Thanks for the write up... Have been thinking about getting a dashcam.

 

Try one with Aliexpress. They do front and rear dashcams, and they are great. I have used them in my Toyota, and I am going to get one for my Mazda now.

 

This is awesome! Thanks for your post, exactly what I was looking for when I realized where the power outlet is located. Can't believe it could've been that simple..

What length of wire did you need?

 

Not sure of the length of the wire, but it is the stock G1W-C wire.

That port u plugged it into in the centre armrest does that not get any power when the car is off?

It turns off when I turn off the car.

The center armrest 12V port stays on all the time in my Mazda3. The 12V port I have in the dashboard is activated by the ignition "on" position.

I don't that is applicable in my car. The dash cam turns off when I switch off the car!

Hope you don't mind me asking a dumb question.. in your 3rd photo above, where you said you pushed the wire in between the pillar and the lining- did you use any special tools to do this? I'm probably getting a cam this week and scoping it out. (Once it stops raining here in California I'm gonna give it a shot)

Nope, no tools whatsoever, just pushed it using my finger! Good luck!

 

That port u plugged it into in the centre armrest does that not get any power when the car is off?

 

The center armrest 12V port stays on all the time in my Mazda3. The 12V port I have in the dashboard is activated by the ignition "on" position.

 

Oh OK that's good. It looks like it's going to the armrest. I'm going to get a dashcam probably this boxing day so I will probably have the set up like yours. Thanks for the info :relaxed:

 

Hope you don't mind me asking a dumb question.. in your 3rd photo above, where you said you pushed the wire in between the pillar and the lining- did you use any special tools to do this? I'm probably getting a cam this week and scoping it out. (Once it stops raining here in California I'm gonna give it a shot)

 

whats the point of having the dashcam on all the time?

wouldnt it just repeatedly over write the files of your 32gig sd card if the car sits for a couple of days?

 

Dashcams are motion-activated: they only record when they feel a bump. They're not going to record anything if the car is sitting in your driveway, unless someone runs into it. They will burn power though, so running the battery down could be a concern.

 

Mine runs the battery down enough to not start the car after 2-3 days of no use. My biggest peeve with Mazda is that they didn't install a switched power outlet in the dash. There's a spot for it, for God's sake!

 

Why did you run it into the center console. You can tuck all that wiring away and make it completely hidden if you run it to the fuse box


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This was a quick and an noninvasive install. Took less than 5 minutes, and used only stock items that came in the G1W's box. :nerd:

 

Oh ok. Yea if you take the time to do it, it can clean up nicely


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Help needed for Dash Cam Fix

Hi Everyone,

My name is Umesh. I am from India currently residing in Oman. I did a lot of research on available models of various brands and I brought my sweet Mazda 3 2015 Luxury Version (No iEloop, its not available in Middle East Region) on March 2015. I installed aftermarket front parking sensors which is not giving an accurate reading (75% Perfect) but I am happy about it. Now I would like to install a DashCam so I ordered One online. I brought this specific model (I know its cheap :sneaky2: ) because I saw the option to bring the video feed to infotainment.

Mini Full HD 1080p Car DVR G Sensor Video Recorder Vehicle Dash Camera Camcorder | eBay

After a lot of searching I purchased something very stupid :nerd:

Mazda 3 Cable Adapter for Back Up Camera Reversing Camera | eBay

In the hope of making it working in a good way, I requesting help from all of you in this forum to fix this. Waiting for your valuable replies. :grin2:

 

Can we see the photos back?
Links dead!

 

Oops! Sorry for that. Links fixed.

 

It would be nice to see pics of the wiring. I picked up a Lukas 7950 a couple days ago. Took it out for a test drive on a seldom used road. I didn't go more than 30 mph over the limit. After zooming thru an S section, I noticed a dark car gaining at a rapid rate. Radar detector didn't go off.

He passed me when I was doing 65 in a 55. I feel lucky. I should have probably gone to a casino instead of Lake Mead.

The Lukas 7950 is good so far. Dual 1080p cameras, wifi to transfer the files or get a live view, dual storage cards for up to 512 gb, parking mode detects motion in definable areas and has multi axis g sensors, parking mode turns off after a predefined time or voltage cutoff, capacitor instead of battery for higher heat tolerance, gps rx built into its mount, h.264 avi files, etc.

 

Thanks for photos.

I've done same way, but I couldn't open the corner (3rd photo). Honestly I feel fear to destruct it.
Should I force it?

 

I forced it, and pushed the cable down.. never really pried off the plastic of the pillar. try squeezing the cable in.

 

Thanks for the install info ZuZ! I deviated though from your install procedure. You mentioned the wire routing over the A-pillar crash bag which I think is a safety concern. I found that by just pulling the A-pillar trim downwards, not normal to the pillar, but rather translated downwards towards the floor, you can slightly unhook the A-pillar allowing just enough clearance to see the airbag from where the rubber seal is when it is removed.

With that, you can actually push the wire under the airbag and out at the top of the A-pillar beside the windshield and then just tuck it into the overhead ceiling trim all the way to the rearview mirror. I'll take some pics when I get a chance. It's pretty easy to do without removing the A-pillar and damaging the clips. As well, I'll post some pics of fuse box wiring I did. It was literally a 30 minute job with the work you'd already done for routing.

Thanks bud!

 

Waiting for your pics

I'll update the tutorial to reflect this

 

Is it possible to just mount the camera directly on the big black box connected to the rear view mirror using 3M tape?

 

That's what I do with a Viofo A119s dashcam. The only issue is that the box isn't mounted very tightly (at least on my 2008) so you might get some extra vibration in your recordings, though I haven't really noticed it.

 

I was also afraid that the box can come loose during ride, so I rather sticked it to the window.

 

Okay here are the pics on my install. Sorry on the delay. We've had such a shitty past 3 weeks of weather in Toronto that I couldn't muster up the will to do anything about this until this weekend when the weather actually broke 10 degrees celcius today. Which ironically, means F**k, global warming is gonna kill us someday in the near future at this rate. 10 Deg C in February in T.O that's just wrong.

Barring that tangent here's a bit of blurb on the pics.

The Dashcam I've put in is the Blacksys CH100B. This thing comes with a rearview cam for mounting on the hatchback as well. I'll probably do that in the summer when weather is agreeable. But probably won't work since with the hatchback the rear door swings so far up away from the headliner in the back that it might yank on the wire if doing a clean install. You'd have a bunch of wire hanging out in the back if installing with slack which would look just sloppy. Plus I've come to realize the rearview out the back of a hatch is quite small compared to other cars. With a rearview cam mounted on that glass, I'd be blocking a big chunk of the centre view. Will see in a few months.

In the picture where the USB cable is routed behind the airbag, the dashcam cable is running in line with it and feeds right along with the USB cable out towards the windshield. Forgot to mark it in the pic, you can see it there though. The dashcam cable then can run along on the inside of the headliner where it meets the windshield all the way to the rearview mirror area. I've got a big black box unlike other models due to the camera and sensors for the premium features that came with the GT. No biggie though, dashcam still has plenty of space for mounting and headliner has cutout to run wiring down without bending the edge of the liner. I spoke to a Mazda dealer and he said to avoid mounting the dash cam on the shade material on the windshield, they've had reports of it peeling due to weight pulling on it. Might as well not take the chance on that.

In my installation, I installed the add-a-fuse into slot 11. PAY ATTENTION TO THE + / - MARKED ON THE FUSEBOX PICTURE!

The add-a-fuse is completely useless in protecting or isolating the car's fuse from your external installed accessories if you put it in the wrong way.

Where the (+) is marked, is where when ACC is on in the car, this side will have power. the (-) is then what continues on towards the load. The Add-A-Fuse plug I used has a very specific connection layout. One side will share a common lead and the otherside will have isolated leads. The common/shared leads must go on (+)/HOT. If you reverse this everything will work fine so long as current draw is fine. But in the instance there is a short on your external circuitry, you will also take out any accessories the car has on that fuse. This topology applies to any fuse you use an Add-A-Fuse with so be aware. You can easily check which leads are common leads in the add a fuse by checking the resistance using a multimeter. Subsequently you can also check which fusebox lead is (+)/HOT by checking for voltage by measuring in relationship to the grounding point as mentioned in the attached picture.

Now having said the above the damn ADD-A-Fuse I've got have the crimp connector coming out the side which would be facing the car chassis. And what do you know, there's no god damn space for it because the damn fusebox and the subsequent fuseslots have like 1 mm of clearance for wiring on the left side! GOD DA#*$(*#&!!! Hence I'm using the empty Fuse slot F.OUTLET1 because I know there is most likely nothing downstream on this being used or it would have come with a fuse in it. This way I've just put two 10A fuses into my add-a-fuse and plugged it in the way shown in the circuit jpeg being the wrong way. This is because I'm confident there is no load downstream and hence its like adding two 10A fuses in series which amounts to just a 10A fuse from the point of my USB/Dashcam loads.

For the USB charger, I'm using a 12 Watt (5V @ maximum 2.4A) converter. It has two USB slots in it. If only one device plugged in, you can draw upto 2.4A, which my Nexus 6P loves for fast charging using a type C cable (The braided cable shown in pics). If two devices plugged in, that would split current draw upto a maximum of 2.4A combined @ 5V (1.2 Amp at 12V considering loss). As well, the Dash cam draws about 2A at maximum load, which is almost never. So can theoretically draw upto 3.2 Amps across the wiring which is far less than the 10A fuses I've utilized in my add-a-fuse. Just be aware of current and wattage ratings of any accessories you do add.

Let me know if I'm missing anything not explained or if you need more info.

Cheers!

 

Sorry to revive an old thread but I just had a question regarding this set up.

I'm waiting for my 2017 Mazda3 sGT and I'll be hooking up an A119 dashcam.

Would it be safe doing this set up? Im new to the whole hard wiring thing and I've been reading up on it. I thought that the load side (power side) of the add a fuse was supposed to be inserted to the load side of the car as well? This set up has it backwards and all since there isnt any room for proper polarity connection.

If it is okay, would it be safer to use two 5 amp fuses rather than two 10s?

Thank you very much!

 

Hey in the diagram with the internal schematic I posted, with the add-a-fuse I have, I was relegated to using schematic 3 which is technically the wrong way. I used a fuse outlet which was empty which meant no other internal car load to worry about. This way I could have put in one fuse and straight up jumpered the remaining slot in the add-a-fuse and would have been fine.

Using an already in-use fuse slot in the car complicates the fuse ratings to be used. First fuse (From car power to load side of add-a-fuse has to be >= sum of max internal car load + max accessory load). Second fuse, to accessory has to be >= maximum current of accessory.

This ofcourse defeats the internal car load current limitation of a use of the fuse.

Other issue this has is if your accessory draws to its maximum fuse limit and internal car load already draws more than (first fuse -second fuse) you'll end up blowing the first fuse.

TL::didn't understand is: current draw combinations acrosses fuses becomes complicated when add-a-fuse is done using schematic 3 on an already in-use fuse slot.

 

Awesome thank you very much! Ill probably just slap on a couple 5 amp fuses into the add a fuse and call it a day:laugh2:

 

I have a MAZDA6 with the A119 and 128MB card hard wired into the fuse box along with my little Kenwood sub. I run the V1 off the lighter, the XM off one of the USBs and I have USB 3 quick charger for my phones. A lot going on with no issues!

 

I didn't have to hardwire mine. The usb socket in the armrest does the trick for my A119.

 

Bought myself through online a Transcend DrivePro 220 Dash Cam with built-in WiFi, GPS and Parking Mode (Price about USD $105). Bring the dash cam and install it at car accessories shop so I would not use my current cigarettes lighter socket inside the glove box. The accessories shop will help you to hide all the wires. The way the install it is they add 1 more cigarettes lighter socket and a fuse from the "fuse area" under the passenger leg space. Then the wire and the additional socket will be not visible and I feel good and feel it is a clean wiring. The dash cam will start once you start the engine, and it will off once your stop the engine.

Parking mode not really useful as the Dash Cam built-in battery is only under 300mAh and it will flat after 1-2 hours. Once the battery flat you need to reset back the date and time everytime you start the car. To me, parking mode is useless and it start record when there is motion detect. In the car park normally there will be a lot of car passing by and it will keep record it and end up your memory card is full of rubbish. This is my thought. Appreciate you guys can share yours experience.

Cheers!!

You can see the Transcent DrivePro 220 dash cam footage here
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