SGDCHW Add-A-Fuse Micro 2’s Don’t Fit Ford F150

Don’t forget you need to open close and lock the doors in some vehicles before ACC circuits are cut off. (Some have an even longer timer)
 
yes, I won't say always, but in most cases on these types of double row fuse panels the middle of the two rows will be hot, and the outside leg on each side of the panel is the output, need to see it from behind to understand that better

Problem is just because they're hot, doesn't mean they're recommended. I could be wrong, but I was told tying into safety systems is never recommended. And best to avoid fuses with lots of various electronics tied into them. Creates a higher chance for problems. Better to find benign systems with the least amount of items tied to it.

I believe fuses 24 for battery and 23 for acc might be good option. Your thought?
 
yeah I was only commenting on layout and orientation, still need to choose an appropriate fuse, and keep away from anything safety related for sure

And major electronics. I'd avoid tapping into these for fear of conflicts or damage. I.E. Heads up Display or Modules. If my understanding is correct, Canbus systems can tie into other electronics. So these modules might say one system but be related to others, too. I believe this was the cause of my conflict where the Mirrors and Alarm somehow tied into the 12V socket. Although, such a connection was absent from the manual.
 
Don’t forget you need to open close and lock the doors in some vehicles before ACC circuits are cut off. (Some have an even longer timer)

Yep. My Volvo is the same way. It'll run on battery until the doors are open, which then triggers systems to power down. Cars are very complicated machines!
 
Well, after a busy workweek and rain delays, I finally got the chance to work on this. I found a couple videos online for the F150 that said to use fuse #36 for the switched / accessory wire. So it ended up being a very simple fix and all I ended up doing was moving the red wire from fuse 33 to 36 and now it works! Turning off the ignition, the dash cam goes into parking mode. You get 2 beeps and the clock icon. So, not sure why #33 wouldn't work like in that other thread I posted above. Maybe something's changed with 2020 F150s since then.
 
As mentioned above, the wire coloring can be opposite depending on the brand. The Street Guardian hardwire kit SGDCHW has the ACC / switched wire as red and the battery / unswitched wire is yellow. And for clarification, "ACC", "Accessory", and "switched" all mean the same thing, that the power is off when the ignition is off, and doesn't become hot until you turn the ignition on. "Unswitched", "battery", or "power" means always on (hot) no matter what. The wire labeled "ACC", "Accessory", or "switched" must be connected to a fuse slot that is only on when you turn the on ignition. The other wire called "Unswitched", "battery", or "power" must be tapped into a fuse that is always hot, in order for parking mode to work. The camera knows when to go into parking mode based on when the "ACC" / "Accessory" / "switched" gets power or not.
 
So now I'm finally getting to look at parking mode videos, and evidently what you get is a very fast time lapse like you're playing back video at a very fast playback speed. The still images all fly right by very fast, which isn't very usable. So you need a way to pause the video and advance each frame one at a time. With the VLC player, you can type the letter 'e' as a hot key to advance one frame forward, but there doesn't seem to be a way to move one frame at a time backwards.
 
Sometimes the optional factory equipment installed in an individual example will come with a change in fuse functionality to make things work as they planned. The main thing is that it's working for you now- good job (y)

The SG folks will advise on viewing, several freeware choices and IIRC you get a license to use DashCamViewer for free with their cams now. It's one of the best ;)

Phil
 
I do have DashCamViewer installed, but honestly, I hate the layout of it. All those floating modules that overlap and there doesn't seem to be a way to nicely arrange everything so you can see all the functions. It also doesn't have a true full-screen mode that actually fills your entire monitor. And I can't get it to save still image snapshots at the original full resolution. The rear cam playback is smaller than the front and I don't see a way to make 'em the same.
 
I currently use VLC player to capture true full resolution screenshots.

There was a recent update to the public version of HTTP://DashCamViewer.com that enhanced full screenshots
(I read about it in a recent changelog) See here:
Any updates like that will eventually make their way to the Street Guardian licensed version of DashcamViewer as well.

Another alternative player is: https://dvplayer.net/
 
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It looks like parking mode is capturing 1 still image per second. In other words, 1 frame per second (FPS). For example, If I look at a video and see a timestamp of 19:47:37, this means 7:47 P. M. and 37 seconds. As I press 'e' in VLC to advance each frame, the timestamp goes 19:47:38, then 19:47:39, then 19:47:40, and so on. But if you play it back as a video, the speed is so fast that each minute worth of actual time seems to take only 3-4 seconds to play back. It whizzes by super fast. These parking mode files are .mp4's that are 2:00 minutes long and capture still images over a time span of about 58-59 minutes, just short of exactly 1 hour.

So doing the math, a 2-minute parking mode .mp4 file has roughly 1 hour of a timespan which is 60 minutes x 60 seconds x 1 fps = 3,600 frames per .mp4 ( or a little less). I wonder if changing the fps frame rate in the settings would change all of this. So if I go to 2 fps in the settings, will I get 60 minutes x 60 seconds x 2 fps = 7,200 frames per 2:00 minute .mp4 file?

However, I am noticing for some reason, my fps setting in the dash cam keeps reverting back to 1 fps, even though I set it at 2. I suspect this happens when you format the card, which I've done a couple times. But, usually, formatting the card doesn't cause you to lose your settings. I've also noticed that when you switch off the ignition, two very short quick mp4's are generated that last less than a second (two for the front and two for the rear cam, for a total of 4 mp4's), before it goes into parking mode. It would be nice if there was a way to prevent this, but you can sort the .mp4 files by length and just delete all the short quick ones to make it easier to find the real files.
 
As i recall time lapse parking mode have several FPS options to choose from, 1 FPS i think are the "fastest" but the FPS setting you choose should be saved in the camera and should not be affected if you format your memory card in the camera.
 
if you use VLC for playback when viewing timelapse files you can slow playback down or speed it up using the + and - keys, can be slowed down to lower than real time if you need to get a good look at something, Dashcam Viewer also has options to slow down the playback but not as slow as you can get with VLC
 
And now I think I've figured out that with the frame rate set to 2 fps for parking mode instead of 1 fps, the video file is the same 2:00 minute clip, but only spans a 30-minute time lapse instead of an hour. This results in a playback speed that appears half as fast as with 1 fps. But the total number of frames in a 2:00 minute 2 fps file is the same as a 1 fps file. 30 minutes x 60 seconds per minute x 2 frames per second = 3,600 frames per .mp4 file.

So it looks like the way this "parking mode" works is, it will always generate an .mp4 file that takes 2:00 minutes to play back, and the file will always have 3,600 frames no matter what your fps setting is. The amount of time lapse captured in the video will depend on your fps setting. If fps = 1, time lapse = 60 minutes. If fps = 2, time lapse = 30 minutes, etc.. The higher the fps setting, the slower the playback speed appears.

So based on this pattern:

1 fps = 2:00 .mp4 file with 3,600 frames covering a 1-hour time lapse.
2 fps = 2:00 .mp4 file with 3,600 frames covering a 30-minute time lapse and playback speed is half as fast.
3 fps = 2:00 .mp4 file with 3,600 frames covering a 20-minute time lapse and playback speed is 1/3rd as fast.
5 fps = 2:00 .mp4 file with 3,600 frames covering a 12-minute time lapse and playback speed is 1/5th as fast.

Also, I think the SGDCHW Hard Wire Manual may need an update. Page 7 of 12 says the options available are 1 fps, 2 fps, & 5 fps. But then page 3 of 12 says 1, 3, or 5. And I believe the actual dash cam itself has more options than that, like 1, 2, 3, 5, 30, or something like that. Because we're the oddballs here in the U. S., it may also be good to include both cm & inches and degrees C & F in manuals for U. S. customers.
 
Yes, apparently we are also getting similar complaints from our customers stating that they add a fuse tap is slightly larger.
Looks like Ford may have changed their fuse box slot size. We are looking into this also for ROVE Ultimate Hardwire Kit to see if we can find a solution for our next batch.
 
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