Thanks Neil and hope someone else benefits from it!
I've recently found myself seriously considering installing a dashcam primarily for safety purposes. I had a few requirements:
- must be discreet
- must be good quality during the day and night time at 1080p
- must be easy to remove
- must have an adjustable lens
- must have a screen so you can align the lens
- must be capacitor-based rather than a lithium ion battery
After hours of review on YouTube, i settled for the
Novatek B40 A118C. There is a great article
here with a full comparison on a range of cameras which is useful for anyone else looking for a dash-cam.
As opposed to plugging it into the cigarette lighter, i wanted to achieve the following:
- all cables to be consealed
- for the camera (and phone charging cable) to be switchable so that the power turns on the moment you turn the key and turns off the moment the key comes out the ignition
I ended up buying a 12v to 5v converter with 2 female USB sockets and added this to a little thing called an 'add-a-fuse' which allows you to neatly add a fuse and easily plug it into your fuse box.
I chose the bottom blue 15A fuse (for fridge) in the passenger fuse box (Left in the UK) as it was 1 of only 2 that were switched (the other was a 5A for the engine ECU which i didn't want to use and the right fuse box by the driver didn't appear to have any that switched off when the ignition was off).
Here you can see the 12V to 5V converter cables being earthed (bottom bolt in the picture below and powered up using the add-a-fuse:
This is where i placed the camera:
This is what it looks like installed:
And here is a little video of the camera in use...i have since shortened the video lengths from 5 mins to 3 mins and turned off 'audio-record' as there is not much point.
https://youtu.be/9yE8P-TymJk
Oli