I have a dash cam that I'd like to mount (relocate) up near the rear view mirror and am thinking a good choice would be to wire it to the map lights by the rear view mirror which prompts me to ask a few questions.

1. What's comprises a micro USB cable? Is it just two wires (I am thinking it is 4 or 6)?

2. If it is 4 or 6, how would I connect it if the wire powering the lights is made up of 2?

3. Is it possible to do what I am looking to do?

Bottom line is I don't want to end up with non-working map lights and a cut micro USB (power cord) for my dash cam if there's something I over-looked or failed to think about.

 

USB is four wires, but only two are of interest here, providing 5V; the other two are data lines for actual data transfer. Because USB uses 5V, you can't just wire it into the vehicle 12V system directly and expect it to work properly; you'd be rather likely to destroy the camera. You could get a USB charger adapter thingy (which is basically just a 5V regulator) and connect that into the car circuit.

However, you run into a different problem: so far as I know, the map light power is unswitched, so your camera will be powered all the time and will eventually run the car battery down. All in all, it's probably more practical to tuck the wire behind trim pieces and in corners and so forth and connect it to the usual lighter plug wiring.

 

Look up some of the dashcam posts. Ive hardwired mine to the aux fuse panel that switches on off with the car

 

And this is exactly why I wanted to ask first as this is something I definitely didn't think of. Thank you for replying.

 

Will do. Thanks.