Dash cam install, front and rear

We normally run front & rear dash cams in all vehicles. We have since I lost my 1998 Toyota Tacoma with almost 300k on it to a red light runner in St Louis in the spring of 2014.

These are older, Blackvue 2 channel 900 series, 4k front, 1080p back. Both are still good enough. Newer models in the same series have 4k for front and rear.

Front:


Rear:


The front install was pretty straight forward. I removed the a-pillar moulding and ran the wires behind the airbag, zip-tied them to the wire loom. While running the wire to the back, I made sure to cross behind the curtain airbags and then tuck it just the wire under the headliner's edge.

For the rear camera, I saw a video on someone who made a bracket out a bent piece of aluminum on YouTube, so not my idea originally. I made this bracket out of a gray PVC conduit junction box. Used my miter saw to slowly cut a cross section of the box, sawed it in half with a hacksaw and then used a file and sandpaper to clean it up. The screw is a SS #14, 3/4" screw. The washer is a 1/4" SS fender washer.

Not pictured is the hardwired power plug I added using this product from Amazon:

$9 Cigarette Lighter Extension Cord - 6ft 12V Car Extension Cord, Male Plug to Female Socket Extension Cable with LED Lights16AWG, 15A Fuse for Tire Pump, Air Compressor (6ft)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MZJSR97?th=1

I cut the plug end off, pulled the dash apart below the radio and climate controls and soldered it to the wires feeding the 12v cigarette lighter/power supply.

Things I might do different next time... The bracket I made will spin if it's bumped hard enough. Maybe add some texture or a velcro dot to keep it from spinning?

I hope this helps someone, let me know if it does!

 

I just installed my front yesterday and ran the wire for the back as need to figure out how to mount the rear.

Questions:
- Why not use 2 of the mini add a circuits in the fuse panel? I used 2 of these in my install, one for ACC power and one for constant power all in the fuse box. Ground to the screw that hold the fuse panel in place. I'm no electrician now worried if my way is maybe not the proper way.
- For the rear mount I want to order a bracket from dashcam store in USA, it is $26 but the shipping to Canada is another $70. So that is not a option for me. I like your solution. However what does the screw screws into? Is there some kind of a nut behind the headliner?

 

Add a fuse kits don't last like soldering a connection, it only takes another hour to have something bombproof vs something that might vibrate loose. And...most dash cams only need 1 circuit. The front usually supplies power to the back unit. The memory card for both lives in the front camera.

Tfhere is not a threaded hole or nut behind where I put the screw. It's just sheet metal. If you go comare a #14 screw to a "threaded" machine bolt you'll notice how coarse v fine the threads are. You don't need a PHD in physics to imagine why coarser threads might grab sheet metal better than finer threads right? I would recommend, STRONGLY, that if you pull the plastic trim rivets/thingies, that you use either a plastic trim tool or one made to pull the trim rivets. It is too easy to destroy the trim clips/rivets/etc...

 

FWIW, NASA favors crimped connections over soldered connections whenever possible.

 

So... do you know why? Is it for time savings or because it is more durable?

 

I’m pretty sure it has to do with the thermal extremes that the connections are subject to when in space. The point is that solderless connectors can be just as bomb-proof as soldering.

 

Done incorrectly, solder can wick up stranded wire and becomes susceptible to internal breaks when bent.

 

Well, both soldering and crimping can be done incorrectly. As an aside, every multi-pin connector in the 4Runner has crimped connections.

Just for fun:
https://www.toyota-tech.eu/wire_harness_rm/RM06H0E.pdf

 

I use these taps: https://www.posi-products.com/posiplug.html

 

Solder has an electrical value. If gold or copper is used, the solder is a weak link.

I learned the NASA solder for connecting to audio potentiometers... Strands spread out and a very small amount of solder. It looks like tinned wires on top of a tinned pot. Very thin.

 

Understood, I was a EE Fabrication Tech for a dozen years at a national laboratory before I went over to Mechanical Engineering. I been to classes for cable termination & soldering and have done thousands of mil spec crimped and soldered connectors from 2 pins to 50 pins, sometimes in extremely awkward positions(hanging upside down over cat walks with a flashlight in my teeth) in the field on repairs/upgrades. Really fun on a 50 pin when you mess up as a rookie, most of the outside pins(circular connectors) need to be extracted/unsoldered to get to the ones you reversed or skipped or forgetting to put the back shell on the cable first. Sometimes it was faster to just cut the connecter off and start over again. I worked with ladies who did custom chassis/cable bench work that could name off the 50 conductor color code forwards and backwards in well under a minute. At that time I did all their chassis metal work and silk screening but helped them out when I got caught up. You need to know the color code backwards because you have start in the center of the larger MS connectors and spiral your way out.
The code forwards….
Black -White -Red -Green -Orange -Blue
Then start over again with a black tracer(leaving black out)
Then with a white tracer…..etc.
Then double tracers once the singles are used up.
Not a bad memory considering I’m 68 and I did this mostly 30+ plus years ago….but don’t ask me to do it backwards now without a chart…..lol
To make a short story long I’ve done many different types of connectors/terminations.

 

What a nightmare.

 

Almost the entire time I was in EE I took nighttime mechanical engineering classes. I’m a nuts and bolts kinda guy, you can keep the electrons.

 

My first test plate... Cut from a picture frame glass made of mylar. I think I can cut eight of these base plates out of the one piece. I made the size as it is so that it has a counter tension, so to speak and stays in place a little better and maybe even takes flex a little better too.

I believe I've solved the potential of spinning (thanks @convex) by drilling the hole oblong so that the headliner retainer kind of locks into it. I want this camera to be able to break away. I would rather have this break than it to do some serious damage to somebody's head. As I bought the car for future grandkids that are not even a glimmer in my kids eyes, everything I do is thinking of them in the future.

My wiring solution is to ultimately slice an entry point into the headliner with a grommet allowing the wire to come in at a 45° angle towards the camera. It is a big step for me as I do not wish to uglify a very expensive headliner.

I also have my sights on tying wiring into the gate light circuit that will illuminate the cargo area. Two inexpensive surface mount LED marker lights should do the trick for that. Maybe a third light could be used in the center, to hide the point where the dash cam system wire goes.

 

By the way, I'm floating this after a suggestion by a really thorough dude at a Toyota Collision Center, he suggested getting a small threaded rivet that'll fit in the 4.5 mm hole. Even a small screw could be tightened down to the point where it would not move at all. I couldn't find anything that would fit in such a hole and I would consider it as I know that heat and age will probably degrade the gripping power of that headliner retainer clip.

The one thing I wouldn't want to do would be to compromise any of the sheet metal's coatings or anything that would interact with the zinc rust protection.

A screw like that, with a plastic washer on the mylar base still would break away well enough to my liking while still maintaining a consistent dimension throughout its operational life. Plus, it can be restored to original if new technology comes later by drilling out the rivet.

 

@TeslasBigCarbonFootprint can you describe under what conditions you imagine this camera breaking away?

 

Sure:

•A potential, future grandchild or grandchildren roughhousing in the car while waiting for my kid to return to the car after picking up a sibling at school.

• A pet jumping up into or out of the cargo area.

• A human trying to reach in to remove cargo.

• During the loading or unloading of cargo (better the platform to break than the camera itself).

While the camera can be removed by sliding it parallel with the opening, the perpendicular motion (in and out of the opening) is what is more likely to happen.

 

That’s pretty much what I figured. The reason I ask is that I think with either the plastic fastener or or the rivnut and screw there will be enough resistance to breaking away that roughhousing kids would still be hurt.

 

The mylar base to it is quite flexible and will snap away with less than serious force. The smaller the anchor and washer, the more ability for the mylar to flex there is. The current roof retaining clip is likely made of nylon and will give a little on its own. The mylar is .7 mm and quite pliable when struck at any angle other than dead straight.

A bump or a bruise is a lot better than a gash or concussion (or even worse, a broken camera!) I want an optimized minimization of injury while still providing the more likely-used legal protection needed with external "issues."

I want the most serious injury from any internal incident to be an ass-chewing because they're behaving like feral children who should be abandoned at an orphanage in Nepal just to teach them a lesson.

I do you think I am going to need to put the camera closer to the window though. The lens is set back about 2 inches from where it should be. Not really happy with the view to the outside. On the RAV4s and Prius, I am able to capture drivers behind the car even in adjoining lanes which could be helpful if it's obvious they're screwing around with their cell phone.

Mounting it the bottom of the window opening could certainly solve that problem but then exposes it to more of a cargo breakage risk while decreasing physical injury risks. I would probably need another 6 ft of camera line to accomplish that though.

 

Everyone writes LOL all the time but this made me literally laugh out loud.

 

Thank you.

If we were back in the '90s, the threat would have been "I'll feed you to the dingos."

 

Nice. I am still using my Blackvue 650 from 2014, but I only have a front. May upgrade at some point to front and rear.

Great ideas!

 

Two of our three accidents were rear view camera-dependent.

One accident, both the front and the back captured a man speeding up and slowing down repeatedly over a long time before he finally pit maneuvered me. The combination of the two views was extremely helpful.