PSA on Hardwired Dash cams: Recently I hardwired a Thinkware Q800 dash cam in my Clarity. The installer used fuse taps on two accessory fuses and the install seems to be fine. The unit was hardwired in order to support various parking modes when the car is shutoff. The Thinkware Q800 has built-in voltage protection, a record timer shutoff and a winter protection option that adjusts the cutoff voltage +.2V during selectable winter months. Voltage protection is an interesting consideration. The default is typically 12V- but at that cut off level, the battery may be depleted by as much as 75%. Clearly that is not ideal. In my case, I decided to up the threshold to 12.2 V, which should prevent using more than 20%-35% of the battery capacity. I also restricted the record time to 12 hours. In addition, there is an energy saving parking mode that is triggered by G-force changes- and does employ the motion sensors. Another consideration is that if parking modes are used, a larger capacity SD-Card may be needed to avoid undesired over-writing of recent recordings. Some manufacturers claim you should use only their very expensive branded micro-sd cards. I am using the Samsung Pro Endurance card- and thus far have had no issues. $32 vs $200 is a bit of a no-brainer. The Clarity, if I understand correctly, has a more typical 12V/500 amp battery, similar to what is found on an ICE car. Not so I gather for a BEV such as a Tesla model- where accessory Li- ion dash cam battery packs may be needed for extended parking mode operation.
Unless they've changed it, the Tesla Model 3 has a AGM 12v battery. Many owners are upgrading to a Li-ion pack to reduce weight.
