IROAD OBD-II Cable Review

We are excited to announce that IROAD is now offering an OBD installation cable, which is great news - but why is this important? Well, to understand why this matters we need to look at the current available options and their restrictions. Not only does OBD connectivity increase the list of possible vehicles with access to Parking Mode but it also provides one more way for you to get a clean and simple installation that will professionally installed.

IROAD cameras typically require a 3-wire hardwiring kit for parking mode functionality. This is through the means of connecting a hardwire kit to two fuses and a ground bolt in the vehicle’s fusebox. These wires would have to be wrapped around the fuses, or installed directly to the fuse panel using add a fuse kits.

While the traditional dash cam installation to the fusebox is more common, it can take some time to test fuses and find a suitable ground. This process can be quite tedious and difficult for a first-timer or someone not too mechanically-inclined, and even with walkthroughs readily available, this could be quite difficult to those that aren’t typically used to assessing vehicle electronics.

As newer electric vehicles (Tesla’s in particular) do not have a fuse panel at all, this would make installing a parking mode enabled dash cam in the traditional sense, impossible.

The benefits of the OBD installation over the traditional fuse hardwire method are significant. Probably the most impactful is the simplicity of the installation because every vehicle since 1996 has an OBD2 port that matches the plug that IROAD has created. This makes it a simple plug and play system to attain parking mode. Additionally, to the universal nature of this plug is that it can easily be unplugged and stored away. Finally, having a solution like this also allows a dash cam to be painlessly installed in every vehicle without risk of damaging your vehicle and voiding your warranty. The IROAD OBD connector works with a 2-pin system, so you don’t have to worry about it damaging your OBD port.

Once installed, the IROAD dash cam will be able to utilize the parking mode features. Parking mode allows the dash camera to access a very light power draw on the vehicle’s battery so that the dash cam can record even while the vehicle is off. The IROAD OBD II cable has a quick switch for parking mode (this will allow a constant 12V passthrough if “P” is selected. The camera will then use its built-in voltage cutoff to manage battery use and cutoff once the cutoff point is reached. This is a massive benefit to protecting your property and your wallet, allowing you to record the details of an incident and effectively avoiding a he-said or she-said situation while parked.