Dashcam Hardwire w/o Fuse Box *ALMOST* as easy as Dongar

[BoboForShort]

To be fair, it takes all of 10m to route power from the passenger fuse box... You can remove the mirror cover without a pry tool (pop the small top/center cover out using a finger, then slide the large molding downwards). The passenger A-pillar cover comes off with a 10mm socket (use pry tool for 2 bolt covers on the handle) and the headliner is freely accessible between the two.. If you're not buying a pass-through harness to tap 12v/ACC from the mirror assembly this is actually much quicker/easier than DIY splicing into the ACC wiring up top..

That's still an option. This is just a lot cleaner for me and doesn't require an add-a-fuse. There also isn't a lot of room in the fuse box to close the covers once you've added them.

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[Josh256]

Agreed! Did your harness supply constant 12V/battery as well? The fitcamx only ACC+/ACC- so I ran a wire to the fuse box for battery... you know, for my not-GPS accessory;) But also: I needed to pull the A and B pillars to properly route the rear camera wire..

 

[BoboForShort]

Agreed! Did your harness supply constant 12V/battery as well? The fitcamx only ACC+/ACC- so I ran a wire to the fuse box for battery... you know, for my not-GPS accessory;) But also: I needed to pull the A and B pillars to properly route the rear camera wire..

Yes, this plug supplies 12V constant, 12V ACC, and 0V. Need all 3 for the Viofo and other cameras for their parking/sentry mode. It's the main reason I did not go with any of the Dongar adapters.

I managed to just tuck the rear camera wire into the pillar trim and door seal.

 

[Dongar]

Yes, this plug supplies 12V constant, 12V ACC, and 0V. Need all 3 for the Viofo and other cameras for their parking/sentry mode. It's the main reason I did not go with any of the Dongar adapters.

Unfortunately this is incorrect. Viofo's parking mode needs their hardwire kit or kits using the same pinout, meaning that not all kits with ACC + constant + gnd will trigger their parking mode. Viofo uses a non-standard implementation (aka proprietary pinout) USB-C, which is how it feeds the ACC signal into the USB-C cable. So if you wired up a different brand (or generic) hardwire kit to that 5-pin connector, you still might not be unable to trigger Viofo's parking mode. The 3-wire hardwire kit must use the same pinout as Viofo.

For people curious in the technical details... Viofo hijacks the USB PD signal pin in a normal USB-C port. This pin is what allows you to fast charge your iPhone or other USB-C native device. We wanted to keep this pin because Dongar PRO is future proofed and allows 5V 9V 12V fast charging, whereas something like the Viofo hk kit is 5V only. We have a microcontroller in the Dongar PRO which we considered trying to find a way of allowing the USB PD pin to pass through the ACC signal, but then you'd have to add another switch to toggle this mode because there's no way of telling what brand of camera is on the other side of a USB cable.

Pretty much every other dashcam brand uses accerometers to trigger parking mode... i.e. Vantrue, BlackVue, Nextbase, Garmin (and more) use a sensor to detect lack of motion to activate their low-power / low-data modes, and you'll have no issues activating these parking modes with a Dongar.

 

[BoboForShort]

Unfortunately this is incorrect. Viofo's parking mode needs their hardwire kit or kits using the same pinout, meaning that not all kits with ACC + constant + gnd will trigger their parking mode. Viofo uses a non-standard implementation (aka proprietary pinout) USB-C, which is how it feeds the ACC signal into the USB-C cable. So if you wired up a different brand (or generic) hardwire kit to that 5-pin connector, you might not be unable to trigger Viofo's parking mode. The 3-wire hardwire kit must use the same pinout as Viofo.

Pretty much every other dashcam brand uses accerometers to trigger parking mode... i.e. Vantrue, BlackVue, Nextbase, Garmin (and more) use a sensor to detect lack of motion to activate their low-power / low-data modes, and you'll have no issues activating these parking modes with a Dongar.

I was referring to their hardwire kit needing a constant power and acc signal. Thanks for the insight. I assumed that was the case but didn't know the details.

I did not mean to imply that the Dongar kits or the Dongar Pro was in any way lacking or defective. I just prefer the Viofo camera and unfortunately they are not compatible with the Dongar by their own design. I think the Dongar Pro is a great solution in most cases, just not mine.

 

[Dongar]

@BoboForShort no worries, I just updated my post with more technical info . I'm super glad you posted your DIY tutorial though... the tacoma community is filled with the best DIY'ers out there and its feedback like yours which helps us make the best products and keep the enthusiasts informed

 

[BoboForShort]

@BoboForShort no worries, I just updated my post with more technical info . I'm super glad you posted your DIY tutorial though... the tacoma community is filled with the best DIY'ers out there and its feedback like yours which helps us make the best products and keep the enthusiasts informed

Thanks! Always happy to get technical. Your posts and willingness to explain things outside of your own product have been super helpful and informative.

Something that could be convenient but maybe not feasible or reasonable would be producing a more universal adapter with pigtails instead of the Dongar Pro plug or USB. That would provide compatibility with any hardwire kit for camera's, radar detectors, etc. the hardest part about the DIY is finding a supplier for the plug and pinning it. I would have gladly paid more for something shipped from the US or at least not overseas.

I understand that this would probably produce a lot more user error and open you up to a lot more angry phone calls.

 

[TrustButVerify]

I’ve been enjoying my 2024 Trailhunter for about a month now, and one of my first priorities was installing a dashcam. I initially bought a Dongar Pro after seeing it heavily recommended online. It’s a great product, but it’s not fully compatible with VIOFO cameras, which I wanted to use—specifically, it doesn’t support their built-
in parking mode. I still wanted a clean install, so I started exploring alternatives that didn’t require tapping into the fuse box, which seems to have limited space.

**If you just want to power a camera and don't care about parking mode, use the Dongar adapters. If you want to add a parking mode to a camera that doesn't have a built in one then go with the Dongar Pro. If you have a camera with a built in parking mode and want to use it, read on.**

Here's what you'll need:

A dashcam. I like the VIOFO A229:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MRVP2PX

A hardwire or fusetap for your camera. This is the one for the VIOFO A229
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MRVP2PX

A plug for the OEM dashcam power (90980-12366). Get the female plug with the wires already pinned, trust me. I'm an electrical engineer and thought I would be slick by pinning it myself and it was a huge pain and I gave up after pinning just one wire. You can use a wire tap/splice if you would like but I did not want to cut into the wire harness:
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806039270154.html

Some sort of crimp or solder connector and whatever related tools you need to connect the wires on the plug to the wires for the hardwire kit.


Here's what you'll need to do:

1. Connect the wires from the plug to the wires for your hardwire kit. Black is ground, red is 12VDC constant, and yellow is 12VDC accessory. Wire them as shown in the photo. You can cut the other wires short.

2. Remove the dome light. Pull straight down on the front on both sides. There are 2 red clips that hold it in. I was unlucky and broke one after removing it a few times. You can buy them on amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGPHRJ8T

3. Plug it into the OEM dashcam plug that should be present on all 2024+ models. Maybe not SR, but I'm not sure. I'd recommend testing it first before mounting and wiring everything in.

ALL DONE! That's it. Pretty plug and play, the only hard part is crimping the wires and waiting for the slow boat from China to deliver the connector.

Some notes on cable routing. The space next to the dome light is fairly cavernous and you should be able to stash most of your excess wire up there.

The clip for the visor comes off with a quarter turn counter clockwise and it lets you pull the headliner down a little to tuck cables and do the final wiring.

If you have a rear camera I would recommend starting from the back and stashing any excess in the headliner once you get to the front. Otherwise it's pretty standard, follow the headliner around to the door seals and then go from door seal to pillar to door seal to pillar in the rear and then tuck the rest into the headliner in the back.

Great writeup. Those Aliexpress links were a real gem. Thank you. Picked up the one with the prewired pigtail on it, and used a Wago butt splice since I don't have a crimper. I've use the Wagos on my motorcycle before and it's held up for 20,000 miles of pretty rugged riding, so I think a low current dash cam will be fine.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/WAGO-22...e-Splicing-Connectors-10-Pack-02212401K000004

Now I finally have the parking surveillance mode on my camera with the 70mai. Everything works perfectly.

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