Recommend dash cams

[Chalks99]

I’m considering purchasing a front and rear dash cam (in addition to the one installed as standard in the Model 3) I’ve looked through previous posts on this subject and there seems to be a compelling argument to do so.
For those of you that have done just this; do you have any advice on make or model and installers etc etc ?
The main reason is my car stays parked up a lot of the time (4-5 days in a row) in the station car park and I’m worried about battery drain with Sentry Mode.
Any experiences and advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[*Adam]

I can recommend BlackVue. Discrete and offer that front and back system you’re after.

Never got on with NextBase.

 

[Chalks99]

I’m considering purchasing a front and rear dash cam (in addition to the one installed as standard in the Model 3) I’ve looked through previous posts on this subject and there seems to be a compelling argument to do so.
For those of you that have done just this; do you have any advice on make or model and installers etc etc ?
The main reason is my car stays parked up a lot of the time (4-5 days in a row) in the station car park and I’m worried about battery drain with Sentry Mode.
Any experiences and advice would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE - I've got David Johnson coming over next week to fit the Goluk front and rear cameras along with additional battery power.

 

[Yev000]

I've got David Johnson coming over next week to fit the Goluk

I didn't realize footballers part time fitting dashcams...

I’m worried about battery drain

How would a separate dashcam help with that? Do you fit a separate battery bank to power it to use a sentry mode?

 

[Chalks99]

I didn't realize footballers part time fitting dashcams...



How would a separate dashcam help with that? Do you fit a separate battery bank to power it to use a sentry mode?

Yes, exactly that from what I believe.

 

[Yev000]

Yes, exactly that from what I believe.

Well, from what I read a lot of them use the 12V battery. If so then the car will wake up to top up the 12V battery to prevent it from draining.

You could fit an additional battery, but then that will charge from the 12v battery.... Unless you somehow charge it up in the house.

The only thing here is allowing the car to sleep more - since it can't sleep with sentry mode. And you won't get the side views.

Also bear in mind that the recording on dashcams is sometimes only activated with accelerometers (someone hitting the car). So it wont activate for keying i suspect.

I think the main energy drain for Sentry is keeping the parking sensors powered to detect proximity events.

 

[Chalks99]

Well, from what I read a lot of them use the 12V battery. If so then the car will wake up to top up the 12V battery to prevent it from draining.

You could fit an additional battery, but then that will charge from the 12v battery.... Unless you somehow charge it up in the house.

The only thing here is allowing the car to sleep more - since it can't sleep with sentry mode. And you won't get the side views.

Also bear in mind that the recording on dashcams is sometimes only activated with accelerometers (someone hitting the car). So it wont activate for keying i suspect.

I think the main energy drain for Sentry is keeping the parking sensors powered to detect proximity events.

Thanks for your input, i'm leaving it to the experts at Shield - IT.... I've looked at numerous YouTube videos on the product which seems to tick the boxes as far as functionality goes and they come highly recommended so I am more than happy with my decision. I've gone for the Goluk T3 Front and Rear Cameras along with the Power Magic for battery parking mode.

 

[Daverh]

This is what I remember from when I was looking into this previously...

Dashcam battery backups can be installed in such a way that it charges itself while the vehicle ignition is on then disconnects once ignition is back off. The batteries are LiFePO4 which has lower density than Li-ion but is better suited to this application (I think) because it can be charged faster and drained deeper. Charging is directly from a 12v source rather than using a 5v input.
The camera will be provided pass-through power from the vehicle while ignition is on and battery power when ignition is off.

Cameras generally either use motion sensing or ignition live to know when to activate parking mode and have different options for triggering recordings. e.g. some record at 1fps until there is motion, others will not record anything until motion is detected etc.

In the Model 3 there is space for a battery under the centre cubby, somewhere to the left of a driver's foot.
See this guy's video for details


As an alternative to additional batteries you can buy devices, BlackVue power magic pro for example, that will sense when ignition is off and continue to provide power from the 12v battery for a preset number of minutes or until battery voltage drops below a given threshold.


One more option is to use a standard USB battery pack to power the dashcam. I have a RavPower 26Ah battery pack in my car to keep my in-car hotspot powered up 24x7. I chose this battery because it specifically supports pass through cahrging i.e. if the battery is on charge and you plug a device into it, the device takes power directly from the input rather than it going into the battery then back out.

 

[webbah]

I have the Blackvue dual channel DR-900S and it’s excellent. There is no need for the battery backup in a Tesla. The 12V battery will be recharged from the HV battery when required. The Blackvue uses a max 5 watts. I installed mine with a kill switch so I can shut it off when I don’t need them on in my home garage. I also switched the lead-acid 12v battery to an Ohmmu as it holds higher voltage for longer and supports 5000+ charge cycles. Not really needed until your lead acid dies, but I also wanted to save the weight.

 

[Daverh]

The Blackvue uses a max 5 watts

My previous car had an unswitched 12v socket and I never had an issue leaving the dashcam plugged in for days at a time. I would be concerned about whether the car would wake to top-up the 12v battery but I don't think that would happen over the course of a single day given the low power draw.

 

[webbah]

My previous car had an unswitched 12v socket and I never had an issue leaving the dashcam plugged in for days at a time. I would be concerned about whether the car would wake to top-up the 12v battery but I don't think that would happen over the course of a single day given the low power draw.

I watch mine closely with Teslafi. I also have a Teltonika Automotive Wifi router that uses 5 watts max though. My car sleeps fine but if I leave both running it will wake up every 4-6 hours to recharge the 12v battery for 2 hours and 15 minutes on average. With the Ohmmu I’m not worried about it though. It’s totally worth it to have the 4K UHD video quality if/when something does happen. With the TeslaCam and Sentry the quality of video sucks and you can rarely read license plates and there are also 3 second gaps between each video clip. Rather worthless in most cases.

Having the Wifi router installed (completely stealth) is awesome as it allows me to connect to the Blackvue over Blackvue cloud from anywhere and get a video stream of my car any time I want. Kind of fun when it is in the shop getting work done.

 

[Slow_Lane]

I watch mine closely with Teslafi. I also have a Teltonika Automotive Wifi router that uses 5 watts max though.

What model did you go for?

I've been looking into this as have no WiFi where the car is parked, so for both software updates as well as primarily for security.

I assume you then just got a decent allowance 4g sim card and monitor your data usage? How much data do you typically use?

 

[webbah]

What model did you go for?

I've been looking into this as have no WiFi where the car is parked, so for both software updates as well as primarily for security.

I assume you then just got a decent allowance 4g sim card and monitor your data usage? How much data do you typically use?

I bought the RUT850. It’s excellent as it’s very small and I stashed it in the center console below where the air filters are and ran the antennas (3 dB gain) to each window pillar. Completely hidden.

In Switzerland we have something called “multi-device” where we can have additional SIM cards tied to our main phone plan. Mine is unlimited data and I’ve never worried about it. Might not be that convenient in some countries that cap data or call “unlimited” but then reduce speeds after a certain number of GB per month.

Main benefits:

1) Blackvue cloud remote access
2) Blackvue videos automatically uploaded to the cloud (if someone steals the sentry drives you are screwed)
3) Ability to granularly configure settings like VPN’s, etc. I have mine to VPN into the US so I can watch all video streaming in the car as if I was in the US and not Switzerland
4) Updates to the car without using phone tethering, etc. I also live in an apartment without wifi in the parking.

RUT850 - 4G/LTE Wi-Fi Automotive Router | Teltonika Networks

 

[alanbyvale]

I got fed up with Sentry Mode constantly waking the car up and draining the battery and then realised that the SD card is large enough to record days of camera footage without triggering Sentry Mode. I know Tesla limit this to one hour of video but the files are all on the SD card and there are a number of free data recovery programs to allow me to view the files. A time stamp from Tesla would help though! It is not the most elegant solution but it is free and means there is almost no battery drain (I currently lose between 1 and 3 miles per night).