Dashcams!

do you want to hard wire it? if not then you don't have to, if you do then wire it to something that gets 12v in, I've seen people do it to ashtray light connections etc
 
grudas said:
do you want to hard wire it? if not then you don't have to, if you do then wire it to something that gets 12v in, I've seen people do it to ashtray light connections etc
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Yes I would like it all hidden away. Would the back of the cigarette lighter be a safe option?
 
anything that comes on with the ignition really.

I'd say google around and see how other e46 guys did it, on my mazda I had some usb ports in the back of my aftermaket headunit so just dumped in there and I can't see any wires around.
 
I have an E90 but all I did was use a fuse tap. I tapped off the lighter socket fuse and that gave me the power connection and there was conveniently a decent sized bolt behind the glove box next to the fuse box which I could use for the ground. Splicing wires up to the back of the lighter socket is an option too but a fuse tap to the glove box fuse box is probably easier.
 
grudas said:
anything that comes on with the ignition really.

I'd say google around and see how other e46 guys did it, on my mazda I had some usb ports in the back of my aftermaket headunit so just dumped in there and I can't see any wires around.
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I had a google but couldn't really find anything e46 specific. Most do the fuse tap but I'm not very comfortable playing around with fuses.

Phemo said:
I have an E90 but all I did was use a fuse tap. I tapped off the lighter socket fuse and that gave me the power connection and there was conveniently a decent sized bolt behind the glove box next to the fuse box which I could use for the ground. Splicing wires up to the back of the lighter socket is an option too but a fuse tap to the glove box fuse box is probably easier.
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Cheers, so would this be good enough?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ADD-Circu...207455?hash=item339e1faa5f:g:cYAAAOSwl9BWHoJA

So basically all I need to do is remove the fuse for the cig lighter from the fuse box, plug this fuse tap in its place and put the original fuse back into the fuse tap?

Then with the kit in the picture I put above, one wire to the fuse tap and one to a ground (any bolt near the fuse box).
 
Just make sure you are using an ignition live only.

If you have an overhead console with lights/buttons/sunroof control, just use a multi-meter to check what is 12v and live when the ignition is set to on, and hard wire it in there.

I have done this for 2 of my own cars and its much neater, and means you can mount cleanly behind the rearview, and keep it out of sight.
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
Just make sure you are using an ignition live only.

If you have an overhead console with lights/buttons/sunroof control, just use a multi-meter to check what is 12v and live when the ignition is set to on, and hard wire it in there.

I have done this for 2 of my own cars and its much neater, and means you can mount cleanly behind the rearview, and keep it out of sight.
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That's what all the e46 tutorials show, but mine is a convertible so I only have the lights up there
 
I've just fitted one like that to my E46 coupe.

Starting from the rearview mirror, I pushed the cable through the roof liner to the passenger side pillar, then using a trim tool, unclipped the pillar slightly, put the cable behind it then clipped it back into place. It then goes through the door rubber trim and into the glovebox. I used one of those fuse buddy affairs and tapped the earth to the one random bolt (there's barely any earth points behind the glovebox).

Ps. The cig lighter is constantly live so that's probably not ideal.

Edit: Just saw you've got a vert so this probably doesn't help very much :p
 
Atari said:
I've just fitted one like that to my E46 coupe.

Starting from the rearview mirror, I pushed the cable through the roof liner to the passenger side pillar, then using a trim tool, unclipped the pillar slightly, put the cable behind it then clipped it back into place. It then goes through the door rubber trim and into the glovebox. I used one of those fuse buddy affairs and tapped the earth to the one random bolt (there's barely any earth points behind the glovebox).

Ps. The cig lighter is constantly live so that's probably not ideal.

Edit: Just saw you've got a vert so this probably doesn't help very much :p
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Well getting the wire to the glovebox is not a problem I can sort it out, but it's the fuse box bit that's confusing me :p

My lighter on mine only works when ignition is on! I think you change fuses around etc to get it to work like that.
 
Ok I think I have figured it out :p

Would both fuses in the piggy back need to be the same rating?
If not what would be good enough for a dashcam? 20A?
 
ADT said:
So basically all I need to do is remove the fuse for the cig lighter from the fuse box, plug this fuse tap in its place and put the original fuse back into the fuse tap?

Then with the kit in the picture I put above, one wire to the fuse tap and one to a ground (any bolt near the fuse box).
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Yeah my fuse tap is exactly like that. Two fuse slots on it - one is for the original fuse, the other is for your new power source. I just took out the original lighter socket fuse and slotted that into the top slot then popped a 2 amp fuse into the lower slot. Then I just spliced the 12v wire onto the wire from the tap and stripped a decent length of the ground wire off and wrapped it round a bolt.

With regards to fuses, as mentioned above, one is for the original fuse and the other is for your new circuit. Dashcams draw hardly any power at all (usually around 1 amp at 5v, so you're probably looking at 0.4-0.5 amps draw off your 12v) so use the smallest fuse you can get. I thought 2 amp was smallest but there are 1 amp ones after all.
 
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Phemo said:
Yeah my fuse tap is exactly like that. Two fuse slots on it - one is for the original fuse, the other is for your new power source. I just took out the original lighter socket fuse and slotted that into the top slot then popped a 2 amp fuse into the lower slot. Then I just spliced the 12v wire onto the wire from the tap and stripped a decent length of the ground wire off and wrapped it round a bolt.

With regards to fuses, as mentioned above, one is for the original fuse and the other is for your new circuit. Dashcams draw hardly any power at all (usually around 1 amp at 5v, so you're probably looking at 0.4-0.5 amps draw off your 12v) so use the smallest fuse you can get. I thought 2 amp was smallest but there are 1 amp ones after all.
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Thank you! I'll get this ordered with a 2 amp fuse :)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221754049...b38dad861e3&bu=43901636820&cp=1&sojTags=bu=bu
 
Excuse the quality but I had to edit this and upload on my phone as I am sans PC at the moment so the quality is scaled down.

Bloody moron pulls out right in front of me on a 60mph road. I was wary of the junction so was easing off anyway, but thank goodness I have good brakes on my Zed (best upgrade ever!) And reasonable reactions.

The old codger's car was completely mangled at the front and his near side tyre is on the rim. So he either has a habit of crashing his car or was drunk or both or is just absolutely in his own world. That could have been a big smash. I was doing the NSL earlier but as I said I eased off but was still going at a fair speed as he started to pull out.

 
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