Dashcam Switched Power

[silver1011]

Great pointers on this thread. I created a little how-to-guide when I fitted a dash cam to my Kodiaq, which by-and-large is almost identical to the Karoq...

 

 

 

[Stefanos]

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread I fitted a dashcam to my Karoq at the weekend. Removed the side panel to get a nice tidy fit. 

As others have said removing the glove box is the trickiest part but I found the Skoda owners manual helpful there.

Halfords offered to do the job for £10 but I'm happy I've done the job myself, especially given the warnings about the airbag location.

[fp01]

There is a "30G" supply around the car at different places, incl. inside the roof armature with the inner lights and buttons for the emergency calls etc. This cable is red/blue,

and "30G" supply is on as soon as the car is waked up, eg. unlocked and so on, and goes out when the electrical system goes in sleep mode, typically after 5-10 minutes

after shut down the ignition and systems.

The voltage here is somewhat strange when checked with an ordinary multimeter, as it is stabilized to around 12,3-12,6V, also when car is started and running.

The way it is stabilized is by PWM, that is there are very short breaks (pulses) when the generator rises the voltage on the battery to normal 14,5V or so.

This has no impact on most users like lights and so, or small consumers like a daschcam, but I have also run into equipment that does not like this kind of DC-voltage,

A small resistor and a capacitor in the equipment solved this.

So, the red/blue cable together with brown which is ground in all german cars, including VAG and Skoda, is handy to use for certain small consumers like a camera or small LED lights.

If camera is installed next to the mirror in the window, it´s handy to take the supply inside the lamp and no need to route cables all the way to the fuse central.

[Alchemist]

Hi John, great tutorial, but as you say, getting to the fusebox is tough - so tough that I have not yet succeeded! I am really stuck on releasing the drop down "bar". When you say push it towards the engine, do you mean push along the length of the bar/rod towards its pivot point? Sorry to be dumb! Hope you can help me. Tony

[John_S]

10 hours ago, Alchemist said:

Hi John, great tutorial, but as you say, getting to the fusebox is tough - so tough that I have not yet succeeded! I am really stuck on releasing the drop down "bar". When you say push it towards the engine, do you mean push along the length of the bar/rod towards its pivot point? Sorry to be dumb! Hope you can help me. Tony

Hi, 

 

The bottom pivot of the arm is set in a "snowman" shaped hole if that makes sense. It normally sits in the smaller "head of the snowman" but to remove the arm you need to move it into the "body of the snowman" hole by pressing the lower pivot point forwards. Hope this makes sense! 

 

John

[Alchemist]

Hi John, thanks for the tip. I still don't seem to have cracked it, I must be thick! Have just taken a pic of it skoda support rod and with any luck I have attached the file. I can see on the bottom of the rod what looks like a "gripping" point, do you mean that I push on that at right angles to the rod itself towards the front of the car? I guess I am perhaps to frightened of pushing at something in the wrong direction and breaking it. (If this isn't the right way to do it, could you perhaps explain which way the rod has to gon in relation to its position on the photo eg up/to the right etc.?) Sorry to be a pain in the butt! Tony

[mattjames1980]

Pull towards you not push away

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9e5w02f7nwbnhh0/VID_20190302_174557_01.mp4?dl=0

[MichaelPerry]

I have a Nextbase dashcam which is presently installed in our Toyota RAV4. I will be transferring it over to my Karoq when I get it.  

 

I got the Nextbase fitting kit from Halfords. It was £20 but for an extra £10 the lovely Natasha at the Hinckley branch installed the wiring. She used the cigarette lighter fuse. This only goes live when the ignition is switched on. The dashcam activates and switches off accordingly. That suits me.  

 

The wiring travels up the A pillar ahead of the trim close to the screen thus avoiding the airbag issue written about elsewhere. 

[Alchemist]

On my Karoq the cigarette lighter is permanently on - not switched with ignition!

[MichaelPerry]

The cigarette lighter in the RAV4 is ignition controlled (no pun intended). I’m not sure I will want the dash cam running all of the time when I transfer it to my Karoq. That’s perhaps a topic for a different forum. 

[Alchemist]

I am planning to piggy back the dashcam to the rear screen heater fuse, when I can actually get at the fusebox hidden behind the glovebox - even the Skoda dealer finds it difficult. See other posts as some, brighter than me, have done it.

[weyland]

I've just hardwired mine in today thanks to this guide - I actually wired in a 12v socket, and then plugged the dashcam in to that. I used the piggyback fuse from halfords in to the fuse 47, adding the 15 amp back, plus a 10 amp to the accessory slot (using the slot closest to the new lead).

 

The glovebox is quite easy to remove when you know how - push the damper rod where it attaches to the glovebox in (as if pushing towards the fusebox), it will release with a click and a bit of force. Use a screwdriver or similar to push the stops inwards to release the glovebox hinge (these push inwards like tabs allowing the glovebox catch to pass with minor force).

 

Works like a charm

[mc6701]

Hi all,

 

Anyone fitting a hardwire kit as per this post and you opt to remove the side panel of the dash please be mindful if you unplug the Air Bag switch do not start the car before you have reconnected it as it will cause an Airbag Fault that will need a reset via the OBD2 port.

 

May save someone a trip to the dealer / garage.

 

It didn't save me. 

[Tommo7759]

On 09/03/2019 at 18:28, weyland said:

I've just hardwired mine in today thanks to this guide - I actually wired in a 12v socket, and then plugged the dashcam in to that. I used the piggyback fuse from halfords in to the fuse 47, adding the 15 amp back, plus a 10 amp to the accessory slot (using the slot closest to the new lead).

 

The glovebox is quite easy to remove when you know how - push the damper rod where it attaches to the glovebox in (as if pushing towards the fusebox), it will release with a click and a bit of force. Use a screwdriver or similar to push the stops inwards to release the glovebox hinge (these push inwards like tabs allowing the glovebox catch to pass with minor force).

 

Works like a charm

Just did same with my superb 3, I found a pair of pliers loosely gripping the knurled knob at the end of the damper, pull carefully towards the front seat and when it clicks gently pull out slightly. Next the should be 2 x push in buttons at the top rear of the glovebox (in the opened position) I appreciate models may be different but it should be something similar if a little logic is applied.

[Stefanos]

Hello everyone,

I've had my dashcam fitted for a few months with the help of this thread.

I decided to reroute my cable behind the A pillar at the weekend. Mainly because I think the current routing between the pillar and the windscreen is causing a rattle at low revs.

Tried to remove the a pillar and managed to get 2 clips out but it looks like the pillar needs to be pushed upwards to free the clips completely. Unfortunately it wouldn't budge. Has anyone managed to do this?

[steveb8189]

Just a quick thanks to everyone who has posted on here. Wired my camera in yesterday in about 45 minutes and very happy with the setup. Ran the wire out of the back of the glove box from fuse 47, took the side panel off (without unplugging the airbag switch), cross the bottom of the pillar (to avoid the airbag) and then just tucked in in behind all the trim.

 

Had a little rattle when I first drove because the cable wasn't pushed down far enough where the dash meets the a-pillar but the back of a teaspoon soon sorted that.

[Bigbudgie]

Thanks chaps! This thread has been a big help. I fitted the dashcam on my Yeti no bother at all, also using the rear wiper fuse. Plenty of room for the cig lighter socket and standard plug in the side of the space. It was a piece of cake compared to the Karoq, and, as has been said, the worst bit is actually gaining access to the fuse box! Thankfully there was also plenty of room for the socket and plug , as well as the spare cable in the space so all's well. 
All up and running again so the boss will be happy! How many Brownie points do you get for this? 

[mgm105]

I've fitted my dash cam in the similar way but I couldn't use F47 (BLU 15A) because of the F45 - huge metal fuse for  the driver's seat. So I inserted a piggyback instead of small F36.

[kerbero5]

Has anyone had any experience running a cable from the rear windscreen to the front of the car? I just bought a Nextbase 522 camera with the rear windscreen mount, so trying to work out how easy it would be to run cable from the rear windscreen inside the trip to plug into the camera at the front.

[flyingscot]

Followed the guide but my camera seems to be struggling to maintain power when the start-stop kicks in- it seems to be fine for 20-30s then switch off- presumably as the battery runs out. 

 

The hardwire kit is a minifuse- I used F19 which was empty rather than the rear wiper. 

 

Anyone else experienced this?

[Kenny R]

12 minutes ago, flyingscot said:

Followed the guide but my camera seems to be struggling to maintain power when the start-stop kicks in- it seems to be fine for 20-30s then switch off- presumably as the battery runs out. 

 

The hardwire kit is a minifuse- I used F19 which was empty rather than the rear wiper. 

 

Anyone else experienced this?

 

F19 is for the Kessy system, fuse 47 is the rear wiper as quoted in the guide above.

[flyingscot]

55 minutes ago, Kenny R said:

 

F19 is for the Kessy system, fuse 47 is the rear wiper as quoted in the guide above.

 

Must have got the wrong number as I didnt use the Kessy one. Need to double check. Rear wiper 47 is a standard fuse which the kit didnt fit. 

[flyingscot]

Started again- fitted to fuse 47 and again seems intermittent. Slow to start up and sometimes just cuts off mind way through driving. Starting to think it might be the hardwired kit or camera not liking being hardwired

Edited 13 August, 2019 by flyingscot

[fp01]

Please note that many cars today, incl. Skoda Karoq regulates the 12V supply by PWM-regulation. Hang on an oscilloscope on the supply line and you will see that the normally straight line of DC is interrupted into longer or shorter breaks

or more correct, shorter and even more shorter breaks... This makes no harm to most of the ordinary loads, like lamps, either LED or filament, or most other appliances, small motors and so on. But electronic devices like a daschcam can go

bananas when the straight DC is changed to pulses...

Solution is a smoothing filter, a LC-type will work, or a diode in serial together with a capacitor 100-470uF on the camside.

Edited 13 August, 2019 by fp01

[flyingscot]

That makes sense- suspect the battery in the dashcam isn't great, thus when it gets the short bursts early on it cuts out. Starting to seem a lot of effort for a dashcam!