Hi,

I have been loking at ways of hardwiring a Dashcam, could someone confirm it is a "Mini"  fuse 43 size 10.9mm wide?

I was intending to remove the UK drivers side dashboard end panel but cannot find a picture of it on this forum (which is where I thought it was),  i would appreciate a link to it as it appears difficult to remove!

 

Thanks

Is this any use?

 

7 hours ago, peternsomerset said:

Hi,

I have been loking at ways of hardwiring a Dashcam, could someone confirm it is a "Mini"  fuse 43 size 10.9mm wide?

I was intending to remove the UK drivers side dashboard end panel but cannot find a picture of it on this forum (which is where I thought it was),  i would appreciate a link to it as it appears difficult to remove!

 

Thanks

 

The fuse box you need is the one behind the glove box 

I think the information I saw was on another forum!!

I understand the fuse i need to "tap" onto is number 43 for a UK Kamiq.

FWIW I have just removed the glove box flap and measured the width of the top of the fuse,  it is a "Mini Fuse".

I have found a local parts shop that sells a "mini" tap cable and fuses,   I will buy those.  It looks as though I need to remove the dash end panel that meets the door when closed to get the cable rooted up the pillar.

 

Regards

No need. You can route it underneath the dash and then up the pillar without removing the dash end panel.

OK,  I assume the right angled mini usb cable AND plug can be pushed through!!?

 

Thanks

 

 

You just tuck the cable in, no need for the mini plug to be pushed through anything 

OK thanks,  I have not had a good look at the underside/back yet,  its good to know it should not be to difficult to do!

 

I have just fitted my Dash Cam with a hardwire kit.

Mine (Viofo 229 plus duo) has a parking mode so needs a permanent live fuse as well as a switched live fuse (ignition on).

That feature threw up a challenge regarding the expected performance of the camera and what was really a permanent live fuse, it all got quite confusing no pun intended.

 

Log story short, the amount of car starter battery drain during the process (which wasn't particularly long) effectively meant that the permanent live fuse selection was rendered useless and the camera powered down completely (acting the same way as a switched fuse) to ensure the starter battery was not going to be drained further. 

That sounds logical when you know but if you don't know its happening when you are fitting the dash cam then the assumption is one of 3 things.

A ) perhaps I haven't chosen a permanent live fuse and this can be supported by what the fuse is there for to start with. I mean who would have thought a heated steering wheel would have a permanent live fuse instead of switched?

B ) there is something wrong with the dashcam

C ) some settings are wrong on the dash cam owing to poor Chinese translation to English

 

After this failure, to try to be sure that I had a permanent live (Yes I did use a multi-meter and internet research first) I then chose 2 more fuses that also should have been permanent lives. Tested again and of course this was further decreasing the starter battery charge significantly enough to power down the dash cam despite the expectation that the permanent live feed would keep the dash cam powered in parking mode.

The hardwire kit I have, has a battery protection setting switch and by now even on the lowest setting the dash cam did not stay powered on so I ruled that out.

It was driving me nuts, of the fuses I had tried which included interior lights, the horn and the 12v cigar lighter after the heated steering wheel and they all had power when the ignition was off yet the dash cam had again powered down.

 

So it turns out after a longer drive that I needn't have kept swapping fuse locations if I had just driven the car to recharge the battery after fitting the dash cam. I had it right first time.

Once it was recharged and the ignition was off the dash cam now stayed powered for parking mode.

That time is not continuous as you might suspect (as I did) it's dependant though on 2 things. 

1) The length of time you set it to be live for in the settings which can range from 30 mins to 24 hours and will vary from dash cam to dash cam.

2) Where you set the battery protection switch to. I have set mine to maintain the charge fully so I have no idea how effective the parking mode will be at say 2 a.m. in the morning when the thieves are checking car doors. Hence I don't rate it as a feature / good reason to buy a particular dash cam.

 

But finally I'm able to conclude that 

I was able to choose 2 empty fuse locations in my car to get things working correctly. Empty because I don't have that equipment the fuse locations are there for. It doesn't matter if they aren't empty but make sure you put the fuse adaptors the right way around to truly piggy back the original set up. When they are empty you will only get power one way around so you know if you have the adaptor that right way. If they are not empty and both fuses are in place you will get power but that doesn't mean it's correct. If they are wrong, then you are getting power to the dash cam after its gone through the original car fuse and then the dash cam 5amp fuse. Not best practise at all.

But when you look at the fuse locations you can tell the line side from the load side by the metal tangs.

Fuse 12

for the heated steering wheel is permanent live (I don't know why that would be but it is). Red cable to the one.

Fuse 46

for the rear heated seats is switched live. Yellow cable for this one.

Ground was easy to find an option. Black cable with open clamp for this.

 

 

The battery protector I have left on 12.4V

 

 

 

 

 

Chosen fuses

 

 

See the right hand side of this fuse location has 2 metal tangs? that is the line side (Live)

So the fuse adaptor (piggyback) lead needs to extend away to the left in this case.      <------------

 

Access with the storage box and dash end panel removed.

 

What if I want to install a dashcam battery, but the battery only has two cables, ground and power?

I would need a higher-rated fuse, but there are none that are ACC controlled. All the fuses rated 20 A or higher are always on and we dont really know if the empty slots fuses can take more then 7.5A or do we?