I'm thinking of doing some wiring on the car... drl's and possibly a dashcam, but although i am handy in certain things (and have had my fair share of electronics assembly/dissassembly), car wiring is beyond me.

Anyone willing to chime in on how to properly do these?

a) DRL's, i also have a drl relay box of sorts that will turn lights on when the car starts. Supposedly drl plugs into box, box plugs into positive and negative on battery? (or does negative get grounded on chassis?)

What's a good thin gauge wire to extend the rather short 12" leads? Will twisting wires and covering in heat-shrink boots be enough to keep it safe from shorting out (i.e. rain)

b) Dashcam. I can use the cig lighter for this, but would like to get it on a circuit that remains "on" with the car off (for recording while parked with the engine off.) Can i tap into the rearview mirror power? How does one do that?

Thanks guys.

 

a) DRLs don't need a lot of power so you can simply use any spare wires from your broken fan, printer, computer core,... The negative wire can be grounded right into the chassis and it is better this way than running the wire back to the negative port of the battery. I personally had done twisted wires and taped it with electric tape. It didn't give me any problem after 2 years. So twisted them tightly and heat shrink it. It will do the job just fine.

b) The only way that I can think of to get power to the camcorder while the car is off is to hook up straight to the battery. But I wouldn't do that because the voltage of the battery is not consistent and higher than 12V. Plus, your camcorder will still sucks juice from your battery even though it is turned off.

 

Absolutely awesome. Thanks, man!

Good to know on (a). On (b), there are several options to run the cam. One is with a module that will allow it to run while the car is off but shut down after a set interval (useful for times when the most you'll need it to run is say 8 hrs while at work and car is parked.)

The cam itself uses a maximum of 4w. Shouldn't be too bad. I'll check around to see if that's too much a load for either the mirror circuit, or if it'll drain the battery too much overnight.

 

a) I agree with Phalanx, it would be best and easier to run the neg to a chassis ground close to where you are installing the drl box at. For the wire gauge I would use about a 20-24awg and I would not advise just twisting them because this can come undone. I would take the time to learn to solder, can get a soldering iron for $20, or would use butt-splice connectors and definitely heat shrink whichever method you join the wires with to protect and make it look neater.

b) If you can find a control module to handle the time the camera runs then I would just use that.

 

Soldering is the proper way to connect two wires. However, DRLs wiring is not a big deal and twisted wires is enough to do the job. If you have time and want to go extra mile, solder them is the best.
I rewired 50% wires on my previous car and only soldered those are going to ECU, modules, and speakers. The rest, I just twisted them hard and taped them. I got 0 electrical problem after 2 years. Laziness is the nature of human beings and of course I got that too. I wouldn't do extra works if I can get it done in an easier, less time consuming way. lol