Dashcams, GPS, HUD and Lighting Convenience Features

[ZZZZ]

Before I start - a huge thank you to Martin (M80) for the most elegant solution to this problem, and his remarkable generosity!

Now the matter at hands - most of my secondary consumers, i.e. front and rear dashcams; GPS tracker; HUD; hard-wired standalone SatNav, are powered by a fuse tap to the front power socket.

All wiring is hidden, separate gadgets are fused, etc, etc - so all good there

However, with the recent update on STAR, and removal of the "UK Mode", by Mark at Comand Online, I have a couple of "new" features, namely headlight delay (I had 'follow me home" before); interior lighting delay and pre-start (the correct official name escapes me at the moment), etc.

Being a greedy old git, I enabled them all, and love it ... however, my gadgets - not so much

Essentially what happens is, everything gets powered up, once the car is unlocked, and then goes off, once the door is open. The time is often not sufficient, for the gadgets to complete the power-up routine (particularly the GPS tracker and the front dashcam - a very old BlackVue), so when it's time to start proper, they both take forever to get a GPS fix. A few times these didn't start at all, till the next ignition on point.

Not being terribly familiar with relays and delayed power solutions, I asked Martin for advice, as I know he's an expert. I was thinking, I need to delay the ON signal from the power socket fuse, so I can get into the car, start it, and then the gadgets get the juice after, say 15-20 seconds.

Not only Martin came up with a much better solution (OFF signal delay), but he actually sent me an already configured relay - all I had to do, is fix the wires and stick it into a box:

Absolutely brilliant, thank you so much!

This goes into the car in a few days!

 

[Craiglxviii]

Now that's a thing of beauty...............

 

[M80]

You're more than welcome David,
BTW I'm far from expert just a wannabe who tries things.

You're finished product looks better than the instal I did for our vehicles so we can operate the electric garage door w/o fumbling for the remote each time.
In our case we have 2 minute limit to operate the door from either 1st power up (closing), or from selecting reverse (onto driveway, and then for closing).
Yours is fully auto, ours need the press of an LED illuminated push button.
No key no power, previously a scrote having broken into either car could have opened the garage door, now not.

I hope yours works as designed.

 

[ZZZZ]

Works perfectly thanks - I've been testing it on my desk all afternoon
Change the time to 30 seconds, seems most appropriate.

I'll send you a few of these boxes - it's a perfect fit, looks okay, and the cover is removable.

 

[ZZZZ]

An update - fitted the relay to my car today - works exactly as intended, my dashcams are happy and say thanks Martin!

Incidentally, what's the idle power consumption of this? - I sometimes don't drive the car for up to two weeks - would that be a problem?

 

[davemercedes]

Before I start - a huge thank you to Martin (M80) for the most elegant solution to this problem, and his remarkable generosity!.....

.....Absolutely brilliant, thank you so much!
This goes into the car in a few days!

The kindness and generosity of of our members never cease to amaze me - whether it's straightforward advice (I won't say "simple" 'cause it never is!) or things like this.

And I think that's why this is probably the best forum we're ever likely to come across!

 

[Craiglxviii]

The kindness and generosity of of our members never cease to amaze me - whether it's straightforward advice (I won't say "simple" 'cause it never is!) or things like this.

And I think that's why this is probably the best forum we're ever likely to come across!

I couldn’t agree more.

 

[M80]

Sorry David I missed your question regarding the power drain, but should be able to put your mind at rest.

Not of great importance to your concern but the relay energized consumes 60.3mA
The load that does concern you. at standby the consumption is 19.7mA

I would imagine your battery to be in excess of 70Ah but with such a battery in a healthy state the relay (on standby) would flatten in 3,553 hours, which is over 21 weeks.
I tested at 13v, as after a run the battery may be at over 13v, and a good battery can sit at over 12.6v for a good while.

TBH it puts my mind at rest as well as (I'm sure you remember) I've installed similar into our vehicles for the garage door opener.
Before anyone gets worried about the security being compromised.
1st any tea leaf would need the key even if they smashed their way into the car. The remote opener, fairly well hidden, is only powered for 20 seconds after the ignition is on, and again after reverse is selected (for after reversing onto the drive).
Even if they got to the skeleton remote they would need to understand where to apply the correct voltage.
That's before the alarm goes off, and all while under the CCTV.

 

[ZZZZ]

Excellent, thank you Martin.

It's been working perfectly, and I did monitor it for the first couple of weeks - no noticeable change from before the instal.

As I recently retrofitted the OE boot socket, I had a chance to work with a fuse box (moved the power bank tap to the heated seats fuse, and added a tap on OE fuse for the rear and boot sockets) - all good.


PS The weird looking power bank fuse tap, with an output into a different circuit, is due to me utilising an existing wiring for the former CDC [fuse 50 out] for the power bank in the glove box, however, I couldn't use the same fuse [in] contact, as it is permanently powered, so picked it up from 53 (rear socket) in above picture. The power bank tap is now at the fuse 49 (heated seats), and the new tap for the boot socket (with both fuses at 30A) is at the fuse 53.

PPS Yes, I fitted this battery new in September 2017, it's a VARTA Silver Dynamic - top of the line for the max dimensions this car can take, and is 77Ah 780A.