[Supermonkeyballs]

I spent a great deal of time working out a viable way of hard wiring my new dash camera into my 2005 E90 330d with a hard wiring kit via the fuses(this guide will also aid other models/years of BMW as long as you identify the same fuse locations within your car) and I wanted to share what fuses I used.

Why = I found help from many areas within this forum and wanted to give a little back with some photographs of my finished wiring (location of what fuses I used and also problems I found and overcame). Some of the things I read contradicted other things (from loads of places not just here) and as I now have a fully working dash cam hopefully other people can befit from my finished set up/wiring.

Please note: Other models of BMW fuse locations/numbers will be different on other BMW models, even registration years can mean fuses will be differently placed location wise from model to model, the key thing is if youre going to use fuses as a power source for any wiring, just make sure you identify the fuses "purpose" within your car, never assume it will be in the same location as mine (place) just because we both have BMW's.

So as mentioned please find below a (rather wordy) DIY guild of how I achieved this with some photos. If you have any questions add to the post and I will try and get back to you.

Peace.

For information dash camera I used is (see links below)...

https://dashboardcamerareviews.com/mini-0906/

https://dashcamtalk.com/mini-0906/

Which is a mini 0906. It cost £124.95 from eBay and cam with a hard wire kit which I used.

So firstly, if you find yourself wanting to hard wire any accessory which requires around 12 volts/around 5 amps power (I.E it can run off a cigarette lighter) (often via a USB adapter) but you don't want to have wires all over the place all the time, you can look to hard wire the said accessory into preexisting wiring within your car (for a more tidy and permanent fixing).

Things like dash cams, boost gauges, voltage meter readers, oil pressure sensors, oil temperate gauges, radar detectors, GPS systems, music amps, after market stereos..... Things which aren't going to be moved (they will live in the car from that point onward).

Why hard wire = So anything which requires power from a constant 12v supply (permanent live from the battery) or a switched live 12v supply (something which will only get power when you have ignition on) can be wired this way (I used a hard wire kit for my dash cam because the hard wire kit has a built in power cut off minimum voltage setting, as not to drain the battery past a certain voltage) as the camera needs to have power all the time to film when I'm not in the car (this setting on the cam is called parking guard, which means you can see if someone bumps your car when youre not in it and they are filmed doing it in HD).

Please note: You don't always need a hard wire kit like mine, as you can splice accessories straight into wires without a hard wire kit, like a boost gauge will come with 3 wires attached to it, and as long as you know what the wire your cutting/splicing into does (its function of when it has power and when it doesn't have power) you don't need a hard wire kit.

However when you do want a hard wire kit like mine is when you want to ensure you battery doesn't get drained past a certain minimum voltage, so your camera will have the luxury of staying on up to a cut off voltage setting before it completely drains your battery, so I recommend using a hard wire kit with a power cut off if you putting in something which will have power drain on your battery at all times.

So as I had the hard kit for the above reason and didn't want to cut any car wiring (I didn't want to splice into any wires), I hard wired my dash cam using a dash cam hard wire kit straight into the fuse board of my car using things called add a circuit fuse adapters. (also known as piggy back fuses).

Please see links below for hard wire kit and piggy back fuses (what they look like).

https://www.e90post.com/forums/attac...1&d=1523231459

https://www.e90post.com/forums/attac...1&d=1523231459

So as mentioned I wired my hard wire kit straight into my BMW fuse board (in the glove box),

What wires do what = So as my dash camera requires a battery 12v constant and a switchable 12v supply to function, so I decided to "piggy back" off the fuses which live within the passenger glove box (behind the glove box back panel you will find the fuse board location on a BMW).

It for me was the most logical way around the power location problem, it was also the tidiest way, as I could tuck wires up into door pillars and around the roof surround, to the camera center location near my rear view mirror on the center windscreen.

Which fuses slots to use and which wires color to put into them =

Yellow switchable 12v current fuse location.

https://www.e90post.com/forums/attac...1&d=1523231567

With wire in

https://www.e90post.com/forums/attac...1&d=1523231567

12 volt constant power location

https://www.e90post.com/forums/attac...1&d=1523231642

With 12v constant piggy back wire in fuse slot

https://www.e90post.com/forums/attac...1&d=1523231642

Fuse Location numbers on BMW E90 card

https://www.e90post.com/forums/attac...1&d=1523231714

The fuse legend card and the pictures by BMW, E90 and there numbers.

https://www.e90post.com/forums/attac...1&d=1523231757

Finally the E90 fuse card rattings in ampere, So what fuse ampere you should have in what slot.

https://www.e90post.com/forums/attac...1&d=1523231811

As mentioned in the photos the switchable 12v piggy back fuse in slot number 28, the direction of the wire did matter in relation to it working (receiving power), by this I mean, I had to rotate it 180 degrees for it to work.

The 12v constant worked in both directions.

The ground wire I used was in the same location. (you just need to screw that goes to metal of the vehicle. So the black third wire from the hard wire kit went here also. Which I sadly didn't photograph. if you have any questions let me know.

Rich.

[beambeam1]

Great diagrams and write up, gives me every confidence to go and attempt this!

[NotTheStereotype]

Hey mate,

Excellent write up and much appreciated for E90 folks like us looking to hardwire a dashcam. Just have a few questions for you though.

1. What rated fuse did you use for the fuse-tap? Is a 5 amp alright or should I go lower like 3 amp?
2. How did you end up wiring it via the A-Pillar? Did you simply just tuck it under the plastic then across to the weather seal?

Again, thanks a lot for the post.

Cheers

[dli286]

Originally Posted by NotTheStereotype

Hey mate,

Excellent write up and much appreciated for E90 folks like us looking to hardwire a dashcam. Just have a few questions for you though.

1. What rated fuse did you use for the fuse-tap? Is a 5 amp alright or should I go lower like 3 amp?
2. How did you end up wiring it via the A-Pillar? Did you simply just tuck it under the plastic then across to the weather seal?

Again, thanks a lot for the post.

Cheers

I referenced OP's write-up and successfully hard-wired my dash cam. By the way, very informative background knowledge and instructions, Supermonkeyballs. Thanks!

Regarding your first question, I think you should use the same amp rating fuse as the connection's output, that way your fuse will last longer and less current is leaked to earth.

I referenced this guide to wire through the pillar. http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=409010However, putting the A-pillar back is a pain though. Just take your time and try not to break any clips.

[NotTheStereotype]

Originally Posted by dli286

I referenced OP's write-up and successfully hard-wired my dash cam. By the way, very informative background knowledge and instructions, Supermonkeyballs. Thanks!

Regarding your first question, I think you should use the same amp rating fuse as the connection's output, that way your fuse will last longer and less current is leaked to earth.

I referenced this guide to wire through the pillar. http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=409010However, putting the A-pillar back is a pain though. Just take your time and try not to break any clips.

Cheers mate. What camera did you end up wiring in?

[thanu8]

great info!

[gamesfrager]

That is nicely detailed. Thank you.
When I find a good smart dashcam, I'll go with the Cellink B option. CTrink, no I'm not a sales guy for them

This way I know nothing external will drain my car battery, crucial to me since I don't drive the car that much.
I want a dashcam that would send me notification to my phone.
I know newer versions of Thinkware and Blackvue have a cloud option, but I don't want a cloud solution and they still require a hotspot.

[MILLER335I]

Would number 28 be the right one for me to hardwire my Uniden R3 radar detector?

[rbryantaz]

Thanks for the writeup, I will likely use your locations on my DVR install.

Note that while your constant 12v may have worked in either direction the fuse tap its self is directional.

It is somewhat important to use these fuse taps in the correct direction or the output from them will first go through the original fuse as an extra load rather than being independent. In most cases the fusebox can handle 30amps in a slot so as long as you aren't going over that it is good to have them as indpendent fuses.

-Rich

Example from an amazon listing:

[crashoverride]

Love this guide very helpful... I struggled to add rear camera here is what I did I couldn’t find my electrical fish tape and refused after seeing the price to pay for another one or purchasing glow sticks for fishing wires walking out of Home Depot still in search of a solution I saw really thick bundling tape for wood. Stealing a piece about six feet long worked wonders, super thin to slide under roof liner.
I started from back light slid to dome redirected around sunroof to b pillar which I removed to vanity passenger visor light to front rear view center mirror.

Bada boom Bada bing

[FoxKhan]

Hi,

I have registered so I could thank you for this guide! It has helped me to wire my camera in no time! Thank you!

All the best,

Fox

[DontBeApompousBore]

Thanks man! Im doing this in 2 days and my search for acceptable fuses led me to you lol. I appreciate your persnickety OCD.

Mine is a 2009 328i, will these 2 fuses still work or are my numbers different?

[codeterrorist]

Originally Posted by DontBeApompousBore

Thanks man! Im doing this in 2 days and my search for acceptable fuses led me to you lol. I appreciate your persnickety OCD.

Mine is a 2009 328i, will these 2 fuses still work or are my numbers different?

Since BMW like to play the game of `let's change things around`; your best bet is to pull the fuse diagram from your fuse box and look up the symbols and match their amperage.

Also, it doesn't hurt to invest in a multimeter if you don't have one. Hunting for switched fuses is like hunting for unicorns, good luck with your hunt.

[Welcro]

Hi, Sorry for bumping an old thread. I just wanna ask where you kept this power conversion module? I couldn't find a good spot to tie it up