Thanks ! @marc for this article. This article very help a lot of riders.
Table of content
Understanding connecting the DC-Converter
Connecting to Gen II (3-wire) ezCAN cansmart (no parking mode possible)
Connecting to Gen I (2-wire) ezCAN cansmart (parking mode possible)
Understanding connecting the DC-Converter
At the Innovv DC-Converter you will find three wires, which needs to be connected.
A red wire, a black wire and a yellow wire.
The red and the black wire are used to supply power to the DC-Converter, for example by connecting them to the battery or (as later shown in this guide) to the cansmart adapter.
But what is the yellow wire for?
The yellow wire is used to „tell“ the DC-Converter when it shall start or stop the connected camera. For this the yellow wire needs to be connected to a power source which only supplies 12V when the ignition of the bike is switched on or when the motor is running. When the DC-Converter detects 12V at the yellow wire, it starts the camera. And when the voltage at the yellow wire drops to 0V, it stops the camera.
One may ask now why there is the need for the yellow wire? Why not simply connecting the red wire to the switched power, so that the DC-Converter only gets power when the ignition is switched on? The reason is, that the DVR is a small computer which boots up and shuts down like your computer at home. Especially the proper shutdown is important, because the DVR needs to close the current video file properly, as it would get corrupted otherwise. So when the DC-Converter detects 0V at the yellow wire, it signals the DVR to shut down, which takes around 10 seconds. Then, after additional 15 seconds, the DC-Converter cuts off the power to the DVR.
During the shutdown the DVR, of course, needs power. That‘s why the red/black wire needs to be connected to a power source which which supplies permanent power or at least for 20-30 seconds after ignition is switched off.
Connecting to Gen II (3-wire) ezCAN cansmart (no parking mode possible)
The current Gen II EzCAN cansmart adapter offers four outputs with triangular plugs and three wires each at each output. While the solid-colored wires supply normal power, the third wire supplies switched power when the output is configured as an accessory port. So the cansmart adapter provides all we need to connect the DC-Converter.
As a drawback, the usage of the parking mode of the cameras will not be possible, because now the cansmart controls when the DC-Converter gets power and when not. So if you want to use the cansmart adapter to power the camera, but also want to use the parking mode, head over to the next section about the 2-wire cansmart adapter.
So let‘s start.
In the package you will find four triangular plugs with two-wires preconfigured, which will fit to the plugs at the cansmart. And you will find four single cables with terminals, which can be pushed into the plug to make it a 3-wire plug.
So you need to start by pushing one of the single wires into one of the plugs to make it a 3-wire plug. Take care of the correct orientation of the terminal and make sure you really pushed the terminal till its end into the plug. You need to hear a „click“ when the terminal locks in the plug.
Then push the seal into the plug.
Now you can connect the DC-Converter to the cansmart plug as follows.
Red wire of DC-Converter => solid orange wire at the plug
Black wire of DC Converter => solid black wire of the plug
Yellow wire of DC-Converter => orange/white wire of the plug
For most people the easiest way to connect the wires is by soldering them and using shrink tubes for insulation. I personally prefer crimp plugs. You can get them at almost any car accessories store. The triangular plugs of the cansmart are quite bulky, which makes it hard to route the cables. By using the crimp plugs, I can route the cables through small spaces and then later connect them to the (bulky) cansmart plug. But make sure you insulated all well with shrink tubes.
When the connection is made, just plug the cansmart plug into one of the output of the cansmart.
When done, connect your laptop to the cansmart adapter and configure the port you have choosen as an accessory port. Set the delay to at least 30 seconds and the fuse to 5 amps.
And that‘s it. When you now turn on ignition, your camera will start after 10 sec (fixed delay of the DC-Converter). When turning the ignition off, the camera will shut down. And after the configured delay (40s in this screenshot), the cansmart will cut off power to the DC-Converter, avoiding any drainage of the battery.
Connecting to Gen I (2-wire) ezCAN cansmart (parking mode possible)
The Gen I ezCAN cansmart adapter provides four outputs with two wires at each output. In comparison to the Gen II, there is no third wire which provides switched power. So it is not possible to connect the DC-Converter only to the cansmart adapter, as there is simply one necessary wire missing.
So you can use the cansmart adapter only as some kind of „switched power“ to trigger the DC-Converter. The same applies if you own a Gen II cansmart, but want to use the parking mode of the camera. In that case you would also use the cansmart only as a switched power source.
The DC-Converter has to be connected as follows
Red wire of DC-Converter => Positive port of the battery
Black wire of the DC-Converter => Negative port of the battery
Yellow wire of the DC-Converter => Solid-colored wire of the cansmart
For most people the easiest way to connect the wires is by soldering them and using shrink tubes for insulation. I personally prefer crimp plugs. You can get them at almost any car accessories store. The triangular plugs of the cansmart are quite bulky, which makes it hard to route the cables. By using the crimp plugs, I can route the cables through small spaces and then later connect them to the (bulky) cansmart plug. But make sure you insulated all well with shrink tubes.
When the connection is made, just plug the cansmart plug into one of the output of the cansmart.
When done, connect your laptop to the cansmart adapter and configure the port you connected the yellow wire to as an accessory port with the fuse set to the lowest possible value. The delay can be set to 0 sec, if you want the camera to shut down immediate after ignition has switched off. Or you can set it to a greater value (max 60 sec) if you want the camera to keep recording for that time.
That‘s it. The cansmart adapter now triggers the DC-Converter to start/stop the camera when the ignition is turned on/off. And with the red and black wires of the DC-Converter connected to a permanent power source (the battery) you are able to use the parking mode of the camera.
Here is a video to show you how to connect the K2/K3/K5 to a ezCAN