Dashcam installation

Anyone installed the dashcam and used the power from the fuse box under the steering wheel area? I know there is a small fuse panel box there. Which fuse did you tap to? I just want to dashcam to be turn on when the accessory mode or the engine is running. I just want a basic setup of the...

www.toyotanation.com

 

personally I used the power to the driver's seat. I don't have power lumbar but the fuse was installed, harness is there with 12v hot power under the drivers seat. the seat side of the connector was even installed with no pins, just present to give the harness somewhere to connect during assembly.
I made my own dashcam controller with an arduino. my two dashcams pull like half an amp from the 12v supply so i wasnt worried about an 8hr timer causing the battery to drain too much.

one thing to know about that battery, and all lithium battery packs for that matter, is that charging at below freezing is a fast way to kill them. it looks like this battery has a low temperature charging protection, so it just won't charge below freezing.

 

Use the interior fuse box, get some 12V/5A low-profile fuse taps. Solder instead of crimping if possible. Route the wire(s) behind the A-pillar airbag to make sure the airbag will still work as intended in a crash.

Look up a video on youtube for removing the plastic trim over the A-pillar; you'll break the clips if you try to just pull it off.

I don't remember which fuses I tapped, I just used a multimeter to look for two fuses that were putting out 12V (one only receives power when the car is on, the other receives constant power for parking mode)

The fuse box cover won't fit back on after you install the tap(s), but keep it in the glovebox so you still have a reference for which fuse is which.

Careful about parking mode. You'll want a hardwire kit with a voltage cutoff switch so it won't drain your battery completely. Even with the cutoff, if I don't drive the car for a day or two and then I put the lights on for a few minutes, the battery drains to the point where the engine can't start.

 

I disagree with you about soldering. There is a reason that the wiring harness repair manual for the corolla says to crimp and pull-test repairs to wiring harness, and the word solder does not appear once in that part of the manual. soldered wire joints are prone to fatigue in environments with vibration due to the rigid section of wire that the solder wicks into. I wouldn't trust the average person's soldered joints, but any crimp that passes the pull test should do the job.

I do however absolutely agree about the importance of properly routing your wiring. most importantly removing the A pillar trim and routing wires through the dedicated wiring channels behind the airbags. an addendum to that is do not run power to a rear dashcam along the driver's side C pillar. It will be too close to the TPMS/Keyfob receiver and my particular dashcam happens to have pretty awful conducted emissions down the power cable which interfered with the keyfob range. several ferrite beads helped but did not totally eliminate the issue. the proper solution is powering from the other side.

 

Interior seems to have three HOT slots, why make life harder? I did mine the other day (ACC only as I don't care for parking mode), and it took quite a bit of "car yoga" to get in this and hide everything nicely.

I'm familiar with wiring, but always love to refer to Google in case someone has some tips/life hacks. So I found this (and its a 12th gen, he does it proper & has a funny moustache);

 

..and this is why I went with FitcamX. 2 minute plug and play:

Amazon.com

 

I just hardwired a dashcam into one of my 10th gen Corolla's today. I used the interior fusebox (underneath driver's footwell) with fuse taps as can be seen here

Obviously this is a 2011 Corolla so it will be different for the 12th gen Corolla's. However I tapped into the cigarette lighter fuse (CIG 15A) for the ACC wire and an empty fuse spot that had constant 12V Battery power for the BATT power wire. From the linked video above, it looks like the 12th gen also has empty fuse slots with constant 12v power so a similar setup can be done with those as well.

 

If there's one thing I'm confident about, it's my ability to solder two wires together. I keep a perfectly clean tip, tin both ends of the wire, twist them together, apply flux and join them with a little extra solder on the tip. I complete the job with heat shrink. The wiring kit and the fuse tap have solder points of their own, so I think mine are fine too.

Now if someone is working with a $20 iron with a tip that looks like a rusty nail, and they've never heard of flux before, I would recommend crimping for that person.

 

I use the J hook method to solder. Twisting may or may not work well, especially when mixing aluminum with copper wire. But I’m no materials expert.