Radar Detector and Dash Cam Hardwiring to Rear View Mirror

[rishi_says]

Looked but cant find a clear answer. I currently have my V1 wired into the rear view mirror. Can I do the same for a dash cam too or will having two things wired into the rear view mirror be too much and cause a fuse to blow?

Can I switch the fuse on that circuit to something slightly bigger? Anyone know what circuit it is?

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[Chola]

I dont have either but to hazard a guess there should be no problem. Most fuses I've seen are like 2/5/10 Amperes and the dashcam might just take 0.1 or 0.2 amperes which shouldn't overload the circuit.

 

[DavisCustoms]

I dont have either but to hazard a guess there should be no problem. Most fuses I've seen are like 2/5/10 Amperes and the dashcam might just take 0.1 or 0.2 amperes which shouldn't overload the circuit.

A quick look in the owners manual shows the rear view mirror+switches+power windows share fuse #23 which is a 10-amp

From Valentines website for the V-1: (page 34)
Power Requirements: 11.0-16.0 Volts DC negative ground 225 mA typical standby, 425 mA maximum alarm condition
https://www.valentine1.com/manual/v1/pdf/V1_Manual.pdf

 

[mc68386]

Looked but cant find a clear answer. I currently have my V1 wired into the rear view mirror. Can I do the same for a dash cam too or will having two things wired into the rear view mirror be too much and cause a fuse to blow?

Can I switch the fuse on that circuit to something slightly bigger? Anyone know what circuit it is?

I had the same concern. I ended up wiring my V1 to the mirror and my BlackSys dash cam into a fuse box tap. Those wires in the mirror are pretty tiny.

 

[Deleted member 35644]

Hey guys, which wires to the mirror are + and - switched to ignition?

 

[BlackandBlue]

Here is a hack.

Hey guys, which wires to the mirror are + and - switched to ignition?

Here is a hack.

I wired mine to the map light always on. The map light circuit is cut off after 5? Mins after car is shut off.

Always on while car is running.

 

[Cobra Jet]

Here is a hack.

Here is a hack.

I wired mine to the map light always on. The map light circuit is cut off after 5? Mins after car is shut off.

Always on while car is running.

Good info - thx!!

 

[Michael_vroomvroom]

Here is a hack.



Here is a hack.

I wired mine to the map light always on. The map light circuit is cut off after 5? Mins after car is shut off.

Always on while car is running.

I like that idea. My dash cam has some "parking monitor" mode, where it will start running if it experiences movement while the car is parked and the power source is disconnected. It then locks that recording, thinking it was due to a crash. It however also triggers when I shut the door after sitting down in the car, or perhaps when sitting down in the car too (not because I'm fat and weigh a lot ... *cough*), or if I open the trunk and shut the trunk. There's a sensitivity setting on the dash cam that may help, but that increases the chance it will not trigger when there is a genuine crash/bump of course.

Seems like your idea will avoid that problem, and I could perhaps even set the sensitivity of the dash cam to max as long as I've unlocked the car so the map light has turned on before opening the trunk. Do you remember what wires you used?

 

[Michael_vroomvroom]

I think it will. On my car(18) the power is cut to the line after a few mins of the car sitting.

Unlocking the doors or opening the doors turns the always on circuit on.

As I remember there are two hot wires. One turns on the lights when the door is opened and the other is always on with auto cutoff. I had to use a volt meter and a needle to figure it out. I just used the little wire clamps to tie into the wires.

Thanks.

If anyone else is interested: there are three wires going to each of the two the maplight buttons. It's the yellow wire that is powered after unlocking the car or driving. It powers off about 10 minutes after the ignition turns off on my car.

I connected my small 12v -> 5v step down unit to that yellow wire for "live", and to the black/yellow wire that goes into the lightbulb casing for ground:

After I unscrewed the blue rectangular box in the maplight casing I could fit my 12v -> 5v converter under it, with a small amount of double sided tape to help hold it in place while I screwed the blue box back on:

Need something to unscrew the two T10 torx screews to take it off.


I then routed the female/input usb sockets coming out from the 12v -> 5v step down unit out under the roof lining between the maplight box and the rearview mirror:

From there it's just a few centimeters to connect the dash cam that I currently have attached via a clamp to the rod going from the rearview mirror.

Improvements if I were to do it again:

- I think maybe I would not have needed to take off the whole rearview mirror casing. Possibly it would be enough to take of just the small part in the middle where the rod from the rearview mirror goes into the case, but I had already taken it of before I read your idea to get power from the maplight box instead. Anyway, compared to the maplight case, the rearview mirror casing is easy to take of as long as one has some plastic tools to insert between the casing and the roof.


- Taking off the maplight cover was really, really, hard. All the videos I've seen say to pull it off and that it is hard to do the first time, but I was feeling 50/50 about it going to break while doing it.

After pulling it off it did not stick tight to the roof when re-attaching again. There are two inserts that hold it in place so it does not fall down, but after pulling so hard to get it off, it was no longer sticking directly to the roof. Instead there is a tiny gap there and since the case is so light that just blowing on it will make it move back and forth, I put a few bits of double sided tape inside to make it stick better.

If I were to do it again I'd spend some time checking if there is a similar "delayed power-off" source in the rearview mirror casing to avoid struggling with the maplight casing as that was really uncomfortable.

 

[Enzo]

Looked but cant find a clear answer. I currently have my V1 wired into the rear view mirror. Can I do the same for a dash cam too or will having two things wired into the rear view mirror be too much and cause a fuse to blow?

Can I switch the fuse on that circuit to something slightly bigger? Anyone know what circuit it is?

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/hardwire-radar-into-2018-mirror-w-rain-sensor.116135/ here you go, this will walk you through it as well. Very easy and fast to do.

 

[OldBlue]

Glad I found this. I'm getting ready to do the same thing.

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