[ashwinprakas]

Hey guys, just reporting an issue I'd been facing with the 70mai Dashcam Hardwire kit.

Below you can see the basic parameters;



and here's how I'd hooked it up in my Bolero;



The Red wire needs to be Permanently Powered and hence it was tapped from the Immobilizer fuse. The Yellow wire needs to be powered only on Ignition ON and hence was tapped from the Wiper fuse.

Everything worked well after installation and this was a win for me cause the Bolero being BoF and my driving being not so gentle the 12v socket would also disconnect when driving over rough patches, now with the hardwire kit in place at worst it would record an emergency video and I was fine with that.

However the issue of battery drain surfaced during the covid lockdowns when I'd had to keep the car idle for over a month and it wouldn't start when I'd get back, I partially blamed the electronics gizmos in modern cars than completely blame the hardwire kit.

Though in later instances I did take a multimeter with me and noticed that even though the car failed to crank i.e the relay would just cut off, no slow cranking like it was the case with older less electronically dependent cars. The battery had over 11v at idle and it was not surface charge as I'd used the horn and lights to confirm.

In such instances I would just hook up my Pulsar's 9ah battery to the Bolero just to get the reading over 12v and then crank the car and it would successfully fire up.

Now I'd recently had to leave KL for a month and had taken the Alto with me, I had transferred the hardwiring kit to the Alto and left the Bolero parked for over a month, when I got back I half expected the Bolero to need assistance but it fired up without a care in the world.

So my inference from all this is that the Low Voltage Protection for 11.4V that 70mai offers is too low with respect to the cut off Mahindra has set for the Bolero's electricals which is why we only hear relay ticking and not the car cranking.

For further clarification mine is a BS6 Bolero B6(O) that comes with the mHawk D75, it has a one touch start setup i.e it is as electrically complex as a modern can be.

As a workaround I have ordered another hardwiring kit from 70mai and when it arrives I hope to give both Red and Yellow wires to the Wiper fuse so that both gets power only when the Ignition is Turned ON.

This effectively disables the Parking Surveillance feature the hardwire kit is usually preferred for but I am at a loss of ideas, so please do suggest a better alternative if you can.

Regards,
A.P.

[s4ch]

I believe you could tap the red wire from the roof lamp fuse if you need an always on connection. But I guess that is for only recording if your car is hit while stationary? So tapping both connections from something that is only powered with Ignition on may be safer and should still record fine when your car is on.

Either way I would not recommend that you tap from a critical component like the Immobilizer, Starter Motor etc, as in the event of that fuse being blown or similar, you would really be stuck then. Best to take it from a non critical component like the roof lamp, 12v cigarette lighter etc.

[Raghu M]

Sorry if I missed anything obvious but why was the wiring tampered with when it's just a plug and play device? If the socket is coming off, you should have looked at alternatives to keep it intact. I think the continuous power supply that it demands (if there is too much activity around your car when it is parked), could be a reason. But since the power source for the device has changed, the device could be sucking in more from the battery. Just my guess, cannot be sure of it.

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by s4ch

I believe you could tap the red wire from the roof lamp fuse if you need an always on connection. But I guess that is for only recording if your car is hit while stationary? So tapping both connections from something that is only powered with Ignition on may be safer and should still record fine when your car is on.

Either way I would not recommend that you tap from a critical component like the Immobilizer, Starter Motor etc, as in the event of that fuse being blown or similar, you would really be stuck then. Best to take it from a non critical component like the roof lamp, 12v cigarette lighter etc.

The camera takes a timelapse of the time the car remains parked contrary to turning on when it senses intrusions. This mode can only be enabled when using the hardwire kit. Just mentioning the same for clarification.

Mine is the B6(O) variant which doesn't have the Roof Lamp fuse for some reason.



I finally lost patience and reached out to the Nexdigitron and they're the ones who suggested tapping the current fuses, I was adamant about sticking to fuse-taps as I wanted a clean install.

Originally Posted by Raghu M

Sorry if I missed anything obvious but why was the wiring tampered with when it's just a plug and play device? If the socket is coming off, you should have looked at alternatives to keep it intact. I think the continuous power supply that it demands (if there is too much activity around your car when it is parked), could be a reason. But since the power source for the device has changed, the device could be sucking in more from the battery. Just my guess, cannot be sure of it.

Wiring was never tampered with as I'd used fuse taps.

Hardwiring is like a permanent fix as we need not bother about the 12v socket and it can be used for other things including powering the wifes laptop when she has to login for a call on the go.

As for surveilance even if the number of interruptions increase or decrease power would be consumed till the cut off which is 11.4V.

The hardwire kit requires 2 power lines, one that is ON all the time and one that gets powered along with the Ignition Key ON. A fix I can think of is connecting both wires to the same source i.e Wiper Fuse which only gets power once the Ignition Key is ON.

Hope that clarifies things.

Thanks,
A.P.

[ToyoCabbie]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

The hardwire kit requires 2 power lines, one that is ON all the time and one that gets powered along with the Ignition Key ON. A fix I can think of is connecting both wires to the same source i.e Wiper Fuse which only gets power once the Ignition Key is ON.
A.P.

Bought a 70mai hardwire kit recently as well. I'd like to completely avoid any battery drain issues as parking surveillance isn't a requirement for me.Cant the yellow wire be tapped into ACC fuse while leaving the red constant source unconnected?

[Kosfactor]

I would prefer electronic devices to take power from an additional power bank than a car's battery. Is there a way you can connect one in parallel that would switch over when the engine is off?

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

so please do suggest a better alternative if you can.
Regards,
A.P.

Have you measured the current that the hardwired circuitry draws when in operation, when in parking mode, and after auto-shutdown? If not, you should.

After hardwiring the dashcam, the first thing I did was to measure the current this gadget drawn from the 12v circuit to make sure that the car's battery can survive an extended parking mode operation.

Regular operation: 240 mA on the 12V circuit


Parking mode: 190 mA


After auto shutdown: Almost zero.

Since parking mode consumes 190mA, it can very well drain the battery over a week if that's enabled for days. So I kept a setting to auto-shutdown the camera after 6 hours in parking mode. Moreover, the most important part for me was the introduction of a 'kill-switch' so that I can electrically isolate the whole damn circuit when the car is parked at my car porch, as there is no need for the camera to be in parking mode. This switch is discreetly placed on the fuse box lid.

I suspect that your camera circuit is always drawing some current for some reason. I don't trust the electronically controlled low-voltage protection. That itself may be consuming some current on its own.

In my case, the camera is powered via the OBD port. Here's my circuit. This doesn't need any wire cutting or fuse taps, so the service guys can't claim that I have tampered with the car's electricals. That pin on the OBD port is always powered too.

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by ToyoCabbie

Bought a 70mai hardwire kit recently as well. I'd like to completely avoid any battery drain issues as parking surveillance isn't a requirement for me.Cant the yellow wire be tapped into ACC fuse while leaving the red constant source unconnected?

You could go with what Clevermax has suggested.

Either set a cut off for parking mode or install a kill switch.

You may also leave the wire as is as you've suggested.

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

I would prefer electronic devices to take power from an additional power bank than a car's battery. Is there a way you can connect one in parallel that would switch over when the engine is off?

Did contemplate an auxiliary battery setup with a manual switch, but the cost involved was a major turn off.

While thinking about it I have an idea or rather a sort of jugaad, why not route the hardwire kit to the glove box and connect it to a Power Bank, and then use the connector that comes with the camera and connect the camera to said power bank.

Considering the active drain of 240mah and a power bank of 20,000mah, I'm guessing we'd get about 3 days worth of backup. Please correct me if my assumption is wrong.

The advantage here is that the battery drain is limited to the power bank, plus since powerbanks come with 2 usb out's this also adds a provision for charging something which can be left in the glovebox with the car parked, this is particularly useful if you have an irresponsible family member on board who wants to charge her phone/camera just as we roll into a hotel parking lot.

Originally Posted by clevermax

Have you measured the current that the hardwired circuitry draws when in operation, when in parking mode, and after auto-shutdown? If not, you should.

Had only measured the drain in active mode just to get an idea, I foolishly didn't bother to checkout the same in Parking Mode.

Another miss from my end was that I did not set a Parking Mode cut off as I was solely depending on the hardwire kit to prevent drain.

In my case, the camera is powered via the OBD port. Here's my circuit. This doesn't need any wire cutting or fuse taps, so the service guys can't claim that I have tampered with the car's electricals. That pin on the OBD port is always powered too.

Attachment 2245351

Forgive my ignorance but how did you tap into Pin 16, did you use a OBD Connector like this?



Had contemplated the same but dropped the idea after locating the OBD port on the Bolero, it is covered by a panel without and room.

Thanks!
A.P.

[Kosfactor]

^ Makes sense, a powerbank should provide enough juice for a few days. In my experience car battery does not like anything that draws power slowly, nowadays with auto stop start system in place the battery voltage sensor that sits on the positive terminal may not allow the vehicle to crank if the voltage drops below a certain level.

[ToyoCabbie]

Looks like nexdigitron is selling a power bank for dash cams Unsure of complete specs as it isn't released yet.But I'm guessing it automatically switches when the ignition is off.

[Indian2003]

I would connect the live wire directly to the battery. You might have to fit an inline fuse on the wire. Connecting to the imobiliser is not wise. Never connect to the OBD plug. That is asking for trouble.
The yellow wire could be connected to the heater fuse.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

Forgive my ignorance but how did you tap into Pin 16, did you use a OBD Connector like this?

Attachment 2245375

Had contemplated the same but dropped the idea after locating the OBD port on the Bolero, it is covered by a panel without and room.
Thanks!
A.P.

Yes, you can use such a cable if there is room. In my case, I cannot close the fuse lid if I use such a connector on my OBD port. So I just used a pair of these wires as shown below. They simply plug into the OBD port, and I can remove it anytime I want.

[krishnakumar]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

As for surveilance even if the number of interruptions increase or decrease power would be consumed till the cut off which is 11.4V.

How about a completely "different" idea? A different dashcam?

I have a Viofo A129 Duo dashcam. And its hardwiring kit comes with a switchable voltage protection that has 4 stages of voltage cut-off - 11.4, 11.8, 12.2 and 12.4. I have set my hardwire kit at 12.4V. This way there is no risk of draining the battery - however, you'll need to see how much of footage it can realistically capture.

The other option is to look at DIY hardwiring kit and include a switchable voltage protector in it.

[kaushik.genius]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

^ Makes sense, a powerbank should provide enough juice for a few days.

I would not recommend a power bank to be left inside a car. The high capacity Li Ion battery is a fire hazard, especially in a hot country like ours. Li Ion and heat don't mix well.

[RaviKBobba]

If parking mode recording is not required, then hardwire kit is not needed at all.