Penny in cigarette lighter melted its wire all the way back to fuse box

Thanks for your response. My mechanic was not that specific but it would be a good guess that you are right. If the obd2 draws its power from the fried wire going to the cigarette lighter that would make a lot less ridiculous than connecting some other part of the system to a cigarette lighter. Also, I see an orange wire attached to the obd2 which is the same color as the fried wire if that has any significance.

Next question: I have not been able to trace this wire back to the junction with the fired wire, can I assume that this orange wire is for the power source and what and where would work best to make a new connection for power?

Thanks. Not obvious to me how to properly make the physical connection at the fuse box and not so appealing to poke a hole somewhere to get the wire through the firewall. Easier I think to tap one of the other aux power ports in the center console?

There are 4 wires into the obd2 connector - orange, purple, black and black with white stripe. Would I just need to connect the orange in parallel to the power feed to one of the other aux ports?

Thanks. Diagram not necessary. I went ahead and ran a new power feed from the other aux port in the center console. Someone drawing power from this aux port at the same time they are using the scan tool seems too unlikely to worry about.