power cable issue and suggestion

[budster]

I am having intermittent issues with my SG9665GC losing power and I think it's due to a connection issue with the power cord that plugs into the 12V socket. I found that the strain relief on the cord has broken off and I could see the red wire inside being exposed. Here's a picture of the cord that goes to the 12V adapter.



I pushed the cord in so the wire isn't as exposed. The strain relief separated from the end of the cord and for purposes of the picture, I just pulled the strain relief out further to show it obviously separated. I pushed the strain relief back towards the adapter to cover the end of the cord.

The 12V socket in my Honda Odyssey minivan is about 13-14 inches above the floor of the car, which is higher than normal cars. The cord drops all the way to the floor and is routed towards the right-hand passenger side. I think this puts a lot of strain on the cord where it joins with the adapter and is why the strain relief broke perhaps causing damage to the internal wire around the strain relief.

I have a A119 dashcam in a separate car and it came with a mini-USB to USB cable and a 12V USB adapter to plug the cable into. I think this kind of power cable setup would be better, at least for my situation, as there would not be as much strain on the power cord. Also another benefit is that most 12V USB adapters (including the dual USB 12V adapter that came with the A119) have a bright large LED to show whether power is being received so it is very easy to take a glance at it to see that it has power or not. But with the power cable that came with the SG9665GC, the tiny red LED for it is farther down the cable on some kind of small module that's part of the cable (not sure what the term of this is) so I would need to glance somewhere on the floor to see the LED.

So wondering if the SG9665GC or successors might include a power setup with mini-USB to USB cable and 12V USB adapter like the A119 because I think this would be an improvement.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Message me your details and I'll ship you a SG9CC power supply. (Has red LED too)

 

[jokiin]

So wondering if the SG9665GC or successors might include a power setup with mini-USB to USB cable and 12V USB adapter like the A119 because I think this would be an improvement.

we've avoided doing that as supplying a USB cable and power supply often leads to people trying to use USB outlets that are already built into the vehicle which more often than not causes problems for the camera, with this power lead you can cut the plug off as there's nothing in the plug so the same lead can be used to hardwire to the fuse panel, we felt that was more useful, if you have a faulty lead though just let @Street Guardian USA know your purchase details and we'll get a replacement power lead out to you ASAP

 

[budster]

we've avoided doing that as supplying a USB cable and power supply often leads to people trying to use USB outlets that are already built into the vehicle which more often than not causes problems for the camera, with this power lead you can cut the plug off as there's nothing in the plug so the same lead can be used to hardwire to the fuse panel, we felt that was more useful, if you have a faulty lead though just let @Street Guardian USA know your purchase details and we'll get a replacement power lead out to you ASAP

I think most USB ports in cars supply 500mA at 5V. Is that not sufficient for the SG9665GC or does it require 1A? If I had more USB ports in my minivan, I might try connecting the SG9665GC to one, but I only have one and it's always occupied with a USB flash drive for music.

 

[jokiin]

I think most USB ports in cars supply 500mA at 5V. Is that not sufficient for the SG9665GC or does it require 1A? If I had more USB ports in my minivan, I might try connecting the SG9665GC to one, but I only have one and it's always occupied with a USB flash drive for music.

no 500mAh ports are not enough, many in car ports are also data enabled which can also be a problem

 

[Street Guardian USA]

I think most USB ports in cars supply 500mA at 5V. Is that not sufficient for the SG9665GC or does it require 1A? If I had more USB ports in my minivan, I might try connecting the SG9665GC to one, but I only have one and it's always occupied with a USB flash drive for music.

Most car USB ports are underpowered, data enabled and will not have good results. A stable non-data 1A is needed. Many generic USB port cig adapters that claim to be 1A aren't stable enough for dashcam usage as well.

 

[budster]

Message me your details and I'll ship you a SG9CC power supply. (Has red LED too)

Thanks, will contact you.

 

[Andrew Harwood]

I've also got a damaged cigarette lighter from my v1 camera - in my case the plastic ring that goes into the actual power socket holding the tip has broken into several pieces, and the tip has now disappeared into a hole in the socket so is probably rolling around somewhere inside the dashboard.

The failure also revealed that I have been having issues with RF interference. Hadn't noticed before since I don't use the radio often and have poor reception at home, but realised while investigating the issue with the broken adapter that the hiss on the radio is much worse once the camera boots up.

Since the camera's out of warranty (purchased July 2015) I presume I need to buy a new cable. Is the SG9CC the right part as suggested above? https://streetguardian.info/sg9cc.html does not mention the SG9665GC, but does mention other variants of the SG9665.

I was also going to buy a CPL but https://streetguardian.info/sggccpl-cpl-filter.html says they're currently out of stock - with the new v3 coming with a different CPL included, do you expect to get any more of the CPL for the v1/v2 cameras in?

 

[jokiin]

yes we will get some more CPL's in to suit V1/v2, just out of stock right now

that aside though send me a message with your details and I'll send you a replacement car charger

 

[budster]

with this power lead you can cut the plug off as there's nothing in the plug so the same lead can be used to hardwire to the fuse panel, we felt that was more useful

I'm trying to better understand this idea to cut off the 12V plug on the power adapter and use the remaining piece to hardwire the dashcam. If I do this, then is it correct that I don't need to get something like the CPUSB01 to do the hardwire? After cutting off the plug, I would have access to the power and ground wires, strip them to expose the metal, connect the power wire to an add-a-circuit and the ground wire to a ground point on the car, and then plug the add-a-circuit into an appropriate outlet in the fuse box?

I currently have the SG9CCV2 version of the power adapter (https://www.amazon.com/gp/B01LX0W0J2). I'm assuming the above would work because this power adapter has the 12V-5V converter in that rectangular box that's in-line to the cable. But I think the above would not work if I had the SG9CC version of the power adapter (https://www.amazon.com/gp/B017GGXSHC) since the 12V-5V converter is inside the plug itself.

Just want to check if I understand all this correctly. Also, for the add-a-circuit, would it be ok to add a 2A fuse to it for the power connection with the dashcam?

 

[Street Guardian USA]

I'm trying to better understand this idea to cut off the 12V plug on the power adapter and use the remaining piece to hardwire the dashcam. If I do this, then is it correct that I don't need to get something like the CPUSB01 to do the hardwire? After cutting off the plug, I would have access to the power and ground wires, strip them to expose the metal, connect the power wire to an add-a-circuit and the ground wire to a ground point on the car, and then plug the add-a-circuit into an appropriate outlet in the fuse box?

I currently have the SG9CCV2 version of the power adapter (https://www.amazon.com/gp/B01LX0W0J2). I'm assuming the above would work because this power adapter has the 12V-5V converter in that rectangular box that's in-line to the cable. But I think the above would not work if I had the SG9CC version of the power adapter (https://www.amazon.com/gp/B017GGXSHC) since the 12V-5V converter is inside the plug itself.

Just want to check if I understand all this correctly. Also, for the add-a-circuit, would it be ok to add a 2A fuse to it for the power connection with the dashcam?

That's correct

 

[budster]

That's correct

Thanks for confirming

 

[Andrew Harwood]

yes we will get some more CPL's in to suit V1/v2, just out of stock right now

that aside though send me a message with your details and I'll send you a replacement car charger

Message sent.

Once again, you've proven your commitment to excellent customer service. It's why I'm glad I purchased a StreetGuardian.

Will keep an eye out for the CPLs coming back in to stock.

 

[jokiin]

Message sent.

Once again, you've proven your commitment to excellent customer service. It's why I'm glad I purchased a StreetGuardian.

Will keep an eye out for the CPLs coming back in to stock.

no problem, never mind the question I asked in reply to your message, the info needed is above anyway, will send a new charger out Monday to your PO box address

 

[Deleted member 46308]

Once again, you've proven your commitment to excellent customer service. It's why I'm glad I purchased a StreetGuardian.

+1

 

[budster]

Just want to update on my situation, which may help others who want to do a hardwire. I decided to try to to hardwire my SG9665GC and re-use the power cord that came with it for the hardwire by cutting off the plug as suggested. On my wire stripper, I used the 10 AWG setting to remove the outer insulation to expose the red and black wires. The cord had 26 AWG printed out it, which I assumed referred to the black and red wires inside the cord. But I found that trying to strip them using the 26 AWG setting, it would cut into the metal. I had to use a 22 AWG setting to strip the wires. Not sure if the 26 AWG written on the cord is inaccurate or there's a problem with my wire stripper.

On my 2015 Honda Odyssey, I looked for a fuse to piggy back on with a add-a-circuit in the passenger side fuse box. It has fuse slots for the front and rear 12V accessory ports (fuse #27 and #14). These 12V ports are off when the van is off. So I thought I could use one of these fuse slots.

To my surprise, when I connected the add-a-circuit to these fuse slots, the dashcam powered on even when the van was off and the 12V ports were off as well (I put into the ports a 12V USB adapter with LED to confirm). Using a multimeter, confirmed that these fuse slot were hot when the van was off.

This left me very confused. Did some google searching on this and found a thread on another forum where someone mentioned that on a 2005 Honda Odyssey, the 12V port is controlled further down by a power socket relay that gets switched on when the van is on (http://www.odyclub.com/forums/52-20...-circuit-issues-installing-fuse-tap-05-a.html). So the 12V port is off when the van is off even though the fuse slot for the 12V port is hot. This must be the same situation in my newer van.

Eventually, I found an unused fuse slot (#23) that provides power only when the van is on and finished the hardwiring.

I thought this was going to be a 30 min job, but ended up taking a couple hours mainly because of my confusion with the fuse slot to use and trying to find an appropriate ground point to use for the dashcam ground wire (I was originally trying to use a bolt that wires for other fuse slots were using for ground, but couldn't loosen it because there was enough room to use a socket wrench. Ended up using a screw near the hinge of the glove compartment that I found was connected to the same ground point). Also, the wires inside the SG9665GC's original power cord are very thin and easy to damage. There were a few spots where the insulation cracked a bit or just came off as I was stripping the wire and I covered these spots with electrical tape.

I'm very glad now though that my SG9665GC is hardwired and don't have to worry about it possibly not being on when it's supposed to be. Also, I now appreciate that the original power cord came with the 12V-5V converter in-line to the cord instead of being in the 12V plug to make this hardwire possible using the original cord. I never realized how useful this was until it was mentioned earlier in this thread. Probably many SG9665GC owners don't realize this, although it takes some extra effort to take advantage of this to use for hardwiring.

 

[mgrody]

I just received a new 9665GC V3 and am very pleased with it. I do plan to hardwire it or at least get rid of the 12v lighter plug-in. Is there a reason why a mini USB cable hooked directly to a cigarette lighter USB adaptor can't be used? I have a 12v to 5v USB lighter adaptor that claims to support a 2.3 amp load. Thanks!

 

[DT MI]

...Is there a reason why a mini USB cable hooked directly to a cigarette lighter USB adaptor can't be used? I have a 12v to 5v USB lighter adaptor that claims to support a 2.3 amp load. Thanks!

No reason at all. I'm currently running 4 cams off one of these.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B0169K7SQS

 

[mgrody]

No reason at all. I'm currently running 4 cams off one of these.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B0169K7SQS

Great! Thanks for the reply.

 

[jokiin]

I just received a new 9665GC V3 and am very pleased with it. I do plan to hardwire it or at least get rid of the 12v lighter plug-in. Is there a reason why a mini USB cable hooked directly to a cigarette lighter USB adaptor can't be used? I have a 12v to 5v USB lighter adaptor that claims to support a 2.3 amp load. Thanks!

plenty of people that do that, just be sure to use a decent quality cable and power adapter, Monoprice cables seem to work well for this and are very reasonably priced