Well that was an easy dash cam install.

I have the garmin 55, using aftermarket cable, I get the message can not charge but it is, about two months in, no issues with charging or recording.

 

I bought the adapter that OP posted. Burned out in the fist day. Got HOT to the touch and electrical burn smell. Lucky it didn't fry anything

Buyer beware if you end up getting one

 

I think that message just means it's not charging the battery but the cam will run forever off the truck battery. I am an electrical engineer and I see no technical reason why you need a special proprietary cable. Garmin just wants to sell you more stuff.

 

My Garmin 56 works fine and charges fine using a SimpleUSB adapter connected to the rear view mirror.

 

Good good. Just to be clear, cam shuts off with the vehicle, right? Cam is not on when parked?

 

Yes, just like the rear view mirror does. (And I am recently retired from 25% ownership of an electrical engineering company for the past 30 years).



The camera turns on when I start the truck, and runs for 5 seconds before shutting off when I turn off the truck. And it definitely charges while the truck is running. I'm using the USB adapter and a 6" USB cable. No Garmin cables involved.

 

In my case, I wanted the cam to be on while parked because there were kids breaking into cars on my street. I was able to provide pics to the police in the end. But if you don't need a parking mode, simpleUSB seems like a good solution.

I think the reason that you are not getting the charging error, or at least it was the case with me, is that if battery is fully charged, it does not report the error. Battery is never discharged due to having a constant source of power.

Here is what Garmin sent me.

Hello,


I just got into work and had an answer to the question about the resistor.


“The ID resistor we are using in our cables is internal proprietary information. They are used in conjunction with other methods for identification of the cable with our devices, but specifics of that identification are not intended for public information.”



Rick | Product Support Specialist







Here's my setup, truck has been off all night. You can see that there is no "lightning" symbol on the battery status, it's because battery is not being charged. Does your unit show a lightning symbol?

 

Ok. I am not using parking mode. Your situation is different, and I have no first-hand experience with the parking mode cable.

 

Yes. And also I've had times where I would turn the camera on for 15-20 minutes without the truck running while I was adjusting camera angle or changing other settings. After driving the truck for a while afterward, the battery would once again return to full charge. Note that I don't keep the screen display "on" all the time while driving. I can't see the camera from the driver's position anyway. I don't know if the camera would charge if the screen was always on, thereby sucking more power.

 

Nice. My plan is to just cave and buy the proprietary Garmin parking cable which I will terminate on a Blue Sea fuse box I'm installing under the hood. I will have to find something in the underhood fuse box, to feed the parking input.

It took no time at all for me to fish the aftermarket cable from the driver's footwell, just two bolts to remove the A pillar airbag cover.

 

I noticed this morning that my garmin mini didn't power up when I started the truck. I decided to mess with the wires and the simple usb connector was hot, as in melting the heat shrink hot. I sent dongar technologies an email, so we'll see what they say about it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fctkeEBjvE

this ones good. usb powered and ran through a pillar. ez install

 

It's somewhat alarming that this is now the third failure that I'm aware of. Yours and one other that overheated, and one that overheating wasn't reported @robnpatb .
In at least one case, Dongar said to keep the broken one, and they would replace it when stock is available. But we really don't know how many of these have been sold.
Don't throw your old one away.. the circuit board is and inexpensive repair.

 

Mine too. Posted earlier today warning about the dangers of this thing

 

Well now I’ll be doing this as well, thx for the info!

 

Yours was one of the "two" I was thinking of that overheated.
robnpatb had one fail also, but I don't recall that he mentioned anything about overheating.

 

Mine didn't overheat, as far as I could tell. Just stopped working after about a day of use. Didn't smell any burning. Replaced the USB board (cheap from Amazon) & has been working great in the past 6 days.

 

Gotcha. Saw a post a few pages back with the same issue. Not sure if that's one you saw as well. I know there was a t least 2 Amazon reviews describing this as well

 

EDIT: According to my unofficial record we have five failures as of 05/29/20. Four mention overheating, one did not appear to overheat.

 

I sent dongar technologies (simpleusb) an email yesterday explaining what happened and here is the response I received. If you are having issues I recommend contacting them, he seems like a stand up guy that values his customers.