Help with Hardwiring to ford focus please

[Orianna40]

Hi everyone my husband and I are totally new to dashcams and wondered if anyone could help with our specific car and cam. We have a mk2 Ford focus climate 2005 and we have just brought a nextbase 512gw with hardwire kit . My husband is ok to fit the kit but we cannot find anywhere that gives advice on which is the best fuse to piggyback it with. We would like to use the parking mode on the camera so are unsure if we need it to be on a fuse that is permanently on or a switched one and if so , which fuse is recommended for our car and also if it is on permanently do I physically switch it off when I get out the car and the parking mode switches on if there is an incident or is it literally left on ? Sorry for being a bit thick but we really have no idea how to use it and not too internet savvy to find the answers although I have spent 12hrs looking

 

[Tommyhawkes]

Hi,

Basically unless you have some sort of back up battery in the circuit (expensive) I wouldn't recommend wiring it up to an 'always on' circuit. Sure enough most of the hardwiring kits have cut out devices that kill the power once the voltage on your car battery drops below a specific point if you spur off an 'always on circuit'. Personally, I wouldn't want to leave that to chance, especially overnight in cold weather, when your engine needs all the juice it can get to turn over.

The 512 gw has a G sensor in it, so when activated, turns on the camera to record a short clip after your car incurs a knock, which I have always thought to be sufficient. In the menu settings just put parking mode on and what happens is, when the camera detects there is no power being received from your car (when you fully turn the ignition off) it activates parking mode automatically and goes into a low power consumption state and starts uses power off its internal capacitors.

The best fuse I would say is for a function that's not integral to the operation of your vehicle. Not that it should affect any operation, but better to be safe than sorry. I hardwired mine to the rear windscreen wiper, so if any thing happens, it's a minor inconvenience, but it wont stop me driving about. Then you wire the ground (black wire) to any bolt that's in direct contact with the chassis and voila; 10 minute job and then you have the joy of hiding the wires.

 

[Orianna40]

Hi,

Basically unless you have some sort of back up battery in the circuit (expensive) I wouldn't recommend wiring it up to an 'always on' circuit. Sure enough most of the hardwiring kits have cut out devices that kill the power once the voltage on your car battery drops below a specific point if you spur off an 'always on circuit'. Personally, I wouldn't want to leave that to chance, especially overnight in cold weather, when your engine needs all the juice it can get to turn over.

The 512 gw has a G sensor in it, so when activated, turns on the camera to record a short clip after your car incurs a knock, which I have always thought to be sufficient. In the menu settings just put parking mode on and what happens is, when the camera detects there is no power being received from your car (when you fully turn the ignition off) it activates parking mode automatically and goes into a low power consumption state and starts uses power off its internal capacitors.

The best fuse I would say is for a function that's not integral to the operation of your vehicle. Not that it should affect any operation, but better to be safe than sorry. I hardwired mine to the rear windscreen wiper, so if any thing happens, it's a minor inconvenience, but it wont stop me driving about. Then you wire the ground (black wire) to any bolt that's in direct contact with the chassis and voila; 10 minute job and then you have the joy of hiding the wires.

Thank you so much for your help. I will get hubby to have another go tomorrow .

 

[Leonauto]

You can watch a small installation video: How To Hard Wire NextBase Dash Cam
And also to read what difficulties users face: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/new-512gw-and-hardwire-kit.32701/

 

[Fairynuff]

A look at the thread in the below link might help. It's not the same car and it's 15 pages of posts but if you look at the first page of posts and the last two/three pages of posts you may learn something helpful about the search for the best fuses to use and how to tap into them with the 'add a fuse' option.

Dashcam Installation

Dashcam Installation Audio, Navigation, Electronic Issues and Fixes - Porsche Macan Forums

www.macanforums.co.uk

 

[needacam1989]

Not familiar with your camera but I can offer some general advice. If it's a 3 wire power cord generally one wire is ground, one wire is constant (always on), and one wire is accessory (only when ignition is on). You can find out which fuses are which by testing them with a test light in both ignition on and off positions. I used the heated seats fuse since it has a high current rating and isn't really anything important, you should really be fine with any fuse but I generally go for ones that are not essential (airbags, ecm, brakes, etc). If you have a two wire cord you pretty much have to wire it to constant to have it record when the ignition is off. I used to wire them to constant and break the circuit with a toggle switch but I tended to forget to turn it off so it wasn't really the best option. There are some battery discharge prevention type devices you can get that are a better solution to the toggle switch... some have timers, low voltage protection, and manual toggle switches.