I realise some of you have bought and fitted quite expensive dashcams, but I only require one for accident recording purposes, and have found the cheap £20 1080p one I had in my previous car more than adequate for that.

It's very small, but has a big sucker mount, and of course also needs to be supplied with 5v so you have the 12v to 5v converter somewhere to fit too.

I wanted something far more discreet for the jag.

My idea is to remove the big sucker mount, and to install a 12v-5v converter inside the camera - elliminating the need for an external converter and also eliminating the naff usb power cable sticking out the side.

This is the model of dashcam I have:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boriyuan-Ve...dash+cam+1080p

And I'll post some pictures of what I do to fit it

 

So firstly, I wanted to put a voltage converter inside - there's plenty of room and the power consumption of the device is small enough that only a small one is required. I used a basic voltage converter from banggood which costs about £1.

I first tested this worked, but supplying 12-14v with my bench supply and powering the unit, leaving it running for a while and checking it didn't get too host (didn't even get warm to touch).

Also you can see the typical usb lead sticking out the side. yuck!

 

I wanted to get rid of the big sucker mount and have a tiny mount that can stick with 3m tape securely to the black section at top of window behind left side of mirror. this means I can see screen just above the mirror, but dashcam is otherwise completed concealed by the mirror.

To do this I designed a new mount in soldworks CAD, and printed it out.

 

Next I took it all apart.

I found it had a tiny 130ma battery inside which explains why if I didn't use the car for a few weeks, it lost its date. So I took the opportunity to replace that with a larger cylindrical lipo cell which fits nicely into the bottom of case and triples the capacity.

 

Next was to drill a small hope in the case to have the 12v power cable come out of. This will then be attached to the converter, and then to the internal connections on the USB plug.

by removing the metal casing around the plug I have internal access to the pins - the two I need are the far left and far right.

 

Then it's a matter of securing the converter (3m tape) to back of circuit board and soldering it all together, and soldering in the new battery.

Finally feeding thing cable out hole for wiring into top of mirror console (where I'll grab a 12v ignition power line)

 

And here's the final result, with the old sucker mount for comparison.

Ready to fit in jag now. I'll post pictures of that and where I wire it in next.

No USB lead/plug sticking out the side anymore, no big sucker mount, and battery life extended to probably over a month to keep date/time.

 

Here's how it looks in position (not fitted yet)

Hopefully comes over how discreet this is. Far more so imho than the blackvue other used, and for a fraction of the price, but each to their own I suppose (2.5in long compared to blackvue 4.7in and that doesn't include power plug sticking out the side they never show in the pictures). However - I'm sure the blackvue has better picture quality, etc - it is 10x more expensive.

 

Really nicely done.

 

Nice step by step. Bravo

 

OK, all done and fitted. There's 12v ignition power connecting to the mirror with a nice delay on it too, which give a bit longer recording than usual after turning off ignition.

Works a treat.

First you need to unclip the plastic surround around the screen - a plectrum is useful to pop it off.

Then rotate the mirror mount (not the mirror) 45 degrees anti clockwise and the mirror and mount comes off.

unclip the connector and off it comes

 

12v switched is on grey/blue wire.

GND is on green/white wire.

 

And all done.

 

Absolutely fantastic. Sadly, with how busy I've been, my DIY has one step, and that is "call the person to take care of it and pay them".

I would (nearly) kill for an installed, constantly running, dashcam that is a "don't have to think about, don't have to worry about", but without any of the process in getting it there.

I think there's a brick and mortar auto parts store that is pivoting to dashcam installs, but not sure the company.

Does *anyone* have a "hand them your car, and they will do it" recommendation? I can't even find the SF CA East Bay shop someone rec'd, I *think* it was this:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/sound-innovations-union-city-2

But if anyone knows the lazy and non DIY way, keep the conversation comin'!