The manual states that the 12v cigarette power is active whenever the Mini is in standby or drive-ready state. Is the Mini in standby state while charging? This is for a dashcam.
I just got into my SE without having the key fob on my person and plugged in a tire pump. It fired right up in both the cigarette lighter plug in the front and the one in the boot, too. So it appears your dash cam will always be powered if you use that outlet.
Yep, I think opening a door triggers the 'Standby State.' The manual isn't so clear though. Charging also keeps the car in standby state, according to my brief testing. If this is correct, it's not a big deal for dashcams as the car charges relatively quickly. From the manual: Standby state All electronic systems/power consumers are ready for operation. Odometer and trip odometer are displayed in the instrument cluster. To preserve the battery, use standby state and activated power features only as long as absolutely necessary. Turning on standby state Pressing the Start/Stop button switches standby state on or off. Standby state is switched off automatically: – When locking the vehicle, even if the low beams are switched on. – When opening or closing the driver door, if the driver's safety belt is un- buckled and the low beams are switched off. – While the driver's safety belt is unbuck- led with driver's door open and low beams off. – When the batteries' state of charge is low, if the low beams are switched off. – The low beams switch to parking lights after approx. 15 minutes of no use. – When the front doors are opened if there is no other person sitting in the front seats.
I've been working on this for my dashcam for the past few weeks. You can see my findings in the thread where I'm searching for the fuse diagram. The cigarette lighter socket is on when the car is on and will remain on for approximately 13 minutes after the car is off or last activity. It will come on if you lock/unlock the car. It is also on for the entire duration while the car is being charged. The glovebox light operates the same. I'm still having some issues with my dashcam constantly rebooting. My most recent test is with a different power cable into the cigarette socket instead of the one I'm using for hardwire, but it is still rebooting. I'm not sure at this point if the issue is with cigarette lighter electrical circuit, the SD card, or the dashcam itself. Will keep testing...
For what it’s worth my dashcam has been working perfectly with the MINI. Straight to the 12v cigarette power. The 13 minute power on period could actually be pretty handy as a short term parking mode feature - but I’m slightly concerned about it draining the 12v battery, not knowing how Mini manages its SoC.
Eventually I found the source of my issue, the SD card went bad. So I'm glad it wasn't anything I did during the install to break it or the car. I replaced the SD card with one of those high endurance cards made for the constant writes and re-writes. My setup includes a blackvue battery that's hardwired to the cigarette lighter. It kicks in to power the dashcam when the car is off and is passively charging while the car is on. The battery can power my 2-channel camera for a little over 20 hours of parking mode on full charge, which takes about 40 minutes from 0%. I actually like the fact that the socket is still powered for few minutes after car is turned on. This gives my battery just a little more juice after driving so I don't necessarily need to drive 40 minutes to get full charge.
