dash cam power supply hell
08-21-2014, 04:11 PM
#1
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2014 S550 4matic palladium silver, '12 CLS550 Iridium Silver
dash cam power supply hell
I have had a dash cam for a few weeks now and I bought a Lukas LK-290 power supply for it.
It has a ground, battery voltage full time wire and an accessory wire. The battery voltage wire has to go to something that is on all the time. The accessory wire goes to something that is on only when the car is on.
I tried hooking it to various fuses in the trunk. I figured the one for the anti-theft system was full time and then I used another fuse for rear cigarette lighter as the accessory.
The little LED on the power supply power is supposed to be steady on when the car is on, or flashing when the voltage drops.
No matter how I hooked it up the unit would not operate correctly. I tried different fuse combinations.
The first time I got it to come on, it was blinking really rapidly. I figured I had the yellow wire going to an accessory and not something full time. So then I tried another fuse combination and it would start blinking as if it was receiving less than 12 volts. Then I heard a click inside the fuse box. Turn the car on and pray and I get the driver's fog lamp out message and of course now one of my fog lights is out. I just replaced them a few months ago.
So I guess now I have to dig out a multimeter and find out which fuses to use, replace my foglamp that it obviously blew out and hope it is just the bulb. This thing is supposed to be sending NOTHING to the car, just pulling power from it, so no idea how the hell it damaged the electrical in the car. It's probably fried, but I'm tired of screwing with it. I probably also need to pull fuses and make sure none are blown. I checked the one's I was connecting to and those are fine.
It has a ground, battery voltage full time wire and an accessory wire. The battery voltage wire has to go to something that is on all the time. The accessory wire goes to something that is on only when the car is on.
I tried hooking it to various fuses in the trunk. I figured the one for the anti-theft system was full time and then I used another fuse for rear cigarette lighter as the accessory.
The little LED on the power supply power is supposed to be steady on when the car is on, or flashing when the voltage drops.
No matter how I hooked it up the unit would not operate correctly. I tried different fuse combinations.
The first time I got it to come on, it was blinking really rapidly. I figured I had the yellow wire going to an accessory and not something full time. So then I tried another fuse combination and it would start blinking as if it was receiving less than 12 volts. Then I heard a click inside the fuse box. Turn the car on and pray and I get the driver's fog lamp out message and of course now one of my fog lights is out. I just replaced them a few months ago.
So I guess now I have to dig out a multimeter and find out which fuses to use, replace my foglamp that it obviously blew out and hope it is just the bulb. This thing is supposed to be sending NOTHING to the car, just pulling power from it, so no idea how the hell it damaged the electrical in the car. It's probably fried, but I'm tired of screwing with it. I probably also need to pull fuses and make sure none are blown. I checked the one's I was connecting to and those are fine.
08-22-2014, 04:02 AM
#2
Senior Member
As my camera came with a cigar adapter at one end I decided that I wouldn't cut the plug off and tap it directly to the cars wiring but simply install another cigar lighter socket instead. I tapped into fuse 71 with one wire with the other to earth. You only need the camera to be powered when your driving so I wouldn't be complicating things.
