Dedicated dashcam battery installation

[Vortex Radar]

So I’d like to install a dedicated dashcam battery pack to power an aftermarket dashcam, separate from the Sentry mode cameras.

I’ve done the install on multiple ICE cars, but in this case I’d love to charge the dashcam battery while I’m charging a Model Y simultaneously, but without also switching the dashcam to driving mode while the battery charges.

Normally a dashcam battery getting power happens when the engine is on which puts the dashcam into driving mode, but I want the dashcam to stay parked while the car itself is parked and charging.

The easiest solution would be to use a basic 2-wire output (instead of a 3-wire with a third ACC wire) from the battery and create a “dumb” connection where the dashcam doesn’t know if the car is on or not based on wiring so it falls back to using the G sensor. This would work. The main downsides are that it would take a few min for the dashcam to switch to parking mode once I’m done driving (not the end of the world) as well as that it could switch to parking recording in times I’m sitting in traffic or otherwise stationary for a few min (which I want to avoid).

The solution I’m thinking of is adding some logic to say the dashcam only records in driving mode when 1) the vehicle ignition is on as usual and 2) the vehicle is not charging.

Does anyone have an idea of where to access wiring specifically for:
1) Constant power
2) ACC / ignition trigger switch
3) Vehicle charging trigger

 

[Watts_Up]

So I’d like to install a dedicated dashcam battery pack to power an aftermarket dashcam, separate from the Sentry mode cameras.

You should mention which model and year you have, because Tesla is constantly making changes to the wiring and connectors locations.
Also big change occur if you have the new 16V lithium-ion battery instead of the previous 12V battery.

Does anyone have an idea of where to access wiring specifically for:
1) Constant power
2) ACC / ignition trigger switch
3) Vehicle charging trigger

I can only talk about the 12V battery version.
1) You should get a 12V constant power from the ODBC2 port, but you need to find a special ODB2 harness plug for your car.
I read than recent Tesla doesn't have an ODBC2 port (?). In my case, the port was located under the rear passengers' central vent.
Later on, the port was moved near the front right corner of the passenger door hinge location.
Note: The ODBC2 port is a tiny connector, not an ODBC2 plug.

2) Some people found a wire that is similar to the ACC ignition, but I never tested. You should search the forum for people
using a radar and want to turn off the radar as soon as the car is parked, and not waiting for the car going to sleep.
Sometime the wire might be located in the light holder above the rear view mirror, or inside the central console,
or also near the driver hinge door.

3) You could build your own voltage trigger to determine if the car is sleeping (around 12.5 to 13 V),
or if the DC/DC inverter is charging the 12V battery (around 14.5V), or if the car is using the DC/DC inverter when driving
instead of the battery (around 13.5V) to avoid discharging the 12V battery and this is similar to the alternator of an ICE car,

Note: I would recommend getting a Bluetooth 12V monitor to check and understand the charging status of the 12 V battery.

I have a dashcam with 3 wires (Blackvue DR 900X) but I connected the ACC wire to the 12V wire of the Auxiliary (cigarette lighter) plug,
because most of the time my interest is to use the dashcam only when driving and the dashcam will be off when the car is parked and sleeping.
I have video security cameras in my garage.

If I want to still have my dashcam running when the car is parked during the day, I turn Sentry on and when doing so, the car doesn't goes to sleep.
I could even ccess my dashcam using the cloud, or I canalso access the Sentry cameras using the Tesla App.

But if I park in the street at night and don't want to use Sentry all the night, then I use my ODBC2 plug (that I share with my Scan My Tesla App).
After 5 minutes, when my dashcam doesn't detect any motion, my dashcam goes to parking mode.

If you plan to use a separate battery, I would recommend charging the battery using the 12 V Auxiliary plug, which get disconnected
when the car is sleeping, and have a diode in series to isolate your battery from the 12V battery of the car.