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Hard wiring a dash cam using the interior light as a power feed
ragindave - 29/3/16 at 02:53 PM

Hard wiring a dash cam using the interior light as a power feed.
C3 Picasso
Any thoughts on using the interior light as a power feed for a 12V to 5V Dual USB Power Adapter Converter?
The picture shows an interior light the same as mine looking at using the green/yellow and grey for power/earth any possible problems with this idea?
Thanks.

loggyboy - 29/3/16 at 02:56 PM

I suspect the feed will be dimmed, controlled by a module, and not permanently fed.
I fed mine from the cigarette lighter and ran the cable up the a pillar.

ragindave - 29/3/16 at 03:05 PM

It has 3 separate lights the 2 outside are just on or off controlled by a separate switch

z2000 - 29/3/16 at 03:12 PM

Just be careful if it's a true "live feed" as it could be on the whole time and your dash cam will run down the car battery (slowly) by running the whole time, unless that is your plan to have it running even when the car isn't running?

Like Loggyboy, I have also used USB power to control my dash cams, the cigarette lighter socket turns on with the ignition and this activates the camera to start recording until the ignition is turned off.

ragindave - 29/3/16 at 03:25 PM

The 2 interior lights on the outside as you can see have only 2 wires feeding them and only power on when the ignition is turned on the middle light is controlled by the door operation and dims after removing the ignition key so this one would not be suitable.
The converter has a red and black wire positive and negative so it could be as simple as tapping into the interior light feed and return but as it is I guess a can bus system I am not so sure?

britishtrident - 29/3/16 at 03:27 PM

Almost certainly in someway linked to the can bus could cause alsors of weird electrical issues easier to use a tap blade fuse conector from the interior fuse box.

Slimy38 - 29/3/16 at 06:56 PM

Bear in mind that dash cams take quite a bit of power, mine uses a 2 amp supply. I had to use a high power USB convertor, one of these left me with a couple of other ports for phones etc;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-Charger-PowerIQ-Technology-Motorola-48W-Silver/dp/B00U1677NG

It's plugged into the cigarette lighter, then the USB lead for the dashcam is looped back into the dash, over the top of the glovebox and up the window edge trim. The cigarette lighter is ignition powered which works well.

DJT - 30/3/16 at 01:41 PM

quote:
Originally posted by loggyboy
I suspect the feed will be dimmed, controlled by a module, and not permanently fed.
I fed mine from the cigarette lighter and ran the cable up the a pillar.


That's what I've done.

DJT - 30/3/16 at 01:43 PM

quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
Almost certainly in someway linked to the can bus could cause alsors of weird electrical issues easier to use a tap blade fuse conector from the interior fuse box.


Annoyingly I coulnd't find a single ignition switched fuse in the large interior fuse box. I assume power for the various computer modules is somehow switched by the can bus.

ste - 30/3/16 at 05:04 PM

Ive wired mine into the glove box light power supply. It is an ignition switched supply and as my car is can bus and uses very few fuses as most things are controlled by computers. none of the lights are fused, if the car senses a problem it just isolates that lamp until you recycle power once its fixed.

Not had any issues with mine for the last 6 months