Bought an HD Dash Cam for my LEAF - Check it out here...

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Neat.. Something like this would have been awesome when poor Joulee3 was in the accident in the carpool lane.. The eBay write up mentions 1, 3 and 5 minute recording.. I'm guessing you can set it up to record the last few minutes in an endless loop then hit a button to save it to.. what, microSD? I'm guessing you wouldn't need too a big SD card if you only wanted the last 1/3/5 minutes right? I understand others want to make full drive recordings, but if you only wanted to record the last few minutes prior to hitting a button is that more or less how these work?
 
Lasareath said:
Do you remove it from your car ever?

While it is somewhat removable, I do not remove it. It can be clipped in and out fairly easily, but it tucks in behind the mirror and it not easily visible from the outside, so I just leave it. It does power down every time right now, so I don't get the benefit of the parking mode. I have left the car in "ready" mode, on a few occasions, which allows the unit to go into parking mode. I like the parking mode, and I'll probably figure out a way to keep it powered all the time to enable it.
 
GregH said:
Neat.. Something like this would have been awesome when poor Joulee3 was in the accident in the carpool lane.. The eBay write up mentions 1, 3 and 5 minute recording.. I'm guessing you can set it up to record the last few minutes in an endless loop then hit a button to save it to.. what, microSD? I'm guessing you wouldn't need too a big SD card if you only wanted the last 1/3/5 minutes right? I understand others want to make full drive recordings, but if you only wanted to record the last few minutes prior to hitting a button is that more or less how these work?

On the Lukas you set up the length of the video clips. Mine are 3 minute clips right now and with an 8GB SD card you get about 25 clips recorded.

You can set up the memory in three choices for the driving, event (bump/jolt/button press....) and motion (parking mode). Based on your selection for the memory division, you get a certain number of clips stored on the memory card. FIFO stack of the clips.

2lY9jH2DHG
 
Lasareath said:
Here's one 1 minute video of me pulling out of a poorly labelled handicap spot and moving to a non-handicap space.

I found you get a little bit better picture if you point the camera down a bit further than you have shown. With all the sky in the image the brightness gets turned way down automatically and you cant see the other cars as well. If you lower the image and get more of a static picture of the car in the image (about 25-30% of the lower image), and less bright sky, it greatly improves the brightness of the images.
 
I was thinking of putting one of these USB mobile phone recharging batteries in my glove box. While I'm driving it will be charging and providing power to the dash cam and when i turn off the Leaf the USB battery will provide power.

That might work.


EVDRIVER said:
I may hardwire this so that I have a switch that will go between ignition hot and always hot. This way I can have it on every time I drive automatically or the option to turn it off and also have it on all the time with the car off when parked in questionable situations.
 
Been thinking about this and what I really need is a direct line from the 12V battery and a power switch because I don't want to come home and record my garage door for 8 hours. When I'm parked in the city then I want the camera recording. When I'm home I'll turn off the power to the camera.
 
Got my camera in the mail yesterday. The camera runs on 5V. There is a power supply built into the cigarette lighter plug. It would not be practical to connect the device to the mirror. It might be possible to take the case off and put the guts in the head liner. It could be powered by the light circuit.

I know from experience mounting police cameras that the windshield must be warm or the adhesive will not stick. It is in the forties so I am going to wait for a warm spell to mount the camera.
 
GlennD said:
Got my camera in the mail yesterday. The camera runs on 5V. There is a power supply built into the cigarette lighter plug. It would not be practical to connect the device to the mirror. It might be possible to take the case off and put the guts in the head liner. It could be powered by the light circuit.

I was able to place my BlackVue behind the mirror, then use the mirror cable shroud to conceal the dashcam cable all the way up to the headliner where I routed it just behind the headliner to the passenger A pillar trim, down to under the dash (where I coiled up and hid the excess wiring), then to the cigarette lighter. Super easy, and looks like a professional install, without tapping into any other power sources.

The only negative is the LEAF turns off the cigarette lighter when it shuts down. I would like to find the relay that controls this and rig something to prevent it from turning off. Anyone have ideas?
 
I ran my wires exactly like yours.

But I'm going to install a cig lighter in the glove box that is directly connected to the 12V battery with a power switch.

So when I'm home parked for the night I'll flip the power switch and kill the power to the cig lighter. And the dash cam will shut down on its own.
 
I don't know what Glenn means by the mirror being impractical. I wired a 12V Passport 8500 to my 350Z's mirror power and it worked very well:

http://www.350z-tech.com/forums/141-how-articles/45581-how-hard-wire-passport-8500-a.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It makes for a very clean install, and if you use quick taps you don't have to break out your iron.
 
The problem is that the camera requires 5V, not 12V. This means that there is a switching supply in the plug.
 
If you follow z0ners advice please order a replacement first. It is highly unlikely that you have a 5V Leaf.
 
Thanks for posting this.

For me I just ran the power cord under the headliner and it looks good. meaning you can't see the wire. it took around 300 seconds.

In the spring I'll run a wire from the battery since the cig lighter turns off when the LEAF is off.



z0ner said:
I don't know what Glenn means by the mirror being impractical. I wired a 12V Passport 8500 to my 350Z's mirror power and it worked very well:

http://www.350z-tech.com/forums/141-how-articles/45581-how-hard-wire-passport-8500-a.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It makes for a very clean install, and if you use quick taps you don't have to break out your iron.
 
For anyone interested using the stock 12V to 5V power cord I measured the current drain.

With the display on aprox .15A

With the display timed out aprox .06A

It should be OK for short term use connected to continuous 12V. If you are going to leave the car parked long term simply unplug the power to the camera. The unloaded current of the adapter is tiny.

All currents were measured on the 3A analog meter of my small supply. I was not motivated enough to stick a DVM in series.
 
I've been studying this camera since I found this post. I've ordered one for the front of the car, but also decided I'm going to use a 2nd as the backup camera. I bought a 2013 SL without the premium package and have been planning to install the rearview camera for the NAV view since I got it. So- I just had the bright idea to put a 2nd dash cam in the rear window, and use the analog Video out for the rear camera in the NAV.

It should be easier, and cheaper than ordering all the OEM camera, wiring harness and replacement hatch handle. With the added benefit of being a rearview DVR.
 
Please post some pics how you do it. I'm interested


RePo said:
I've been studying this camera since I found this post. I've ordered one for the front of the car, but also decided I'm going to use a 2nd as the backup camera. I bought a 2013 SL without the premium package and have been planning to install the rearview camera for the NAV view since I got it. So- I just had the bright idea to put a 2nd dash cam in the rear window, and use the analog Video out for the rear camera in the NAV.

It should be easier, and cheaper than ordering all the OEM camera, wiring harness and replacement hatch handle. With the added benefit of being a rearview DVR.
 
OK! Installed this DVR today, doubling as the backup camera for my '13 SL.

4g58.jpg


wdj6.jpg


I had to mount it high because when it was located in the lower window it couldn't look straight down without the window sill being in most of the frame.

5oe6.jpg


I still have to lower the aim a little, but need a elbow plug for the video output on the DVR, since it's on the top of the camera and runs into the glass right now when I try to aim it down.

The wiring discussion I used to install it is located at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10107&start=110
 
saw this thread and went on a google tangent as the cam I bought a while ago stopped working. Well it works but it's really flaky..

In my travels, I found custom firmware for the camera the OP bought that has some minor improvements... thought some of you might be interested.

http://forum.dashcamtalk.com/threads/mini0801-custom-firmwares.3396" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
I saw that, so I got the recommended Samsung class 6 memory card and the newest firmware that will record .mov files instead of the mystery .ts video files. It's been good so far for the 2 days I tested it before tearing the car all up to install it. I plan to have a 2nd in the front, too, after this one proves out for a few weeks.
 
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