Hardwiring **HELP**

I want to hardwire my radar detector as I saw in another thread - attached just under the front of the headliner by the map lights, and my XM Roady XT - to the back of the power outlet up front. My question is this; If I cut the end of the plug and attach the wires to these two sources directly, will it fry the devices? Will this 12V source fry my 5V items ? Im just not sure how this works and I dont wnat to burn anything up. I thought perhaps the plug that goes into the cig lighter or the power outlet restricts the power to 5V, and if I chop this off I'll end up giving too much juice to the units. Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks !!

I thought the radar detectors were 12 volts. If not, there is something that has to regulate the voltage down to the 5 volts. Not sure where that would be.

Yes you will fry the 5v item, unless there is a transformer in there? :( Use a volt meter to check the voltage after the plug, if it reads 12v then the transfomer is in the device, not in the plug. But if the voltage is 5v then obviously you will fry it.

You may be correct on the radar detector, for some reason I thought it was less, but I think you may be right, there are instructions on the Cobra website to hardwire the detector by cutting off the plug end. Think ill be ok. As for the XM unit, My only thought is to buy a power socket (such as a spliter) with wires going to it, cut off the male end and connect that to the back of the power outlet and then plug into that from behind the console. This way I keep the power plug (and assumed transformer intact) -thoughts? Thanks for the info ! -Jason

Looked up the XM unit and discovered it is in fact 5V 2000mA (2A) power. The vehicle kit has a 5V DC power adapter. Based on this information, I would NOT do any cutting/splicing on this adapter.

Looks like you will either have to add a plug behind the console, as you said, or plug it into one of the two existing plugs from the front. I would probably do this, unless you need two plugs in addition to the XM plug.

Thanks for taking the time to look that up for me ! I think i may try to do the plug in the back, it will make for a cleaner install and allow use of the front plug also. Any issue with in essence having 2 items then plugged into that outlet if the front is being used at the same time as the XM unit (plugged into the inside outlet) ?

Thanks for taking the time to look that up for me ! I think i may try to do the plug in the back, it will make for a cleaner install and allow use of the front plug also. Any issue with in essence having 2 items then plugged into that outlet if the front is being used at the same time as the XM unit (plugged into the inside outlet) ?
What's the fuse rating for the power outlets? Your XM is pulling 2 amps, plus whatever is in the other outlet(s) (not sure how it's fused). If you pull too much power, the fuse will blow. Otherwise you should be OK.

BTW, this (http://shopdelphi.com/consumers/satradio/roady/details/specifications) is what I found for your XM. Might want to follow the link to make sure I found the correct unit.