USB Sockets for Bertie (Update 3)

On Thursday afternoon, once I’d put Eric(a)’s driver’s seat back in its proper position, having removed the winch mechanism from under it, I thought I’d best give Bertie a bit of attention so that he didn’t think that he’d been ousted by his new sibling. I’d just taken delivery of the connectors I needed to finish the job of fitting his USB sockets and I was eager to get the job done. Aside from anything else, I wanted to finish it so that I could get his table back in place, to remove one item from our dining room, which is currently looking like a bizarre sort of junk shop, scattered with various patient transport vehicle parts!

My first task was the bit that I really couldn’t afford to get wrong: the drilling of holes in Bertie’s trim. Connectors were then crimped onto wires, USB sockets were connected and slotted through those holes then, in the case of the one on the driver’s side, I had the fun of trying to get the socket’s retaining nut into place, without being able to see what I was doing (the access slot I was using is big enough for my hand, but not so big that I can see past my hand).

With all connections made I was looking forward to turning the 12v system on at Bertie’s control panel, when I realised I’d forgotten about the most important (and scariest) bit of the wiring: the connections into the Electroblock. Out to his electrical locker I went, where I stayed for quite some time. His Electroblock uses Mate n Lok connectors and when, a couple of weeks ago, I’d practiced crimping a pin onto a wire without the use of the proprietary crimping tool, I managed (by using a combination of pliers and the crimping tool I do have) to get a good firm crimp in place. Could I replicate that on the real things? No, of course I couldn’t! Not to the extent I was happy with, anyway. Hopefully my final solution (the best crimp I could achieve, plus solder) will hold well enough.

A quick test, some admiration of the neatness of my handywork, and (three years after we should have done it) the job was complete.

 

Handy I'd left the piece of string, used to pull the wire through under the floor, as I was able to use it as a third hand to hold the wire up whilst I fitted connectors to the ends.

 

This is the socket on the passenger side. Top snap: being black on a black background, it blends in nicely. Bottom snap: close-up of it open and switched on.

On the driver's side I positioned socket exactly where we used to have a disc of velcro. There's a black 'nobble' just visible on the side of this pillar at the same height - that's the switch which isolates both sockets.

The connections into the electroblock. The orange arrow points at the red wire I added; I also put in the black wire diagionally up to the right of it.