Rear Dashcam and how to power it.

Hi,

I've had a dashcam hardwired to the front of my '17 Alhambra and am very pleased with the installation and the way that the dashcam operates, so much so that I want to fit one to the rear of the car too.

Trouble is, where to mount it? Ideally it would be in the centre of either the top or bottom of the rear window but the tailgate hinges away and up from the car body - this leaves a gap that a conventional install to the fusebox would require the cable to slightly longer because when the tailgate is open it would need to bridge the gap. I'd rather not leave it so messy because that extra cable would dangle when the tailgate was closed.

In the absence of power in the tailgate itself has anyone any constructive suggestions? For information the dashcam is a 'Goluk T2'

Thanks in anticipation.

I have made a small bracket that I have attached to the rear headlining, this means the camera is attached to the car not the door. It also means that the camera is looking back even with the door open. I have made the bracket hinged so that it can be swung up and locked out of the way whilst I load the boot up.

thanks for the reply, appreciated.

I'm loath to fix to the headlining (so far anyway). The car's 6 weeks old and I'm scratching my head trying to figure out a way to do it tidily and without affecting stuff like headlining.

The front one is hard wired and 'always on' with a box of tricks that will shut down the system if the voltage on the battery drops to a certain point. otherwise it guards the car when it's locked up - activated not just by a g'meter but also a motion detector. there's no screen on the dashcam, it syncs to your phone and videos of interest are both preserved on the camera as well as the phone.

I've left it for 72 hours with no perceivable effect on the car battery so it clearly works well.

It's good enough that the wireless connection will work from the house when the car is 20 yards down the drive. really convenient.

I'll explore the possibility of a feed that follows the loom into the tailgate and try from there. if anyone has experience of this route please say hi.

What bitrates does it record at and what GB size SD card do you need to capture 72 hrs ?

The camera is tubular in design, 90 x 30mm and quite discreet. it rotates in its mount so is easy to set up.

It records full HD at 30fps. Image quality is very good, playing back on a 42" Plasma display is a good test, it passes with ease.

The dashcam comes supplied with a 32Gb card (it will accept a 64Gb) the microsd card is formatted into three folders;

1) Loop folder; three minute file size loop recording, erasing the older video files when the card is 'full'
2) Urgent folder; recordings that are triggered by the adjustable g- sensor and thus protected from erasure as in 1 above.
3) User folder; the camera comes with a separate button that can be stuck in a convenient place in the car. Pressing the button will preserve a recording - perhaps something you've witnessed that won't trigger the g sensor but
you want a record of.

On the latest firmware you have a choice of setting for these user recordings; 12 seconds or 30 seconds. In both cases the recording is saved from a time before you press the button, either 6 seconds or 15 seconds before you press and the same amount of time afterwards.

The dashcam is configured via smartphone over wi-fi. I've found the wifi to be really good as my phone readily connects to the dashcam while its still in the car and I'm in the house, 20 yards away. It makes it easy to transfer video files that you wish to keep and delete others from the microsd card that you don't want and thus free up space. Of course you can do this in the car if you wish.

I bought it on a 'special' from A_ _ _ _ n for £80 and the hardwire kit from the same place for £8.

Hope that's of some help :)

I would be a bit reluctant to fix to a new headlining as well. I use a screen mounted camera which I have fed from a permanent supply feed which lets me keep the camera running at all times - this has proven very handy when a bus side swiped my mirror clean off whilst vehicle was parked. Downloaded video to phone and sent it to the bus company asking them to review their on board bus video and they paid for the new mirror without any arguing.

No mention of bitrate Derek ;) , sounds good though , which camera is it ?

It's a Goluk T2, if I get a minute I'll get a photo of it in situ.