Electrical Guru Help Needed!

I have been searching for a self retracting iPhone charging cord so I could eliminate the extra cord hanging around the cab. My search has turned up plenty of the kind of retractable cords that you have to pull on both ends but none that will allow a take-up reel to be hidden with just the end of the charging cord left visible so that the cord can be pulled out to the desired length then given a short pull where the cord then retracts back until only the end is visible again.

After much searching I found this:

Special Design for Hotel and Office,Premium CAT-6 Ethernet Cable,One-Way Retractable (Patent).6Ft (1.8Meter). 3 in 1 multi-function,With RJ45 Gender, 568A,568B.for Laptop, Router

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U2CKCUO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The idea that I had was to see if I could replace the CAT6 cable with a direct USB to iPhone cable. Well I finally had some time to take the box apart and this is what I found inside:



The take up real is on the right and each of the electrical contacts is designed to hit a different ring on the circuit board. It is a pretty basic design. My expertise is not in automotive electronics so I am appealing to the TW electrical guru's for help.

It looks pretty straight forward to rewire the parts with the necessary USB to iPhone wiring and replace the CAT6 cable, stick everything back together and I will be in business but I am not sure if the circuit board and associated hardware can handle the load of a USB or iPhone charging cable.

Opinions?

 

Hypothetically yes, you should be able to do it. PoE (power over ethernet) standards can be found on the web, and there are guidelines for carrying power through those cables. Are you hoping to retain the information transfer capability? If not you should be able to get the power you need. You will just have to be careful of current draw, each pair of connections (power out and return), can carry 0.6 Amps it looks like.

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/130341/current-over-cat6-ethernet-cable

Iphone batteries are designed to pull about 1.6 amps (I just googled quickly, take this with a grain of salt), but all of the ethernet wires I searched listed 24 gauge wires, which are rated to 0.57 Amps of continuous current. So you'd need to use three of the four wire pairs in that cable in parallel to supply power you needed to charge the phone without cooking the unit. No matter what the unit will probably get pretty toasty since the resistance in those tiny wires will be pretty high. If it were me, I'd find a more robust slip ring connector (the ring contacts in your unit), or use a rotating USB connector.

my 2cents

 

I intend on taking the CAT6 cable completely out and replacing it with a standard iPhone charging cable and soldering in the iPhone cable wires to the existing brushes and circuit board. Are the brushes and circuit board robust enough to handle it?

I will have to search for a rotating USB connector to see what that is.

 

But then you have a bulky box. I use a coiled lightening cable that's only a foot long but will expand to 3 feet. It fits out of the way when not needed.

 

I can hide the bulky box and just use a small hole for the charging end to stick out off. By coil I assume you mean hand coiled?

 

Seems to me it's something like this.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...ap=y&m=Y&c3api=1876,92051677562,&Q=&A=details

 

I also use a monoprice 4.8 amp charger with 2 USB ports. That will charge 2 iPads at the same time or my phone really fast.

 

If you are replacing all of the cables, the board ought to be fine. My guess is that the circuit board is rated to about the same amount of current as the wires. so if you aren't passing more current than 0.6 amps through each connection, you should be ok. As for the durability of the rotating contact points, I have no idea. People seem to have gotten ok connections out of them, but I am not sure how well it will hold up to the constant vibration of being in a car. I'd guess those contacts are going to get really hot (losing their spring) and start to bend away from the connection ring after time. My guess is that all of this will work, but it wont necessarily hold up without some rigging, and some really good ventilation to keep it cool.

 

Not a bad solution but I am hoping for something even less bulky.

 

Ok, sounds like it is at least worth a try. Thanks!