[VipinLJ]

Originally Posted by UK6

Its annoying that they have dropped the passenger footwell 12volt socket, it was perfect for using to power a dash cam.

I agree. But then, we’d miss out on parking mode. But I’d still prefer a hidden power socket over the one in the centre console. I thought I’d route the long wire to the trunk and use the power cable in there but I want to hardwire mine to enable parking mode.

[srbs73]

Originally Posted by VipinLJ

I agree. But then, we’d miss out on parking mode. But I’d still prefer a hidden power socket over the one in the centre console. I thought I’d route the long wire to the trunk and use the power cable in there but I want to hardwire mine to enable parking mode.

Not sure what your experience is with hardwiring to the cars battery for parking mode but I got some strange behaviours on my previous Q7 hence installing a battery pack.

I had the Thinkware voltage configured quite conservatively, but would still see issues after periods of short journeys or holidays. Used to get all sorts of weird electrical faults - handbrake was usually the first one. On one occasion, parked at the airport for a week in the winter, car wouldn’t start.

Hooking the battery up to a charger and reconditioning it always fixed it but it was a bit annoying.

[VipinLJ]

Originally Posted by srbs73

Not sure what your experience is with hardwiring to the cars battery for parking mode but I got some strange behaviours on my previous Q7 hence installing a battery pack.

I had the Thinkware voltage configured quite conservatively, but would still see issues after periods of short journeys or holidays. Used to get all sorts of weird electrical faults - handbrake was usually the first one. On one occasion, parked at the airport for a week in the winter, car wouldn’t start.

Hooking the battery up to a charger and reconditioning it always fixed it but it was a bit annoying.

I’ve never hardwired or even used a dash cam before this. So this will be my first time. And what you mentioned is exactly what I’m worried about. The only time I leave the car unused extensively, it will be parked in my garage (X3 is the beater for airport duty). So even if the battery dies, I can still jump it and not be worried about having to leave it in a parking lot. But yes. If it does cause issues, I’ll stick to the cigarette lighter plug option.
I was hoping the poster in the previous page who has the exact same dash cam I got hardwired would check his account but it looks like he doesn’t check his account here anymore which is unfortunate.

[srbs73]

I recently had a Thinkware Q800 with an iVolt battery pack installed in my wife’s new 118i. Works really well. Battery is charged when the engine is running and think takes up to 45 mins to get from flat to fully charged.

The iVolt should be good to keep parking more running up to the 48h limit in the Dashcam.

I just waiting for Thinkware to release the T700 as keen to get one with an inbuilt SIM so you get instant alerts.

[VipinLJ]

Originally Posted by srbs73

I recently had a Thinkware Q800 with an iVolt battery pack installed in my wife’s new 118i. Works really well. Battery is charged when the engine is running and think takes up to 45 mins to get from flat to fully charged.

The iVolt should be good to keep parking more running up to the 48h limit in the Dashcam.

I just waiting for Thinkware to release the T700 as keen to get one with an inbuilt SIM so you get instant alerts.

Only thing stopping me from using a battery pack is the price. Almost $350 for a battery pack!

[srbs73]

Originally Posted by VipinLJ

Only thing stopping me from using a battery pack is the price. Almost $350 for a battery pack!

That sounds a lot. I would expect it to be around $200-250 if it was £160 in the UK.

[VipinLJ]

Originally Posted by srbs73

That sounds a lot. I would expect it to be around $200-250 if it was £160 in the UK.

The cellink neo is the one that seems to be selling like hot cakes here. Costs $330 plus tax for a 24-48hr boost.

[srbs73]

Originally Posted by VipinLJ

The cellink neo is the one that seems to be selling like hot cakes here. Costs $330 plus tax for a 24-48hr boost.

I was thinking of that for my car, but it seems to be overkill for the Thinkware dashcams at least, which have a hard stop at 48 hours. I don’t understand why they don’t have an option to say it’s connected to an external battery and not the car battery and continue recording until its dead.

[VipinLJ]

themur I got a notification saying you’ve replied to a post of mine whereas I can’t see anything on here. Happens to me a lot in this forum. I get lots of notifications but don’t see anything. I think it’s because the forum is wonky for me. If you could repost, that would be great.

[themur]

Originally Posted by VipinLJ

themur I got a notification saying you've replied to a post of mine whereas I can't see anything on here. Happens to me a lot in this forum. I get lots of notifications but don't see anything. I think it's because the forum is wonky for me. If you could repost, that would be great.

That's my bad, looked like my post wasn't going through on my end and original got deleted. Pertaining to your setup, if you run power cable to trunk you've got a good ground on the battery whether or not you hardwire cam or use a battery.

I tried hardwiring but I would always get battery management warnings though it would never kill my battery with cutoff. To err on the side of caution I opted for a hefty priced battery.

[VipinLJ]

Originally Posted by themur

That's my bad, looked like my post wasn't going through on my end and original got deleted. Pertaining to your setup, if you run power cable to trunk you've got a good ground on the battery whether or not you hardwire cam or use a battery.

I tried hardwiring but I would always get battery management warnings though it would never kill my battery with cutoff. To err on the side of caution I opted for a hefty priced battery.

No worries. I get so many notifications saying people have either replied to me or posted in a thread i posted but I don't see it. I assumed it was the forum playing tricks with me

And regarding the warnings you got. Was it when you went to start the car or when you were driving around? After reading about all these warnings, I think I'll just wire it to the socket in the trunk and then get a battery later to use parking mode. I don't want my car throwing up errors if I can help it

[themur]

Originally Posted by VipinLJ

No worries. I get so many notifications saying people have either replied to me or posted in a thread i posted but I don't see it. I assumed it was the forum playing tricks with me

And regarding the warnings you got. Was it when you went to start the car or when you were driving around? After reading about all these warnings, I think I'll just wire it to the socket in the trunk and then get a battery later to use parking mode. I don't want my car throwing up errors if I can help it

It only ever came up when I would first start the car after letting it sit idle for at least a full day. My workaround was to pull the plug directly from the cam when I would be leaving the car off for long periods and parking mode wasn't needed and the issue seem to have went away.

Only caution with the cigarette adapter method is hearing that the cheap parts would cause the adapter to overheat but again I never went this route so hopefully it won't be an issue.

[VipinLJ]

Originally Posted by themur

It only ever came up when I would first start the car after letting it sit idle for at least a full day. My workaround was to pull the plug directly from the cam when I would be leaving the car off for long periods and parking mode wasn't needed and the issue seem to have went away.

Only caution with the cigarette adapter method is hearing that the cheap parts would cause the adapter to overheat but again I never went this route so hopefully it won't be an issue.

Ahhh. So I guess I'll hardwire it and pull the plug out when parking at home. Though I'm afraid I might forget. But yes. I'll try that then and see how it goes.

Thank you very much for all the info! It definitely did help me a lot. Can't wait for the hardwire kit to reach me.

[VipinLJ]

I finally mustered up the courage to hardwire the dash cam today. I spent lots of time reading up on fuse taps and hardwiring and potential problems and decided to test my luck.

I followed the method my3ung posted in the previous page. The worst part is the location of the fuse box in the footwell. Today was the day I discovered how flexible I can be!

I used the screw holding the passenger airbag to ground the dash cam. A 10mm wrench socket was what got the nut loose enough for me to slide the ground ring between the washer and the metal bracket. Tightened it and everything was as good as it was before. I also disconnected the battery before messing with the screw, just to be on the safe side. I didn’t want the airbag exploding on me while my face was right next to it, in case something went wrong.

I set the voltage limiter to 12.4V. I’ve seen people set it to 12 and 12.2. My car is always garaged and never parked in a public space overnight. So I don’t need more than 5hrs of parking footage at most. I also don’t want my battery dying out on me. I’ll check tomorrow morning and see if the car throws a hissy fit. If so, I’ll probably have to resort to using the charger socket in the trunk or centre console. If it doesn’t, I might try 12.2V.

All in all, I’m happy with the outcome for now.

PS - I was surprised at how horrible the headliner in my car is! I went to route the wire inside the headliner and thought I’d have a tough time hiding the wire. But lo and behold. I put my fingers between the glass and headliner and found out that there was more than enough space and it already appeared to be separated/separating. I also managed to push it in near where the headliner meets the A pillar airbag cover. All this without isn’t any force. I checked the headliner of my Audis and those are much much better. My car is due for service soon. I’ll be checking out a few G20s on the lot to see if those have similar headliners.

[bryanw1996]

Hey everyone. I just got a G20 330i Xdrivd and got a BlackVue with power magic pro. I just got it installed, and the installer said that due to BMW’s power management system, he had to wire it directly to the battery and that that would be fine because the power magic pro has a cutoff.

Reading your posts it sounds like there are alternatives. Since he already did the install, however, do you see any downside leaving it connected to the battery directly? It seems like you all mostly used the fuse box in the front - we went through the fuse box in the trunk. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t go through the fuse box?

[VipinLJ]

I've hardwired my dash cam as mentioned in my previous post. Almost a week now and no issues at all. Mine records when it detects impacts or any motion in its field of view. It easily runs for 12hours without any problems (I've set it to record for 12 hours on my cam).
No voltage drops. Car doesn't show any errors. I've also set it to switch off when the battery charge drops to 12.4v. People usually set it to 12.2v. For my usage, I don't see a need to change the setting for now.

So far, I'm happy.

[bryanw1996]

Originally Posted by bryanw1996

Hey everyone. I just got a G20 330i Xdrivd and got a BlackVue with power magic pro. I just got it installed, and the installer said that due to BMW’s power management system, he had to wire it directly to the battery and that that would be fine because the power magic pro has a cutoff.

Reading your posts it sounds like there are alternatives. Since he already did the install, however, do you see any downside leaving it connected to the battery directly? It seems like you all mostly used the fuse box in the front - we went through the fuse box in the trunk. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t go through the fuse box?

So even with the constant power wire going directly to the battery, somehow BMWs power management system still detects it and sends up error messages every so often. Ended up just buying the power magic ultra battery back to avoid the error messages and am having that installed this week. Me being ridiculous, though, I’m thinking of getting the connector pins from BMW and having the dash cam installed into it’s own socket in the fuse box rather than using a fuse tap. Anyone done this on a G20? I saw another thread where someone did it in the previous generation and it worked perfectly but not sure if there’s anything particularly unique about this generation

[sd_dracula]

I was having issues with the power magic pro when set to 12.5v it wouldn't even record for one hour so I went and set the cutoff to 12.0v which makes it record more but now getting the discharge error when I get into the car the next day.
Doesn't help the car gets barely driven anymore
But I do keep it plugged into the wall so I am hoping that charges both batteries (could be wrong though)
Thinking about a Cellink/Blackvue battery pack to get rid of that

[RSnic]

Hi,

OK, I've done some checking things out and have narrowed my options for a dash cam down to these two:

• Viofo A129 4K
• Garmin 66W

Both seem to have their own benefits and was would greatly appreciate your thoughts on these.

Thanks

[VipinLJ]

Originally Posted by RSnic

Hi,

OK, I've done some checking things out and have narrowed my options for a dash cam down to these two:

• Viofo A129 4K
• Garmin 66W

Both seem to have their own benefits and was would greatly appreciate your thoughts on these.

Thanks

I've read OK reviews about the Garmin and very good reviews about the Viofo A129 Pro Duo. I would get the Viofo because I have the A119 V3 and video quality is stellar for what I paid for it. I'm extremely impressed by Viofo. I haven't personally used a Garmin or any other dash cam but yes. Just my $0.02.

[RSnic]

Originally Posted by 2020g20

I cut apart and modified the hardwire cable that came in the kit with the Q800. I cut the adapter plug off with ~12" of cable still attached, then soldered that directly into the inline fuse holders from the other end of the cable (and discarded the ~15' of cable in the middle). Then on the other end of the fuse holders I removed the spade connectors that were meant to screw into the car's fuse blocks and replaced them with long PCB header pins (makes tapping into the mirror wiring harness easy). Was left with a ~18" cable (with inline fuses) that tucked inside the rearview shroud nicely.

2020g20 ,
You mounting looks terrific!!

Did the hardwire kit for your camera have a "brick" -- a step down transformer from the 12v to something less?? If so, how did you handle that? The reason I'm asking is that I just got a VioFo A129 Pro dashcam and its hardwire kit has one of those "bricks" (albeit fairly small)?

Thanks

[VipinLJ]

Originally Posted by RSnic

2020g20 ,
You mounting looks terrific!!

Did the hardwire kit for your camera have a "brick" -- a step down transformer from the 12v to something less?? If so, how did you handle that? The reason I'm asking is that I just got a VioFo A129 Pro dashcam and its hardwire kit has one of those "bricks" (albeit fairly small)?

Thanks

Are you talking about that thing on the hardwiring kit that looks like a cylinder and you want to know of it can be tucked in the headliner since it is thick? If so, yes. It can be tucked in easily. When I first saw it on the Viofo hardwire kit, I was wondering how I was going to get it under the headliner. But you can pull the headliner down with your bare hands to tuck the wire inside.