Morning all.


Just to let everybody know I have just "hard wired" my Nextbase dashcam to my Xfire. It was a little confusing at first as the wiring diagrams did not appear to match the car.


I don't have much time at the moment to write up the method, but if anybody wants to save some time I can point them in the right direction of where to look. Feel free to get in touch. I can also take some pictures as an aid.


Please note, Halfords state there are no ignition live points you can tap into. Sorry to say, but there are, and they are probably in the most accessible place you can get to.


Regards
Mark

 

i know its an old thread, but interested as to where you connected to, and which charger you used

 

Hi there

I used the £10 Nextbase charger as it came free with my unit. Not sure if they are still available.

I connected to the fuse box on the drivers side (UK).

Can get some pictures if that will help?

Cheers
Mark

 

Hi Mark
i got the charger, makes sense now the piggy back fuse block that came with it, did you hide the wire for the camera behind the screen surround, this is what i plan to do. hopefully have time to fit it soon, been busy doing a few other jobs on the car for its mot, which it has passed now, one advise slight play in anti roll bar bush, ordered all four bushes today

 

Glad to hear you are getting sorted.

I ran the wire up the windscreen/door post and then under the roof lining. The roof bit is dead easy, but the windscreen/door post was harder as I did not want to remove the plastic trim and damage it. I basically just pushed the wire under the trim with a plastic ruler.

PS the cable to the camera is pretty thick, run it in on a warm day it's a darn site easier than on a cold day..... as I found out. Ended up leaving the cable in the house on a radiator so it became more flexible.

 

Hi Mark

Which fuse number did you use? My phone is connected to the one for instrument panel lights etc. which means have to run with my parking lights (sidelights) on!

Don't want to invade the engine compartment fusebox.

Also I am still running tomtom off the cigarette socket so am looking to hard wire that too.

Hope you can help.

Thanks

Mike

 

The radio harness has a wire that is powered up when the ignition is turned on, a wire that is always live and a ground wire. I spliced into each wire, I have a Scosche plug adapter for my radio so it was easy.
I used an insulated female plug on each wire and fitted male plugs to the dash cam wires. I wired up a Garmin 45 dash cam with the parking accessory which has the transformer in the wires. Hard wiring a unit that uses the plug in the cigarette lighter socket would be a pain and that is why I purchased the dash cam parking accessory.
These units and the GPS units generally run on 5 volts so a transformer should be easy to find. Check the voltage of your unit though. Is it possible to run a GPS unit and a dash cam from one transformer?
I have had no problem blowing fuses due to the load of the dash cam. I had no problems with the same setup on my previous dash cam which was also hard wired, unfortunately the cable was not compatible with the new dash cam.
I would urge everyone to get a dash cam, a friend has decided to fight a ticket in court which he feels is unjust, a dash cam would have shown the true events which disagree with what the cop saw. A dash cam could have saved him $400 if he had one. If you cause an accident you had better hide the camera though.
I may fit a rear facing camera some time as extra insurance, I do have a cheap spare to use. I find the dash cams that use the sticky pad to attach the camera to the windshield to be the best, the suction cup ones tend to fall off. The sticky pad can be removed with dental floss just like the trunk letters.

 

Hi Mike

I used the fuse block on the drivers door panel. Please note that my circuit diagram bears no relation to the physical fuse block in the car. From a lot of messing about it would appear that image drawn is in reverse to the actual item. I have therefore added some pictures to show what I have actually got in situ.






Hope the pictures appear, if not send me your email and I will send them direct to you.

Cheers
Mark

 

I used the dash fuse box to run a dash cam using a piggyback fuse and it resulted in the Bulb Out warning light going Off an On, so I used powered wires in the radio harness.

 

That can happen because there is a "right" and "wrong" way to fit a piggy back fuse holder. I thought I was having my leg pulled about this, then a friend made a mock-up just to prove his point. There is a brilliant example of the correct way to do this on the web.

 

Can you post the video so it is available to anyone who wants to do it this way?
I prefer the way I ended up doing it and that was the splicing of leads into the radio power and ground.

 

Hi there, not the video I intended, but this one explains the issue with having the "piggy back" fitted the wrong way. I have included the link to the whole video not just the fuse holder section.


Kind regards
Mark

 

 

You can feed off the glove box / cigarette lighter wire, it is ignition switched. I run my Garmin from there.

 

what a good idea. Job for tomorrow then. Many thanks. Mike

 

Hi Mike, A little concerned that you didn't find the switched live in the dash end fuse box. Like I said mine does not match the circuit diagram. Is this the reason you mentioned getting a route from the engine bay?

Mark

 

 

 

Well Mark, I had better recheck the dash fusebox tomorrow. It is clearly the best solution of I can find one. Thanks for now. Mike

 

Interesting tips on the piggy back fuse holder, copied your fuse position thetester, i have got my camera in now, powers up when i switch on ignition, and no warning lights on dash, was a very warm day so getting the power lead behind the door pillar cover was quite easy, but i removed the sunvisor panel to run the wire across to where i wanted my camera, next item i would like is a fixed usb charger