12V In-car on-off adapter male/female socket - is there such a thing?

Harder to describe in the title so I'll pad it out here.


Dashcam 12v plug goes into an always live socket in the car.

Is there an adapter that will let me stick the dashcam's plug into it, which then plugs into the 12v socket of the car that has an on/off switch built in, so the dashcam plug can stay plugged in to the adapter but allows a switch to turn off the adapter whilst it itself stays in the (still) live 12v socket in the car?


So female socket with an on/off switch on the body that has a male plug end to go into the car socket. (Phew).

Does that make sense?

nope .. :P

I have a 12v to USB adapter wired into the courtesy light feed.
The dash cam comes on when I open the door then stays on while the ignition is on and then goes off a few minutes after the car is parked up and left.
I found leaving it on 24/7 attracted too much attention at night as it's screen illuminated the interior.

The adapter is around £4 on the bay.

Edit: One of these ;)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262433315650

Or buy this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232280828585
then add this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401159644853 cutting the plug off on the other end for a few quid ;)

can you not just fit an in line switch in the cable?

Easiest way to fit these is to use a fuse splitter. Just find an ignition live 10A and connect this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nextbase-Hard-Wire-Kit-Car-Dash-Cam-Camera-112-212-312-402G-412-512-512GW-DUO-/291517377396?epid=10002360236&hash=item43dfca2b74:g:JpUAAOSwB-1Y5mIf

I know Bald Bouncer fitted one to his car very recently. Took him no time at all as I recall

Done mine the same but added a powercell with pass through, car charges the battery which then powers the camera for a longer time when parked.

Did have a Lukas battery protector thing before - supposed to power the camera until the charge gets too low then cuts out but it was shite, ended up jump starting a few times :(

Fuse splitters make me uneasy. Whole point in having different rated circuits/fuses is to allow enough power through a circuit while minimising risks of danger if anything goes wrong (e.g. wire ends up chafing, insulation cut and now shorting to earth).

Yes you can add a slightly bigger fuse to accommodate the extra load, but then the original circuit may not be properly protected.

Also it's easy to accidently tap off the wrong side of a fuse splitter and you now have created an unfused circuit.

My question is what is the switch intended for? If you intend on turning it off when you leave the car, get an autoelectrician to rig up an extra fused circuit that is controlled by a relay linked to another circuit which shuts off when car is turned off.

If you have specific requirments about being able to turn it on and off at random times, maybe switch might turn out to be best way to go. However leave it switched on for too long without driving the car and you could come back to find a dead battery.

Modern cars don't like dead batteries and I've known of all sorts of problems caused by dead batteries (e.g. Vauxhall Body Control Modules totally losing their configuration, BMW immobiliser often gets out of sync with Engine ECU, etc), or even worse is a power surge (often by jump leads put on wrong way) which can kill one or more many expensive control modules.

The reason for the ask (thanks for your answers guys) is to negate pulling the plug out of the socket in the dashboard and plugging it back in every time I exit enter the car. If it had a switch, I could leave it plugged in (a little light glows green to say it is live all the time) and just move the switch to off, and then move it to on again - just like switches always do... Saves wear and tear on the 12v plug and socket. Is all. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Teajunkie

have a 12v to USB adapter wired into the courtesy light feed.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262433315650

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Again this is perfect for what you need.