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Well, I figured if it was good enough for all of those Russians to do, I would do it too. I decided to do a dash cam installation and I picked a camera that I could move between two vehicles with minimal effort. Both vehicles are hardwired with semi-permanent mounts.
I went with E-Prance Mini 0803 with GPS. There are several companies selling this exact camera - one Chinese manufacturer, many brands reselling. This one happens to have 8gb built in (that I really won't use) and GPS logging. I added a 32gb microSD card, the max it supports. Note that the card I used is Class 6 as they don't support Class 10.
To mount it, I used this EDO Tech hardwire kit for micro USB. As mentioned, I have this in two vehicles so I got an extra mount. Note that the GPS and non-GPS cameras use different mounts. (The camera did come with one mount.)
For power, I chose to to use the rear view mirror power since the camera draws so little. To do this, I needed male D-Sub crimp connectors that you can get from Radio Shack or Amazon. I got 100 of them so if you need some just send me a PM and I'll mail you some.
I soldered the ends of the wire into the crimp connectors and then shrink tubed the ends. I was a bit sloppy and got solder onto the end of one connector and had to clean that off.
Install:
Remove rear view mirror by removing T20 torx head screw from mount and sliding mirror up. Unclip the harness from the mirror and set the mirror aside.
Run your cable through the headliner and store the extra cable up there. It's easier if you have a sunroof as you can pull back the weatherstripping and have a bit of access to the space.
I used a coat hanger to fish the cables through the space
Once through I ran the wires according to this diagram: #8 for Ground, #13 for power. Note that #13 is Ignition power, not just accessory, so you won't be recording while sitting and just listening to the radio. These cameras are set up (if you want) to turn on/off with a power source. They also have an internal battery that helps it shut down properly after the power is cut, or if you just want to pull down the cam and film Johnny Law through your driver's window.
With the little connectors, you can just shove them into the back of the wiring harness
The base mounts with it's own 3M tape. I zip tied the cables to the rear view mirror cable after this pic was taken.
Here's a quick video test. The second half of it was a tough test going into the sun. And yeah, I had the clock set incorrectly.
[video=youtube_share;RxCrUO2PX0U]http://youtu.be/RxCrUO2PX0U[/video]
I went with E-Prance Mini 0803 with GPS. There are several companies selling this exact camera - one Chinese manufacturer, many brands reselling. This one happens to have 8gb built in (that I really won't use) and GPS logging. I added a 32gb microSD card, the max it supports. Note that the card I used is Class 6 as they don't support Class 10.
To mount it, I used this EDO Tech hardwire kit for micro USB. As mentioned, I have this in two vehicles so I got an extra mount. Note that the GPS and non-GPS cameras use different mounts. (The camera did come with one mount.)
For power, I chose to to use the rear view mirror power since the camera draws so little. To do this, I needed male D-Sub crimp connectors that you can get from Radio Shack or Amazon. I got 100 of them so if you need some just send me a PM and I'll mail you some.
I soldered the ends of the wire into the crimp connectors and then shrink tubed the ends. I was a bit sloppy and got solder onto the end of one connector and had to clean that off.
Install:
Remove rear view mirror by removing T20 torx head screw from mount and sliding mirror up. Unclip the harness from the mirror and set the mirror aside.
Run your cable through the headliner and store the extra cable up there. It's easier if you have a sunroof as you can pull back the weatherstripping and have a bit of access to the space.
I used a coat hanger to fish the cables through the space
Once through I ran the wires according to this diagram: #8 for Ground, #13 for power. Note that #13 is Ignition power, not just accessory, so you won't be recording while sitting and just listening to the radio. These cameras are set up (if you want) to turn on/off with a power source. They also have an internal battery that helps it shut down properly after the power is cut, or if you just want to pull down the cam and film Johnny Law through your driver's window.
With the little connectors, you can just shove them into the back of the wiring harness
The base mounts with it's own 3M tape. I zip tied the cables to the rear view mirror cable after this pic was taken.
Here's a quick video test. The second half of it was a tough test going into the sun. And yeah, I had the clock set incorrectly.
[video=youtube_share;RxCrUO2PX0U]http://youtu.be/RxCrUO2PX0U[/video]