So my friend convinced me the other day to get a dash cam for my car. I've seen the videos before on youtube (Russian ones are the best) and thought it might be pretty useful. I settled on the Black Vue DR400G-HD made by a Korean company. Without going to much into it, here's some of the key features:
1080P recording
GPS position recording
3 axis motion sensor to detect large movements such as accidents
Parking mode (turns on to record when it detects movement in front of it)
Continuous recording onto micro sd card.
I also purchased the power controller (black magic) which allows you to leave the camera in parking mode until the car battery voltage falls to a certain state and shuts off so that it doesn't drain the battery.
I followed hardwire guides found on this forum for the V1. This method uses the fuse box hidden behind the glove box. For this install, a constant 12V and a switched 12V line was needed. To connect to the fuse box, you can use mini blade fuse taps (I found some 10A $7 ones from Jaycar). The power controller was installed inside the glove box and the power cable run through the A pillar into the headliner and along the rear view mirror casing into the dashcam.
The HARDEST part would be finding an empty fuse that's the right amperage
Needless to say, I spent the good part of an hour testing every empty fuse slot I could reach through the tiny gap. So here they are:
Constant 12V: No. 2,3,7,64,68,56 I ended up using 64
Switched 12V: 5, 7(this one is not empty so I used 5)
And.... pictures of the install:
Pulling the wire through to the glove box
Make sure you run this AROUND your airbag and hold it down with the included cable holders. You don't want to restrict the movement of the airbag in the event of a deployment.
Behind the glove box, a small hole to work with (esp with big hands like mine)
The constant 12V fuse tap connected
Ground wire connected to this bolt conveniently located in that area
Power controller mounted inside glove box
Wire held down onto the rear view mirror casing for clean look
From inside the car
From the front
I'm quite happy with the image quality and the features are awesome. Now I can have some piece of mind when parking my car. If you are thinking of getting the same one, note there is a version 2 so get that one (didn't do enough research
)