Installed BlackVue 900X, CM100LTE module, and backup battery

DCGOO · Mar 25, 2022

ngng said:
Bought everything during Black Friday but never got around to installing. Spent about five hours today getting everything set up.

The dashcam is the 900XPlus by BlackVue with two channels. The CM100 LTE module is optional, but I liked the idea that I could "just upgrade the dashcam" in the future without having to buy a LTE enabled version. Everything is powered by BlackVue's PowerCell 8 battery which appears to be a rebranded Celllink. 12v power is supplied through the OEM brake controller. In theory, the 7500mAh battery should be able to power the two channel, 4k video for 20 hours. We'll see about that...

I sourced the brake controller harness from Tesla and soldered the hardwire pigtail. The brake controller sits on a 15A fuse and the battery pulls about 8-9 amps while charging. In theory, it can charge itself in about 50 minutes. So, a quick trip around town in addition to the "sleep delay" the car has. When I was verifying everything with my multimeter I never did see the voltage drop to 0, so I'm doing a little more research to ensure this is actually the case.

The power feed from the brake controller is always on, so your backup battery will never be used. Back when I installed mine, I just threw it away. Also, there is a plastic spacer inside the windshield conduit. If that is removed, there is plenty of room for the new cables. I also ran the rear camera cable inside the rubber flex “hose”

Since installing all of that in my 2018 X, Tesla activated recording using the rear and side cameras. I discarded the entire installation after a couple of windshield replacements. I don’t need it anymore.

posity · Mar 25, 2022

OK, so that seems to be a whole lot of work to accomplish nothing. What am I missing? Why would you want to spend this money and go to all this effort?

tldickerson · Mar 25, 2022

@posity, it sounds like you have never wanted a front and rear dash cam before. The Blackvue is a very good brand. I have the same installed on my 2016 Model S.

KentuckyX · Mar 25, 2022

Nicely done. I did mine a couple of years ago and wired into a connection inside the left kick panel (driver’s side). My camera was a leftover from the “pre-sentry” days of Tesla.

KentuckyX · Mar 25, 2022

posity said:
OK, so that seems to be a whole lot of work to accomplish nothing. What am I missing? Why would you want to spend this money and go to all this effort?

Why rain on this guy’s parade? He didn’t exactly “accomplish nothing”; he added an extra dashcam. I‘ve got one, as well. There have been MANY times I’ve looked at the screen and noticed my Tesla camera wasn’t on or recording. Thankfully, it was never during a sentry event, etc., but it’s nice to know I have a backup just in case.

ngng · Mar 25, 2022

posity said:
OK, so that seems to be a whole lot of work to accomplish nothing. What am I missing? Why would you want to spend this money and go to all this effort?

Why wouldn't I?

ngng · Mar 25, 2022

DCGOO said:
The power feed from the brake controller is always on, so your backup battery will never be used. Back when I installed mine, I just threw it away. Also, there is a plastic spacer inside the windshield conduit. If that is removed, there is plenty of room for the new cables. I also ran the rear camera cable inside the rubber flex “hose”

Since installing all of that in my 2018 X, Tesla activated recording using the rear and side cameras. I discarded the entire installation after a couple of windshield replacements. I don’t need it anymore.

Thanks for the heads up, I guess I'll be switching the power source then!

I'm measuring the diameter of my three wires and it's about the same size as channel width already. Did you also have an additional USB cable?

ngng · Mar 25, 2022

What's a good source for the switched power? If it doesn't have enough amps, I'll just add a relay and use the brake controller as the 12v constant

jboy210 · Mar 25, 2022

Was this for a car without Sentry mode recording from 4 cameras? Or was there something you found lacking with Sentry mode?

ngng · Mar 25, 2022

jboy210 said:
Was this for a car without Sentry mode recording from 4 cameras? Or was there something you found lacking with Sentry mode?

I don't have sentry mode, but even if I did I would install dedicated cameras. In the past, when I've had to pull dash footage having high resolution video makes it much easier to identify license plates.

DCGOO · Mar 25, 2022

ngng said:
Thanks for the heads up, I guess I'll be switching the power source then!

I'm measuring the diameter of my three wires and it's about the same size as channel width already. Did you also have an additional USB cable?

I am using the same power source you described, the brake controller line under the dash. No USB cable, only the power and the rear camera cables go through the windshield conduit. If you remove the conduit cover, there is a plastic filler inside. Remove that plastic filler and there is plenty of room for the extra cables. Snap the cover back on, and no more cables in view. At the very top of the windshield, the camera cable heads off to the rear, and the power heads for the under dash area to be hooked to brake controller pigtail. Just be extremely careful with that pigtail, if happen to short it to ground, you can easily pop the fuse, and I have no flipping idea where that fuse is.

ngng · Mar 25, 2022

DCGOO said:
I am using the same power source you described, the brake controller line under the dash. No USB cable, only the power and the rear camera cables go through the windshield conduit. If you remove the conduit cover, there is a plastic filler inside. Remove that plastic filler and there is plenty of room for the extra cables. Snap the cover back on, and no more cables in view. At the very top of the windshield, the camera cable heads off to the rear, and the power heads for the under dash area to be hooked to brake controller pigtail. Just be extremely careful with that pigtail, if happen to short it to ground, you can easily pop the fuse, and I have no flipping idea where that fuse is.

Ah, you've got a newer X with the clip on cable tray. The older Xs had VHB securing the tray to the window. I think I'm just going to buy some Techflex and wrap the wires for now until I get my windshield replaced.

ngng · Mar 25, 2022

I pulled the passenger side center console trim off and gained access to the center console's wiring harness. It was tucked behind the plastic trim and had to be de-clipped and pulled down. There are two wires that provide switched 12v+ when the car is unlocked. The cigarette lighter has a 20A fuse, but the wires off the harness are tiny.

100% not going to hook the battery up to the harness so the plan is to use a relay fed by the trailer harness and triggered using the switched 12v off the center console harness. Typically, I try to avoid cutting into factory wiring harnesses, so I tapped the harness on the console side. I ran and secured a wire back to the driver side and will finish everything up sometime this weekend.

I found the following switched 12v+ pins off the center console harness:
- Top row, far right pin
- Bottom row, second from right pin

chukiechz · Mar 25, 2022

I just finished my 900x plus today. Mine is a 2016, so I pulled the channel and had to reattach it with some 3m tape. Broke the tabs on the camera cover but it fits well enough. Got all the wires hidden except where it connects to the camera. I ended up stripping the jacket around the power wires to get it to fit in the channel. It was still a pretty tight fit.

I spliced into the constant 12v on the bottom left side and will tap into the rear 12v cigarette fuse for the switched connection. I ordered the wrong size fuse tap from Amazon, so the correct ones should come tomorrow.

So far everything works good. Not sure if I need to wire the switched, but I might as well. My only issue so far is that the clock is 5 minutes fast no matter what I do to set it

ngng · Mar 26, 2022

chukiechz said:
I just finished my 900x plus today. Mine is a 2016, so I pulled the channel and had to reattach it with some 3m tape. Broke the tabs on the camera cover but it fits well enough. Got all the wires hidden except where it connects to the camera. I ended up stripping the jacket around the power wires to get it to fit in the channel. It was still a pretty tight fit.

I spliced into the constant 12v on the bottom left side and will tap into the rear 12v cigarette fuse for the switched connection. I ordered the wrong size fuse tap from Amazon, so the correct ones should come tomorrow.

So far everything works good. Not sure if I need to wire the switched, but I might as well. My only issue so far is that the clock is 5 minutes fast no matter what I do to set it

Nice! Any photos? I'm going to reach out to the service center and see if the center channel has been superceded. If so, I'll just get that and replace the old stick on channel.

What dashcam did you end up installing?

hill · Mar 26, 2022

BlackVue is definitely one of THE best dash cams. That said, it was pricey to have our dual channel BlackVue set installed in our 2017 MX. These suckers run HOT due to their compact size. On the BlackVue tapatalk chat board, the Blackvue comments are often about excess heat. That heat, along with constant SD card re-writes quickly led to premature SD card failures, as well as the dashcam. But yea, feel you camera on a cool 60°f winter day. EASILY above body temps by 45°. Now imagine it's 95° degrees outside. Your car's inside temps can easily hit 150°

Breakdown: How Hot It Get’s In Your Car & Why It Can Be Deadly

The hottest months on record are July and August. August is the hottest month in the Mid-South but July is right behind with average temperatures in the low 90s.

www.actionnews5.com

When your car is that hot ... guess how hot the dashcam, generating it's OWN heat is ~ especially as it sits right up against the hot windshield/back window glass. The micro SD's & most electronics suffer quickly in those temps
Then, if you try & actually get support from BlackVue? Especially out of warranty? or a purchase from a "non-authorized" reseller?
Don't get me started ... or the upset owners that often vent about support on BlackVue's tapatalk threads.
.

ngng · Mar 26, 2022

hill said:
BlackVue is definitely one of THE best dash cams. That said, it was pricey to have our dual channel BlackVue set installed in our 2017 MX. These suckers run HOT due to their compact size. On the BlackVue tapatalk chat board, the Blackvue comments are often about excess heat. That heat, along with constant SD card re-writes quickly led to premature SD card failures, as well as the dashcam. But yea, feel you camera on a cool 60°f winter day. EASILY above body temps by 45°. Now imagine it's 95° degrees outside. Your car's inside temps can easily hit 150°

Breakdown: How Hot It Get’s In Your Car & Why It Can Be Deadly

The hottest months on record are July and August. August is the hottest month in the Mid-South but July is right behind with average temperatures in the low 90s.

www.actionnews5.com

When your car is that hot ... guess how hot the dashcam, generating it's OWN heat is ~ especially as it sits right up against the hot windshield/back window glass. The micro SD's & most electronics suffer quickly in those temps
Then, if you try & actually get support from BlackVue? Especially out of warranty? or a purchase from a "non-authorized" reseller?
Don't get me started ... or the upset owners that often vent about support on BlackVue's tapatalk threads.
.

Sounds like I bought the Tesla of dashcams

The install isn't difficult, but it's time consuming for sure. Easily a full day job. Regardless what products people choose, I think have a high resolution dashcam is a worthwhile endeavor. My old ViFo saved me when another party stretched the truth. I just shut up and let them dig their own grave.

I've always considered memory cards consumable items. If I have to replace them every few years, I'm okay with it. If I have camera issues, then that's a bit more frustrating. I guess we'll see.

ngng · Mar 26, 2022

Okay, finished up the wiring today and everything is working as intended.

Added a simple 12v relay above the brake controller harness. If the relay ever fails I can just swap it out. The added bonus is I've got 20A of switched power I can use for future projects.

While I was in there I deburred this stupid stamped aluminum plate. I've lost too much blood for it to happen again!

chukiechz · Mar 26, 2022

Here are some pics of mine. I got a dr900x plus, 2 channel.

There was one spot where I couldn’t get the wire inside the liner by the sun visor. Rear looks basically like the others except I pulled my wire through the rubber conduit leading to the trunk.

Not really sure if the parking mode activation is working with the accessory wire, but it seems to automatically enter it after a few minutes of not moving.

Installed BlackVue 900X, CM100LTE module, and backup battery

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