armysoldier1073

I bought a dash cam and I want to hardwire it. Can someone tell me what fuse box to use and which are constant and switched power for fuse tap? Also what size the fuses are for each (ATO, ATO mini, ATO mini low profile, micro 2 or micro 3). Thank you for your time and help..

Mud

I elected to use switched power so the camera is on only when the car is driven (on). Just preference, I may change that at some point for monitored parking.
My camera power lead routes down the passenger side A pillar and behind the passenger side plastic footwell panel. At that point it's connected to a power lead run from the fuseblock located right side of the trunk. I don't remember my exact reason for not using anything up front, but routing the wire to the trunk was not that bad. It runs under the carpeting along the plastic door entry guards and below the right side corner of the rear sear into the trunk. It's routed in a small diameter protective loom from where it enters the passenger seat area, under the trunk carpet along the right side of the trunk. I looked up fuseblock info to find a switched power source and verified same with my volt meter. I believe that these were standard size ATO fuses and that the particular switched circuit was 15a. I've got a 3a ATO fuse in there for the camera. From memory, I think that the open fuse slots back there didn't yield any switched circuits.

Here's a picture of my use of a power tap at that trunk fuseblock. It provides a slot for the original fuse protected circuit and adds a slot for the additional camera circuit. The camera wattage/amperage load is tiny and poses no overload issue with the primary power feed to that particular circuit. It's been in place for a couple of years now with zero trouble. The only different thing is that small vertical yellow retainer gate is now left in the open position but I've yet to have any fuse loosen up, they are all in there fairly tight.

armysoldier1073

Thank you.