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Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
In case you might find it useful, we should tell you about how to do a deep boot too. Seriously. Hold your foot on the brake pedal then press and hold each of the scroll wheels, until you see the touchscreen blank out. Then you can release all. Tesla tells us this is simply a deeper reboot than just the scroll wheels by themselves.
nhirsch
Member
I learned that the other day when online with Tesla support. Thanks. I'll try that next time but simple power off/on makes sense like resetting a breaker which is probably similar.
nhirsch
Member
I also didn't want to do any hardwiring for the same reason. Who knows what unforeseen electrical problems may come up in the future. The last thing I want is a warranty claim to be denied because I altered the car's wiring.
I installed a wireless relay switch to turn on/off my dashcam after getting the idea from @Akikiki. I have a BlackVue B-112 battery, but the basic wiring is the same as the B-124. The dashcam connects to the battery using a regular 12V cigarette lighter adapter by way of a female 12V socket that plugs into the battery. You see the socket in this photo above the fuses.
It's a very easy project and solves the problem of running down the battery overnight when parked at home. For me, it's essential because my commute isn't long enough to fully power the battery from empty.
I transected the dashcam's power cord and wired the relay about a foot away from the cigarette adapter plug. Everything fits nicely in the forward part of the center console compartment under the armrest. (The B-124 is larger, so the compartment under the flip lid is probably a better place for it, but the only way to get wires in and out of there is to route a hole through the side of the compartment, which I also didn't want to do.)
I stuck the remote for the switch on my phone dock mat. If a passenger needs to use that charger, it's attached by Velcro and easily removed. There are a lot of ugly remotes out there and this one kind of matches the aesthetics of the car's interior at least. It's a little unsightly, but function wins out over form on this one. The remote can be put anywhere, but I needed it to be where I would see it and remind me to turn the dashcam off.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
This is the pigtail that I have been using to wire to power for Blackvue dash cams. This way I don't have to cut the power cord up.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LFRT8K?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LFRT8K?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00
Thanks for this info!
I have a Blackvue DR750S dual camera dashcam, along with a Cellink B battery (similar to the Blackvue battery) for parking mode. Currently, I have the battery placed on the floor behind my front seat, and have to reach back to turn it off (when I get home from work), then reach back to turn it back on when I leave for work in the morning. I'd like an easier way to turn on/off the battery. I'd like to be able to hide the battery, too.
Could you provide more info about how this relay gets wired... like what wires get cut and what wires go where in the relay switch?
Thanks!
Thanks, 124 comes in tomorrow but from the looks of the pictures the connector looks spot on.
I've been going back and forth between a wireless vs. wired solution for turning the camera on and off in the garage. Wired is the simplest and I think the most secure. Might have to figure out routing paths but on the interim could just leave it in the center. The wireless option provides the nice clean look of having the remote in the phone dock but the paranoid in me thinks that some smart crook might disable the cam since its a simple wireless relay to toggle the power. Additionally, powering the relay would need to draw from the 124, granted a very small drain but a drain none the less.
From my research that I've done on the relays used in this thread (and knowledge of relays in general), you need to cut the wire in-between the camera and your power source, in your case the Cellink (I myself will be cutting the wire between the battery and the female 12v plug as if I were to cut the wire from the camera to the 12v male plug and messed up, someone needs a new more expense cable). From SDKoala's first photo, terminals 1-5, left to right, terminal 1 is not used. T4(-) and T5(+) are wired to the Cellink output, this will power the relay. T3(+) and T4(-) are wired to the dash cam. The green wire jumping T2(+) and T5(+) is what will connect power to the dash cam when the switch is pressed. When the switch is off, T2 is disconnected from T3. When the switch is activated, T2 is connected to T3, which connects T5 to T3, powering the dash cam. Correct me if I'm wrong @SDKoala.
The B124 battery is a little too big to allow for the tray to remain so I just took it out.
I think it's a personal choice if you would rather use the compartment in front of the cup holder for the battery and keep the rear one with the shelf (requires very little additional work to get the cigarette lighter plug from that front compartment to the back one) or if you would rather give up the tray and use the rear compartment for the battery.
I personally liked keeping the forward compartment completely empty and usable and as I don't think I would have ever used the rear compartment, it wasn't a big sacrifice put the battery there and take out the shelf.
Nice setup! For me a simple on/off switch does the trick...but I am curious if you can use a cheap NodeMCU with a relay that turns off power when it connects to your home's wi-fi...it will still use some power but very little compared to the dashcam.
The cogs in my engineering mind just started to turn with this idea, haha. The lazy man sitting behind my computer would rather have Blackvue release an update that offers an option to disable parking mode based upon a GPS location.
I've had mine in for about 1.5 months with no issues so far...
I've seen people here say they had the battery issue pop-up ~3 months in, though.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Good idea. Now what are you going to do with your good idea? Have you opened a support ticket with Blackvue? Sent them an email?
Maybe use this forum and start a survey to see how many people that own Blackvue's would like to see that feature added, then leverage Blackvue to move forward with your good idea based on customers wishlist.
I thought about getting a different cord, but the wire was already in place and I didn't want run everything again. An OEM replacement BlackVue 12V power adapter isn't too expensive, so I just went for it and transected it. I figure I can always splice it back together with butt connectors or jellybean connectors if needed.
The wire for the 12V adapter cable is very simple. There's just two wires: positive (carries the electricity) and negative (grounds the device). You need a very sharp blade to carefully strip away the sheathing to expose two small wires (24AWG in the BlackVue OEM cable) that are housed within it. You also need a very good wirestripper to expose the copper, or have a steady hand with the blade. I've never had luck using pliers on wire this small and always end up cutting it when I don't want to. When you transect the cord, leave much more than you need on the cigarette plug side, especially if you've not worked with anything this small before. One foot was plenty for me, but there's no harm in having more slack.
@paladinfello has it right for this particular relay, but the wiring depends on the exact relay that you use. You can't assume that the terminals are going to be in the same order as the one I got. They may even be on opposite ends of the board. My photo isn't great and doesn't show the labels for the terminals (I was lazy and didn't want to take the board out of the housing and didn't think anyone would ask). For a simple 1 channel relay like the one I used, the terminals are going to be IN+ (or DC+), IN- (or DC-), NO, NC, and COM.
IN+ is the positive from the power source and powers the switch itself. The power source is the car's 12V accessory socket. When you transect the power cord, it's the side that still has the cigarette plug attached. It should follow standard convention and the positive wire carrying power should be red. You might be unlucky and find yourself looking at two wires of the same color. A multimeter would be needed set on ohms to measure resistance. The pin/tip of the cigarette adapter is the positive. There should be no resistance when putting one of the multimeter leads on the pin/tip and the other lead on the positive wire.
IN- is the negative/ground from the power source that grounds the switch. The negative/ground wire should be black. I also terminated the negative/ground from the device here. (Maybe not the completely proper way to do it, but it avoids having to make another splice/pigtail.) The side prongs of a cigarette adapter connect to the negative/ground wire. If using the OEM BlackVue adapter, only one of the side prongs is connected, so be sure to check both if you are verifying with a multimeter. If your wires were different colors, you're in luck because then you'll know which is which on the device/camera side of the transected wire. If they are both the same color, you'll have to use the multimeter to check the device plug. (Positive is the hole inside the tip, negative/ground is the sleeve/barrel on the outside.)
NO is the "normally open" terminal. The device positive wire is connected here. When the relay is activated by pressing the remote button, NO "closes" completing the circuit and allowing electricity to flow to the device.
NC is the "normally closed" terminal. It should be constantly closed in the switch's default state and pressing the button "opens" the circuit, interrupting the flow of electricity, and cutting power to a device attached to NC. Isn't used for this application. (A typical use of an NC switch would be for an emergency stop button on machinery to cut power instantly.)
COM is the "common" terminal, which is connected to both the NO and NC terminals. Electricity needs to flow through the common terminal to get to the NC and NO circuits of the switch. This is why the jumper is needed connecting IN+ to COM. IN+ just powers the switch--it doesn't let electricity flow to the device. One of the reasons for having COM on its own terminal is so separate power sources can be used for the device and the switch.
My ideal set up would be to run a server that recognizes when the car has arrived home (by way of a sensor inside the car connecting to home wi-fi or eventually the car itself connecting to home wi-fi) to execute a script that downloads the day's recordings from the dashcam, then cuts power to the dashcam relay afterward.
That's way beyond my abilities, but I'm sure there are industrious programmers out there that could find a way to do that with readily available components.
