JimmyXi

I've ordered one of the Viofo 119 cams after reading a lot of reviews. 'Techmoan' on YouTube has been my go-to reviewer for small, sports cams for years. He likes the price/utility factor of this unit.



The trick, I gather, is putting the cam high enough so you don't alway see it (mine will be on the passenger's side) but low enough to slide it out of the windshield mount. BUT, maybe, one of you has done all this already and can help old 'Ray Charles' here down the stairs... I want this to run 24/7 so I need to find a live 12v wire also... It's a pisser I cannot leave my phone charging when the ignition is off. (I have a Merc SUV that has one fully live port.)

Jim

TSXV6Guy

I have mounted one on the dots - sticky tape works well and never had a problem for 2 years now.
For power, I tapped into the switched power from the rear view mirror, it works well (but only when the car is running). I am sure there is a constant live wire there powering the lights or the homelink. However, you may drain the car's battery.

JimmyXi

Thanks, Guy... Finding power in the mirror would be better than attempting snake the wiring up the A-pilar. I assume you simply removed some trim to find it...

I've re-thought the business about having it record 24/7 .. I live in the country, own my building at my business, so it's not like parking in Boston or Chicago where seemingly only rugby players qualify for a driver's license. I also understand there is a secondary battery you could use when the key is off, then re-charges when you start the car - that would act as a bridge. Cheers. Jim

TSXV6Guy

Yeah - I removed the "roof console" aka sunglass holder - You need to pop the map light lenses and there are a few screws in there. The BROWN Wire that feeds the mirror is the +12 power (Switched with the ignition). (Make sure you double check this!!).

JimmyXi

Perfect, thanks for the instructions. I only need to wait for my unit; it may be one run off 5v, not 12. Cheers. Jim

(I'll post my progress to this thread)

RTM

Mine is sitting on my desk at home. Hurry up and finish already, so I don't have to re invent the wheel. Thanks TSXV6guy for the color hint.

JimmyXi

I decided on a 'professional' install. It's that '5Volt' issue again. I may have even bricked the unit simply plugging it into my USB port on this iMac.... I was going to do 'settings' in advance watching YouTube, but all I got was 'MASS STORAGE' on the screen. The guy who does the installs has a funny (well, maybe not funny..) primary job; he puts in 'Blow here to start your car' units for DWIs who never learned to ride a bike. He doesn't advertise what he does around his church, or the softball leage he coaches; there are plenty of: "Ooooops!" He said he will fit me in, but he stays pretty busy! More to come...

One thing: Get a HiPo Micro SD card. I got a 64GB, #633x from Lexar. Class 10/UHS-1 off Amazon ...about $24 - I think. Here's a treatise about performance cards for video.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora...-money-can-buy

Jim

JimmyXi

OK... Had my local; "Here, show this receipt to the judge." guy do the wiring. Damn 5v (why?!) made me buy an extra 'cigarette lighter' outlet. Anyway, he used a fuse tap and buried the 12v outlet in near the fuse panel and ran the cable, unseen, up the A-pillar, etc.. Of course I didn't take the time to set the date ...or any of those important things. And rather the post a video, these are screen grabs coming out of my drive this morning. Windshield is dirty with pollen and bugs, but it does pretty well in spite of who is using it. Jim (note: I hung three jpgs ..but only one shows in my preview)

JimmyXi

JimmyXi

RTM

Nice commute

opboarding

Where are all the buildings?

EuroRspec

iTrader: (1)

I've been looking for a cost effective and small dash cam. Can anyone recommend one?

Crash23

I've looked into a few models, the Viofo A119 is the best reviewed budget cam I've seen. It's the one I'm planning on getting and mounting exactly like the pic in the top of the thread.

https://dashcamtalk.com/ for good comparisons and breakdowns.

On an unrelated topic, if you want an always on/parking mode camera, but don't want to drain your battery, BlackVue makes a battery saver that kills the camera after a set amount of time or remaining battery voltage - https://www.blackvue.com/power-magic-pro/

JimmyXi

I just got an email ping that Crash23 posted today. UPDATE: I don't have anything to add—except, other than hearing the camera light up when I turn the key, I have not noticed it up there. (it is placed on the right side of the RV mirror so I don't even see it) I guess I will have to wait for a meteorite like the one recorded by car cams in Siberia or some other C'hit happens. Cheers.

Jim

cu2wagon

How do you find the night time recording to be? Is everything pretty clear or does the image quality suffer?

Any chance you could post an image of what it looks like at night?

Crash23

JimmyXi (or anyone else who has done this) How did you run the wiring of the camera? How hard was it to go down the pillar to underneath the dash? Do you happen to have any pictures of it? I'm hoping to start running the power cord in the next day or two.

Thanks!

RTM

Well, that was a raging disaster. I bought a 12V to 5V USB adapter, had the pic of the overhead console removal process, and this thread open in front of me.

I wasn't really keen on unwrapping all the insulation etc around the mirror wire, as it was all tucked in so nicely. So I got out the meter, and found a couple of wires that were ground and switched hot, and tried to install some vampire taps. Unit did not power up. The vampire tap on hot wasn't good (maybe wire too thin), so I started poking about trying to find a second hot. Big mistake, never work with the car on, ignored my own advice. Something to do with stupid hot weather here, shaky hands, poor eyesight, I blew a fuse on the dash (7.5a Meter) Replaced it with the one from the driving lights, car starts again. Put a spare into the driving lights, all seems good.

Several hours later, try to run out for milk, Check Emission System lights come on. And stays on after getting milk. Crud, googled some, figured I would look more today.

Started it up today, the CEL is gone, all is good.

This time I thing I will chase a new fuse and snake the wire up the A Pillar

Thanks guys for the help, just need better practice in installing.

robpp

iTrader: (2)

i used a male pin connector to tap into the connector on the back on the mirror for my radar detector, why cant you do the same with your 12v to 5v?

robpp

iTrader: (2)

i found a crappy picture attached

RTM

I was actually thinking about that the last few days, just crimping a connector on, and friction fitting it into the back of another connector. More later, thanks