Windshield / Dash HD cam install

Take a look at the homelink mirror installation instructions:

http://toyotapart.com/PT374-47100.pdf

If you want a switched 12V (like when ACC is on), then look at the connection to the side view mirror controls. If you just want a constant 12V, you can get that from the dome light.

 

Mine is comming in a few days.
Don't know how it's going to be or where to mount it yet.

I bought the cheap version from eBay.

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

 

Let us know how it works.

 

Ben,

Are you going to try the install yourself?

 

I have a dash cam that records inside and outside the car. depending on what you are looking to do with the cam, you should consider the one that records you as well. it has gotten me out of two tickets. one was a seatbelt ticket (I was wearing my seat belt but took it off when I was pulled over so I could get my wallet out of my pocket).

The problem is that the windshield of the prius has a much greater pitch which means I would need to mount it almost half way down the windshield so that the rearview mirror doesn't get in the way. that is something to consider. if you do get a camera, spend the extra money to get one with a gps tracker that tells you your speed and g forces and what not. I was rear ended once and the woman stated that I slammed on my brakes and forced her to rear end me and that it was insurance fraud. I brought the camera to court, connected it to my laptop and the software clearly showed that I slowed down at a normal speed and the only time the force meter moved was when she hit me. she was at fault (which is the case in florida but she was trying to prove that I was the bad guy).

long story short, cameras are a great way to cover yourself. I drive a few hundred miles a day with work and there are a lot of times that the camera has saved me. not to mention I've seen some pretty intense wrecks happen in front of me and I've stopped and waited for the police to give them a copy of what it saw (I have my laptop with me in the car and I normally have a stack of blank dvds).

buy a camera that is going to be low profile and doesn't take a lot of space in your windshield, get the gps one that offers the mph and g force and other features. I strongly suggest getting one that has a camera that points inside and if you do this, get one that has a microphone. I had a cop pull me over for having a headlight out (it wasn't out and was clearly not out when I brought the video to court) and then told me that she needed to search my car (I said no since I had done nothing wrong and she was already wasting my time), she didn't like my answer so she made me wait until the K9 unit showed up and when it did, they opened my rear door and the dog jumped in and scratched my leather. They found nothing, obviously, and I was left with a ticket for a headlight that wasn't out, a rip in my rear seat, and a cop who said "I know your car now and every single time I see you, I'm going to pull you over and make your life hell." this was all caught on my dash camera and all brought to the judge. the cop was fired, my seat was repaired, I got into trouble for recording police without their knowledge but due to the circumstances I was just slapped on the wrist. The kicker, this all happened on Thanksgiving night. We ordered food to go from a place that was 1 mile from my house and they forgot something so I had to go back and get it. I was within eye sight of my house when she pulled me over. she was obviously not happy about working a holiday.

there is my rant about dash cameras. they are great. if you are getting them to record yourself doing burnouts and drifting, stick with a go pro but if you are getting them for personal protection, spend the extra money and get one with features that will give you a return on your investment. make sure you buy one with continuous loop so that when the memory card is full, it erases the oldest footage to make room for the newest.

 

KSC, what dashcam do you have?
Thanks!

 

2012 SALE - Cantek DR-200 2 Channel Mobile DVR

that isn't the website I bought it from but that is the camera. I paid around 250 for it.

another to consider would be a camera that has a monitor built into it. I've seen them before but can't find them now. they are double the price but could mean the difference between getting a ticket or not. unless you are like me and have a laptop in the car with you and you can just stick the memory card in and show the cop what happened, the monitor would help. "officer, I am not at fault, here is the video of exactly what happened" and thus no ticket and no waste of time at the courthouse.

 

So where do you have it mounted exactly? any pictures? Thanks for your help!

 

I don't have it mounted in my prius yet. its only a month old. I need to get a 2x2x2 square of something lightweight and double stick that onto the window and the camera. my other car was a lot faster and a much larger cop magnet.

 

My wife is using a dual camera VC-250 Dash Cam in her car. It is a Volvo but she has it mounted down low on the dash next to her Radar Detector. Here are some sample videos. THE VIDEO DASH CAM STORE - VC-250 Video. I never thought about it being good for a seat belt ticket. Good Point.
This camera does record date, time, vehicle speed, and GPS location that can be viewed in Google maps when online.

It has the same funcion as the Cam I use in my Prius but both front and rear videos in the software.

.

Here is a HD dash cam with the same features. All of them you can plug a monitor to it with a cable and watch the video directly from the camera. The HD Cam is up to 1920x1080p. Bear it mind, that quality does consume a lot of disk space. But you can bump it down to 1280x720 to get more time.
THE VIDEO DASH CAM STORE - VC127 HD Video Sample

Prices range from around $230 -$300. Ready to run right out of the back. Easy to install as a radar detector or GPS.

 

Thanks Wardntx, looks like a nice camera. It does not give dimensions of the unit on the web site. The unit looks large but it is hard to tell from a picture. What are the appoximate dimensions. Thanks!

 

All the cameras are about the size of a pack of cigarettes. 10's not kings.

Actual dimension of the VC-250 is
4.5 " long x
1 " tall x
2.25" width

They come with a 3 cup suction mount and a 3m tape mount when you decide a good location for it. Then you can slide it out and put the cups back on and use it in another vehicle if you have 2 vehicles.

I have a 32gb micro sd in mine. Class 10 Adata cost me around $25 online. Supermediastore.com
I use the 128 and get well over 24 hours of video time so it lasts me well over a week and I am a computer tech so I drive my car a lot.

 

have you installed your dash cam yet ?

how did you hardwire it ?

which fuse did you use ?

thanks

 

Wont the video cycle on the card so you always have a current video stream? So you really dont need huge SD cards?

Or does it just record to the same file until full and stop?

Thanks!

 

I installed a pair of DR-400G's in my 2012 Prius a few months ago, front and back, with hidden wiring. I'm satisfied with the end result, though I learned some lessons. The heavy slope on the front windshield gives a very strong reflection in nighttime video. I think maybe I should have mounted it at the bottom of the windshield instead, although hiding the wires would have been much harder. I've put a piece of tape over the serial port to prevent accidentally putting the power plug in there - done that a few times. No harm to the camera, but it doesn't record that way.

I have the auto-dimming mirror, so I routed the wire up that column. I had to cut off the connector to thread it through, and there was barely enough room. On the ceiling, I stuffed the wire inside the headliner over to the driver side. There, I pulled the A-frame lining and routed the wire down the vertical column to the fuse box. I hooked it up to a Power Magic Pro (inaptly called an "uninterrupted power supply") before going to the fusebox. I have the switch set to 11.8V, but in the winter the switch sometimes trips within a few hours of turning off the car.

The DR-400G themselves have mostly worked, with some reliability problems with the SD cards they came with. The card sometimes gets corrupted, causing the camera to repeat over and over again "Please insert SD card" while you're driving. Reformatting fixes it, but there's another problem. The manufacturer says to do a low-level reformat once a week, which is ridiculously onerous to me. On top of that the included cards do not permit low-level format at all, according to the SD industry program recommended by BlackVue. I'll buy new ones when I get too annoyed.

I pulled the cover in front of the dome light assembly, though it later turned out to be unnecessary. Despite my best efforts, I broke a clip in the process - doesn't show though. Inside, I found enough room to fit a cigarette lighter extension socket and plug, if you wanted one, and of course you could connect to the dome light. But I wouldn't recommend that given how easily my voltage switch trips in the winter. Maybe hooking up to the little LED shift-stick spotlight in there? Or the auto-dimming mirror? I didn't explore those options.

 

In the fuse box, I found that on/off behaviour was grouped by fuse column. The centre column of fuses are permanently on, whereas either side is off when the car is off. I think the right and left sides behave differently when in the ACC mode, but I did not thoroughly test that.



The camera is looking up, the top of the picture is towards the back of the car, the right side is the passenger side. Yeah, I broke my power seat front left fuse while trying to pull it. I would recommend using fuse tabs available from Amazon rather than just shoving the wires in like me. Be sure that your wire is on the fused side - I think I did that right.

 

that looks great! cant tell that the camera is even there when looking out from the drivers seat i bet.