dash cams and power access

[olds350]

I'm contemplating purchasing a dash cam for the 2 cars that my wife and I drive. So a few questions for the group please. Where can I tap for switched power under the dash on the 128? Since there is no aux power feed under the dash like the 3 series, I'm going to need to hard wire whatever camera I purchase.

Second question is, what do you guys/gals use for dashcams? There's some good choices out there, but my primary concerns are; heat (NC summers can be brutal), some sort of "auto on" protection while parked, ease of operation and a good way to mount besides a suction cup, like to be a bit more discrete. GPS is an option for me as is audio, but I really want good quality video. The Rexing V1 Car Dash Cam seems to pop up in several reviews as a good mid road option but as far as I can tell it has no parked feature and GPS is an add on.

I'd like to keep the price around 300-350 for both cameras. I'd like to hear options from the group please....

[mr.fabulous]

Tap power from (IIRC) the #5 fuse (get a loooong needlenose for fuses, that will change your life). I have a Goluk T2 and I am *very* happy with it (I have a second one for the back and will be installing that soon).

[zx10guy]

I used fuse #8 which is tied to the cigar lighter/accessories outlet to power my Smart View module. The only thing is power gets turned on and cut off with the operation of the engine.

I also used a piggy back fuse to tap into the #8 fuse:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Matticus91]

There's a FANTASTIC DIY in the DIY section for this. It's even stickied. Go check that out and you'll have all the information you need.

Searching helps everyone.


As for the dash cam, I've heard good things about these and they're right in your price range for two of them:

https://www.amazon.com/Channel-Dashb...6%3A1253506011

[TridenTBoy]

I did a mirror tap for my radar detector. I presume you could do something similar for a dash cam.

[HyeWarrior]

I just used the super long USB cable it came with and hid it under the headliner to the passenger side, down the winner weather seals and under the trim/carpet to the cigarette lighter. Works for me

[iminhell1]

I think it'd be neat to install a second USB/AUX in the bump behind the mirror.
Then anything you want on the windshield has ports nearby. Change product, don't have to worry about removing or rewiring anything.


It's on my to-do list, but waaaay down near the bottom.

[olds350]

Originally Posted by Matticus91

There's a FANTASTIC DIY in the DIY section for this. It's even stickied. Go check that out and you'll have all the information you need.

Appreciate the pointer to the DIY section, that helped to locate where the fuses are and which point to use, thanks!!

[mecheng03]

blackboxmycar.com has a lot of options. I have the blackvue 650s 2ch tapped to fuse 8 with the battery pack for ~20hrs of parking mode. That's more than your cut off price but you don't need the battery pack.

you'll want a camera without internal batteries and they'll need capacitors if you're in hot weather. my camera is 3m tape and lasted 2 El Paso summers so far

[olds350]

Update: I had ordered the Rexing s300 dash cam, it was an older unit but I liked the way it looked and it was heat tested. I was just informed by amazon that the unit was returned to them, never made it to the house, so I'm assuming it was damaged in transit. Time to order another one, although I'm thinking about the latest offer of the Rexing V1. Need to review these again...

[olds350]

The new rexing v1 rev3 is now in hand. Just need to test it first and make sure all is good and functioning normally. After that, time to mount and hard wire it to the #8 fuse. Still waiting on my mini fuse piggy back adapter to arrive.

Have to say, I like the size of this unit and the options is has. I also like that it came with some adhesive cable supports. Time will tell as to how good it is, but the reviews seemed decent.

[iminhell1]

Someone in the BST posted this --> http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1454403


Looked neat so I bought one. Should be here Friday. Guy on Youtube seemed to like it and it looked like fair video quality.

[tock172]

Originally Posted by TridenTBoy

I did a mirror tap for my radar detector. I presume you could do something similar for a dash cam.

On a convertible, yes. Otherwise you'll need to do a conventional fuse tap. I believe I used #5 myself.

[olds350]

Originally Posted by tock172

On a convertible, yes. Otherwise you'll need to do a conventional fuse tap. I believe I used #5 myself.

I have a convertible that I'm going to mount the camera in. Can you tell me what wires to tap and how to correctly remove any covers to access the wiring?

[TridenTBoy]

Originally Posted by olds350

I have a convertible that I'm going to mount the camera in. Can you tell me what wires to tap and how to correctly remove any covers to access the wiring?

YMMV.

[TridenTBoy]

Originally Posted by iminhell1

Someone in the BST posted this --> http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1454403


Looked neat so I bought one. Should be here Friday. Guy on Youtube seemed to like it and it looked like fair video quality.

Only $85 on Amazon. Damn. I might buy this. Wish I knew about this earlier! Will this work for an E88 though?

[olds350]

Originally Posted by TridenTBoy

Only $85 on Amazon. Damn. I might buy this. Wish I knew about this earlier! Will this work for an E88 though?

Make sure you guys read the specs on the camera. I found some nice looking ones and after reading the reviews, I turned away.

[olds350]

Originally Posted by TridenTBoy

YMMV.

Thank you for the link! That looks a bit clunky, so some experimenting is need on where to best tap for the power. I purchased the rexing hard wire kit, so that still may be my best bet.

[methodz]

Originally Posted by Matticus91

There's a FANTASTIC DIY in the DIY section for this. It's even stickied. Go check that out and you'll have all the information you need.

Searching helps everyone.


As for the dash cam, I've heard good things about these and they're right in your price range for two of them:

https://www.amazon.com/Channel-Dashb...6%3A1253506011

Parking mode?

[olds350]

OK, the Rexing v1 dash cam is installed, although it took the better part of the afternoon just making sure everything worked and I found the right power source. So I few things that slowed my progress was first getting the A pillar trim off, that took a bit of time. Now that I know how to remove, future projects should be quicker. I posted in another thread on the A pillar removal for the convertible.

I took my time making sure I ran the cable for the camera along the roof/window line and down the A pillar and back behind the glove box where the fuse box is. Several folks had mentioned using fuse #8, but I found out that was a constant on fuse and not what I wanted to use. I wound up using one of the empty fuses on the 2nd row, like 19 or 20 that were empty on my 128. Those were switched.

As for the camera itself, I guess it's ok, but I don't have anything to ref against since this is my first time using a dash cam. This rexing V1 needs a separate puck for GPS info, but for me, not a show stopper. My concern was having the video. Since most of these cameras are mounted on the passenger side of the rear view mirror, you need to know where the buttons are by feel. That's going to take some time, but it easy enough to remove from the adhesive mount. In regard to the mount, the 3m tape supplied was white, not very subtle. I had some grey 3m tape that I used to make it less obvious.

This camera also needs to use a 3rd party app called "timacam" in order to be able to see videos remotely. While I was setting this up via the wifi connect, it prompted me with an option in Chinese. I had no clue what to pick, so I uninstalled the app. Sent Rexing a message and waiting on a reply for remote access to the videos. The camera does "auto on/off" so that's a plus and has 3 minute time loops. Plenty of options via the menu to customize it. Time will tell how well this works.

[iminhell1]

Post video olds350


Here is the CYHY I bought.

[TridenTBoy]

Originally Posted by iminhell1

Post video olds350


Here is the CYHY I bought.

I'm gonna guess they use the bottom of the barrel sensors in terms of binning for this camera. On your night shot with all the white/colored dots just being frozen seems like a bad sensor bin or something of the sort.