Re-installing the dash cam

Driving on US roads isn't as safe as I thought back in Ukraine. Having a dash cam in the car would be helpful in case of unclear road accidents. Knock on wood, I haven't faced any of those situations yet. However, it is time to install the dash cam, which I postponed for a long time. Especially, when I have a dash cam from my previous car - Kia Forte.

This is a good, universal fit dash cam, 70mai 1S from the well-known brand Xiaomi, which I had no complains about in the past. Yes, I'm familiar with the OEM-like dash cam available on AliExpress for around $130. However, I already have my previous car's dash cam for free. I also added a CPL filter to it, to improve the picture quality, so I'll save these $130 for other retrofits.

Before in the Kia Forte, I connected this dash cam using a so-called Hardware Kit to the overhead console. This kit requires only 3 wires:

• VCC+ (red)
• ACC+ (yellow)
• Ground (black)

The Alfa Romeo Giulia has a powered interior rearview mirror, which operates with an ACC+ 12V connection. So, I decided to connect the dash cam to it by merging the wires coming from the Hardware Kit. For a more detailed explanation about this kit, here is a link to my post in the Kia Forte blog.

The rearview mirror connector has 5 pins, but I only needed 2 of them (ACC+ and Ground). I decided to merge the VCC+ and ACC+ wires from the Hardware Kit together, so that the dash cam operates only when ACC is on. Given the poor reputation of Alfa's batteries, this is the perfect solution.

Usually, the VCC+ wire is red, the ACC+ is yellow and the Ground is black (sometimes brown). At least, this is how it was in the Kia Forte, Ford Focus, and most of my previous cars. However, in the rearview mirror connector of the Giulia, the ACC+ wire was... blue! Ok, italians, not a big deal, just fun. The ground wire was black as expected. So, I merged the Hardware Kit wires with the mirror connector and checked to see if the dash cam worked as expected.

Then I assembled everything back, hiding the wires under the overhead console. To be honest, most of the time was spent on cable management. I also wrapped everything into a felt-lined tape, to prevent any rattle sounds. Unlike in the Kia Forte, this time I decided to position the dash cam closer to the top right corner of the windshield.

The dash cam works as expected and has a hidden connection. I'm completely satisfied with this solution. Here are two examples of the dash cam made video.

At day:

At night:

Now that's all for today. Thanks to everyone for reading this. Stay safe and love your cars!