Well that was an easy dash cam install.

quoting is weird right now.

i ordered 2 of each the male and female. i have a bunch of wire and different things at home already and asked rob to send me one of the extra step down board. we'll see what happens.

 

I had difficulty pasting the part numbers for the pin terminals into my prior post. The male part number pasted right in, but the female pin number just wouldn't paste. I had to transcribe it manually, hopefully without error.
I'm watching your progress with interest . . .

 

Did you order the terminals?

These are the female on the spool...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/JST-AIT-II-Series-Contact-Reel-of-6-500-SAIT-A02T-M064/254262993074

I haven't located the male. There are bunches of them on ebay that you can buy by the hundred, for like $2 including shipping. But the problem is finding the right ones, or at least something that will work.

 

yea i got 20 males and females from mouser as well. thanks for posting this i didnt even think of that. the female ones have a lower conductance, but i'm sure theyre fine, not too much going through it. all pulled from this datasheet
https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/564/eARV-334526.pdf

now im a bit concerned about the crimping tool that is used for this. either way itll be a learning experience

 

Ok great! I didn't find any small quantities of the terminals available on Mouser... only the giant spool. Now we wait patiently for your parts to arrive . . .

 

@mrtonyd ..... Were you able to find a part numbers on the mirror connector on your truck? Comparing the pictures of the connector that Simple uses to the pictures on the Mouser site... I dunno. I hope it's the right part, but I'd be lying to say that I don't have doubts.

Mouser image


SimpleUSB (Tacoma mirror) image

 

i did not. im kinda just hoping for the best and havent done anything like this before. if it works, way cool, if not ill have wasted 10 bucks. either way, ill prob get a real one when they get back in stock

 

I'm hoping that it works. But then earlier today I was thinking to maybe go ahead and order those parts from Mouser too, and get @robnpatb to send me a board to build one up.. just for fun. But then I started looking more closely at the pictures. But anyway, fingers crossed or you

 

the connectors and pins were shipped last night so hopefully ill get them in the next couple days. ill post progress pic. may start a new thread

 

I think this is it. But how to buy just a few, as opposed to a hundred? (see Edit below)

SimpleUSB image


The one on Alibaba




EDIT: Mouser has them in stock by qty one...

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/TE-Connectivity-AMP/1318774-1?qs=/ha2pyFadugfF2QfTy%2BTwKwMIOkgeLvw7VifgwL6vtc=

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/TE-Connectivity-AMP/1565894-1?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvlX3nhDDO4AGYY8nQ9iF2nFtHt/SkQc6w=

 

Why don't you just tap into the switched 12v right above the headliner in the overhead center console and use something like this?

Hard Wire Charger Cord Cable Universal Mini USB Right Angle Shape1.2 Meters DC 12V to 5V Power Inverter Converter Regulator Kit for Car GPS Tablet Android DVR Camcorder Recorder by HitCar

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00U2DGJOQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

The overhead center console pops right off and all the wiring you need is right there.

 

That's certainly another way to do it. But many people (myself included) would rather use a plug-in adapter where possible rather than tapping into an existing wire harness in the truck.

 

@mrtonyd @robnpatb
I ordered enough parts to build 3 adapters. My son just got a 2020 4Runner (company vehicle lease) and he wants to put a dash cam. So I'll build one for him. And Mr Tony might be build #2. Then I'll have one left . . .
Rob.. if you have any additional pics that shown which pins are wired through between the connectors that would help. Otherwise I'll figure it out from the vehicle schematic or by "ringing out" the Simple adapter.

 

These are NOT very good pics, and my phone camera sucks. This is as good as I can get it, though. Too bad he didn't use different colors on the wires.

 

But they help. All the wiring is going to be straight through, from the male connector to the female. Only two of the wires split off to power the USB device.

 

The connectors I ordered are too big. No diy from these

 

Sorry to hear that. But when I looked closely at the parts you ordered compared to the zoomed-in Simple pictures, I really suspected that they were not the same.
I'm pretty sure the parts I have coming from mouser tomorrow are correct. Tune in tomorrow for an update . . .

 

I have the proper connectors in my hands, but due to a USPS snafu I don't have the boards yet. Boards were supposed to come Saturday, but the post office routed them to a zipcode about 40 miles away. Delivery is now rescheduled for tomorrow.

 

Hardest part of the dash cam install was shortening the micro usb cord. I had no use for the 8 foot cord supplied with the camera and didn’t want to wait for a short cable to ship. This particular cable is charge-only so only two wires (instead of five) needed to be soldered.

The rest was plug and play, easy.

 

I have a Garmin 55. It is magnet-mounted, normally you glue a steel plate to the windshield and a magnet sticks to it. I bought a set of (way too many) GoPro mounts for $20 and epoxied the supplied magnet to the GoPro mount.

I used an aftermarket power supply cable which terminates on the fuse box near the driver's left foot, because I considered the Garmin cable too expensive. The issue with aftermarket power supplies and Garmins is that Garmin has put a 17 kOhm resistor between a couple of pins on the proprietary cable. The cam gives me ridiculous messages like "this power supply cannot charge your cam" because I am using an aftermarket cable.

The other disadvantage to the aftermarket cable is that my cam is powered 100% of the time even when parked, and the camera stays on all the time. That means it is cooking in the summer, and I sometimes came back to the truck with the cam showing an overheat alarm. If you use the Garmin cable, when the vehicle is parked it reduces the frame rate to reduce the internal heat.

Other issue I found is that because the cam is running 24/7, the card is getting written to a lot, at the full frame rate. Those cards don't like that and after a few months you start to get "card degraded" messages.