dropshadow said:
I already have a DVR-207, but I actually want to figure out how to hardwire it into my car instead of using the cigarette lighter. Looks like I need to do some more reading here to figure that put.
I hardwired it to my car using the cigarette lighter adapter. That way, you could take a 12v power source from a fuse in your cabin fuse-box or some other continuous power source without buying an aftermarket item. Some of the fuses in my car's interior fuse-box supply power both when the car is on and off, I don't know if all cars have fuses that stay powered 24/7. If you power the DVR from the fusebox, you should buy an
add-a-circuit. They are about the same price on amazon or most autostores (i.e. ~$6.00). In my case, I used the positive and negative of my car's stereo amp.
All you have to do to hardwire it with the cigarette lighter is (see spoiler)
[spoil]1. Unscrew the tip of the adapter.
2. Take out the metal piece that sticks out, store it in your retail box.
3. You will see a cylinder shaped fuse inside. take your positive wire, strip the end, put it against the metal of the fuse that's nearest to the tip (the positive side of the fuse), screw on the plastic tip of the adapter to hold the positive wire in place. This holds the positive wire against the fuse very well! Use some electrical tape to cover up your work to prevent a short, thought it is unlikely because the connection is recessed inside of the adapter.
4. Strip and wrap your negative wire around the metal pieces on the side of the adapter. Don't wrap it around the metal ring; that's not a ground, its only for decoration. Use electrical tape to cover up your work and keep the wire in place.
5. Disconnect your car battery and connect your positive wire to a power source the provides between 12-24 volts and connect your negative to a ground. Then reconnect the car battery.
6. Use a multimeter to make sure the cigarette lighter adapter is outputting voltage in the neighborhood of 5-6 volts (insert your positive lead into the hole of the 3.5 DC jack and press the negative on the outside metal of the DC jack).[/spoil]
The great thing is that you can reverse this process if you ever want your cigarette lighter adapter back in new condition, say if you needed to return the DVR. Just remove the electrical tape, unscrew the tip and remove the positive wire and replace the metal button you removed it step 2 and screw the tip on, and unwrap the negative wire.