Does this hardwire stay powered when the ignition is off?

 

The empty fuse slot (F46) I installed the power wire's fuse tap into seems to act as an "accessory" on/off as does the adjacent F47 slot fuse which is for the cigarette lighter. So, anytime the i4's door is opened and the interior lights come on as well as the iDrive8 screens come on the NextBase dash cam will come on as well. When the car is exited and the door is closed the "accessories" as well as the dash cam do remain on for a short while. I imagine the way the i4's accessories on/off can be modified with settings. Even after the accessories power to the dash cam is eventually turned off its battery will keep it on for a short while longer unless the dash cam's power switch is turned off. Your "when the ignition is off " would apply to those vehicles for which the ignition on/off in itself simultaneously turns accessories on & off. Hope this fully answers your question.

 

I recently posted Dash Cam Power Hardware to Fuse Box which pictured how I planned to install my dash cam hardwired to the front fuse box. I heavily edited this post to revise flaws in my approach. Following lots of advice from forum members and reviews of similar installations (but not much on any i4's) I have done the actual installation and the camera works just fine, So, for anybody planning a clean dash cam install in an i4 I am sharing the following pictures (with captions). My dash cam is the NextBase 522GW with an attached NextBase rear view camera and I used the NextBase Hardwire kit for its "clean" install:
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Hope this will be of help. I will note that access to this fuse box is the pits and working with this access upside down on the floorboard resulted in this old guy's ending up with some sore ribs and a shoulder.

I think I am going to go with the accessory mode only and not install the Power Magic Pro. I will use a 12v cigarette adapter and a fuse tap. Is there a decent ground screw near the fuses? Where did you ground yours?

 

Your question has prompted me to edit a couple pics in my original posting. As far as your specific question see attached pic.

 

Fantastic pictures and explanation. Thank you for going to so much trouble to help other forum members.

 

Thanks @rquinley for this post. The whole thread helped me a lot recently when fitting my own dashcam.
One of the main things that got me was that my fuse box was in the drivers side foot well (UK based so is a RHD car) and needed two M8 bolts to be removed to gain access to the panel.

Also I had to tap into F46 as I found that the free F47 slot that some others seemed to be able to use, didn't work for me.

Now I have the front done and working, my next daunting task is to route the cable to the back for the rear camera. Has anyone else done this and have any tips on the best path to take and how to remove the respective bits of interior trim to do the job.

Thanks in advance
Jon

 

Just about to do my RHD m50. Was the access to the fuse box as difficult as our LHD colleagues have described? Did you break any clips on the trim covering the airbag?

 

No. I just have always used the front camera so I will be of no use to you. But thanks for responding

 

Good luck with the install

 

I was able to follow the instruction on this page (which was quite straight forward and appreciated the write up ) on my MY23 i4 edrive40. After plugging the fuse tap into F46 and using the bolt as ground.. my unit did not power up.
My fuse tap kit came with a 5amp fuse, is this sufficient? I’m suspecting the bolt might not be a good enough ground due to the black paint, did you guys scrape the paint a bit to make a better ground? This is the fuse tap kit I bought off Amazon, not sure if it’s the best.. but assume most are relatively the same..

MicroUSB & MiniUSB Hardwire Kit... https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B072J3L2JN?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Any help would be great ..

 

I was able to follow the instruction on this page (which was quite straight forward and appreciated the write up ) on my MY23 i4 edrive40. After plugging the fuse tap into F46 and using the bolt as ground.. my unit did not power up.
My fuse tap kit came with a 5amp fuse, is this sufficient? I’m suspecting the bolt might not be a good enough ground due to the black paint, did you guys scrape the paint a bit to make a better ground? This is the fuse tap kit I bought off Amazon, not sure if it’s the best.. but assume most are relatively the same..

MicroUSB & MiniUSB Hardwire Kit... https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B072J3L2JN?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Any help would be great ..

found my issue.. looks like I had to use F47 instead.. once I plugged the tap everything started to work..

 

This may sound silly, but anyone struggled to pop that little airbag plastic covering the torx screw? That thing is so tight that I don't see removing it without breaking it.

 

Mine just popped right off. Are you using a trim tool?

 

Thank you so much!! Very good instructions to follow! I was able to remove the airbag cover and ran it properly without issues.

 

I just wired up my Valentine1 and I thought I would add some info here for those searching later. I went the fuse tap route instead of the mirror mount because I'm using the remote display. I figured it would be easier to route that and hide the V1 junction box near the fuse panel. I tried F46, but I wasn't getting any power with my fuse tap. It might be possible that the fuse tap wasn't long enough and not making a good connection. I didn't bother with F47 because I didn't want to bother trying to pull the fuse there and see if it would work. I went an alternative route and used F53. It was easy to get to and work with. I noticed that the icon for that slot was for towing. It gets power and then shuts off like the other accessories. This is exactly what I was looking for. I know that this is for a radar detector, but I though others might stumble on this thread like me when trying to learn about the fuse box

 

Has anyone installed the power magic pro? If so where did you place it?

Thanks!

 

I have the power magic and placed it in the passenger footwell. The red stripe is the top of my mat.

 

Has anyone install the dashcam battery pack in the trunk area and need to tap into the back fuse box? Is there a good place for ground near the fuse box? It seems like there is nothing nearby for good ground. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

Just to update this, I have done a hardwire today. Fuse 30 which is 15 amp blue and labelled media in the front is a permanent live terminal 30. I used Fuse 74 (usb) which is terminal 15 switched. Just be aware that some of the cheaper hardwire kits have their positive terminals incorrectly labelled. Mine was a range tour version from amazon Amazon.es

EDIT I just want to correct what I said above. The original Nextbase hardwire kit is only a two wire system. So with a three wire hardwire kit like the one I just bought above, it is IMPERATIVE that you connect it as follows. I have watched every youtube video and they all get it totally incorrect, just as I have done. How do I know? I have just tested the behaviour of the Nextbase, while connected to power and while not.

So the Nextbase original hardwire kit has only two wires, a +ve and a -ve. You must make a decision about whether you connect the unit to a permanent (terminal 30) or a switched (terminal 15) live. To use a kit with two wires, then it is better to connect the two POSITIVE wires together and use either permanent or switched live.

I am going to try to explain what is this difference between the two options.

If you want to enable parking mode (which is where the unit starts recording when it detect a collision while parked) and the unit starts recording, then Nextbase recommend using a permanent feed. The following setting should be enabled:

1. In settings select Park mode ON. Do not enable Auto power off - the parking mode does the following - it turns off the recording one minute after collision.

2. Nextbase software can be flakey, and the problem is that if the unit freezes, then your 12v battery will run down. Nextbase has a power cut off at 11.5v but this it should be much higher, maybe over 12v. It WILL damage your battery like this.

My recommendation is to connect either the single or BOTH positive wires to an permanent circuit if you want parking collisions to be recorded.

So the settings on the Nextbase should be as follows

1. Screensaver on, sounds off. These two settings will minimise power draw.

2. Parking mode on. Do not enable auto power off.

3. Enable the G sensor. Default is medium but low makes it less sensitive. Your choice.

So how does the Nextbase behave when connected to a permanent T30 live with the above settings enabled? Mine is connected to the 15A Media fuse at position 30.

As soon as the car detects a jolt or starts moving the camera will turn on and start recording.

I have bench tested it and it will record for five minutes when it detects a jolt, then it will power down.

Red light is ready to record. Blue light is charging (it goes out when charged), red flashing is recording.

Hope this makes sense but the Nextbase units seem to win all the tests in the UK's Consumer Association testing (Which?).

Good luck everyone....