Dash cams, what to get and where to get it (Q&A only)

Cortina_MK_IV

Slippin Jimmy wrote: »

Considering getting a dash cam in the front and rear of my car. I see that a lot of people are recommending halfords for doing a hardwire install. Do they hide the wires behind the pillars on the car? Has anyone got it fitted by them and were happy with the way it was done?

Yes the wires are hidden away, a nice tidy job. I had it done over a year ago (front only for now) and happy with it.

v240gltse

hi all
up for sale is my sons A6 in good nick and with NCT . Discount if you are from Boards ;-D

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/audi-a6-in-good-working-order/17017492

regards

brendan

dodzy

2002 Focus 1.6 petril, tidy. NCT till Feb 18. Needs nothing really. Couple of body marks can be seen in pics. €350 would take it.

http://www.adverts.ie/car/ford/focus/2002-ford-focus/14026437

Sexual Chocolate

Any opinions on Garmin dashcams ? Particularly the 45 and 55 models ?

uncle-mofo

http://www.adverts.ie/13992927

2008 mk5 golf TDI. Very well looked after and serviced religiously with the proper 505.01 oil which is tough to get. Mainly motorway miles.

Timing belt done in the past year, always genuine parts used when needed.

€4,450

BArra

were meant to have heat shutdown problems but apparently that was fixed with a software update, also interested to hear about anybody with a garmin dash 45

LeakingLava

Sorry guys to bug you again. Just another question regarding hardwiring. After the fuse tap, is it one of these that you connect to it then? Also, is there a name for the terminal that goes into the fuse tap? Of course I would prefer to purchase the correct terminal for it rather than the 'U' connection that's on the ad. Another question is, are these Chinese ones reliable enough or am I risking burning my car down? :pac:

blade1

LeakingLava wrote: »

Sorry guys to bug you again. Just another question regarding hardwiring. After the fuse tap, is it one of these that you connect to it then? Also, is there a name for the terminal that goes into the fuse tap? Of course I would prefer to purchase the correct terminal for it rather than the 'U' connection that's on the ad. Another question is, are these Chinese ones reliable enough or am I risking burning my car down? :pac:

That U connection is your earth so you'll be finding a bolt somewhere in your car for that.
You need a fuse piggy back for the other wire that will crimp onto it.

LeakingLava

blade1 wrote: »

That U connection is your earth so you'll be finding a bolt somewhere in your car for that.
You need a fuse piggy back for the other wire that will crimp onto it.

That does make sense regarding the U connection, however, the ad says that the U is for easy connection directly to the battery. Of course, this is not what I am going to do, so this is where the fuse tap comes in and I now understand that it is just a matter of crimping and it wasn't an actual connection that slots in.

What I will do then is probably buy a U connection for the black wire (earth), then just cut the U off the red to crimp it into a fuse tap. Makes sense. Thanks a lot!

Another option I was thinking of was just to buy a multiple cigarette socket and wire it to a fuse tap into the fusebox then keep the multi-socket in the glovebox compartment for other uses too. I just have to work out amperages so that I don't overload. Can't really find general information regarding how much max current these multi-sockets can pull, though.

nanook5

LeakingLava wrote: »

Sorry guys to bug you again. Just another question regarding hardwiring. After the fuse tap, is it one of these that you connect to it then? Also, is there a name for the terminal that goes into the fuse tap? Of course I would prefer to purchase the correct terminal for it rather than the 'U' connection that's on the ad. Another question is, are these Chinese ones reliable enough or am I risking burning my car down? :pac:

Those Chinese ones will be fine. I currently have them in 3 cars , no problems 1 year in. It's effectively stepping the voltage down from 12V to 5V so the camera doesn't get overloaded with power.

blade1

@LeakingLava I hadn't looked at the link when I answered you and now see that they have the U on the live wire.
But yes crimp red wire to fuse tap and use u connecter or something similar for the earth.

jaxxx

Quick question regarding hardwiring. I've had my cam a few months now, but never got it wired. Would I be better off just taking it to an auto electrician or getting the Harvey Norman kit and getting them to do it (it was in HN's that I bought it)? All this time I've just had it plugged into the socket with the wire hanging down. Cheers guys.

No way in hell would I do it myself FYI. I'm useless at that sorta thing.

by8auj6csd3ioq

Quick question regarding hardwiring. I've had my cam a few months now, but never got it wired. Would I be better off just taking it to an auto electrician or getting the Harvey Norman kit and getting them to do it (it was in HN's that I bought it)? All this time I've just had it plugged into the socket with the wire hanging down. Cheers guys.

excuse me butting in but is it annoying having to plug it out each time you stop to go into a shop etc. It would run the battery down otherwise? What dashcam did you get at HN and can you link the kit please thanks

TheChizler

Greysen Abundant Terrapin wrote: »

excuse me butting in but is it annoying having to plug it out each time you stop to go into a shop etc. It would run the battery down otherwise? What dashcam did you get at HN and can you link the kit please thanks

Most of the time they're wired to an accessory circuit so only comes on with the ignition.

vectra

Greysen Abundant Terrapin wrote: »

excuse me butting in but is it annoying having to plug it out each time you stop to go into a shop etc. It would run the battery down otherwise? What dashcam did you get at HN and can you link the kit please thanks

I still have mine plugged into the cig, socket as I am finding it virtually impossible to locate a Micro Piggyback fuse holder.
As it happens the cig lighter stays live for 90 minutes after ign. off.
This i find handy when parked in town.

by8auj6csd3ioq

I still have mine plugged into the cig, socket as I am finding it virtually impossible to locate a Micro Piggyback fuse holder.
As it happens the cig lighter stays live for 90 minutes after ign. off.
This i find handy when parked in town.

Does that not run down the battery?How far would you drive between times of 90 mins live cig which camera is drawing? What is a Micro Piggyback fuse holder

vectra

Greysen Abundant Terrapin wrote: »

Does that not run down the battery?How far would you drive between times of 90 mins live cig which camera is drawing? What is a Micro Piggyback fuse holder

Battery seems to hold up fine. Then again it is a new car so battery would be at its best, On saying that I feel these cams draw very little.

A Piggyback fuse holder is one of these

Fuse holder

TheChizler

Does anyone know how the reverse trigger signal normally makes its way back to the DVR? I'm replacing the basic rear view camera with a backup camera that's moulded into the brake light, but of course the connections are different.

The dashcam/DVR has a 2.5 mm TRRS connector, 5 V on the tip (pin 1) and ground on the sleeve (pin 4). Rear camera is normally on, and if I apply 9 V (just had a 9 V battery lying around) to the reversing trigger wire attached to the rear camera the camera's LEDs come on, the head unit switches the reversing camera to full screen and something applies a guidelines overlay, don't know if it's the head unit or camera doing this.

If I hook the connector that came with it up to a bench power supply I can see a regular pulsating signal common mode ~ 1 V on pin 3 which I presume is video (PAL) but my oscilloscope's resolution isn't fine enough to go into detail. If I put 9 V on the trigger wire nothing changes obviously on pin 2 or 3 so I'm stumped as to how the the head unit detects it. It's not modulated into the video signal is it?

The replacement backup camera comes with a DC jack, yellow RCA connector for video, and a white RCA connector for God knows what. Hooked it up to the TV and there was no sound and I can't see a mic on the camera so not that. Reverse trigger? The seller's ad claims it has guidelines overlay built in but have no idea how to activate them. He hasn't really been any help when I asked these questions. I've ordered a 2.5 mm TRRS to RCA cable to try it out with the head unit so I'm kind of stuck until that arrives.

If I can figure out how to trigger head unit when the reverse lights come on I'll be happy.

I got the rear camera from here but the scan of the instructions lies. What actually came in the box is this:
.

blade1

vectra wrote: »

I still have mine plugged into the cig, socket as I am finding it virtually impossible to locate a Micro Piggyback fuse holder.

Here you go

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F182302303041

vectra

blade1 wrote: »

Here you go

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F182302303041

I was looking at ones lke that but mine doesn't have the black part in the centre. I would imagine that would stop it fitting in.
If you scroll down the page and look at the mini ones, Mine look like that only Mini ones are too big. I am at a loss over them.

blade1

vectra wrote: »

I was looking at ones lke that but mine doesn't have the black part in the centre. I would imagine that would stop it fitting in.
If you scroll down the page and look at the mini ones, Mine look like that only Mini ones are too big. I am at a loss over them.

Any pic of your fuse?
Look at the red 10a fuse in the pic below.
That's a micro.
If yours are longer are you sure they are not mini?

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

vectra

blade1 wrote: »

Any pic of your fuse?
Look at the red 10a fuse in the pic below.
That's a micro.
If yours are longer are you sure they are not mini?

According to a friend in the UK with the same car as mine.
This is the one I need, so I ordered it, fingers crossed this time

Piggy Back Fuse Tap MICRO 2 Blade Holder

TheChizler

That's not a picture of a micro one though. You have to watch out the eBay listings for fuse holders are commonly mislabled.

blade1

TheChizler wrote: »

That's not a picture of a micro one though. You have to watch out the eBay listings for fuse holders are commonly mislabled.

It's the latest type which is micro 2.
Plenty on eBay
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F172741917214

alanhiggyno1

i just bought a nextbase 412gw with wifi for 139.great dashcam so far even in night.just need to hard wire it in my e60 520d

TheChizler

blade1 wrote: »

It's the latest type which is micro 2.
Plenty on eBay
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F172741917214

Cheers wasn't aware of that one. Yet another to add to the confusion!

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

MidMan25

Selling my Skoda Fabia Monte Carlo - owned it from new. Any questions feel free to PM me!

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/skoda-fabia-estate-monte-carlo/17064595

Kenny Logins

The low-res file is for the app thumbnails and previews, and so I don't think they'd let you switch this function off.

FirstinLastout

http://www.adverts.ie/car/toyota/yaris/2002-toyota-yaris/14111271

For parts or repair is my 1.4 D4D Diesel Toyota Yaris with 186k miles on it.

Car is driving perfectly fine however it has No Valid NCT; out from start of October!
Being a UK import the sills and rear underside are now suffering from rust in places and I don't believe that it would pass its NCT without welding/repair.


This engine is used in other Toyota models such as Corolla, Auris, Versus etc and BMW's diesel Mini D model.

Available for collection in Sligo town.

DB1984

Selling my 2006 BMW 318i. Really great car and well taken care of. Perfect opportunity to get a modern BMW experience at a relatively low price.

See link below for more details:

http://touch.adverts.ie/car/bmw/3-series/2006-bmw-318/14087707

LeakingLava

LeakingLava wrote: »

That does make sense regarding the U connection, however, the ad says that the U is for easy connection directly to the battery. Of course, this is not what I am going to do, so this is where the fuse tap comes in and I now understand that it is just a matter of crimping and it wasn't an actual connection that slots in.

What I will do then is probably buy a U connection for the black wire (earth), then just cut the U off the red to crimp it into a fuse tap. Makes sense. Thanks a lot!

Another option I was thinking of was just to buy a multiple cigarette socket and wire it to a fuse tap into the fusebox then keep the multi-socket in the glovebox compartment for other uses too. I just have to work out amperages so that I don't overload. Can't really find general information regarding how much max current these multi-sockets can pull, though.

Hey guys, I'm still getting around to looking for a good enough cigarette socket splitter kind of thing. Does anyone know how much current a dashcam would take max? I'm looking to calculate if my idea is okay in terms of the cigarette socket splitter. The way I see it, most 3 way splitters have a maximum output of 5A. So, if I was using a 2.4A USB charger on two ports, I would be using 4.8A(perfect world expectation, real world test would probably pull less than that) which leaves .2A. I'm pretty sure that's too little, but still want to confirm if it really is just 5A maximum output from these things. The seller doesn't have any information about it . The splitter that I was looking at also had USB ports which according to the spec, would be able to output 6.8A in total. Could one of these splitters really output 11.8A(5 + 6.8) or possibly more in total?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/FosPower-Cigarette-Splitter-Smartphones-Lifetime/dp/B01FEG4D3Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

grogi

LeakingLava wrote: »

So, if I was using a 2.4A USB charger on two ports, I would be using 4.8A(perfect world expectation, real world test would probably pull less than that) which leaves .2A

Are you sure? A simple stepdown 12V->5V @ 5A would require 35W of power dissipated... You would need a huuuge heat sink to do it without risk of burning.

So, the USB chargers are working like impulse chargers. Providing 5A@5V requires only 25W, the load on 12V would be around 2.5A, not more.

LeakingLava

grogi wrote: »

Are you sure? A simple stepdown 12V->5V @ 5A would require 35W of power dissipated... You would need a huuuge heat sink to do it without risk of burning.

So, the USB chargers are working like impulse chargers. Providing 5A@5V requires only 25W, the load on 12V would be around 2.5A, not more.

Being completely honest with you, I probably don't understand electricity as much as I should, and would most likely have done something completely wrong in terms of calculations. But what I'm basing this on anyway is just a few pictures online stating that the max output current of those splitter type chargers is 5A.

Basing then on what you're saying, if I had two USB chargers and the dashcam on the same splitter, would 2.5A be enough for a dashcam? Are there dashcams that pull more than that?

grogi

LeakingLava wrote: »

Being completely honest with you, I probably don't understand electricity as much as I should, and would most likely have done something completely wrong in terms of calculations. But what I'm basing this on anyway is just a few pictures online stating that the max output current of those splitter type chargers is 5A

The lighter socket gives 12V, while USB requires 5V. That's why you need a charger there, it converts one into another.

Now, a 1A@12V is more than twice as much "powerful" as 1A, but on 5V. Dumb USB chargers will use that excess of power to heat up, nothing more. Smarter will use it intelligently.

So, if you need to power three USB devices, each needing 2A (which really is a lot), you need 30W (3 * 2A*5V) of power. You need only 2.5A to get same power from 12V (2.5A*12V = 30W). 7A splitter will be more than enough.

LeakingLava

grogi wrote: »

The lighter socket gives 12V, while USB requires 5V. That's why you need a charger there, it converts one into another.

Now, a 1A@12V is more than twice as much "powerful" as 1A, but on 5V. Dumb USB chargers will use that excess of power to heat up, nothing more. Smarter will use it intelligently.

So, if you need to power three USB devices, each needing 2A (which really is a lot), you need 30W (3 * 2A*5V) of power. You need only 2.5A to get same power from 12V (2.5A*12V = 30W). 7A splitter will be more than enough.

Thank you very much! That cleared it up for me. Now, I just wanted to confirm if I'm able to trust the splitter in terms of its specifications.

Now, with the splitter that I linked, it said it can do 5V/6.8A total on its own USB ports, four ports, 2 x 5V/2.4, 2 x 5V/1A (34W). So this in total would pull around 2.84A @ 12V (34W). I know that I probably wouldn't use these 4 devices together with 3 more devices on the cigarette sockets, but I would like to know the limit of the device and if I'm able to trust the splitter that it wouldn't burn, IF, I had to use all the ports.

So far:
2.84A @ 12V on USB ports (34W).

2.4A(fast chargers for tablets/smartphones) @ 5V * 2 (2 remaining cigarette sockets after having the dashcam plugged in) = 24W

You were saying that I would be using devices needing 2A so I'm guessing it isn't expected for a dashcam to use more than 2A. So 2A @ 5V is 10W.

Total from the cigarette sockets would then be (34W) which is again around 2.84A @ 12V.

2.84A * 2 = 5.68A @ 12V.

That seems a lot more reasonable than what I was saying before (11.8A) LOL :pac: :pac: :pac:

I'm guessing that I would be able to trust this splitter to be able to output 5.68A @ 12V but still would like your opinion as I may completely wrong either on my assumption or calculation. Is it normal for splitters to be capable of around 6A @ 12V?

Sorry for the million questions by the way, probably a little off topic, too, in this thread. But thank you so much for all your help.

whats_up

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/volvo-c30-1-8-se-2007/17001505

Leaving the country so selling this, I've taken good care of it and it's got full service history. Has NCT until November of next year, and was recently taxed.

If I wasn't leaving the country I'd keep this for the next few years, it looks great outside and has a top spec black leather interior, cruise-control etc. check the linked ad for details

Looking for €2,995.

CCMYPLAYMATE

Hi 1.5 Petrol automatic Nissan Cube for sale it kills me to sell her but needs must !!

http://www.adverts.ie/14095442

duckmusic

2008 Volkswagen Golf 1.4 Comfort 80bhp

http://www.adverts.ie/toy-cars-trains-boats-planes/2008-volkswagen-golf-1-4-comfort-80bhp/14132821

waynegalway

Honda Civic 2005
1.6 Petrol, manual
Executive model (lots of extras)

Going to best offer over €1000

http://touch.adverts.ie/car/honda/civic/honda-civic-executive/14100745

TigerTim

Hi All,

I've a Mini 0806 & have an issue occasionally. I've it set to loop continuously but it starts beeping usually when the cards are nearly full with a message of the screen "frmat card" .If I format the cards on laptop it works away again. I thought it was the micro SD cards. I has 2 x 64GB Samsung Class 10 cards & I've recently replaced them with 2 x 64GB Class 10 Sandisk cards. This has certainly improved the issue but the camera still throws a wobbly from time to time. I have upgraded the firmware. Any ideas?.

T.

vectra

TigerTim wrote: »

Hi All,

I've a Mini 0806 & have an issue occasionally. I've it set to loop continuously but it starts beeping usually when the cards are nearly full with a message of the screen "frmat card" .If I format the cards on laptop it works away again. I thought it was the micro SD cards. I has 2 x 64GB Samsung Class 10 cards & I've recently replaced them with 2 x 64GB Class 10 Sandisk cards. This has certainly improved the issue but the camera still throws a wobbly from time to time. I have upgraded the firmware. Any ideas?.

T.

Do you have a GPS Mount?
If so, I assume you have the poer cable plugged into this.
Try plugging the power directly into the dashcam and see how that works for you.
I have read this is a workaround.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

TigerTim

vectra wrote: »

Do you have a GPS Mount?
If so, I assume you have the poer cable plugged into this.
Try plugging the power directly into the dashcam and see how that works for you.
I have read this is a workaround.

Thanks, It has a mount attached to the windscreen. Will take a look.

T.

yannakis

Any idea if I can find this anywhere around Dublin?

UsedToWait

Bit of an unusual one here - hoping someone might know, as googling isn't throwing up much..

My Dad is looking for both a dash cam and reversing camera for his car.
He'd prefer to have only one screen.
Anyone know of a dash cam that would have video input which would switch to the reversing camera when reverse is engaged?

I did see head units that would have that functionality, but would be very expensive.

I reckon he'd be better looking at a small, non-display dash cam, and a separate reversing camera with screen.

Any advice / anyone looked at something that might suit?

vectra

yannakis wrote: »

Any idea if I can find this anywhere around Dublin?

https://i.imgur.com/eFsamjk.png

Halfords?

UsedToWait wrote: »

Bit of an unusual one here - hoping someone might know, as googling isn't throwing up much..

My Dad is looking for both a dash cam and reversing camera for his car.
He'd prefer to have only one screen.
Anyone know of a dash cam that would have video input which would switch to the reversing camera when reverse is engaged?

I did see head units that would have that functionality, but would be very expensive.

I reckon he'd be better looking at a small, non-display dash cam, and a separate reversing camera with screen.

Any advice / anyone looked at something that might suit?

Just curious
what car?

yannakis

vectra wrote: »

Halfords?

Went by Carrickmines today and they didn't have any. Also, I can't find it on their website either, so I guess they're not stocking it?

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.