Well, we have had our new 2022 JCW Countryman for 2 weeks and today I removed the passenger foot panel and patched into the fuse box in the back of the glovebox. I got an adapter that plugs in like a fuse and found an empty fuse slot that had power only when the ignition is turned on. I got a small 12v to 5 volt transformer smaller than a small box of matches and wired it in. (yes, the adapter for the fuse box has a fuse itself). Behind the footwell panel, I found a bolt with a good ground. I put a 5 amp fuse on the tap as my camera draws little power. You can use up to a 20 amp fuse, but use the smaller that you can to protect the car.

I installed a dash cam behind the rear-view mirror and ran the wires up the side of the rear-view mirror base cover (has cameras and sensors in it for adaptive cruise, auto-wipers, etc..) and into the trim above the windshield, then behind the a-pillar to the door seal rubber strip where I tucked it underneath down to the footwell. I attached the camera power to the output on the transformer and stuck the transformer to the back-side of the back of the glovebox, inside the fuse-box compartment.

Now, the camera only gets power when the ignition is switched on. In the 2022s the cigarette lighter/power outlet in the center dash (in front of the shifter, under the climate controls) is powered all the time unless you lock the vehicle...then it will turn off after a couple of minutes. As we do not lock the car when parked in the garage, this meant the camera was on all the time draining the battery. This solution fixes that while freeing up the power outlet for other uses...or just getting rid of the ugly wires running to it.

This is the link to the 12v-5v transformers....they come with a USB on one end I cut off.

This is the fuse-box tap I ordered.

This is the fuse slot I found empty that is switched with the ignition. The right side is where the power comes from so install the tap with the wire on the left so the fuse is between the power and the transformer. Install it backwards and the fuse is bypassed. This is the fuse panel in the back of the glovebox. Your vehicle may differ due to accessories or manufacturer changes. Check the tap location with a voltmeter to verify proper function. Again, power comes from the right-side of the fuse slot. Ground connected to bolt behind the very bottom of the passenger footwell panel under the carpet. There is another fusebox behind this footwell panel but I did not investigate it for tapping power.

 

I followed your exact same path, but for an LED bar that I mounted under the red JCW grille line. Even used the same fuse and a 12V to 5V adaptor, but I used this one - - since the lights pulled about 38 watts at full brightness.
I never managed to make power go out in my 2021 in the dash 12v plug, even with a locked car. Glad someone else had the same issue and I'm not crazy.

 

I found the fuse guide provided by BMW/MINI to be utterly useless. It truly was trial and error. Hoping my research helps someone else. I did find Fuse 65 is for the center cig lighter/power plug. I was using it for a ground during testing and accidentally shorted it out blowing the fuse. Likely, it was the third one I checked...again, the fuse guide provided was useless in determining which fuse covered the outlet.

 

GLJones, I agree with you regarding BMW's fuse guide. It's almost like they don't want owners to fix their issues...better left to the dealers.

This is the kit that I used to connect my DashCam. Comes with everything needed.

 

I also have a 2022 JCW, and tried fuse 56 (which already had a 5 amp fuse) for my dashcam. Unfortunately it ended up throwing 3 codes related to chassis stability, pedestrian warning and forward collision. I removed the fuse tap and the warnings went away.

I ended moving my fuse tap to the fuse just beneath it, which was not in use: fuse 57. It powers off with the car.

 

Same experience. The fuse guide is garbage.

 

I have a 2023 Countryman S and am having a hard time finding a path to the fuse box. I've watched a number of videos on YouTube and they show an easy to access panel that pops off on the right end of the dash. I tried popping mine off and it's being held in by others parts. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but I didn't think it would be this hard. Would you be able to describe the path you took to the fusebox?

 

i installed the dashcam (70mai) on my wife's 2019 and hardwire it to the column of the 55-60 empty fuse slots (i forgot which one i have it plugged in right now; might be the steering wheel button according to the sheet), but the power to the dashcam will still turn off when the car auto-stops which causes the dashcam to stop recording because it thinks the car is off and then turns back on when auto-start again. although it doesn't do it every time it goes into auto-start/stop it is still really annoying.

 

I realize that this is an old thread, and there might be a newer thread somewhere in the forum that discusses how to tap power from an F60 fuse box.

I just installed a Viofo A139 Pro 2-channel dash cam in my 2018 Countryman JCW, and went through the same angst as others have described earlier in this thread in trying to figure out which fuse circuit to tap power from – here's what I ended up doing, and I'm also attaching a PDF of a useful table that I found online that describes what circuits the fuses protect. The document doesn't state whether a circuit is constant power or ignition-on power – that's something I had to test manually with a circuit tester – but it helped me try to choose a circuit to tap that would cause the least amount of problems if something went wrong. The document also helped me decipher the symbols used in the tiny sheet of paper found with the glove box fuses that tries to pass for documentation.

First, some mistakes I made looking for an ignition-on power circuit:

• I tried using the fuse tap in an empty slot – fuse 50. That ended up throwing immediate errors, but they went away when I removed the fuse tap.
• I tried using the fuse tap with fuse 65 (cigarette lighter). I had thought It was an ignition-on power source... but my testing technique with the circuit tester was faulty. The dash cam got its power without throwing error codes, but the battery drained overnight and the car had to be jump started.

Then I found the attached doc and did some additional research online... and also began testing the circuits properly. I settled on using the fuse tap with fuse 51. That works properly! The circuit is off until the ignition switch is pushed; the circuit stays alive even when the engine executes an auto-start/stop; and the circuit shuts off and stays off when I turn off the ignition switch. Having said how this works in my car... I have no way of really knowing whether this behavior would be the same in other F60 models or other model years.

Anyway, I hadn't found this thread before I did the install, but I thought having discovered it now that I would contribute what I'd learned.

 

Bringing back this older thread so the info is out there - there is an alternative way to get 12v-to-USB from the rearview mirror if you have auto-dimming.

I installed this a few days ago because I was previously powering my dashcam using an OBDII to mini usb cable and needed the OBDII to run a JB4. You can use a plastic spudger to open the trim pieces covering the electronics above the mirror (see FitcamX video for reference). There's a wine red 3 pin connector that you take out, place Dongar's in, and place the car's connector into Dongar's pigtail.

Please note that the mirror is powered as soon as you wake the car up, so your camera will come on as soon as you open the car door. It will also stay powered for about 10 minutes after you turn off the car. I kinda like that setup, gives me a little bit of parking mode. Much less wires to run and overall neater install.