Which Dash Cam

[Byrds8]

Since you dont have a multimeter, test it with a 12v cigarette lighter plug (or whatever 12v accessory you have laying around) instead to see if it powers that device you're testing.

Center pin on the male cigarette plug is positive, the 2 strips of metal on the outside of the plug is ground.

I may just go purchase a multimeter. I probably should have years ago but hell I got away with not having one so long I got used to it. If there is now power to those lines, I assume I would need to run it to the fuse box? If so, which would be the best to tap off of?

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[MBrady78]

I may just go purchase a multimeter. I probably should have years ago but hell I got away with not having one so long I got used to it. If there is now power to those lines, I assume I would need to run it to the fuse box? If so, which would be the best to tap off of?

Yes definitely purchase one. It's saved me a bunch of times. Plus this way you can confirm you are connected to ACC, BATT, or one of the AUX switches. If I remember correctly one of the AUX cables looks super similar to the ACC cable.

 

[Byrds8]

Yeah there is a pink with orange stripe and an orange with a pink stripe. That would not affect the hot and ground though. The first kit, after it didnt work, I twisted the red leads just to make sure it wasnt the butt connectors. No joy with that either. For what its worth I tried the cigarette lighter connection a min ago and got nothing.

 

[Nitehawk92]

I keep looking around trying to figure out which dash cam I should get. I was leaning toward the Rove2 but then a lot of the bad reviews I found complained about heat issues. Living in FL, I guess that would be an issue for me also. Any recommendations on a good cam that can handle the heat here? Thanks

https://wolfbox.com/products/wolfbox-g900-4k-2-5k-touch-screen-parking-monitoring-dash-cam

I use the Wolfbox G900 Dash Cam. I picked it because it has two rubber straps and it attaches to your rear-view mirror. It does not attach to the windshield, or your dashboard. It is not easy to see that you have the dashcam installed. I ran the cables through the different panels so you cannot see the cables. From outside the vehicle it just looks like a standard rear-view mirror. It does have to be off-set a little for the front facing camera to see around the sensor stuff behind the rear-view mirror.

I took a couple pictures, they are not really good pictures but they will give you an idea of what it looks like. If you look at the first picture, you can barely see the corner of the stock rear-view mirror. I leave mine up all the time and nobody has messed with it. You can see the cables on the top of the mirror, but they are not easy to see from the outside of the Jeep. The front facing camera is adjustable...

 

[Byrds8]

Since you dont have a multimeter, test it with a 12v cigarette lighter plug (or whatever 12v accessory you have laying around) instead to see if it powers that device you're testing.

Center pin on the male cigarette plug is positive, the 2 strips of metal on the outside of the plug is ground.

So when we picked the boys up from school I grabbed a multimeter. There is 12.67V there. So not sure why its not working at all. This makes absolutely no sense unless they sent a second bad kit, but what are the odds of that.

 

[nsfw_andy]

So when we picked the boys up from school I grabbed a multimeter. There is 12.67V there. So not sure why its not working at all. This makes absolutely no sense unless they sent a second bad kit, but what are the odds of that.

Can you post a photo of your hardwiring kit itself so I can see what it looks like?

 

[Byrds8]

Can you post a photo of your hardwiring kit itself so I can see what it looks like?

As requested.

 

[nsfw_andy]

As requested.

I dont have factory aux switches so im not 100% on this, but in your photo, maybe the pink/orange is the cable on the far left and not the one you have currently connected to the yellow wire? Did you confirm that as well with your multimeter?

Otherwise, i'd just open up the black box on the hardwire kit and get some voltage readouts on the PCB board where the pos/neg for USB cable is soldered onto to confirm if you are getting 5v output.

 

[Byrds8]

I dont have factory aux switches so im not 100% on this, but in your photo, maybe the pink/orange is the cable on the far left and not the one you have currently connected to the yellow wire? Did you confirm that as well with your multimeter?

Otherwise, i'd just open up the black box on the hardwire kit and get some voltage readouts on the PCB board where the pos/neg for USB cable is soldered onto to confirm if you are getting 5v output.

I did not check the acc line also. I figured there was no need. Even without that connected the camera should have worked. I think next I’ll connect it back to and see if anything comes out the other end.

 

[driventoadventure]

Yeah there is a pink with orange stripe and an orange with a pink stripe. That would not affect the hot and ground though. The first kit, after it didnt work, I twisted the red leads just to make sure it wasnt the butt connectors. No joy with that either. For what its worth I tried the cigarette lighter connection a min ago and got nothing.

The pictures you posted looked like they were right. I assume you checked both of the leads for ~12v and verified the ignition wire is the ignition and not aux. Did you double-check the ground is grounded by checking continuity to another known-good ground, such as the outside ring of the 12v outlet?

This definitely seems to be an outlier situation...

(EDIT) Yeah, looking at your photo closer, I would double check that you're not accidentally wired into the Aux3 instead of ignition (you can test by going to accessory mode and toggling aux3 on).

 

[Byrds8]

The pictures you posted looked like they were right. I assume you checked both of the leads for ~12v and verified the ignition wire is the ignition and not aux. Did you double-check the ground is grounded by checking continuity to another known-good ground, such as the outside ring of the 12v outlet?

This definitely seems to be an outlier situation...

I checked where I grounded it to other points in the body. Still ohmed out so it’s good. I did not check the acc line when I checked the main power. Figured If that worked it still should have powered on. Very odd it isn’t unless nothing is passing through to the usb c plug.

 

[driventoadventure]

I checked where I grounded it to other points in the body. Still ohmed out so it’s good. I did not check the acc line when I checked the main power. Figured If that worked it still should have powered on. Very odd it isn’t unless nothing is passing through to the usb c plug.

I am not so sure that you'll see anything on the camera if it doesn't get power on the ignition wire, but honestly that detail is one I didn't test the result of thinking back to when I discovered that I was wired incorrectly - I only found out / verified by using a multimeter, because my GPS module was faulty and wouldn't power on anyway.

(Parking mode does have to be enabled/configured)

 

[Byrds8]

I am not so sure that you'll see anything on the camera if it doesn't get power on the ignition wire, but honestly that detail is one I didn't test the result of thinking back to when I discovered that I was wired incorrectly - I only found out / verified by using a multimeter, because my GPS module was faulty and wouldn't power on anyway.
Parking mode has to be enabled to be hardwired?

I’ll check the acc line to verify then. I didn’t think that I was required to power up the camera. Maybe by some chance the wires are wrong and it’s been wires incorrectly all this time lol.
(Parking mode does have to be enabled/configured)

 

[Mike_Hawk]

I did a TON of research before buying my cam and went with the VANTRUE X4S DUO. Yes, it's an expensive option, but it doesn't use an internal battery. Latent power is supplied by a capacitor which is MUCH better in extreme temperatures. The suction cup has fallen off from time to time, but the cam itself is rock solid. Also, I like having the rear facing camera.

https://www.vantrue.net/product/x4s_duo

 

[Byrds8]

@driventoadventure @nsfw_andy

Thank you both for help with the wiring. I went and checked the ACC line and sure enough, it was the wrong one. Even though on the site I read it was the correct one lol. Imagine if I would have broken down and got a MM 20+ years ago, I would have been done days ago lol. Its done now though.

For parkmode, do you do low bit rate or one of the low FPS? I set the cut off at 12.2V I hope that is ok.

For all others that gave their opinions on cameras and such, I thank you also.

Now that I am getting yelled at for not taking enough brakes today in the 110+ heat lol Im going to go take a nice cold shower LOL.

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