Why hardwiring a dashcam?
Updated installation guide: click here
Most dash cams come with a cigarette lighter which can provide constant power to your dashcam while driving. However, once the car is turned off, the dashcam would stop recording. Many car owners worry that their vehicles may get stolen or vandalized when they are away and thus the demand for dashcams that feature parking monitoring has been kept surging. To support 24hr recording requires a constant power supply after shutting off the car. The 12-volt cigarette lighter shuts off when the car is off, but the hardwiring kit can provide a constant power supply to your vehicle.
Hardwiring kits are available for our digital rearview mirror dash cams. If you would like to purchase a hardwiring kit for your Acumen dashcam, please email us at info@acumen-camera.com and we will send the hardwiring kit directly from our warehouse.
Hardwire kit
Red wire: ACC
Yellow wire: Battery
Black wire: Ground
How to hardwire
Step 1: Locate the ACC slot
The fuse box is normally located either in the driver’s side footwell or the passenger’s side footwell and it is usually behind a removable plastic panel. Once you remove the plastic panel, you will see the fuse box which looks like the picture below.
Which fuse slot to connect?
There are many fuse slots in the fuse box. Which slot to connect is the next thing that you will have to figure out yourself. Because the fuse slots vary from car to car, and you will have to refer to your vehicle’s user manual to locate the ACC fuse slot. Or you may look up the fuse box diagram for your car model online. For most car models, you can find this information online fairly easily.
Step 2: locate the constant power fuse
The next step is to connect the yellow wire to the constant power so that your digital rearview mirror dash cam will get a constant power supply even when the car is off. To do that, you might need a circus tester or equivalent. Then, turn the car off and use the circus tester to test which fuse still has power after the car is turned off.
Step 3: Locate the ground point
Lastly, to prevent electric shock, you need to connect the black ground wire to a metal bolt in your car. Most cars have at least one obvious ground point near the fuse box. But some metal bolts may be covered by paint. This is definitely not a good ground point and it may cause your dashcam to shut down abnormally. What you should be looking for is bare metal. In the best scenario, to connect it to the factory point, but it would be a little hard to find and you may need to refer to your vehicle’s user’s manual to locate the factory ground point.
Alternative solution: Have it professionally installed
If the steps sound too complicated, you may take it out to any auto body shop or stereo shop and have it professionally installed. If you haven’t bought our dashcam online, you may buy it directly from our partner stereo shops, and they all provide professional installation when you purchase the dashcam from them.
You may use the map locator to find a stereo shop near you.
