Is it possible to plug a dash cam power cord with fuse into any empty fuse slot? I would prefer to have the dash cam continue to work when the vehicle is turned off. There is an inline device that shuts off the cam when battery voltage drops below a certain level. What are the problems, if any, to use an open fuse slot? If the power is not continuous, I can keep trying empty slots until I find one that is continuous. Thanks for your help.
In theory, any empty slot that still has a contact on one side that provides power should work. That said, the 12V in a Prius is pretty small. Even if the camera turns off, it's running the battery down more than normal and will likely reduce battery life "somewhat". Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
If this is your daily driver, you probability won't have any problems. Most of those open fuse slots are tied to the accessory circuit, so they're off when the car is powered down. I strapped down an aux. gel cell, next to my jack and placed a relay and bypass in the circuit. Anything I want continuously powered is placed on that gel cell. When the car powers-up, relay closes and the gel cell gets recharged. I can manually close the bypass to jump/start the car; hopefully the gel cell isn't too low.
Yep why introduce a parasitic draw which could end up draining your 12-volt that, already, gets drawn from while the car sits from various electronic systems in the car? When my wife's 2017 sits for more than 4-5 days without being driven, the 12-volt gets pretty low and, if it's not driven, I'll have to put a battery tender on it to bring it back up.
Hey OP, I just hardwired my dashcam a couple weeks ago, I used the TAIL (Fuse 16) for the constant power and ACC (Fuse 24) for the Switched power. I would advise that you don't use constant recording unless your dashcam has a parking mode. The good dashcams have a parking mode that triggers recording by motion or vehicle movement (shock) to the vehicle. Most good Hardwire kits have a low voltage shutdown at or around 12.0V. Also if you're concerned about battery drain, get a cheap Harbor Freight solar panel and charge controller wired to your battery, you can suction cup the solar panel to the rear window and it can trickle charge in the daylight (if you're parked outside).
I'd like to update this post, The tail fuse is not working for me for constant power. I'm looking for another location will update when I have it sorted out.
