"Poof" is not good.
I'm building the 1 transistor, external power source to cig. lighter unit.
When I plugged it in, a brief few seconds passed and the wire to the cig. lighter started smoking! Needless to say, test over.

o.k. How heavy does the wire have to be at this point and, do I have only the positive lead going into the cig. lighter adapter?

This is taking longer than I thought

 

Well, it IS a cigarette lighter, right?

 

I really did expect some help...

 

your single transistor cable should draw no more than about 20 milli amps so a 20 guage wire will be plenty large enough, if you got smoke you have done something very wrong with your interface cable

 

Sorry, just kidding of course.

He's right. There should be very little current draw. I'd expect you could use 22 gauge without any problem if you wanted to. Must have had something wired up backwards or a short. I'd say just try again and double check it.

 

Ya gotta be careful with that magic smoke. Once it leaks out, that's it. There's no getting it back in.

 

Thanks for the ballpark draw rate, rattle.
I'll re-check the wiring. probably a short.
Thanks.

 

Can't you just tap off of your fuse panel?

Cigarette wiring seems to be a bad spot in GM vehicles, the fuse panels all have empty accessory terminals do they not?

 

I determined it was a wiring fault at my lighter adapter.
Shouldn't be a problem now (if I could get it to work)