Hi folks,

Not so much the usual cry for help, but a write-up on me 'fitting' a dashcam into my GV. I say 'fitting' as the dashcam simply replaces+clips over the rear-view mirror, but I wired in a new cigarette lighter socket and hid it inside the bottom storage bin (for tape cassettes) so this info/write-up is more about routing the wires, and soldering on the connectors to the cigarette lighter socket.

Link to blog post

I've also included photos on how I fed the rear wire, including the damage I did to the plastic around the left rear speaker, as a warning for others on how to do it without doing this damage!

Happy to hear comments+feedback please.

Click here to view

 

I've been thinking about getting one of these for my merc and combining it with a reversing camera as it's a bit tight on our drive with 3 cars on it and the wife complains about the tow bar dents I've put in her GV.

Richard

 

It's a decent little unit, but the reversing camera is lower resolution. I'll get a snapshot from it and post it so you can see, not sure how good it'll be using as a reversing camera. I'll post back after a couple of days use and let you know what the verdict is!
(I bought it for the dashcam, the reverse is just a bonus)

 

Andy, how do you find the view from the reversing camera. Can you see what you are about to reverse into or is it just a view through the rear window?

 

Hi Alan,

I grabbed a screenshot from my drive into work this morning from the rear camera which helps show what it can see.

I've got it positioned up as using it as a dashcam/recorder rather than parking aid, but the view is pretty decent out the rear window. This grab is from sitting in traffic, so the car behind at usual distance.

If you're interested I'll try and angle it down to view my bumper and see what I can get, to help for parking+towbar connecting?

(BTW as you'll see the attachment is upside down, an annoying problem since I move the mirror for right-hand-drive!)

 

Yes, that's more or less the same angle that I view with my rear mounted dashcam. I do like the idea of a true reversing/parking camera but I also want to record what the vehicles are up to behind me, as in this short clip:
Do you have your rear camera wired into the reversing lights or do you have it on with the ignition?

 

Just having a quick look on ebay and found this

new Android 4.0 Car Rear view Mirror Navi GPS + 1080P DVR + Wifi + Backup Camera | eBay

Seems to cover pretty much everything. Even if the built in maps are crap you could still use google maps and connect it to your phone via wifi hot spot. The only extra I'd like to see would be bluetooth to stream audio to the stereo rather than an FM transmitter

Richard