Aftermarket Dashcam

[mukiex]

@chumanji9
Looks like @SomeJoe7777 hooked it up to the dome lights, but aparently (just browsing around) newer models don't handle this well; the wiring's become more of a pain and people tend to use the OBD2 connector.

Which brings about a bigger question: is the OBD2 connector for power sleep-safe? Will using that connector for juice result in a dead 12v battery if not managed properly? I kinda wish there was a page on weeks-long dashcam power sources for Teslas. ^o^

If it could regularly stay topped up w/o major vampire drain, a 4ch Blackvue setup would probably only sip some 12-15w, enough to go 2-3 weeks on what amounts to a 1-day Sentry Mode supply.

 

[SpriteM3]

I'm running Viofo A129 Plus Duo. I have a 2021 and I'm powering it from the USB-C ports, there's a small opening from the center console so you can run the cable from there, under the glove box and up the pillar.

I'm regularly away from my car for about 15-18 hours with sentry mode + dashcams rolling without any issues so far.

 

[stopcrazypp]

@chumanji9
Looks like @SomeJoe7777 hooked it up to the dome lights, but aparently (just browsing around) newer models don't handle this well; the wiring's become more of a pain and people tend to use the OBD2 connector.

Which brings about a bigger question: is the OBD2 connector for power sleep-safe? Will using that connector for juice result in a dead 12v battery if not managed properly? I kinda wish there was a page on weeks-long dashcam power sources for Teslas. ^o^

If it could regularly stay topped up w/o major vampire drain, a 4ch Blackvue setup would probably only sip some 12-15w, enough to go 2-3 weeks on what amounts to a 1-day Sentry Mode supply.

My understanding is the dome light is the only source that is always on (even without Sentry mode on) and still remains on even in the later models. The other sources (one of which is in the driver foot well) either disappeared in later versions hardware wise or are not always on.
How to: Model 3 Constant 12V for Dashcam

The dome light also is the most convenient location to tap into if you are installing a front/cabin camera, as you can run the cable through the headliner to the windshield and it's a very short run.

Note that the dome light drops to 9V when asleep so you need to be sure that your dashcam can tolerate that (Blackvues allegedly can, but this may not be true of others).

My understanding is there is no OBD2 connector in the Model 3, that solution was for the Model S/X that had it. Instead Model 3 has a CAN bus (underneath access panel under the rear seat air vents) and you need an adapter to get OBD, but it may not necessarily be the same as a true OBD2 connector in terms of the power connection (even if the data is the same).
All You Need to Know about the Tesla Model 3 & Y Diagnostic Tools and Apps
Teslatap says that OBD adapters for Model S/X stay on, but for Model 3/Y it turns off, so presumably that is not a reliable always-on 12V power source for Model 3/Y (even though it was for Model S/X).
Extracting Internal Vehicle Data – TeslaTap

Edit: I found the thread you were talking about. The OP in it seems to be talking about there being more wires in the Blackvue and he was confused about which ones to connect to.
Blackvue Dashcam 12v Constant power?
He seems to have connected yellow wire from dome to the red wire on the Blackvue side, which may either be ACC or the camera power, which may not correctly power the camera. For Blackvue, the yellow wire appears to be the Constant voltage wire and probably the one he should have connected to. There are also two black wires, one ground, one negative for camera. He should have connected to the ground one officially, but the camera negative may work also if they are tied together. I'm just basing this from below article, I'm not familiar with Blackvue, so don't take my word for it.
https://helpcenter.blackvue.com/hc/en-us/articles/360060768132-Power-Magic-Pro-Issues
There was no follow up so not sure if he resolved the issue. The easiest way to see if there is power on the car side is simply using a multi-meter to check the yellow and black wire of the dome connector (which still existed in his post) on the dome light for voltage. If there is power, then the issue is on the Blackvue side.

The later posts talking about OBD2 was from a X owner, not a Model 3 owner. It's easy to get things mixed up and assume things are universal, but as I pointed out above Model S/X is completely different from Model 3/Y.

 

[RayK]

How are you guys wiring the dashcam. Where are you tapping into for power. Looking for ideas. Any pictures would be greatly appreciated.

As I stated upthread, I'm using a ROAV C1 dashcam. It's externally powered via a USB 2.0 Micro-B (aka micro USB) connector. The other end of the cable is a standard USB A which is plugged into a USB hub in one of the center console outlets (I have a 2018 3). The cable is routed out of the center console and into the bottom of the glovebox. It goes up the passenger side A pillar and across the top of the windshield to the mirror assembly, stuffed into the gap between the window and headliner. I'll try to get some photos in the morning.

 

[HAL2001]

How are you guys wiring the dashcam. Where are you tapping into for power. Looking for ideas. Any pictures would be greatly appreciated.

I removed the side panel covering the cabin filter access and drilled a 1/2" hole into the side of the center console where the side panel would cover it. I then routed my cable around the windshield down the pillar to the floor and behind the carpet and into the center console. I coiled the extra wire behind the cabin filter and put the side panel back on and all is hidden. I just plugged the USB cable into the port inside the colsole.

There is one issue I have been reading about that effects both the TeslaCam and some after market cams,. In an accident the USB Cable/USB Hub/USB Drive can become dislodged in the center console. If this happens the TeslaCam will not be able to write the video to the drive and it will be lost. (It might be in Tesla's memory but not on your drive) This has "not" been reported on models with the drive in the glove compartment yet. If your after market camera has an internal battery your video would be saved but if your camera requires power it would lose power before it can write the video.

One other thing to mention: If the car goes to sleep the USB ports power down so unless your aftermarket camera has it own battery it will also power off. You would need to leave sentry mode on to keep the USB ports alive. Cant say this is true for everyone, but it happens on my 2020 M3LR.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

@chumanji9
Looks like @SomeJoe7777 hooked it up to the dome lights, but aparently (just browsing around) newer models don't handle this well; the wiring's become more of a pain and people tend to use the OBD2 connector.

Which brings about a bigger question: is the OBD2 connector for power sleep-safe? Will using that connector for juice result in a dead 12v battery if not managed properly? I kinda wish there was a page on weeks-long dashcam power sources for Teslas. ^o^

If it could regularly stay topped up w/o major vampire drain, a 4ch Blackvue setup would probably only sip some 12-15w, enough to go 2-3 weeks on what amounts to a 1-day Sentry Mode supply.

I had mine installed by a company that specializes in Dashcams, and they used BlackVue's Power Magic Ultra battery. They spliced into a switched 12V in the passenger footwell, which charges the PM Ultra battery when the car is running, and then the PM Ultra battery runs the dashcam for parking. The PM Ultra battery will last 24-36 hours of parking-mode recording, but they make a larger one if you want to record longer, like if you leave the car at an airport.

Mine were installed back when the Model 3 was brand new and the power auditing had just been discovered, so we didn't take any chances trying to find an always-on 12V supply and just went with the battery instead.

For me, the biggest advantage of the aftermarket dashcams is the picture quality and resolution. I want to read license plates. That's where the value proposition is. If you get into an accident that turns into a hit-and-run, or an uninsured driver, etc. you need the license plate of the offender for anything to get done. You will never get a license plate number off Tesla's dashcam, the resolution is too low and the contrast is too grainy.

 

[android04]

How are you guys wiring the dashcam. Where are you tapping into for power. Looking for ideas. Any pictures would be greatly appreciated.

My BlackVue had been running 24/7 powered by the dome lights for the past 3.5 years. See this video for detailed info

 

[Darmie]

Never can have too many cameras.
We're still rocking the black vue DR750S-2CH. on our 2018 X, just like android04.

DR750S-2CH

 

[mukiex]

My kingdom for a world where Arlo makes a dashcam system. Those cameras go weeks between recharges -_-

 

[stopcrazypp]

My kingdom for a world where Arlo makes a dashcam system. Those cameras go weeks between recharges -_-

My understanding is those can do that because they only record on motion, and that may not work very well for a moving car given it will be constantly triggered, which will run down the battery very quickly. Also doesn't work well if you want continuous recording (as some dashcams do). Might work fine in a parking situation, but drives will kill the battery very quickly.

 

[chumanji9]

Thanks for all the replies, ideas and youtube link. It really does make me wish car manufactures would put in a proper dashcam, LOL.

 

[vletnguyen]

I have a BlackVue DR750S-2CH dual camera setup on my Model 3 that I installed in early 2018, before Tesla added the software TeslaCam and Sentry Mode. My setup is nice and I decided to leave the BlackVue cams in my car. I figured it was nicer to have 2 sets of recordings front and back for redundancy, and the front camera has a wider field of view and captures the front of the Model 3 (the front cam that Tesla uses has a narrower field of view and doesn't capture the front of the car). I hooked up my BlackVue cams to power behind the map lights and they record 24/7, and have all these years. The only reason I use TeslaCam is that it records nice views of the side of my car, and the rear view is a little better from right above the license plate than the BlackVue's view at the rear window. Tesla's built-in viewer for the recordings is easier to use than the BlackVue app on my phone as well (not to mention the ability now to remote view the cameras). But like mentioned above, the BlackVue cameras use a lot less energy than Tesla's cameras because they are dedicated recording equipment meant for low power usage. Tesla's implementation is software and requires that all the car's computers be powered up.

The perfect system for me would have Tesla using the wide FOV camera in the front instead of the medium one, and would have a separate low-power module to record from them.

I use the same set up but did powered from a different source . It's nice to have backup and was used before Tesla let us have these features. My kit came with the blackvue battery pack which I didnt use.

The OBD2 method was what I used for our model S.

 

[RayK]

@chumanji9 Here's the USB cable routing for my ROAV C1 dashcam:

Plugged into one of the USB ports in the center console. Goes up between the side panel and phone tray. I'm using a right angle USB hub to also connect the Tesla dashcam thumbdrive and Apple Lightning charge cable.

Cable exits between phone tray and side panel and goes up against the dash and drops down...

...to loop up into the channel at the bottom of the glovebox.

Cable goes across towards the door and...

...exits near the seam between the kick panel and end of the dashboard and goes up into the rubber door seal.

The cable exits the rubber seal at the bottom of the A pillar and is routed between the pillar and dash and goes towards the front of the car.

Cable is pushed down between the dash and pillar. It normally is more hidden; I've lifted it up so you can see it. Goes up to the windshield and then heads up, wedged between the glass and headliner material. At the top of the windshield it bends towards the rear view mirror assembly.

Once it's at the mirror/camera assembly, it drops down and I've looped it around the mirror so the end of the cable doesn't dangle too far when it is unplugged from the ROAV.

Here it is plugged into my dashcam. I'm using a right angle plug as I wanted the cable going "up" from the dashcam, instead of "out", so I could mount the camera as close as possible to the mirror assembly. The camera slides onto a plastic plate which is held onto the glass using one of those high-adhesive pads, although I was able to remove it from my old BMW when I moved it to the Tesla.

 

[chumanji9]

Thank you for taking the time to capture all those detail picture of the install, Ray K. You did a really good job routing and hiding it.

I bought a 70mai A800 dashcam, its coming in a wk. It seem to have good reviews at a low price. I will post some feedback after my install.

 

[Mr. Big]

I installed a Blackvue DR900S because of a reliability issue I had with the built-in dash cam. On two separate occasions when reviewing saved footage, it skipped over the frames that I wanted to see when it got to that point of the timeline. I also had that same issue when reviewing sentry footage. Granted it was during the early rollout period of those features but I wanted something I knew would be reliable. Plus the Blackview resolution is much higher.

 

[SpriteM3]

I installed a Blackvue DR900S because of a reliability issue I had with the built-in dash cam. On two separate occasions when reviewing saved footage, it skipped over the frames that I wanted to see when it got to that point of the timeline. I also had that same issue when reviewing sentry footage. Granted it was during the early rollout period of those features but I wanted something I knew would be reliable. Plus the Blackview resolution is much higher.

Exactly the reason I got an aftermarket dashcam. While the built in dashcam is better than nothing, when something is actually happening the video sometimes pixulates and skips around sometimes missing the footage that's needed. It wouldn't be so bad if it happened like 1 out of 10 times but it happens more like 4 out of 10 times.

 

[Fierily]

Exactly the reason I got an aftermarket dashcam. While the built in dashcam is better than nothing, when something is actually happening the video sometimes pixulates and skips around sometimes missing the footage that's needed. It wouldn't be so bad if it happened like 1 out of 10 times but it happens more like 4 out of 10 times.

Same experience here. I use a Samsung T5 and it's strangely often that the critical moment doesn't get recorded since it coincides with that gap between the clips. It was my main reason to run an aftermarket one for redundancy/backup. The Tesla cam gaps are huge whereas my aftermarket is roughly 50ms.

 

[mukiex]

My understanding is those can do that because they only record on motion, and that may not work very well for a moving car given it will be constantly triggered, which will run down the battery very quickly. Also doesn't work well if you want continuous recording (as some dashcams do). Might work fine in a parking situation, but drives will kill the battery very quickly.

I'm fine with Tesla's Dashcam system while I'm driving, and only really need a parking cam 'cause my car's parked outside (though behind a gate).

1mph consumption is rough when you're on vacation for a week or two, but fine when you're already driving 30-60mph.

 

[Vuurvlam]

Just like many other items in the Tesla, the dashcam is a weak attempt at something that other companies have perfected for many years and execute way better.

• Much less power consumption -- can record for days while parked as opposed to Sentry mode which will drain your battery quickly.
• Wider field of view
• Way better picture quality, resolution, and frame rate.
• Way longer history of recorded videos (over a day even at highest resolution)
• View and save videos with the included apps, some dashcams also allow saving to the cloud with an LTE SIM card.
• On-screen speed and GPS location.
• Options for interior camera recordings (great for parked cars that might get broken into, or Uber/Lyft drivers that need to keep an eye on passengers)

I've had BlackVue aftermarket dashcams in every Tesla I've owned. They exceed what Tesla's dashcam software and Sentry mode can do in every possible way.

Dashcam/Sentry in the Tesla is on the same list with the Auto Wipers, the Auto Climate Control, Voice Commands, and the Auto High Beams. Weak, pathetic attempts at functionality that other manufacturers have had for years and execute way better.

As an 2016 model S owner with AP1. There isn't even an dashcam feature right?

 

[Tam]

As an 2016 model S owner with AP1. There isn't even an dashcam feature right?

Correct. It requires more computing power and MCU1 is not fast enough. You need at least MCU2 but AP1 does not get dashcam at all.