[gemini.m3]

Hey guys, so I plan to get a dash cam for my CS, not because I plan to park it too many places, but primarily for the popo and and in case some idiot on the road decides to be an asshole and if I need to drop my car off anywhere for service, being able to see would be great.

It seems the only real option right now if you want LTE or cloud services in general is the Blackvue 750 CH LTE - about $420.

There is a much cheaper Vantrue N4 which brings 3 total channels (front, cabin, rear) but lacks on the cloud services and I believe Blackvue has the best eco system in terms of battery packs and things like blendmount, etc.

Anyone looking at this as well? What are you considering?

[sdhotwn]

I will be putting one in as well, I have not done anything in my cars previously with LTE/cloud though. Which makes for a lot of additional choices. Haven't felt like the constant backup was needed. High quality memory card is "good enough" from my view.

[gmhl10]

This guy seems to have a nice set up.

[to_riffic]

I think the cloud option is overkill. As long as you have the blackmagic power system connected to the car, then it can allow for up to 36? hours of record time. I have mine set at 8hrs since I rarely have had to drive it anywhere and it runs off the battery but when it detects a dip in charge, then it'll turn off. Another option is installing the additional power packs to it and not rely solely on your car's battery.

LTE is cool, but having to pay a subscription is not necessary if you're already recording it in the SD card, just be sure you have at least 128GB rather than the crap 16gb which will fill up fast and recycle/rewrite over existing footage. And because it's front and back, it'll fill up really fast as mentioned.

I know too many friends that have been in accidents not to their fault, and recently younger brother got into a fender bender and they totaled his car, with dash cam, could have saved his butt and put the blame squarely on the other party. Now it just becomes he said/she said situation.

[gemini.m3]

I like that the dash cams are a deterrent. They are noticeable- if you drop your car off at the dealer the likelihood of a joy ride is pretty slim I think!

[medphysdave]

There were a few good youtube videos on some of this year's models. Some considerations are if you prefer better night visibility. Do you want to be able to read license plates on cars that pass you etc. 4k front camera seemed worthwhile to me.

However, you don't need really high resolution to prove someone caused an accident. 1080p should be fine for that. I liked the idea of two channels for front and rear.

[jkoral]

Originally Posted by deceptiv-cs

I like that the dash cams are a deterrent. They are noticeable- if you drop your car off at the dealer the likelihood of a joy ride is pretty slim I think!

Multiple stories on bimmerpost about service techs unplugging dash cams, for example (and if you google you will find the same for other makes):

https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1592882
https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1586610
https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1657008
https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1647278
and many more...

[gemini.m3]

crazy, I think if a dealer did that to me our relationship would end there. Good to know and make sure I let the SA know in the future should I ever need to drop off the car. I rather change the oil myself than let them touch it but no choice for the break in service.

[MadBimmeRad]

Surely, they can tape a cardboard to the windscreen to block off the field of view of the dash-cam rather than disconnecting it altogether

[gmhl10]

Originally Posted by MadBimmeRad

Surely, they can tape a cardboard to the windscreen to block off the field of view of the dash-cam rather than disconnecting it altogether

But, then that'd take more brain work and they wouldn't have an excuse about all the swearing they do about the customer recorded on the audio.

[MadBimmeRad]

Originally Posted by gmhl10

But, then that'd take more brain work and they wouldn't have an excuse about all the swearing they do about the customer recorded on the audio.

The smarter the technology, the dumber the dumbasses get

[to_riffic]

For the CS

[RideM]

Originally Posted by to_riffic

For the CS

Very interested in your feedback once installed

[to_riffic]

Originally Posted by RideM

Very interested in your feedback once installed

Wife has the same front/rear setup in her Prius, video quality is fantastic. Had the 750s in the X3M, but I'll put that in the E46 and put the 900 in the CS, but will add the extended battery this time as well. Blackvue has been solid.

[Golden3ye]

How are these things wired up? Are they wired up?

[to_riffic]

Originally Posted by Golden3ye

How are these things wired up? Are they wired up?

you can either tap a fuse or use the OBDII power adapter.

[mikeyymonster]

Originally Posted by jkoral

Multiple stories on bimmerpost about service techs unplugging dash cams, for example (and if you google you will find the same for other makes):

https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1592882
https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1586610
https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1657008
https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1647278
and many more...

I've gotten the habit of disconnecting it when I go in for service so they don't yank all the line out from the headliner. Works 50% of the time, they just pull everything off which is very very annoying.

[to_riffic]

I went with the blackboxmycar extended battery and hid it under the trunk cover. Utilizing the rear 12v socket rather than tapping into the fuse. Tapping the fuse isn't difficult at all either, but just didn't feel like it at the moment. Maybe I'll do it in a week when I have more free time.

Eitherway, doing it this way, when you run the cable, you will be short about 6in. when your'e tucking the main power cable, but nothing that a splice the cable and adding an extra ft and posi tapping the connections can't do.

Nevertheless, I think it came out great, and now I have a battery backup that'll allow over 36 hrs of continuous recording w/o having to utilize the main vehicle battery at all.

[sdhotwn]

I'm putting in the Rexing VP1 this next week. Does parking mode without power draw off the battery which should be interesting to see if it works properly or not.

[Skotcoop]

I went with the Vantrue N4 for my G01 and have been happy with it despite not having cloud services. Its not that difficult to pop the card out and throw it in a reader. Obviously the only problem with that is retrieval should a major accident happen. For $18 you can get the ODB power adapter so no need to hardwire it. Plus since it has a capacitor it'll still work for a few minutes after unplugging it from the port. The cameras themselves work great as far as quality and playback but the interface is a little annoying.

[Golden3ye]

What does the wiring look like coming from ODB port? I can’t visualize how they makes it to the windshield in any clean way

[sdhotwn]

Originally Posted by Golden3ye

What does the wiring look like coming from ODB port? I can’t visualize how they makes it to the windshield in any clean way

There was a video posted about this and showed it tucked along headliner and a pillar.