Quote:
Originally Posted by rhalama
How about if he wants the dash cam running when he is stopped at a red light or parked temporarily. In those cases I would like the dashcam to be running, NOT just when I am moving. IMHO
|
What I ended up doing on my 2001 3.0i was to tap off the wires powering the map lights up by the top center of the windshield. From my notes, from several years ago when I did it, ...
Accessing the map light assembly up there, 8P connector to the board: 3rd wire from left is brown = ground. First is blue/red striped; GND when OFF, 12V when ON. Rightmost wire is red/yellow striped, connects to 3 rightmost pins, appeared to be constant 12V, but I now think it goes to GND after sleep.
I connected to the brown GND wire and the rightmost red/yellow striped.
I have power to the dashcam when car is ACC or ON, and then for 16 minutes after car is OFF, when it goes to sleep. Confirmed by the green slow blinking LED on the dashcam - goes dark 16 minutes after turning car OFF.
More specifically, I connected those brown (GND) and red/yellow (switched +12V, but will go to sleep 16 minutes after key out) wires to a standard USB adapter that you might plug into the power outlet. Then the standard USB-A to USB-micro wire that came with the dash cam goes from that adapter to the cam.
So I have dash cam power whenever the key in ON or ACC, and then for 16 more minutes after key is out and conditions are met for the car to put itself to sleep.
I was actually hoping for 24x7 power on, as I have in other cars. The cams are so efficient (~100 mA) that having them serve as always-on motion detectors when parked can be useful for me. I live in a fairly quiet neighborhood, and the cam will awaken and record for a couple of minutes each time a car drives by or someone walks past. Good car batteries and solar maintainers make sure that even the 100 mA draw is not a problem.