Dashcam live and ground questions, advice needed.

[G-A-R-Y]

Car as per signature, can I take a live feed from the interior light loom/plug (red/yellow wire), there is also a brown (earth) on that same plug.

The live power goes off when I lock the car and back to live as soon as I unlock. It stays live with the engine running.

Has anyone else taken a feed from this interior light loom/plug?

Maplins do a hardwire kit with just red and black needed.

 

[Scooba_Steve]

I have run feeds direct from the fusebox for my dashcam installs. Most come with a hardwire kit ending in a USB plug, so I run the USB lead up the passenger A-pillar (you can secure with genuine cable tie clips if you want) and take feeds from necessary fuse feeds. There should be some empty ones so you can either use an add-a-fuse or plug a spade directly in and add your own inline fuse.
There are plenty of earthing points there too - I much prefer to not cut into the vehicle loom where possible, if I do I crimp proper connections on the car loom and add my own wire between to splice into, then if I want to remove it I just plug the loom ends into each other.

 

[PerryGunn]

Car as per signature, can I take a live feed from the interior light loom/plug (red/yellow wire), there is also a brown (earth) on that same plug.

Complete how-to here http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=73905

 

[G-A-R-Y]

Thanks everyone.
That is perhaps the easiest dashcam fit ever.
Scotch locked into the brown (earth) and yellow/red (live, miniscule - 1.5amp required). Threaded the mini USB cable through the gap in the windscreen trim. Suction cupped the camera to screen. Double sided tape the hardwire power unit to just about the interior light unit, refitted the light and plugged in the camera. Job done. Goes off when I lock the car and come on as soon as unlocked.
Easy

 

[PerryGunn]

Thanks everyone.
That is perhaps the easiest dashcam fit ever.
Scotch locked into the brown (earth) and yellow/red (live, miniscule - 1.5amp required). Threaded the mini USB cable through the gap in the windscreen trim. Suction cupped the camera to screen. Double sided tape the hardwire power unit to just about the interior light unit, refitted the light and plugged in the camera. Job done. Goes off when I lock the car and come on as soon as unlocked.
Easy

As you've discovered, red (with a stripe of any colour) is live as long as the car's awake, if you'd used the violet with white (or any other colour) stripe, it would come on when you turn the key to (at least) position I & go off when you turn the key to 0 - minor point but it might stop lots of short recordings that have been made just because you've unlocked the car or opened the boot

 

[G-A-R-Y]

The car is quite clever, I have to exit the car and then lock to turn it off (loose power). If I lock the car whilst sitting there it stays live. It starts recording as soon as unlocked which I think very useful.

 

[PerryGunn]

The car is quite clever, I have to exit the car and then lock to turn it off (loose power). If I lock the car whilst sitting there it stays live. It starts recording as soon as unlocked which I think very useful.

I suppose it depends what you expect/want from a dashcam - I only want mine to record when I'm driving the car so used a switched live to minimise spurious recordings

 

[cj10jeeper]

The car is quite clever, I have to exit the car and then lock to turn it off (loose power). If I lock the car whilst sitting there it stays live. It starts recording as soon as unlocked which I think very useful.

I suppose it depends what you expect/want from a dashcam - I only want mine to record when I'm driving the car so used a switched live to minimise spurious recordings

Yes - very much does depend. I have mine through a voltage control, such that it continues to be ready when the car is parked. If touched it captures and saves the prior 15 secs and following 60. If battery drops below a voltage I select (12.1v) it shuts off, so alway OK to restart. Good for when it's parked, in for a service, etc.

 

[G-A-R-Y]

Yea, thinking about it, I will have to lock the car even if it's in the garage (to turn the camera off). To negate removal of trim would it be possible that there is an ignition live at the auto dimming interior mirror/loom.

 

[PerryGunn]

Yea, thinking about it, I will have to lock the car even if it's in the garage (to turn the camera off). To negate removal of trim would it be possible that there is an ignition live at the auto dimming interior mirror/loom.

There is a switched live in the lighting console - the violet/white wire, see the link I provided earlier

If you want a different live then my notes on BMW wiring conventions say...

Ignition Switch
position 0 - off
position I - accessory
position II - on
position III - start

In general:
(test first with a multimeter just in case it's different for your model)

Ground
- Brown

Unfused wires
- a solid red wire is always live
- a solid green wire is live in positions II and III
- a solid violet wire is live in positions I, II and III

Fused wires
- a red wire with a stripe of any colour, is always live
- a green wire with a stripe of any colour is live in positions II and III
- a violet wire with a stripe of any colour is live in positions I, II and III

NB Although the notes say that red wires are 'always' live, it just means that they don't need a key in the ignition, some of them will turn off when the car is locked or goes to sleep...