Hardwiring Mobius Dash Cams

[CanuckRS]

here is my take on doing a hardwire for 2 mobius cameras. one front, one rear. two usb cables connecting them to the power adaptor you can see at the end of this post, i've written it up elsewhere already how i did it. running the wires is the hard part, same goes for this hardwire as well.

i had them connected initially to my homelink, then i changed to the mirror power but i was having issues with one of the cameras not powering up every time i started the car. i think it's the camera but i wanted to do a good hardwire to eliminate power as a potential issue once and for all.

Supplies you will need for this:
ATM Fuse Tap
Dual USB Car Charger
USB cables for cameras. short one for the front, long one for the rear.
Misc electrical connectors and tools
Coat hanger to run wire

I elected to use one of the headlight fuse locations for switched power. A12. It has a mini 10A fuse so it gives me loads of headroom for power as these cameras use less than 500mA each when operational.


It's the red 10A fuse, furthest right column, second from bottom.


Running the wire is always the trickiest part. I used a coathanger to pull the wires through to the overhead console in the middle of the vehicle. That one drops down by unscrewing a 25torx screw that can be found by opening the glasses storage door.
The more challenging part was getting the wire down the A-pillar to the fuse box and then putting it all back together. Surprisingly the wire fed right down the groove inside the seal but the real PIA was getting the rubber seal back in place, especially right near the mirror. In a couple spots the rubber seal has some metal in it to clip onto the car frame. Hard to explain but boy was it a lot of work getting it back together. Best advice is to take as little of the rubber seal away from the frame and try to thread the wire down there with the least disruption possible. At any rate, it's entirely doable and you can't tell anything has been done once it's all put together again and of course it's completely and relatively easily reversible.


Here is with the rubber door seal put back together, i was very happy when i finally accomplished this part. :)


Here is the hardwire completed. Note the ground wire attached under the bolt at the top, this was super easy. The power is connected to A12 and i'm using a 5A fuse for the power tap, of course keeping the 10A fuse in the other slot on the Mini Fuse Tap for the headlights.


Finally, here's a pic of what's going on above the center console. Using the dual USB charger to power both cameras via usb cables and power coming in from the fuse tap. You'll have to connect the power(red) wire to the bottom of the USB charger and the ground wire to the metal flaps on the side of the charger. I used some gorilla tape (love that stuff) to stick the usb charger to the underside of the headliner so it doesn't bounce around up there. Anyways, that's all for now, hope this helps someone out there who hasn't tried it yet.
Cheers

[CanuckRS]

An update to this. The issue i had with one of the cameras turning off kept occurring and I figured out it was that the camera in the rear of the vehicle (newer one, although i didn't know it was a new version) powers down if it receives anything more than 5.7V.

I bought a decent usb charger for the job, but it seems these chargers don't do a good job at regulating the voltage very well. They are supposed to output 5V, but it seems that was not the case. I checked the car voltage and it is constant around 12.2V but when running it's at 14.4V. The spike in voltage was causing my rear dash cam to shut down to protect itself. The older version i have for the front doesn't have this feature. Argh, frustrating figuring out all these minor details that cause major headaches.

To make a long story short, i added an inline voltage regulator (cost me $2 at a local electronics store) to keep the voltage to the usb charger right around 12V. Also added a used 47uF capacitor to the power out line from an old usb charger i took apart. Now with the engine running, the power to the charger is 12.1V instead of 14.4 and no more spikes or shutdowns. Just an fyi if anyone else is having electrical problems like this, they are likely due to the operating voltages when the car is in operation and fluctuating constantly.

[GolfGL]

Thank you for sharing all this detail! I will be referring to this when I install my older Blackvue.