I've been thinking about making and installing powered USB ports in my car for charging phones and such. I have a USB Cigarette Adapter but hate that my console door always has to be open. Also if other people are traveling with me (road trip) it would be nice to have extra ports.

I have just started playing around with the idea and have found it easy enough to get required parts like the USB Port and voltage regulator. I know I could just tear apart a cigarette adapter but custom building it allows me to select the amperage output and dimension of pcb board which makes selecting install locations easier.

Any useful thoughts on this? My initial idea is to install 2 ports up front and two in back somewhere in the center console area.