[TopG42]

I have a dashcam powered by the cigarette lighter and was wondering how some of you run it? I run mine through the panels on the passenger side into the footwell then back up to the door then the roof. Its a clean look except for the center console not being able to close. Was wondering if anyone else here has the same setup and maybe found an extension or something that would allpw for the center console to close again?
(Car is currently at the dealership so I can't show pics until I get it back)

[sacowich]

I have it hardwired and that would be my recommendation. Just run it to fuse box.

[BokTroy]

I have a Viofo A229 Pro that I’m planning to hardwire to fuse box using a helpful G80 thread someone has done before. You should be Ok as long as you set the parking mode short enough/turn off parking mode so that Infotainment system won’t yell at you draining the battery.
I like parking mode and my original plan is to route an external battery to connect to fuse and power the dash cam that way, unfortunately I can’t find a good spot to place the battery since under both seats it’s already packed with lots of stuff and I don’t really want to go thru the hassle to place that in my trunk…for now I’m just gonna hardwire with parking mode set to max 2 hours.

[Ginster6]

i use ring cam... power off the OBD port

[Ojala]

I wired my race-keeper camera into the rear view power. I used posi-taps to tee off the ign+ and ground wires of the black plug. The race-keeper is 5v so I used a small 12vdc to 5vdc converter. I heat shrieked the converter and it tucked nicely into the rear view cover.

[Fastfwd]

Originally Posted by BokTroy

I have a Viofo A229 Pro that I’m planning to hardwire to fuse box using a helpful G80 thread someone has done before. You should be Ok as long as you set the parking mode short enough/turn off parking mode so that Infotainment system won’t yell at you draining the battery.
I like parking mode and my original plan is to route an external battery to connect to fuse and power the dash cam that way, unfortunately I can’t find a good spot to place the battery since under both seats it’s already packed with lots of stuff and I don’t really want to go thru the hassle to place that in my trunk…for now I’m just gonna hardwire with parking mode set to max 2 hours.

I picked up the A139Pro last fall during Black Friday sales. I was also able to pick up a Blackvue B-130X external battery on sale at the same time.

I watched a few Youtube videos and found some guy who actually measured the electrical draw for this particular dashcam along with others he was testing. In his opinion the draw was too high to just place that burden on an existing fuse. I can't remember now the exact numbers.

Anyway, so, as recommended by this guy who seemed to know more about this stuff than I did I picked up a BOSCH Relay (0332019157 Normal Open Mini Relay - 4 Pins). A relay takes the burden off of whatever fuse you choose. All the tapped fuse has to do is supply enough juice to trigger the relay that is wired to the battery directly (even if they don't recommend doing so). The benefits outweigh whatever pitfalls there may be imo.

I placed the external battery on that passenger side cubby next to the trunk fuse box with some double sided Gorilla tape and it hasn't moved. It all turned out pretty nice. I took my time wiring it up and getting everything neat. It was a project. It took some time, but I've been pleased with it so far.

I was just not comfortable with putting that parking mode draw on the electrical system. I had issues with my Mustang and parking mode that ended up causing bizarre seemingly unrelated 'malfunctions' like the passenger door no longer unlocking to open with the key-less fob, etc.

The freakin Ford Dealership replaced the door handle (and didn't exactly paint it to perfection) and dismantled the car looking for a culprit. They did also disconnect my dashcam when I got the car back. Honestly, I think I had the power and accessory wires confused (easy to do with the Viofo dashcam wiring).

It ended up just being a simple normal operation of the Mustang to shut down certain functions when the vehicle battery was weak. Replaced the vehicle battery (on my own) and everything was fixed.

I didn't want anything to interfere with the BMW electrical system. I heard it can be very finicky.

[BokTroy]

Originally Posted by Fastfwd

I picked up the A139Pro last fall during Black Friday sales. I was also able to pick up a Blackvue B-130X external battery on sale at the same time.

I watched a few Youtube videos and found some guy who actually measured the electrical draw for this particular dashcam along with others he was testing. In his opinion the draw was too high to just place that burden on an existing fuse. I can't remember now the exact numbers.

Anyway, so, as recommended by this guy who seemed to know more about this stuff than I did I picked up a BOSCH Relay (0332019157 Normal Open Mini Relay - 4 Pins). A relay takes the burden off of whatever fuse you choose. All the tapped fuse has to do is supply enough juice to trigger the relay that is wired to the battery directly (even if they don't recommend doing so). The benefits outweigh whatever pitfalls there may be imo.

I placed the external battery on that passenger side cubby next to the trunk fuse box with some double sided Gorilla tape and it hasn't moved. It all turned out pretty nice. I took my time wiring it up and getting everything neat. It was a project. It took some time, but I've been pleased with it so far.

I was just not comfortable with putting that parking mode draw on the electrical system. I had issues with my Mustang and parking mode that ended up causing bizarre seemingly unrelated 'malfunctions' like the passenger door no longer unlocking to open with the key-less fob, etc.

The freakin Ford Dealership replaced the door handle (and didn't exactly paint it to perfection) and dismantled the car looking [...]

Thank you for your detailed post I really appreciate it because the situation you mentioned is the predicament I’m struggling right now. I think I saw the similar YT videos (the guys with a blue shirt and dedicated for DashCam reviews and comparisons) stating A229Pro has lots of current draws from fuse and it’s taking a toll on hardwire route without an external battery in between. Do you mean we also need that relay even when you hardwire the external battery? My understanding is when the ignition is cut, all the power draw needed for dash cam will be supplied only from battery and hard wiring to fuse from battery is only going to recharge it once you turn the car back on?
Btw, great job and looks very clean on your project. That place seems to be a perfect location to have the battery, how did you fish thru the wire into the cabin though? Just from the back seat slack to C pillar and all?

[Fastfwd]

Originally Posted by BokTroy

Thank you for your detailed post I really appreciate it because the situation you mentioned is the predicament I’m struggling right now. I think I saw the similar YT videos (the guys with a blue shirt and dedicated for DashCam reviews and comparisons) stating A229Pro has lots of current draws from fuse and it’s taking a toll on hardwire route without an external battery in between. Do you mean we also need that relay even when you hardwire the external battery? My understanding is when the ignition is cut, all the power draw needed for dash cam will be supplied only from battery and hard wiring to fuse from battery is only going to recharge it once you turn the car back on?
Btw, great job and looks very clean on your project. That place seems to be a perfect location to have the battery, how did you fish thru the wire into the cabin though? Just from the back seat slack to C pillar and all?

The Blackvue Battery itself has an app for your phone that reports current draw to it and outflow current, etc. If I'm not mistaken the current draw was ballpark of the reported draw of the dash-cam.

So, in a sense you are correct that the dash-cam is drawing current from the battery, but the battery is also drawing current to recharge itself and/or maintain charge while the vehicle is running. If the vehicle is turned off and everything shuts down (it takes a while before the accessory power actually shuts off) then the only current draw will be from the Blackvue Battery. In fact, the car battery will start recharging the Blackvue and continue charging it after the car is shut off while the accessory power is on. I believe the Blackvue itself has a cutoff current that can be adjusted when the car battery gets below a certain voltage too just like most of these dashcams do. I can't remember off the top of my head.

In fact, the battery has no problem recharging while the car is on so you might assume that the current draw is in excess of the dash-cam alone. It has to provide both dash-cam power and recharge itself at the same time. It usually takes less than an hour of driving to get it fully charged. I honestly can't recall the exact numbers. I'll try to look next time I drive the car.

These batteries don't last forever. They work great for something like an overnight stay at a hotel, etc. You can wire them in parallel (?) to extend your reserve, but it's not going to last a week.

There are dash-cams with parking modes that will go into a super low power draw state that will last for a week or more. Unfortunately, they don't have the best video quality on the market. I like to use my dashcam video as a sort of action camera while driving. So, the video quality was more important to me.

Just as a side-note; I was always fascinated by my friends that understood how to wire relays in car alarms, etc. back in the day when I was into the car audio competition scene (80s and 90s). They seemed a little mysterious to me. The cryptic symbols on the relays, etc. These days we have the internet to help demystify those symbols. It's not incredibly difficult to wire one up correctly, but you do need to pay close attention to how you are doing it. Also, it might be critical to use insulated connectors and of course utilize inline fuses off the car battery, etc. Just be careful. Mine seems to be working flawlessly.

Oh, and yes, I removed the back seats and passed the wiring through the trunk. It was a struggle to get the probably higher gauge wire than necessary to tuck under all of the interior trim, but I used a trim tool and mostly got it tucked without a trace. There are one or two spots where the wires were too thick to get tucked as nicely as I would have liked.

Something else to consider is that your vehicle battery is not designed to be discharged with a parking mode like these external batteries. Honestly, I'm not sure if this applies to the AGM type car batteries. You can run the risk of prematurely deteriorating your vehicle battery to run it down repeatedly. These external batteries are a Lithium type that are designed to withstand that charge and depletion cycle a dashcam is going to put it through.

[JWdrives]

Anyone using the BMW car eye 3.0? Any feedback please.