Dash cam - fuse box location ?

[timdf911]

Hi,

I'm in the UK and have just taken delivery of a new nx300h takumi.

I bought a nextbase dashcam (front and rear) from LPD and the instructions were very clear apart from one issue - the fuse box is not where it should be, in fact I can't find it !

According to the instructions it should be behind a panel in the passenger footwell behind the glove box.  There is a fuse box of sorts but it only has two 30 amp fuses plus one slot which has no fuse fitted but which is live all the time.  As a stop gap I'm powering the dash cam from this feed, but really want it to only operate when the ignition is turned on to conserve Battery power as sometimes we go for 4 or 5 days without using the car.

I aslo had a look in the drivers footwell - not there either.

Nextbase state:

The recommend installation type is an ignition live power supply, this can be either the cigarette lighter cable or hardwire kit. An ignition live power supply means one which is only able to provide power to the Dash Cam when the vehicles ignition is on and running. The hardwire kit includes a voltage protection unit which stops the vehicle Battery becoming completely exhausted if a permanently live fuse has been selected. This ensures that you will always be able to restart your vehicles ignition and allow the vehicle Battery to recharge.

Using an ignition live feed would mean it's not active when parked on the road so maybe I should leave it powered all the time and hope it doesn't drain the 12v Battery to the point of being too low to start the engine - bit of a quandary really maybe I should just trust the nextbase low voltage protection.

Makes me wonder what the drain is from the 12v Battery is for the rest of the Lexus systems ?

One other small issue, it said to mount the rear camera in the centre, but doing so causes the heated rear windon element to appear in the picture, so I offset it slightly.

Has anyone else tried to fit a webcam to a 2020 nx300h ? I'd be interested in your experiences.

Edited July 14, 2020 by timdf911
extra info

[Steve Oliver]

I've fitted a Nextbase webcam (front only) to a 2019 NX F sport and quite happily found the fuse box behind the glovebox. It has about 20 fuses in it and I piggybacked one of the ACC fuses so that it's switched with the ignition. No problem at all. Not sure why a Takumi wouldn't have that fuse box. You took off the cover under the glove box? It's up underneath at the left hand side. Little white plastic cover on it...

[timdf911]

Hi Guys,

thanks for the replies.  Don, do I assume your fuse box wasn't in the passenger foot well ?

Luckily I'm a retired electronics engineer so can figure out where to pull power from - might look into the cigar ligher feed  if that's switched and run a fused feed from there, but ideally could do with finding the fuse box - must be somewhere or I've missed it.

The usb ports are both in use in the center console - one for smartphone USB Carplay and the other for a 64GB usb memory stick for music etc.

[Steve Oliver]

19 minutes ago, timdf911 said:

Hi Guys,

thanks for the replies.  Don, do I assume your fuse box wasn't in the passenger foot well ?

Luckily I'm a retired electronics engineer so can figure out where to pull power from - might look into the cigar ligher feed  if that's switched and run a fused feed from there, but ideally could do with finding the fuse box - must be somewhere or I've missed it.

The usb ports are both in use in the center console - one for smartphone USB Carplay and the other for a 64GB usb memory stick for music etc.

Tim, the manual for my car shows the fusebox under the glovebox, does yours not? Hopefully it will show you the locations of all yours just as mine does...

[Steve Oliver]

hmm... I've just been through all the NX English manuals I can find, and all of them show that fusebox under the glovebox...... until one that I found that is valid from July 2020...

https://d24bc9lyrt5en5.cloudfront.net/Customer-Portal-Admin/emanuals/LEXUS/OM78580E.pdf

Suddenly it no longer shows the glovebox fusebox.... but doesn't indicate where they've moved those fuses to....!!

HTH

[timdf911]

Hi Guys,

reading the handbook is always a good idea and it shows the fuse box is now under the bonnet on the drivers side.

So it looks like I'll have to find a switched feed inside the car as I don't fancy running a feed thru the fire wall to the fuse box !

That said, it all seems to work ok powered up all the time - just a question of how much extra discharge load is being applied to the 12V Battery.

I'll measure how much current the dashcam draws to give an idea of the risk and report back.

[timdf911]

Hi Don,

thanks for the great informationand taking the time to post photo's etc - clearly I was looking in the wrong place and hadn't gone far enough with the dismantling.

I have all the cables in place and the system works fine for front and rear cameras it was just the DC power which had me beat.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Edit and 10 minutes later it was done - your photo's made it obvious what to do.

PS interesting to see you mounted your rear cam slightly to one side to miss the heating wire - just as I have done !