To hardwire, or to not?

[F150guy]

Currently moving my Street Guardian from a 2014 Ford Escape to a 2017 F150. I always used the cigarette lighter in the Escape to power the system, even though I do have a hardwire kit for it. What are the pros and cons of one or the other? I've left the system plugged in overnight off the lighter, and never had any battery issues. Would love to hear some opinions on what's better or worse. Thanks!

 

[jokiin]

Hardwired is better, camera just runs as normal if powered from the cig lighter and doesn't use parking mode

 

[F150guy]

Hardwired is better, camera just runs as normal if powered from the cig lighter and doesn't use parking mode

Does that drain on the battery at all? I've never really been able to find out.

 

[jokiin]

Power consumption is a bit lower in parking mode, other benefits are it uses less memory and runs cooler in parking mode than it does in normal recording mode

 

[F150guy]

Wish I knew more about this thing, but the manual that came with it isn't terribly clear. Does the camera go into parking mode when you shut the vehicle off? I know I can still see it flashing while it was plugged into the lighter socket. Just don't want to come out to a dead battery.

 

[jokiin]

Plugged into the cigarette lighter it will run for as long as you have power, long enough and that would mean until the battery is depleted

With the hardwire kit there are low voltage cutoff options for you to choose from, and the camera also gives you timer options to select for shutdown

Cameras only come with a quick start guide, more detailed manual for the camera, and the hardwire kit manual are available for download from our website

 

[SawMaster]

Given the cooler climate of Wisconsin you could likely do continuous recording as you've been doing without cam overheating, but it does increase wear on the cam/card/car battery. I've done it for years with other cams before reliable parking modes emerged. As long as I drive daily it works, but now I use low-bitrate for parking as a better way of doing things.

The advantages of hardwiring are mainly that you don't have to remember to plug and unplug the cam, and that it will prevent a dead battery. One thing different with SG's when hardwired is that doing this also limits you to 24 hours recording while parked, then the cam shuts down. Other cams don't have this limitation, but with most cars you'll run out of usable battery voltage before then anyway so it probably doesn't matter. It also gives a 'cleaner' install with no wires exposed or dangling anywhere.

Your winters are cold which means you might not want to set the low-voltage cut-off too low then, it's something you may want to experiment with. 12.2V is probably as low as you can get away with but that may not give you all the recording time you need. This varies with battery size, age, and condition so it's different for everyone. If you go too low you may need a jump-start so then you'll know to raise the cut-off a notch or two. Some cheap HWK's don't have this adjustment but with SG equipment you get top quality and you won't have such problems.

Being a 'permanent' install I'd do the hardwire kit. Once you experience not needing to tend to the powering aspect of your cam you'll be glad you did. Just remember to maintain the SD card and you'll be good-to-go for years to come

Phil

 

[F150guy]

Either of you can give me pointers on the hardwire install? I've got the SGDCHW-TAPKIT. It, of course, has no instructions. This is going in a 2017 F150.

 

[jokiin]

Either of you can give me pointers on the hardwire install? I've got the SGDCHW-TAPKIT. It, of course, has no instructions. This is going in a 2017 F150.

will get our install tech to look your vehicle up, will post back with details, will be about 90 minutes or so before he is in the office

 

[jokiin]

tech just replied now

For 2017 Ford F150:

Fuse location: Passenger side kick panel behind a cover

Fuse type: Micro 2

+12V: Fuse 33 - RADIO; or Fuse 34 - Run-start Relay

+Acc: Fuse 36 - 360 camera module

Gnd: Bolt behind kick panel. !!HIGHLY RECOMMEND GROUNDING AT FACTORY GROUNDING BOLT AS ALL F150 FROM 2015 ONWARDS MAJORITY OF VEHICLE BODY PANELS ARE MADE MADE OF ALUMINIUM!!

As always please use a LED test probe or a multimeter to test the suggested fuse locations to make sure the power functions are correct.

 

[NARider]

Either of you can give me pointers on the hardwire install? I've got the SGDCHW-TAPKIT. It, of course, has no instructions. This is going in a 2017 F150.

Although it's several years old and the install is on a Honda CR-V, this post talks some about the SG hardwire kit (HWK). At the end I posted info about my install in a 2016 CR-V. After moving my Battery wire (yellow wire, unswitched) to fuse 41 as recommended by jokiin I have not had any more issues with parking mode. You can read more about my parking mode experience with the SG HWK here. I've been satisfied with my parking mode set on 30 minutes at 5 fps (this is specified in the camera settings) with low voltage cutoff set at 12.2 V (set by DIP switches on the HWK). This works for me so I don't have experience with longer parking recording times. SG has the user manual for the hardwire kit here on their Support web page.

 

[F150guy]

tech just replied now

For 2017 Ford F150:

Fuse location: Passenger side kick panel behind a cover

Fuse type: Micro 2

+12V: Fuse 33 - RADIO; or Fuse 34 - Run-start Relay

+Acc: Fuse 36 - 360 camera module

Gnd: Bolt behind kick panel. !!HIGHLY RECOMMEND GROUNDING AT FACTORY GROUNDING BOLT AS ALL F150 FROM 2015 ONWARDS MAJORITY OF VEHICLE BODY PANELS ARE MADE MADE OF ALUMINIUM!!

As always please use a LED test probe or a multimeter to test the suggested fuse locations to make sure the power functions are correct.

Thanks!

 

[Deacon]

Yes, always hardwire, parking mode or not. But especially with the parking mode hardwire kit, there are only positives. It’s easy to do, and you can always set the time for the parking mode recording time to be appropriate to your use case (e.g. street parking vs garage kept) and have the benefit of a low voltage cutoff.

 

[lacibaci]

I always hardwire. I can't stand any kind of wires or adapters. Installation must be super clean for me

 

[kamkar]

I am the kind of guy that will happily spend hours on end trimming wires in my computer to exact length for the routing, so i unlike many others do not have a bird nest of wires crammed in somewhere.

BUT ! i must also admit i dont think i will bother with my current project when i finally get that moving again ( have sat idle for over 6 months now ) but in that case and with my design alterations i will have space enough to hide a bald eagle nest sized mess of wires.

 

[Limeybastard]

If not using parking mode. Doesn’t the camera only power on when vehicle is in accessories or on position? And then turn off when vehicle is turned off? I was under the impression most of not all cigar 12v outlets operated this way.

 

[jokiin]

If not using parking mode. Doesn’t the camera only power on when vehicle is in accessories or on position? And then turn off when vehicle is turned off? I was under the impression most of not all cigar 12v outlets operated this way.

depends on the vehicles, some the lighter socket stays hot, others don't

 

[Outbacknomad]

depends on the vehicles, some the lighter socket stays hot, others don't

It even gets more complex than this.

On modern cars, well actually not that modern anymore, the CANbus you can set up for different timeouts on each different power outlet. If you have the tools and know what you are doing.

 

[Limeybastard]

depends on the vehicles, some the lighter socket stays hot, others don't

Wow. Thanks for letting me know. All my life and many cars never had one remain hot all the time. Then again perhaps my dads Fiat 132 1800 GLS from 1977 did so

 

[jokiin]

Wow. Thanks for letting me know. All my life and many cars never had one remain hot all the time. Then again perhaps my dads Fiat 132 1800 GLS from 1977 did so

it has become more common on later model vehicles to have an always on cig socket as we've become reliant on all the electronic junk we carry around each day