Camera Hard Wiring

All,

For those of you that have mounted external cameras on the wing tip, etc...are you hard wiring the cameras so that you don't need to deal with short life batteries? How do you turn on....or do you turn on before you depart and allow to continuously run off the power. I'm getting ready to close out the wings and I have all my other items wired (Pitot roll servo, position, strobes, magnetometer, landing and Taxi lights)

Should I run an extra 3 shielded wire.....or standard 2 wire power ground? What have you al done or wished you'd done here before I close out the bottom skins.

Thx

others will sure join in with their solutions and advice... in the meantime...

I have hardwired power supplies for two cameras on my ship: Power is supplied from a separate 3A CB to a dedicated switch on the panel. From there one single power (20AWG) wire goes to the VS top fairing, whilst another wire runs thru the left wing to an angle screwed into the tie-down thread.
A small 12V/5V transformer, with its ground wire, is fitted at both locations, as the cameras rely on a 5V supply.

In practice I turn on the master switch, turn on the CAM labeled switch, individually start the cameras, turn the iPad on and establish the WLAN connection. One can then start the engine and go for a flight, whilst remote controlling the cameras to either film or pause. Some discipline is required, since any power interruption will require a manual restart of the cameras since I removed their batteries and they only rely on the ship's power.

Hope that helps

Cameras

One IR-camera countersunk on the right wing aileron inspection plate and one
small wide angle car camera on the aft of the fuselage facing forward.
Both are fixed installations connected to G3X PFD and MFD.
They can be turned on/off from separate panel switches and each have a
2A CB. There is no speed penalty that I´m aware of.