Not getting power to cam ???

[extraoneya]

I've been testing my 2 Finevu Pros in the cars via the single cig lighter connection. I finally tackled some hardwiring, but have hit a pothole.

I have 2 identical cams for the front & rear that I'll be transferring among 4 cars. This pic shows the extra gear that I ordered. Not shown is the 12v to 5v Step-down.



Hooked up the step-down to a always on 12v line. The dual power outlet is connected to that. Grounded the 2 negatives of the step down (1 ea. on the IN & OUT sides) & the 1 on the dual socket. Multimeter shows the outlet sending 5v.

Plugging in the usb-cig lighter power cord, lights up their LED. But that's it.....the cams aren't booting. Tried power cords that r proven good w/o any change. Cams also check out on another car. Wiggled the cig lighter end w/in the socket to no avail.

I tried crying & hoped my tears would get the electrons moving, but that didn't work either.

Where should I start looking folks?

 

[jokiin]

the power cords for the product would have a step down built in, if you were only feeding them 5v in (it reads like that but I'm not clear) that would be an issue

 

[extraoneya]

the power cords for the product would have a step down built in, if you were only feeding them 5v in (it reads like that but I'm not clear) that would be an issue

Pardon me while I jump out of my living room window....oops...forgot it's a wall to ceiling.........

Why would I want to do this?

1- I've been living w/ the idea that u had to step down the 12v. Based on u'r response, I now realize that's only necessary if u'r bypassing the cig lighter power cord...is that correct?

2. I purchased the step-down for 7 bucks & paid $17 more for 1 day shipping as I wanted to drive this car tomorrow.

I just know that u'r response is the solution. The fact that the power cord HAS to reduce the 12v it's getting from the car socket, totally escaped me!

Thank you so much....now I have to decide if I want to undo 4 hrs. of labor tonight or tomorrow....better grab some brewskis & thinkaboutit

 

[Hillbilly]

If your cameras are 5V look on the plug that's on the cable and see what it says for output Should say 5V and if it does you have wasted your money.

You could have done it all with a Power Magic pro plus, that has 2 ciggy sockets on it Wire the 3 wires into the fuse box with two piggy back fuses and you would have been going in half an hour.

All those connectors are just problems waiting to happen.

I have 2 cameras and that's how I did it Put one in a mates truck on Sunday took all of 20 mins and most of that was feeding the wires behind the trim around the windscreen.

 

[Quick]

No need to undo 4 hours of work. Just bypass your 12v->5v step down and call it a day

 

[extraoneya]

No need to undo 4 hours of work. Just bypass your 12v->5v step down and call it a day

Oh...I wish that was the case....unfortunately, things r never that easy in my life....I mean, garage.

U see, 3 of the 4 cars that r getting the DC treatment r almost 50 yrs old, & I've learned that if I multiply my time investment estimate in working on those cars by at least a factor of 3, it'll get close to the actual time it takes me to get it done....to wit;

I removed the step-down the next morning & did a little rewiring. ALL RIGHT!, I'm on the home stretch!

I had spliced the dual outlet into the wire for the horn, since it was always on.....in goes the rear usb plug & the horn honks once...OK, I thought, that's a feature, not a bug....putting in the front plug also make the horn honk, & honk, & honk....it stays honking until I remove the plug....I can't call that a bug, in fact I call it other things that I better not write down here!

Me being pretty smart (almost brilliant in fact), I undo the connection from where I had it after it powers the horn, & splice it to the line before it goes to the horn. ALL RIGHT!, I'm on the home stretch! To find out what happened, re-read the above paragraph.

By now, I'm inconsolable & start disposing of several hundred dollars of not-so-high-tech stuff in the trash. Fortunately, it wasn't trash pick-up day & I retrieve the DCs from beneath the cat litter & beer cans the next day.

I'm now considering running a new line from either the battery or fuse box to power the dual socket or perhaps not using the dual, instead cutting off the cig lighter plug on the usb cord, wire it to the step-down w/ a in-line fuse & see what happens.

btw...the 4th car is a new Honda Van that is running the DCs just fine, thank you very much....the nice folks at Honda thought to place a out-of-the-driver's-way power plug both in the front & rear of the car....something that wasn't on the drawing board in the 1960s!

Any suggestions will be appreciated, but I can't guarantee that I'll be sober enough to implement them!