dash cam wiring

[snowie]

Hi

I have a blackvue 500 dash cam that I want to hard wire into the car, want it to work in parking mode, any suggestions on the best way, its currently plugged into the cig lighter socket that goes off when the ignition is switched off.

cheers

Tom

[thecrofter]

You need Blackvue's Power Magic Pro.

[snowie]

Have the little box so it doesn't flatten the battery, just not sure where to put the wires, should I get bridged fuses, looked at the blackvue videos on youtube but they just show wires pushed into the fuse box, any help would be great.

cheers

Tom

[dimexi]

I have a blackvue650-2CH, I power mine off the cigarette lighter in the boot, and you wouldnt have a problem putting leaving the power pro in there. As crofter said, if you want to use the parking mode, buy the power magic pro accessory, so it doesnt burn off your battery.

Otherwise, you can get a converter and power it from the fusebox on the driver's side. Some of them are "always on", I have seen an installation that converts a cigarette lighter plug into a fuse socket. Not sure where, have a search on the internet for suitable adapters

[thecrofter]

Have the little box so it doesn't flatten the battery, just not sure where to put the wires, should I get bridged fuses, looked at the blackvue videos on youtube but they just show wires pushed into the fuse box, any help would be great.

cheers

Tom

Are you saying you have the Power Magic device. If so, then that requires two 12V inputs. One from a permanently live feed, the other from a switched feed i.e. only live when the ignition is on. Best way to do this is use the Fuse Taps to piggy back onto existing fuses. Amazon do a range with different fuse sizes. There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing how to fit these.

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I've just bought the Blackvue 650 and Power Magic Pro but haven't got round to fitting it yet as I need some trim tools and warmer weather!

[dimexi]

Have the little box so it doesn't flatten the battery, just not sure where to put the wires, should I get bridged fuses, looked at the blackvue videos on youtube but they just show wires pushed into the fuse box, any help would be great.

cheers

Tom

Are you saying you have the Power Magic device. If so, then that requires two 12V inputs. One from a permanently live feed, the other from a switched feed i.e. only live when the ignition is on. Best way to do this is use the Fuse Taps to piggy back onto existing fuses. Amazon do a range with different fuse sizes. There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing how to fit these.

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I've just bought the Blackvue 650 and Power Magic Pro but haven't got round to fitting it yet as I need some trim tools and warmer weather!

I must say, I didnt know you needed two inlets for the magic pro, but it makes complete sense.

You don't really need trim tools for the install, actually I tell a lie! Only time I used trim tools was to peel back the top bit of the A pillar. I couldn't be bother to take it off again, as I'd have broken the clip

[thecrofter]

Finally got round to fitting my Blackvue dash cam and Power Magic Pro (PMP) today. Have to say it was much easier than I expected and the Drivers Side storage drawer made the perfect place to site the PMP. The connecting leads run from the PMP (Permanent Live plus Switched Live and Earth) through the void to the drivers side fuses. Dash Cam lead feeds from the Fuse Box through the trim and up the A-Pillar and along the headliner without much effort.

Using the Add-a-Fuse (or Fuse Taps) for the two supplies was a doddle. No need to cut any equipment cabling or hack the car wiring. Just finding two suitable fuse positions was the tricky bit as my layout differs somewhat from the "Comprhensive Fuse List" elsewhere on the Forum. A couple of (poor) photo's of wiring the install.

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[dimexi]

About to send mine back for a checkup... it seems to randomly reboot itself attimes (dashcam that is).

Also, make sure you get a large SD card to use with it

[snowie]

thanks for the info, I'll have a go when its not minus 3 outside, do you have the fuse numbers you used to piggy back for the feeds

cheers

Tom

[CandyCupcake]

How's everyone getting on with these cameras? I'm having one fitted tomorrow.

[dimexi]

The blackvue is fantastic, I love it!!

[moulin12]

BV 650-2 pluses:-

- Form factor (assuming you want a no-screen camera) - for me, the major plus of this camera
- Built in gps, wifi and iOS/android apps that are well-designed and easy to use
- Reliable wifi connection (least with my set-up).

Minuses:

- Price, especially given that picture quality is average at best, though for the intended purpose it's as adequate as others. Cameras such as the SG1 provide much better overall PQ though it's debatable whether this translates into better capture of licence plates.
- Motion detection is too sensitive, meaning that the dashcam will continually record in all but the darkest parts of the night.

With possible exception of the Thinkware F750, there's still not another dual-cam setup out there that I would go for instead; but this is a rapidly expanding market, and I think there will be far superior products available in the next 12-24 months.

[moulin12]

About to send mine back for a checkup... it seems to randomly reboot itself attimes (dashcam that is).

Also, make sure you get a large SD card to use with it

Have you ruled out intermittent power failure e.g as a result of borderline battery power?

Car batteries are not designed to support extended use of dash-cam car parking modes (certainly not for more than a hour or so at a time).

[dimexi]

I dont have it on parking mode, it's powered through the boot socket, and that goes on and off with ignition

[dimexi]

BV 650-2 pluses:-

- Form factor (assuming you want a no-screen camera) - for me, the major plus of this camera
- Built in gps, wifi and iOS/android apps that are well-designed and easy to use
- Reliable wifi connection (least with my set-up).

Minuses:

- Price, especially given that picture quality is average at best, though for the intended purpose it's as adequate as others. Cameras such as the SG1 provide much better overall PQ though it's debatable whether this translates into better capture of licence plates.
- Motion detection is too sensitive, meaning that the dashcam will continually record in all but the darkest parts of the night.

With possible exception of the Thinkware F750, there's still not another dual-cam setup out there that I would go for instead; but this is a rapidly expanding market, and I think there will be far superior products available in the next 12-24 months.

You can tweak the sensitivity settings (dont know if you were aware).. Even, it is still sensitive - I think you can turn it off all together, as it is easy to navigate and locate videos

[moulin12]

Even on it's lowest setting it's hyper sensitive - it's a known 'issue' for this camera. I understand that the almost continual recording doesn't add much to the power drain, since the cam is always on, monitoring, anyway. The downside really is in recordings been overwritten within the limits of the card. I have 64mb card, which gives me around 24 hour recording, hence for me it's more an annoyance than an issue.

[dimexi]

Even on it's lowest setting it's hyper sensitive - it's a known 'issue' for this camera. I understand that the almost continual recording doesn't add much to the power drain, since the cam is always on, monitoring, anyway. The downside really is in recordings been overwritten within the limits of the card. I have 64mb card, which gives me around 24 hour recording, hence for me it's more an annoyance than an issue.

I think they tried to sweep the sensitivity under the carpet somewhat, with the latest firmware update: The camera doesnt beep anymore when it experiences G levels above range.

The continual recording and the naffness of a 64GB Card really got to me as well, So I upgraded to a 128GB and that keeps going for quite a while (3 weeks for me, before it starts to give SD card errors)

[CandyCupcake]

I have the front only cam with the power box so that it can continue to record when the car is off, however when it goes dark the camera doesn't seem to come on at all. So I'm going to go back to the place that fitted it for me today to find out if it's not working right or if it's me not knowing what I'm doing (probably the latter haha).

From the recordings I've seen and live footage on my phone the quality seems really good!

[dimexi]

The cam wouldn't pick anything up in pitch darkness, except if you have an infrared feature... The Cam sees what YOU see (is the best way to describe it)

[CandyCupcake]

I went back and they had forgotten to fit the magic box (or whatever it's called!) and he's going to look into why the camera isn't coming on when I start the car at night. So hopefully I'll be all up and running on Wednesday!