Cigarette lighter connection

ivantwilliams

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Trying to understand how these Garmin 55 dash cams work.
If one does not connect the camera to the fuse box, but to the cigarette lighter instead, when the car is off, no power to the camera, right?

To be honest, I might not connect to the fuse box, since my car is still under warranty, and I don't want any excuse from Ford to not cover me, if something happened.
At the same time, I don't want to be connected to my cigarette lighter connection, and it somehow drains the car battery.

Thanks for the tips and such.
 
It depend, the norm i think are still that the lighter go off with the car, but some newer cars can keep it on for a short time or even always.

If you dont charge / power other things in the car then using the lighter will be fine, if you do charge other things then you might want to ditch the provided PSU with a USB wire and a multi port USB charger so you have multiple outputs for your stuff.
Just need to make sure its a good USB charger, preferably 2 A on each port.
The latter providing your camera of choice are a 5V USB powered camera, there are a few 12 V cameras out there too.
 
Unlike some other dashcams, the Garmins don't enter "parking mode" unless they are connected to Garmin's proprietary hardwire parking cable.
 
I am seriously considering another Garmin 55 for the rear of my car.
Thus far, the Garmin 55 simply works! Albeit a bit costly to buy another camera, and another parking mode cable. But, still thinking about it...
 
There are different size fuses. After making sure of which size fuse your car uses you can look for something like this.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/142866026254
Then you simply pull the original fuse, place that fuse into the add-a-circuit fuse adapter and the dealer knows nothing as long as you remove the circuit before going in for service..
 
I am seriously considering another Garmin 55 for the rear of my car.
Thus far, the Garmin 55 simply works! Albeit a bit costly to buy another camera, and another parking mode cable. But, still thinking about it...
If you want front and rear coverage, I would seriously consider the K1S by Koolung, I have one on my Spyder without any problems since 2015.
 
Your Garmin probably will not work without the Garmin cable. Some people say theirs do work with other USB power sources but don't bet on it
 
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