I was helping a friend who has limited mobility in his right arm. He has a dash cam but cannot lift his right arm enough to turn the camera on and off. The auxiliary port ( used to be called a cigarette lighter hole) does not turn off with the ignition. He was concerned that leaving the camera on, so he asked me if I could help. He was wondering if a person could have a switch right at the auxiliary port.
I sourced such an animal on Amazon. It plugs into the port and has a button to turn on and off. It came with several ft of cord with nothing on the end. I cut off his normal plug on the end of his power cord and spliced in the plug with the button. The camera would not work. I checked the voltage and the plug with the button was delivering 12 volts. The red wire was positive.
I plugged in the original plug from his camera. It delivers only 5 volts, so I believe it was built with a resister to bring the voltage down to 5 volts. Why would a dash cam for a car be designed to run on 5 volts? I hope I didn’t fry his camera. I’ll switch it back and try it again. Any other ideas out there? Thanks.
I sourced such an animal on Amazon. It plugs into the port and has a button to turn on and off. It came with several ft of cord with nothing on the end. I cut off his normal plug on the end of his power cord and spliced in the plug with the button. The camera would not work. I checked the voltage and the plug with the button was delivering 12 volts. The red wire was positive.
I plugged in the original plug from his camera. It delivers only 5 volts, so I believe it was built with a resister to bring the voltage down to 5 volts. Why would a dash cam for a car be designed to run on 5 volts? I hope I didn’t fry his camera. I’ll switch it back and try it again. Any other ideas out there? Thanks.
