Roadster dash cam - suggestions?

[Tex EV]

I just upgraded to the BlackVue DR 650S-2CH in the Roadster:

Just did the same last week. Very happy with it so far. I'm actually using it to monitor battery level while I'm away for a month. I left the rear camera on the driver's door sill facing the VDS. With cloud connectivity, I can check in from wherever... when the car is actually on (e.g. running the coolant pump). Minor oversight when installing it the day before I left. What I thought was a constant 12V circuit wasn't. On the plus side, the camera will only record when the coolant pump runs (10-15 min/day), so with the 64GB card I should be able to assemble a neat time-lapse video of the battery discharging over 30 days .

 

[Nvbob]

We installed the 650S-2CH last November. To hide the cables from the front camera, we purchased the rubber strip for the antenna (Tesla part number 6005503 - about $30) from our local SC. The cables run down the left side of the windshield and the strip completely hid the cables. The cable for the back camera is almost completely hidden by the car interior panels. Just be careful to not kink the cable to the rear camera. Also, be careful with the cable end that plugs into the rear camera. It's easy to break the center lead in the connector.

 

[Roadster]

Heads up on the Blackvue DR750S/2Ch group buy being discussed here. I'm pretty certain Pretty convinced I'm going to take the plunge now so @Tex EV, @ViviV, @Nvbob... would love to see addl. photos of your respective installations and wire routing for inspiration. Extra credit for those of you who can provide actual video footage! Finally, for those of you who went the PMP hardwire route, any 12V battery issues?

 

[ViviV]

Extra credit for those of you who can provide actual video footage!

@Roadster I love a challenge, particularly with extra credit. I didn't get to where I am now in life without taking advantage of all the credit I could get.

For you @Roadster, I have created a Flickr album called "Blackvue Moments" like the so-called Tesla moments with a few videos (mostly forward camera and one rear) from my Blackvue camera. These capture a "thumbs up" experience (video and screen shot), a cool bird of prey with shadow (screen shot and video), a mini quiet drag race with my husbands Model S (Roadster in performance mode won--that is why it is shown as a rear video), and an example of the forward camera on a bright sunny day. The night time ones are poor resolution, but you can see better resolution in the daytime videos. My camera was professionally installed by Perzan Auto Radio in Philadelphia so I can't provide any details. There are pictures of the front and rear camera in the album as well.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/22685341@N02/f8b83n

I find having the camera is useful. For example, I found some scratches on my front bumper, and I wanted to make sure it hadn't happened when I was leaving my garage, so I found the video and confirmed it was likely from someone else in a parking lot. I don't have it hooked to my 12V battery so it only works while the car is on, but that is still useful in many cases, if only to capture head turns (common from motorcyclists) and birds.

The only thing I don't like is that it uses wifi, so if you have the network in your phone it automatically connects when you are in the car and therefore, your data doesn't work. What I end up having to do is to "forget the network" so it doesn't auto connect, but if I want to check a video then I have to look up the pw and reconnect it, which is a bit of a pain. Thankfully I don't do this very often.

Enjoy.
Viv

 

[Roadster]

Much appreciated, Viv! How much of the aft visibility is obscured by the rear camera's mounting position? It seems to take up quite a bit of real estate on the already small window.

 

[ViviV]

QUOTE="Roadster, post: 2529772, member: 55493"]How much of the aft visibility is obscured by the rear camera's mounting position? It seems to take up quite a bit of real estate on the already small window.[/QUOTE]

@Roadster It is really not that bad. It took a little getting used to, but I don't notice it anymore. See below for a driver's view picture.

 

[Nvbob]

Ok, here goes:

When we installed our Blackvue, we did use a PMP (MultiSafer from Blackboxmycar.com) similar device with settings to limit battery drain. It’s all installed under the passenger side dash and connected to the fuse panel with a couple of fuse splitters. We haven’t had any 12v battery issues since putting it in. The fuse splitters (Add-a-fuse) are connected to fuse 13 & 24. When the car "wakes up" the camera comes on for about two minutes.



As in my previous post, we ran the power and video cable across the top of the driver side windshield and down the left A pillar. The cables are pretty much hidden by the rubber strip. I did need to loosen the driver side waterfall to get the cables down the driver side to the back camera and to the power connector.



The power wire is held to the underside of the dash by the cable clips that came with the camera and it runs across behind the center console to the fuse panel. The video cable runs under the driver side sill and up the back panel to exit right at the rear windshield.

The back camera posed a little problem because the adhesive patches that came with the camera didn’t hold securely enough on the plastic - the camera kept falling off when the outside temps got past 90 F. I ended up just sticking it to the back windshield just behind the driver. It’s out of my rear vision enough to not even see it but still has good video coverage.



The front camera also began to have heat issues (shutting down until it cooled enough) and support really wasn’t helpful. So, we gave it a sun-shade. We picked up some static cling window shading material and attached it just above the camera. So far, it’s worked just fine - no more heat issues.

 

[Roadster]

@ViviV, you're a mind reader! That's precisely the view I needed to see and it doesn't look too bad at all, thx.

@Nvbob, very helpful photos and info. Glad to hear you haven't had any 12V battery issues so I'll definitely consider hardwiring with a PMP. I'm hoping the DR750S has improved thermal management as they claim "Optimized for hotter climates up to 158º F (70º C)" but good on you for McGyvering a fix regardless.

Hoping to install the dash cam along with OVMS v.3 once it's ready.

 

[shrink]

I mounted to my rear camera here. It doesn't get in the way of the rearview mirror at all and I still get a good view from the camera itself:

 

[Roadster]

Thx @shrink. That doesn't appear to be too much of an offset from center so it also seems like a good option. Can you upload a still or video showing the angle of view looking rearward? I'm assuming the lens is close enough to the glass and the angle of view too shallow to be obstructed slightly on the left side by the window tint surrounding the 3rd brake light?

 

[shrink]

Thx @shrink. That doesn't appear to be too much of an offset from center so it also seems like a good option. Can you upload a still or video showing the angle of view looking rearward? I'm assuming the lens is close enough to the glass and the angle of view too shallow to be obstructed slightly on the left side by the window tint surrounding the 3rd brake light?

I'm traveling for work this week, but will try to take care of it this weekend when I return. The view is just fine, although there's not much you can do about the rear quarter panel "wings."

 

[Roadster]

Looking fwd to it.

FWIW, Blackvue recently announced the release of their upcoming 4K DR900S. The video below seems to suggest it will be available soon which explains the blowout pricing for the DR750S.

 

[coolVariable]

this may be a dumb question but why are people connecting the dashcam to fuse 13 (radiator cooling fan) & 24 (amplifier) instead of fuse 7 (starter key on)?

 

[coolVariable]

this may be a dumb question but why are people connecting the dashcam to fuse 13 (radiator cooling fan) & 24 (amplifier) instead of fuse 7 (starter key on)?

Maybe a better question: which fuse should I tap into to get an "ignition on" signal (for the yellow wire in my hardwire kit) and which fuse for constant 12v/always-on power (red wire in my hardwire kit)?

 

[Bunnak]

Did you ever get your question answered @coolVariable ? If so please share as I'm also considering getting BlackVue installed for my roadster.

 

[IslandRoadster]

However, it does exhibit rolling shutter issues on fast horizontal motion. Some editing programs now claim they can fix that post production, but I haven't tried it yet.

What is a "rolling shutter issue?"

 

[IslandRoadster]

Thanks for the warning not to upgrade my GoPro firmware yet. I have two GoPro's and am very happy with them.

And where did you place in the competition????