Blackvue DR650GW-2CH Install

[Khatsalano]

Here, I made a video of a rather glorious Bay Are commute (is there such a thing?) with the Blackvue 650 Dash cam:

Tesla Bay Area Commute - YouTube

... it is pretty stylish.

- K

 

[llavalle]

Since my car is parked indoors only during winter, I always wondered what would the morning dew / frost would do for the dash cam.

Turns out the DR650GW comes with an integrated windows defroster (it runs so hot, no ice/condensation will form around it!)

 

[seclinton]

I'm still reporting that my rear camera won't survive the heat test for adhesion. All the Pittasoft adhesives have failed, 3M velcro tape has failed. I've taken to and am waiting for one of my work vendors to come up with something. The company is Tesa Adhesives, the real inventor of the command strip adhesive. I'm sourcing VHB non-permanent with good adhesion to smooth plastic and window tint that won't release when temps rang 130-150F. We'll see if there's something.

 

[wk057]

I'm still reporting that my rear camera won't survive the heat test for adhesion. All the Pittasoft adhesives have failed, 3M velcro tape has failed. I've taken to and am waiting for one of my work vendors to come up with something. The company is Tesa Adhesives, the real inventor of the command strip adhesive. I'm sourcing VHB non-permanent with good adhesion to smooth plastic and window tint that won't release when temps rang 130-150F. We'll see if there's something.

Interesting. I've had the Blackvue dash cams installed in vehicles for years without issue now. If I had to guess I'd say your surface prep/cleaning is insufficient.

 

[llavalle]

Interesting. I've had the Blackvue dash cams installed in vehicles for years without issue now. If I had to guess I'd say your surface prep/cleaning is insufficient.

Any chances the window defroster might be the cause of the problem?

 

[seclinton]

Thanks for the suggestions, but let me clarify

1. Dirty setup: No, not likely, alcohol wiped and cleaned. Both materials
2. Defroster: Nope, I'm not even sure if it works.

I'm convinced its the unbalanced force on the mount due to the installed sunshade coupled with the hot summer we've had in the bay area.

I've taken down the sunshade, and viola, it's still ok after 24 hours where before it would fall off during my commute, a whopping 20 miles

 

[Fezzik]

Do you have any polish on the window or tint?
You could also mount it on the plastic that is at the area too instead of the window. That's what I did.

 

[Dakkor]

How do you change the time on this thing... I tried via the cellphone apps but it's not working... always 4hr too late.

 

[seclinton]

I have tint on the window. The problem isn't separation from the tint, it peels from the mount. i think I need to scuff the mount to roughen the surface a bit to improve the adhesion and then add a shim with adhesive on the other side; come to think of it, maybe 3D print a mount that is the same as comes with it and make it narrower...hmmm...

 

[Khatsalano]

How do you change the time on this thing... I tried via the cellphone apps but it's not working... always 4hr too late.

I've had this problem too. I did a combination of formatting, firmware updates, choosing time zones, and eventually ... it's only 15 minutes ahead. I would not rely on the timestamp feature unfortunately. This isn't an Apple product.

 

[Fluke]

I have tint on the window. The problem isn't separation from the tint, it peels from the mount. i think I need to scuff the mount to roughen the surface a bit to improve the adhesion and then add a shim with adhesive on the other side; come to think of it, maybe 3D print a mount that is the same as comes with it and make it narrower...hmmm...

Just for the record, with similar surface prep on the front window and camera base, my adhesive has also failed. The adhesive remained firmly stuck to the window (no tint) and came off of the camera base. This was not a particularly hot summer in KC since we did not even top 100F. Not sure if it could have contributed to the problem, but I do use a silver foil covered sun shade which winds up under the camera so it can still function when parked.

 

[BozieBeMe2]

Thank you for your instructions and pics. Without your detailed write up, I'm sure I would have botched this install.
I do have a question about the BlackVue camera.
I have a 64 gig card and after 543 files, it stops recording. Wasn't this system suppose to over write all but the event files?
I reformatted it but it has the same results.
How do I toggle the over write feature?
Thanks in advance.

 

[llavalle]

It should work right away.

Did you format the card using the Blackvue Software? Windows will format the card to exFAT format which might be your issue here. The BlackvueSoftware will format using FAT32.

You can also use a specially made tool for this purpose : http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm

Let us know how that works.

 

[andrewket]

Th camera can also format the card. Once running push and hold the button on the right until it beeps.

 

[zax123]

I just finished my dashcam install. Same model DR650GW. Kudos and thanks to Jason for actually attempting to pull that connector through that grommet thing. Only because of his success did I attempt it and persevere. I did the loop trick too, but the whole fishing exercise took me two hours. It was agony! Maybe my early VIN car has a smaller tube? It really wasn't easy.

I was lucky to have a VIN with the "alarm" connector in the microphone area so getting power was easy.

Now I have to figure out how this thing works.

 

[Sm4llz]

I did my install a few weeks ago and this thing has been great. Just saw a deal today if people are wanting to buy this but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

http://slickdeals.net/f/8412871-blackvue-dr650gw-2ch-wifi-302-75-usd-cheapest-i-ve-seen

 

[Brett]

I did my install a few weeks ago and this thing has been great. Just saw a deal today if people are wanting to buy this but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

http://slickdeals.net/f/8412871-blackvue-dr650gw-2ch-wifi-302-75-usd-cheapest-i-ve-seen

Thanks for the tip! Just ordered 2, one for my Model S P85D, one for my wife's soon-to-be Model X P90D.

Can someone recommend a good, fair priced installer in Los Angeles?

 

[Cowby]

I did my install a few weeks ago and this thing has been great. Just saw a deal today if people are wanting to buy this but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

http://slickdeals.net/f/8412871-blackvue-dr650gw-2ch-wifi-302-75-usd-cheapest-i-ve-seen

Thanks for for the deal as well!

 

[CHG-ON]

Finally doing it tomorrow and thanks to WK for all the helpful info!

 

[hiroshiy]

I have DR650GW-2CH for an year and found that there are 2.0 firmware thing on their site. I experimented it a little bit but I wasn't able to connect to WiFi with their BlackVue C app, which supposed to be compatible with V2 firmware. Also after I upgraded, I found that V2 video resolution is lower than V1, to support cloud upload.

I finally went back to V1. It's easy - just format the microSD and copy the content of V1 firmware over. Make sure you format it with FAT32. You can't downgrade the firmware with smartphone app.

After downgrading to V1 firmware, again I wasn't able to connect to the unit. It seems you need to use PC version of Blackvue software once to set the SSID of the unit and password. After that my unit worked fine with the latest V1.009.

During this try and error, I also learned that only the unit after April 2015 is compatible with V2 firmware and cloud upload...