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Yeah car cigarette power outlet or you can hard wire it.
If you want a clean look, Best Buy Geek Squad can hide the wires for your for $50 and hardwire for $90 I think.
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thank you for stating the obvious, i donāt want a cord hanging down the middle of my car though
Obvious answer to your question.
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Dash cams usually come with enough cord to run from the top of the windshield, tucking it under the headliner, then down the A pillar, underneath the footwell, through gaps in trim panels and then into the cig lighter. You may need a couple of zip ties here and there. Iāve wired mine without taking any panels off and you canāt see any wires.
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Just got a quote off a car stereo install guy to hardwire for $50ā¦
Thatās pretty good. Usually they want more. Where are you located?
LA (SFV and Hollywood)
hardwire is pretty easy if its just the front. routing a rear camera can be a big pain especially in a car with a hatch or suv. usually they come with a trim tool. $50 seems pretty cheap though provided they know your vehicle. my 911 i did break a peg in one piece of trim that i epoxied back (not uncommon to do it). I had the best experience with street guardian, which is similar to viofo. I prefer having a screen that i can see whats going on, since the blackvue i originally got was not compatible with a google pixel phone, and rendered it useless. depending if your model has a parking mode, you need to hardwire with a 3 wire kit, or if not just a 2 wire with a fuse-tap.
Do you leave your camera on all night? My car has been hit a few times, so Iām wondering if leaving it on at night would catch the guilty party.
It will drain your car battery, for sure (if the power outlet is not cut off with the engine off). But cameras have built in batteries for this situations.
Most cameras turn off when the car is turned off. Usually the built in battery lasts only a few min unless you find a camera that really has a good built in battery. Some cameras have āparking modeā or something and they will turn on themselves if they feel motion (someone hitting the car).
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Thanks, Iāll look for a camera that will turn on at night if it senses someone hitting it.
Personally I prefer the camera to be black to make it harder to spot in the windshield.
Agree. There is a cheaper one in black, but with something like 130 degrees.
Those who wants a no frills dashcam just to āset it and forget itā, I recommend Aukey 4k. No fancy features, just 4k recording, a ton of cable and very low profile, not visible at all from outside if you place it on top of the windshield.
āHackedā it for $50 on ebay new.
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Been looking at dashcams for months. There are so many available dashcams I have no idea which one I want. It definitely needs park mode 170 degree view good night viewing and wifi. Every article I read says the Garmin is really good but then I look at the specs and read personal reviews and find it just mediocre.
What dash cams are you guys using?
Any great recommendations?
Thanks
None of them will have real 5 star reviews, so itās up to you.
I would overthink it and over spend. Park mode is only effective if someone hits the front of your car so I think that is a limited feature.
Just buy something in the $40-60 range on Amazon and try it out. Return it if it isnāt good but really you just need the basics.