Christmas dash cam, how do you have yours?

Father Christmas brought me one of these, I've mounted it fine behind the mirror but the cable is just falling straight down and plugged into the fag lighter, the excess cable is tucked into the glove box. I'm hoping people have a neater solution though, I can see the cable can run under the trim to the right or left of the screen but what do people do to run the cable along the top (or bottom) of the screen? Also I thought I could leave it plugged into the fag lighter but with the ignition off there's still a red light on the plug so I didn't want to leave it plugged in? Thanks

Not too many replies as yet but here's what I did (in my 997.1). Dash cam is behind the rear view mirror and the power lead goes straight up and tucks into the roof lining. The lead is then tucked in to the driver's side A pillar and down in behind the carpet and fuse box. I connected up a Power Magic Pro Box between the power lead and the fuse box so the cam doesn't drain the battery. All works fine and, other than the wee bit of power lead coming out of the cam up to the lining, there's no wiring in sight. :thumb:

I did something very similar to the basics description with one small difference. I used a fuse tap to take power froma switched live fuse in the fuse box - this means I didn't need a power management module - when I start the car it comes on and when I turn it off it powers down. Mine is a nextbase which has something kind of build in battery I think so if the car gets hit when parked it should record it. But to be honest I didn't worry too much about that - I just wanted it to record when I was driving.

My wife has just bought a nextbase for her car. I just popped to Halfords today and bought the proper hardwiring kit. £20 which is the same price as a Halfords own brand one so not too bad. I'll be fitting it in a day or so. The hardest part will be getting the cable out from behind the dash I think, depending on where the fuse box is. This kit uses a plug in fuse adapter that Rob mentions above. It looks very simple. I had visions of having to splice into switchable live cables etc, but this looks much easier.

Thanks all, mines a nextbase too so I'll have a look for the kit, ta

Ok, back from halfords with the kit, all looks pretty straightforward but I was wondering which fuse would be the best to replace with the fuse tap cable. In the instructions it suggests any with a 'switched' power source. Thanks

Make sure of the cameras voltage before wiring to a supply. A lot of them are 5v, cheap and compact 12 - 5v regulators are available on E bay.

I have a Transcend which I installed in the same way as rob, wire along the roof lining and down the pillar to the fusebox. Separate earth fixed to a panel. Works fine! I added a separate in line fuse just in case..

I'm not having much luck, I'm no electrician! I've gone for fuse A10 which is the cigar lighter and I've earthed it on the screw head of the fuse board (?) but no power to the camera ?? Also I've tucked the cable up behind the roof lining and a pillar trim, all went well but it just falls out. I tried to remove the a pillar trim but didn't pull too hard, is this easily removed? Thanks

I found if I had enough slack cable and pushed in with a trim tool - same for down the pillar - it stayed in place. I have used strategically placed bluetack in the past - but I am no expert.

Re: power to the camera, I'd suggest double checking your earth, fuse, & the piggy back fuse holder is seated properly. The A pillar trim can be removed fairly easily, but you need to start by removing the trim above the seatbelt & then work forwards. The body interior guide available here http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=83491 has more info on how to do this. Be careful when re-fitting as the metal clips are a bit fiddly.

All done thanks, once I'd got the trim and carpeted fuse box surround off it was much easier to see how things could go and also found a handy bracket under there for a good earth. The power problem was the fuse location, even though previous posts had recommended using the cigar lighter one it didn't show any voltage when connected up ( i thought later that it wouldn't until you pushed the lighter in? so no good for this) Anyway after swapping a few I found one that worked only with ignition and it all's seems to work ok.