Dashcam location and wiring problems.

Good evening all.

2015 Tiger XCx

I don't know about you but I find a dashcam is absolutley necessary these days on any vehicle. Plenty of idiots out there, and not only are they idiots but they can be dishonest idiots. I'm not a perfect driver by any stretch of the imagination but some people just shouldn't be on the road.

Anyway, I used to have a MIO M535 bullet cam placed just to the left of the screen on my bike attached by the top of a tripod (just the screw barrel, not the legs) to the frame of the screen. It worked very well and was very reliable. It had a looping system which meant I never had to empty the micro SD card. Neither did it ever jam as others can do without warning; it just keeps on going.

Unfortunately, the one big design flaw with this model is that the lens cover is PLASTIC . After a year it becomes milky and/or scratched. It unscrews easily enough but MIO will not supply a spare part. Rather you have to send it in, pay them £70 for a piece of plastic and then pay to have it returned for a further £35. The whole thing new only costs £139!!! So i ditched it off the bike and placed it in my car instead where it doesn't need a lens cover.

Just as an aside, if you buy one, they are great. BUT place a transparent sticker over the lens cover (like you would on your smartphone) if you want it to last you longer than a year.

So i bought a INNOVV K1. Twice the price but with twice the cameras (for front and back) and the lenses are glass and you can buy lens protectors for them in the form of thumb stickers which can be replaced periodically or when needed after a muddy ride. It also has a GPS system and the cameras are hard wired and hard attached to the bike in a location of your own choosing. Very difficult to steal and of no use even if they are without the controller which is hidden away under the seat.

My problem is this: The accessory sockets do not power down with the ignition. In other words the sockets are always drawing power if you leave anything plugged in. The INNOVV K1 needs a switched power source or I need to keep plugging and unplugging it and most likely it would have to be from the socket on the left hand side of the bike under the seat. With the MIO I had to do that all the time and it was a pain but as I had to remove it from temptation anyway, it wasn't so bad.

The K1 comes with a converter as the controller will only take 5v 3A max and stipulates a switched power source. I wrote to Triumph to ask for advice and their advice (rightly probably) was not to modify the wiring harness; that the accessory sockets were on a separate circuit in order not to cause interference with the CAN bus or blow something else if the accessory malfunctioned; not either, therefore, to piggy back any circuit in case of overloading. By default, then, they wouldn't tell me if the sockets could be ignition fed in any way.

Have any of you had any experience with this? In particular with the Tiger XCx.

I am aware that I can just take a plug, wire it to the converter and then to the controller but as I said, I'm trying to avoid having to plug it in every time and unplug it again when I finish.

Another solution would be to hardwire it to the socket and place a switch somewhere discreet but again, I'm trying to avoid that time when I simply forget and return to a drained battery.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi Biglad, well, if I could do that (electronics is hocus pocus to me) I wouldn't be asking because I could just bypass the extra socket and wire it directly to the converter from the ignition I suppose???. In the K1 wiring schematic it shows a relay, which I have (as well as a piggy back fuse and wire just in case - for the sake of £2 I thought I'd have a back-up plan as I'm not in the UK again for another 12 days after Saturday).

But I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how I'd use said relay or even if there is a space to plug it in. Actually, I haven't a clue what I'm doing at all and even less when I'm 5,000 miles away from my bike.

Really I just wondered if anyone had had similar problems but I will find a solution even if I have to take it to the dealer but I suspect that they will be reluctant to mess with the loom as it still has 3 years warranty to run and they could be liable if something goes wrong. My best hope would be to get them to 'unofficially' show me how it's done and which wires I need.

Thanks, though.

 

Thanks, Rooster. I'll look into that. I already have the topbox that came with it so unlikely to change that. I have the relay and I'm pretty sure that it is the right one judging by the wiring numbers but where does the relay go? Is there a socket for it in the fuse box? As I said, I'm some distance from my bike so don't worry about a quick answer to a numpty like me as I might be asking to have the bleeding obvious explained when one look under the seat will tell me.

I will email Colin at Triumph and ask him if that might be a solution.

 

Rooster: Nope. Colin has told me that the XCx doesn't have the necessary wiring loom as it is not an option.

Thanks for the idea, it was a good one.

 

Thanks, Rooster. Registered and will ask the questions. You're a star.

 

RTWO on that forum came up with a very interesting solution. It's this:
http://www.nippynormans.com/f650stf650csf650gsf650-dakar/fuzeblock-switchable-fuse-panel

I still have to find a switchable power source but I might be able to get it from the redundant fog lamp cable sitting idle under the fairing without any need for splicing or cutting. Someone also mentioned tapping it from the brake lights, horn or wherever. The +ve and -ve goes straight to the battery (with a fuse between, I think - Halfords here I come tomorrow for an inline fuse holder). It has it's own in-built relay and will power up to 6 accessories either switched or unswitched (it looks like you just place the fuse in a different slot depending on the switching requirements).

It's CAN bus safe (allegedly!) which is important and as I also need a permanent feed for my Rider 400 and, possibly, a scottoiler this is going to solve more headaches later on.

It isn't a cheap solution but looks to be the safest (for the bike), the easiest to add other accessories to, the easiest to remove without leaving tell-tale evidence in case of warranty reclamation and that all has a price too.

Thanks, all. i will post some pictures when i get it all sorted and show you what I did.

Ride safe.

 

Hi Peter,

Thanks for that. i think the intention was not really to mess with the fuse box. I'm home now but having been up for 36 hrs the last thing I feel like is getting my head around this stuff and start tinkering. But thanks, I will consider it.

The box actually plugs straight to the battery, the switched wire (I guess is what energisies the relay) It's CAN bus friendly (allegedly) and if I don't mess with the wires behind the fuse box, if anything goes horribly wrong I can easily take it out and Triumph won't know anything was ever plugged in at all.

 

I had another solution if anyone is interested. It's a much smaller and easier to tuck away wiring loom.

http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Wiring_Kits/Fuseboxes/3_Circuit/3_circuit.html

ATB