Dashboard Camera's - Install Advice
Follow our user-friendly, step-by-step guide on how to securely install your new in-car dash cam. Which includes, an ideal position for the camera and how to route a power supply from your vehicles interior fuse box via an ignition live 12v power source.
LOCATION
Dash cams generally come with a guide and advice on where to locate your new in car camera. As a general rule, It shouldn’t obscure your view as a driver, and it shouldn’t really have the screen rolling when you’re driving. A dash cam should be placed in a discrete place where it doesn’t interfere or distract you, or other motorists. The best, therefore, and recommended place for a motorist to place a dash cam is behind the rear view mirror, facing forward with a clear view of the road ahead. If directly behind the mirror is unsuitable, due to rain sensors etc, just to the left (passenger side) will be fine. Just remember, as high and as central as possible is ideal to capture the best, and most area of footage.
Dash cams generally come with a guide and advice on where to locate your new in car camera. As a general rule, It shouldn’t obscure your view as a driver, and it shouldn’t really have the screen rolling when you’re driving. A dash cam should be placed in a discrete place where it doesn’t interfere or distract you, or other motorists. The best, therefore, and recommended place for a motorist to place a dash cam is behind the rear view mirror, facing forward with a clear view of the road ahead. If directly behind the mirror is unsuitable, due to rain sensors etc, just to the left (passenger side) will be fine. Just remember, as high and as central as possible is ideal to capture the best, and most area of footage.
POWER SUPPLY - PLUG & PLAY
The vast majority of dash cam owners simply place their in car camera behind the rear view mirror, and run the power supply (which is generally a nice 4 meters long so there’s plenty of cable) around the windscreen, down to the cars 12 volt power supply – or, the cigarette lighter, whichever you prefer. This method is quick and easy to get you and your newly purchased dash cam under way, although, using this option you will have un-sightly, and un-tidy cables running around the dash.
The vast majority of dash cam owners simply place their in car camera behind the rear view mirror, and run the power supply (which is generally a nice 4 meters long so there’s plenty of cable) around the windscreen, down to the cars 12 volt power supply – or, the cigarette lighter, whichever you prefer. This method is quick and easy to get you and your newly purchased dash cam under way, although, using this option you will have un-sightly, and un-tidy cables running around the dash.
POWER SUPPLY - HARD-WIRE OPTION
Instead of using the provided 12v power cable supplied with your dashboard camera, you can hard-wire install the camera, by using a hard-wire kit, Nextbase provide such a kit for around £10-£20 called the Nextbase Dash Cam Hard-wire Kit. It's a standard Micro USB power lead insert (universal for most in-car dash cams). (some model dash cams come complete with a hard-wire kit straight from the box). Using this kit you can power your dash cam straight from your vehicles internal fuse-box, with all the wires nicely hidden behind the dash, thus ensuring no trailing power leads, and also it frees up the 12v power supply socket or cigarette lighter adapter for other uses.
So, to hard-wire fit your dash cam yourself, firstly decide on a suitable position for your dash cam (see Location above), then when you've attached it to the screen plug the hard-wire power cable in to the camera and take the cable straight up in to the vehicles head liner, most roof liners you can gently lever up the front edges at the top of the windscreen using your fingers, then carefully run the power cable up and round to which ever side of the vehicle the internal fuse-box is located (make sure the cable is hidden, and has enough of a "hang down" to the camera, to prevent the power lead coming loose).
To locate your vehicles internal fuse-box, you can either refer to your vehicles handbook or Haynes service manual, Google it, or simply have a good look around the front of the vehicle. Usual places include, behind or underneath the glove-box, underneath the steering wheel, in a panel in either foot-well, or on the end section of either side of the dashboard, fuse-boxes are generally covered with a pop-off plastic cover/trim.
So, once you have routed the power cable along the top of the windscreen, tucked up under the roof liner, next you need to either remove the large plastic trim that runs down the side of the windscreen, that houses side impact airbags if fitted, alternatively you can try and run the power cable down the side of this plastic trim, going under the black rubber seal that helps seal the doors when closed (when doing this, be careful not to bunch the power cable up and create a bulge in the seal), we recommend removing the trim and running the cable accordingly, ensuring the cable is safely routed, and away from fixings and air bags if fitted. Now the power cable is neatly routed to either side of the dashboard, you may have to remove a trim panel at the side of the dash to take the cable in to, and behind the dash, (these trim panels are generally easy to remove using a trim removal tool or flat head screwdriver), now at the same side of the vehicle where the power lead runs to, look for a fixing that is bolted to the main chassis of the vehicle, this will be the earth point you are going to use to install your hard-wire power lead, it could be most things, as long as your newly fitted cable doesn't obstruck anything, generally in most vehicles there are 10mm to 13mm bolts that secure the dash board to the chassis, these are ideal earth points for us to use. Once located unscrew the bolt so you can hook the ring connector or u-hook (from the Black cable on the power lead), around the bolt and secure back in to the chassis - this is your earth point done.
Now, hopefully you have routed the power cable so the vehicles internal fuse-box is close by. We have to now find a suitable 12v power supply to attach the dash cams hard-wire Live (red) power cable to, there are a few ways to determine a suitable power source, the easiest and quickest way, is to locate the fuse for your 12v switched-live stereo circuit, or if it's a switched live the fuse for the vehicles 12v power supply/cigar lighter, these are both ideal circuits to run your dash cam. you can identify them by looking in your vehicles handbook, searching Google, or sometimes the fuses and locations are printed on the reverse of the fuse-box cover. An alternative way of sourcing a suitable 12v live is to (if you have one, or access to one), use a electrical multi-meter, and you can test each fuse location to find out which circuit has a 12v ignition live source (to do this, simply test the fuse with the multi-meter when the vehicles ignition is off, if it reads 0 volts, turn the vehicles ignition on and re-test the fuses circuit again, if it reads anywhere between 12v-13v, it should be an ideal circuit to power your dash cam, as its live when your using and driving the vehicle, and also turns itself off when you exit and turn the ignition off).
So, once you've located an ideal fuse location, you can now use the 12v 'piggy back' fuse adapter (supplied with the hard-wire kit), select the correct size for your fuse-box, generally internal fuses are std or mini std. Now simply remove the fuse from the fuse-box, of the location you have selected, and place it in to fuse location 1 in the fuse 'piggy back' adapter (along with a 2v or 5v fuse in location 2 - generally supplied with the hard-wire kit and fuse adapter), now place the fuse adapter along with the 2 fuses, in to the vacant place where you removed the fuse - This is now your Live circuit complete.
All that is left to do now is hook the bullet connector from the Live cable (red) on the power lead to the fuse 'piggy back' adapter, tidy all the cables and tie-wrap them neatly and safely out of the way, re-fit all panels and your done. Good to go.
Instead of using the provided 12v power cable supplied with your dashboard camera, you can hard-wire install the camera, by using a hard-wire kit, Nextbase provide such a kit for around £10-£20 called the Nextbase Dash Cam Hard-wire Kit. It's a standard Micro USB power lead insert (universal for most in-car dash cams). (some model dash cams come complete with a hard-wire kit straight from the box). Using this kit you can power your dash cam straight from your vehicles internal fuse-box, with all the wires nicely hidden behind the dash, thus ensuring no trailing power leads, and also it frees up the 12v power supply socket or cigarette lighter adapter for other uses.
So, to hard-wire fit your dash cam yourself, firstly decide on a suitable position for your dash cam (see Location above), then when you've attached it to the screen plug the hard-wire power cable in to the camera and take the cable straight up in to the vehicles head liner, most roof liners you can gently lever up the front edges at the top of the windscreen using your fingers, then carefully run the power cable up and round to which ever side of the vehicle the internal fuse-box is located (make sure the cable is hidden, and has enough of a "hang down" to the camera, to prevent the power lead coming loose).
To locate your vehicles internal fuse-box, you can either refer to your vehicles handbook or Haynes service manual, Google it, or simply have a good look around the front of the vehicle. Usual places include, behind or underneath the glove-box, underneath the steering wheel, in a panel in either foot-well, or on the end section of either side of the dashboard, fuse-boxes are generally covered with a pop-off plastic cover/trim.
So, once you have routed the power cable along the top of the windscreen, tucked up under the roof liner, next you need to either remove the large plastic trim that runs down the side of the windscreen, that houses side impact airbags if fitted, alternatively you can try and run the power cable down the side of this plastic trim, going under the black rubber seal that helps seal the doors when closed (when doing this, be careful not to bunch the power cable up and create a bulge in the seal), we recommend removing the trim and running the cable accordingly, ensuring the cable is safely routed, and away from fixings and air bags if fitted. Now the power cable is neatly routed to either side of the dashboard, you may have to remove a trim panel at the side of the dash to take the cable in to, and behind the dash, (these trim panels are generally easy to remove using a trim removal tool or flat head screwdriver), now at the same side of the vehicle where the power lead runs to, look for a fixing that is bolted to the main chassis of the vehicle, this will be the earth point you are going to use to install your hard-wire power lead, it could be most things, as long as your newly fitted cable doesn't obstruck anything, generally in most vehicles there are 10mm to 13mm bolts that secure the dash board to the chassis, these are ideal earth points for us to use. Once located unscrew the bolt so you can hook the ring connector or u-hook (from the Black cable on the power lead), around the bolt and secure back in to the chassis - this is your earth point done.
Now, hopefully you have routed the power cable so the vehicles internal fuse-box is close by. We have to now find a suitable 12v power supply to attach the dash cams hard-wire Live (red) power cable to, there are a few ways to determine a suitable power source, the easiest and quickest way, is to locate the fuse for your 12v switched-live stereo circuit, or if it's a switched live the fuse for the vehicles 12v power supply/cigar lighter, these are both ideal circuits to run your dash cam. you can identify them by looking in your vehicles handbook, searching Google, or sometimes the fuses and locations are printed on the reverse of the fuse-box cover. An alternative way of sourcing a suitable 12v live is to (if you have one, or access to one), use a electrical multi-meter, and you can test each fuse location to find out which circuit has a 12v ignition live source (to do this, simply test the fuse with the multi-meter when the vehicles ignition is off, if it reads 0 volts, turn the vehicles ignition on and re-test the fuses circuit again, if it reads anywhere between 12v-13v, it should be an ideal circuit to power your dash cam, as its live when your using and driving the vehicle, and also turns itself off when you exit and turn the ignition off).
So, once you've located an ideal fuse location, you can now use the 12v 'piggy back' fuse adapter (supplied with the hard-wire kit), select the correct size for your fuse-box, generally internal fuses are std or mini std. Now simply remove the fuse from the fuse-box, of the location you have selected, and place it in to fuse location 1 in the fuse 'piggy back' adapter (along with a 2v or 5v fuse in location 2 - generally supplied with the hard-wire kit and fuse adapter), now place the fuse adapter along with the 2 fuses, in to the vacant place where you removed the fuse - This is now your Live circuit complete.
All that is left to do now is hook the bullet connector from the Live cable (red) on the power lead to the fuse 'piggy back' adapter, tidy all the cables and tie-wrap them neatly and safely out of the way, re-fit all panels and your done. Good to go.