Technical Car Video Camera fitting

[P1NKY]

I wanted to fit a video camera to Scrappy for everyday use as the number of numpties on my commute seems to be increasing.

I chose a Transcend DrivePro 200. It's not the poshest, but it's won some awards. Amazon supplied a 12v to 5v dc:dc converter for less than a tenner.

The inside of a Fiat Panda interior light doesn't have a lot of high tech about it. Following dragonMan's advice I took a 12v +ve from the interior light feed, as the camera has it's own on/off switch.

I shaped the potted dc:dc converter to make a better fit for the curved side of the interior light and marked it up for drilling.

After some measuring, gluing, soldering, heatshrink and sweating, I had a thing that should provide a tidy feed for my video camera.

Everything back in place, the only remaining check was that the lead snaked to the right place without getting in the way and the interior light still works.

Scrappy can now provide video evidence of shallow gene pools where required

PS No idea why some of the pictures are upside down, I'm not

 

[Dragon Man]

nice nice.. if the camera has a motion detect setting, be sure to enable that that will make it auto turn on and off when it detects when you move. also it makes a great CCTV device if you have a drive where you have to walk past the car.

 

[P1NKY]

nice nice.. if the camera has a motion detect setting, be sure to enable that that will make it auto turn on and off when it detects when you move. also it makes a great CCTV device if you have a drive where you have to walk past the car.

Unfortunately no motion detector apart from the shock sensor, but that has variable sensitivity, so I need to experiment....

 

[Goudrons]

I've been fitting cameras to my fleet of newer Pandas, and they are handy to have, especially around here in South London.

There's some great info on them here
https://dashcamtalk.com/
And there's also a forum on there that offers great help and advice.

I went for a couple of Chinese made A118C's, cheap, but work very well and images are pretty good and after a read of that site, it appears all the branded ones have the same parts inside and made by the same factories, particularly the Nextbase ones.

The A118C sticks direct to the screen in the shaded area behind the mirror and little of the camera shows outwardly, so it can stay in all the time.

The C is for capacitor, so no battery to over heat, blow up or leak.

I bought one as it is and another with a GPS receiver, both together cost less and £100.

I've wired in another power socket inside the glove boxes using a fuse tap.
I binned the standard cable/plug for a double USB ciggie plug and just a normal 3 metre USB A to Mini power cable so I could wiring in another USB power cable for my satnav into the same socket.
I just hate having dangling wires everywhere!

As a bonus, certain insurance companies offer discounts, Swiftcover offer between 8 & 10% off depending on what camera you've bought.

 

[Dan at Adrian Flux]

Hi,
Just to let you know that a number of our insurance schemes offer discounts for a wide range of approved in-car cameras.
https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/dash-cam-insurance/
Regards,
Dan.