard to pull the console out, I say, why even bother and just do a 12v install. Easier. Also you say USB wireless charging pad now but for me, mobile phone and charging tech changing every 2 years. Now there's 15W wireless charging. Where I used to have 10w and some are using USB C charging now. I just can't bet on USB 3 type A for any more than 5 years. Beyond that, more will want newer tech.

Actually I'm not sure what kind of 12v plug I need for the taptes pad. It says it can use 2A, 1.67amp, and 3A. So 3A correlates to 5V but not sure if qc3 or is it PD that will be future proofing.

 

[crackers8199]

I left the harness fuse in. It is tucked right where the USB cable connector is down by passenger side so I can access it with only taking off the carpet. For me, I never liked to splice wires. I want clean adapter that snaps. The wire was 18g off my 12v but dunno what harness gauge is.

For your USB install, I will say even though it's not hard to pull the console out, I say, why even bother and just do a 12v install. Easier. Also you say USB wireless charging pad now but for me, mobile phone and charging tech changing every 2 years. Now there's 15W wireless charging. Where I used to have 10w and some are using USB C charging now. I just can't bet on USB 3 type A for any more than 5 years. Beyond that, more will want newer tech.

Actually I'm not sure what kind of 12v plug I need for the taptes pad. It says it can use 2A, 1.67amp, and 3A. So 3A correlates to 5V but not sure if qc3 or is it PD that will be future proofing.

based on my conversations with their support people and my own (limited) testing, anything that provides 9v or 12v will work for some form of fast charging if the phone supports it. anything 5v (even 5v 2.4a) will only slow charge...which is why the 5v front USB ports will only slow charge.

 

[AxlxA]

based on my conversations with their support people and my own (limited) testing, anything that provides 9v or 12v will work for some form of fast charging if the phone supports it. anything 5v (even 5v 2.4a) will only slow charge...which is why the 5v front USB ports will only slow charge.

The taptes website has this for the v3 pads:
Input
5V/2A, 9V/1.7A, 12V/1.5A


For a typical qc3.0 dual charger like https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082PNLMDS

Rating Voltage: 12-24V; USB Output: DC 3.5-6.5V/3A, 6.5-9V/2A, 9-12V/1.5A

So it should work with the taptes pad.