Nadhir

I can’t find many guides about installing on an E60 to the battery and only to the fuse box. Is it safer to hardware it to the battery or fuse box? I’ve been reading that it should be wired to the battery instead of the fuse box.

Only guide I found was this, but it’s not connected to the battery.
https://5series.net/forums/diy-do-yo...light=Dash+cam

I’ve called a few places and the price ranges from $100-175 and time is 1-2.5 hours which I think is ridiculous for a dash cam install. I just rather not mess it up and my battery.

I was also told to buy a Cellink Battery to have the camera use that juice in parking mode instead of my battery right off the bat.

Any suggestions?

LessIsMore

If you wire directly to the battery, it will pull voltage constantly, including when car is off, and drain it.


If you want it on all the time, even when car is parked/locked, use the cellink or ancilliary battery. Would have to figure out good place to mount it, and would probably put a fuse on the wire too.


Otherwise, find a wire or empty fuse location that only receives power when ignition is on, and use that.

Nadhir

Is it bad even if I set the cam to auto shut off if the battery hits a certain voltage? I want it hardwired just for the parking mode so it can record even when the car is off but I’ve been reading that it’s an issue with bmws..

chris30o0

You will most likely get error messages because the E60 measures voltage when it's off.
If it's too high you will get a warning. I'm not aware that one can turn this off.

I don't know how much a dashcam would consume but the E60 is really picky there.

Nadhir

Ok. If I have the cam and set up a Cellink Battery and for some reason the battery runs out of juice, will the cam then tap into my car battery or will it just turn off at that point. Do you know?

chris30o0

I've never heard about Cellink Battery.
The only thing which makes sense is that that extra battery is loaded only when ignition is on.
So if the battery dies it will not switch power sources but will simply be dead until you start the car again.

Nadhir

That’s what I was thinking but wasn’t sure. That battery lasts 20 hours of parking mode so that should be plenty. I was going to pay someone but hooking the battery to the fuse looks too easy and then I just hook the camera to the battery. Only annoying part would be hiding the wiring.

KyleB

How long do you need the camera to be able to run off of battery power? Why not just get a battery powered dash cam, or even just a GoPro?

Nadhir

A GoPro doesn’t have all of these features. A designated, specific dash cam has a lot more features. Plus, I’d have to charge and hook up the GoPro daily whenever I drive. On top of that, the battery charge lasts only for two or three hours if I remember correctly. I had the hero 4 black and that didn’t have an amazing battery life with continuous recording.

I already bought a dash dash cam so a battery powered one isn’t much of an option, plus those are normally cheaper or worse in overall quality. I may just buy an external battery and hook that up to the fuse box and hook my dash cam to the battery. May be the simplest route. The battery costs $250 or so, though. But at least I can move it to any other car.