Anyone have a SimpleUSB Mirror adapter connected?

I found that my Garmin 55 dash cam that was wired to constant power at the time, ran the battery down because the truck was sitting 5 days in the driveway during covid lockdowns. A few months later I installed the proper Garmin harness that connects both to constant power and switched power, so that the cam goes into a low power "parking mode" to avoid running down the battery. I think the new harness shuts off the cam if the voltage goes below a certain level too.

What I'm trying to say is that I tried to cheap out by buying a $15 harness made of Chinesium, and ended up buying the Garmin harness anyhow.

 

Thanks...I'll check with them to see if they can print one for the a119...

 

What? We have go pro mounts?

 

Yep! Been using mine for 3ish weeks at this point. No problems at all.

 

The one right there fits the a119.

 

2019 and newer don’t have GoPro mounts

 

Considering a 66W but can't seem to locate the cable/harness that you were referring to. Do you have a link? Is the Garmin cable that connects to both constant and switched power plug and play?

Thanks in advance.

 

Sucks to suck

 

I have had good luck with garmin dash cams. I have mine mounted to my go pro mount. The feed wire is tucked in to the space between the windshield and the cloth roof, and goes down driver's A pillar to the fuse box near the driver's left knee.

The cable plugs into the fuse box with two fuse taps. When the battery supply is there, but the switched supply is not, the Garmin goes into parking mode which is a low power mode where it is just looking for movement on the camera, or an input from the accelerometer in case the vehicle gets hit while parked.

I think I supplied the fuse taps, the Garmin harness comes with unterminated pigtails. It is not too hard to connect the fuse taps to them.

The Garmin part number for the cable is

$30 010-12530-03 Parking Mode Cable, 6.60" x 2.70" x 2.00", Black

010-12530-03. It is called a "Parking Mode Cable."

 

Yeah I guess. Just throwing that info out there to the couple of responders that have 21’s and were trying to find the adapter to a mount they don’t have.

I just installed a Garmin Mini, it’s smaller than the GoPro mount in my windshield. If mounted off the GoPro Mount it would also just make the camera that much more visible than it is now sitting behind the mirror. I picked up the 6in USB mini with the 90 degree connection. Install took 5 minutes.

Used the adhesive mount that came with the Garmin Mini. With the dongle, 6” usb, and adhesive mount, I pretty much don’t even know its there.

 

I looked hard at the mini but I wondered how I would know that it's really working? With my Garmin 56, it has a small screen and it obviously wakes up when I start the truck, I just have to glance at it to know it's working.

I just modified a standard GoPro mount by epoxying the supplied Garmin magnet to it. Only issue is, it gets hit by the sun visor sometimes, and gets knocked off aim.

 

I was looking for something that was as compact as possible and for me, didn’t want the screen. Just installed literally an hour ago so I don’t have a lot of time with it yet. You can tell it’s recording by a solid red LED, you can tell if it is capturing audio with a second solid red LED. It’s tucked behind my mirror so I can only see the top 1/3 of the adhesive mount.

I guess I’ll have to have faith that it is recording hah. I used the Garmin app after install to view the video in real time, that is how I adjusted it to where I wanted.

Minor complaint at this time would be, there is a button on the face of the camera (toward me, the driver), if you push this button it saves a 1 minute clip, 20 seconds back and 40 seconds forward. Worked great, except the process of pressing that button while holding the camera still with 2 other fingers, still caused the camera to move off aim just slightly. That could be solved by having an adjuster screw to tighten the camera into the ball mount it came on.

 

I use an OBD II cable to tap into the OBD II port in truck.
It's relatively simple and quick compared to fuse taps.
Looks like this
https://us.thinkware.com/product-page/thinkware-obd-ii-power-cable/

 

In the Amazon reviews, users talk about the dongle shorting out their electrical system. Has anyone run into issues?

 

I read that also, I don’t doubt that was the result of the product but I’m wondering if it just blew a fuse that the end user could have solved himself? Just complaining that all these electrical items failed and it was taken to the dealership isn’t helpful.

That being said, I am on my second unit, after taking a drive through Northern California 110+ degree temps it stopped working (I’m assuming heat based problem), so I ordered a second until a month ago. First one lasted me since Feb when I did my initial install.

If an occasional unit is defective and causes a fuse to blow, so be it…. But if it somehow did more damage I could see being concerned - but we don’t have enough information in that users review to assess that.

 

Been using it for over a year and no issues. I use it for my yi dashcam.

 

These folks offer a couple of options
https://dongar.tech/products/12pin-tacoma

 

I'm curious if it will interfere with my car starter that is wired into my rearview mirror??????

 

Lot's of great information in this thread and should answer most of the questions being asked here. I backed off installing the Garmin Mini and using the Donger Technology adapter after reading comments on Amazon (some are pretty old). After I read through all the posts in the link above, I definitely feel more confident the bugs have been worked out. I just received my Garmin Mini and adapter yesterday from Amazon and will install tomorrow. Once I have a little time using it, I'll report back on the thread linked above.

 

I've had mine in my '19 TRD sport for 2 almost 2 years and now in my '21 off-road without any electrical problems. I use it with a full size Anker dash cam drawing 1 amp I believe.