New Member with questions re SG DCs

[SummerFun]

Hi! I am going to be taking a long road trip to visit family in FL soon and I would like to get a dash cam for safety before I start my trip. I've been doing a LOT of research and I've narrowed it down to a couple of choices that seem best for me: Street Guardian SGGCX2Pro or go all out with the SG9663DCPro. I like the SGGCX2Pro's ability to add a rear camera later, and I like SG's reputation for quality customer service. My concern is about the installation of either dash cam. I don't feel comfortable trying to hardwire it into the fuse box since I know absolutely nothing about automotive electronics. I have built numerous PCs but that certainly doesn't qualify me to mess with the electronic guts of my car. I'm also not familiar with how/where the air bags are installed and I would hate to either run a cable across an area that obstructs proper deployment or (heaven forbid) disable one altogether. lol That being said, I would probably need to use the cigarette lighter to power it if I install it myself, but I also have a Garmin GPS unit that I use for turn-by-turn instructions on long road trips and it uses the cigarette lighter for power. So here are my questions:

1) Is there some optional equipment that I can purchase that will allow me to power both devices off the cigarette lighter, or will that overload the circuit?
2) If there's no way to "share" the cigarette lighter, what is the simplest method for a novice like me to be able to wire the DC into the car with minimal risk?
3) I called Best Buy and another local "automotive electronics" store, who both say they will install/wire any dash cam I bring in, but I'm concerned that they won't install it properly (or the way I want it) since they don't sell Street Guardian brand. Small things, like whether they'll use the correct camera mount bracket, install the EVA foam tape, etc. Is the installation of a dash cam universal enough that I can trust that they'll know how to properly install it (since I seriously doubt they would spend any time looking at the manual!)?

Thanks for your help!

 

[jokiin]

you can get double adapters for the cig socket, professional install would be better if you're not confident, we have had some customers use Best Buy for install and for the most part there hasn't been any problems, any good car audio shop can handle the install quite easily, small independents often have better attention to detail but any experienced car audio guy would handle it no problem

best to familiarise yourself with the product first before install so you know what to look out for

 

[kamkar]

If you don't need parking mode, then you can just use the provided PSU and plug that into the cigarette lighter of your dashboard or center console.
You can get adapter for the cigarette lighters so you can split one such socket into 2 right there on the dash / console, or you can get a wired one you can hide in say the glove box that offer up three 12 V outlets and in many cases also have a USB port or two.
You can always go to a local shop that deal with car stereo and install such stuff, they should have the expertise to do a hard wire job, a install should not take more than 1 hour for people knowing the way around car electronics.
The PSU SG provide can be used just fine for a hard wire install ( not supporting parking guard ) you just cut off the plug at the end and wire the 2 wires into your fuse box with a piggy back fuse instead of plugin into the outlet on your dash or center console.

Things to look out for:
1 : the lighter plug on your dashboard / center console, is live all the time, or for a short period after key off that some cars also do, the ones with always live seem to be a minority.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

You you want parking mode, here is the hardwire user manual:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/1g3no6np77iec1v/HardwireUserManualEN.pdf/file

 

[SummerFun]

Thanks for all the quick replies. I like the idea of parking mode but it's not an absolute must-have for me because my car is in my garage most of the time. However, on this road trip it will be parked all night at motels along the way and possibly on the street at my relatives home since they have so many vehicles in their driveway, so it would be nice to have for that. I'm going to order the DC and see about having it installed at our local Best Buy. Fingers crossed! lol Thanks again for so many helpful answers.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

We have a new comparison chart to help as well.

Http://StreetGuardian.info/compare-cameras

 

[SummerFun]

We have a new comparison chart to help as well.

Http://StreetGuardian.info/compare-cameras

Awesome! Thank you!