landslide03

iTrader: (1)

Hi guys,

My friend just got in an auto accident and long story short it was a he said she said battle on who was at fault. So it got me thinking to start a project I have been wanting to do. I had some old parts laying around from my R/C drone and thought I would make a dashcam.

I wanted to make one that was hardwired, discrete and could not be seen from the divers or passengers seat in the cabin. I also wanted something that I could leave alone and would record over itself once the micro sd card gets full so i don't have to do any kind of maintenance.

I had a Mobius action cam laying around with a wide angle lens. They go for about 60-80 bucks. They are pretty good, they can record 60 fps at 720p and 30 fps at 1080p. The Mobius also has a feature when it is connected to usb power it will auto record and when the power is taken away it will stop it. It partitions all of the videos in 5 min sections so it will start recording over the oldest videos once the card gets full.

I just want to add, I did not need to splice into any wires of my rear view mirror to power it. I just soldered sewing pins to 26 gauge wire so I could stick them in through the back. It is secure and does not look like it could rattle loose.

The mount has adhesive that just goes on the windshield next to the rear view mirror mount .

Ok lets get started with the things needed.

Mobius action cam (either standard or wide angle lens)



Mobius helmet mount (It's totally cheezy but if you take the strapping off it makes a great window mount, It is a lot more low profile than the dash mount kit) about $6.00

Thin wire (I used 26 Gauge from a connector I had lying around, about 6 inches of it)

An open Mini USB connector (you must order one that has the pins exposed as if you take one apart the 4 and 5 pins have to be soldered together it it cant be done with an old cable)

A DC to DC regulator (or a ubec control, I bought a very small one on ebay for $4.00, you just have to go from 12-14 volts from your car to 5 volts to the Mobius to trigger it on and charge the battery or capacitor. Do not go over 5 volts output to the mobius).

Opitonal (a super capacitor for Mobius) they about $6.00 and if you car is in hot conditions it works a lot better than the battery if it is hardwired.

Micro SD card (you can use either a 32gb which will give you 4.5 hours or a 64 gb one that will give you about 8 hours of record time)$15-30

Ok, the first thing I did was strip the strapping off of the headband helmet mount. There is already double stick tape on the inside of the mount to attach to the windshield.

After that, I replaced the Mobius battery with a super capacitor so the battery doesn't get too hot in my car. The capacitor will run it for a short period so it can save the data after the ignition has been cut off.

After that, I unplugged the connector from the back of the rear view mirror. There are three wires there for the homelink and autodimmer. The black wire is ground. One brown wire is always on 12 volts, and a purple wire that is 12 volts when the ignition is turned on. I hooked mine up to the one to start and stop automatically with the car since I park in my garage. I have not experimented with having it on 24/7 but it may be an option. The camera draws 500 Milliamps when recording. You can tap into these wires if you solder thin wire to a sewing needle (after roughing it up with sandpaper) and stick them in the respective wire sockets. They hold nicely. I then used shrink wrap on the ends so nothing will short out, .

After that comes the part of making the wiring harness. I had the needles soldered to have 12volts coming in. Then it goes to a dc to dc regulator. That has a screw on it so you can dial it down to 5 volts. Do not go over 5 volts output or you will fry your mobius. Ebay also sells these things called UBEC that can do the same thing if you dont want to mess with it a screw setting.

Then you have to get a micro usb connector. It is a weird one because you have to solder the 4 and 5 pins together for ground and solder the positive one to pin #1. you can not gut an old cord you have lying around because it is too small to short the 4 and 5 pins. (Standard USB cords only have 4 wires even though there are 5 pins). Then just break off pin 2 and 3 so they dont accidentally short.

After you do that, put some shrink wrap around it and carefully bend the wire the direction you need for the install. After that I cleaned my window with rubbing alcohol and then adhered the mount to it. The cool part is the Mobius can still come in and out of the cradle. then I plugged the connector back to the mirror and plugged the mini usb connector to the mobius.

Just a side note, you do have to download the mobius software on your pc and set it up. you have to enable loop mode and auto start on usb. That way it will start recording by itself without touching it.

I hoped this has helped anyone who is interested in doing this. I bought all of my stuff from Banggood.com it's in china but it has the cheapest prices and they are not knockoffs like some sites sell. I want to put one of these in my back too but i don't know how it will see through the tinted rear window. maybe in the shark fin antenna?

landslide03

iTrader: (1)

I just wanted to add some other pictures I had!

WaarrEagle

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the info! I am about to pull the trigger on a Mobius and was just searching to see if anyone had one in a G.

landslide03

iTrader: (1)

I think they are great cameras and almost as good as the go pros at one third of the price. I know it's a pain soldering up the step down reg but it works really well and is clean. If you have any questions pm or post them on here and I will try to help

G37Xtreme

Anyone bought an off-the-shelf dashcam? I see them on Amazon from $17 up to $300 or so.

They have built in screens to preview as well as offering a rear recording option too.

avatar77

I'm considering this kind of install - I like the hardwiring off of the mirror idea, but I think it can be done more simply (though using a more expensive dedicated dashcam).

Here's the cam:



Here's the 12v to 5v converter - with built-in mini-USB:



Seems like I should be able to just splice the red and black on the converter onto the purple and black going into the mirror and I'll be in business. Thoughts?

landslide03

iTrader: (1)

thanks for replying to my post! At least someone reads it lol I like the desk him that you picked it seems pretty easy to set up the only thing I do not like about it is the Grabber arms that connect the mirror. also that step down converter looks pretty big and bulky I would recommend buying a micro converter like I got so it is well hidden and looks clean. my install is still working great and I have had no problems with it. I hope this information helps I just don't want it to look like it was Frankensteined together.let me know if you have any other questions that I can help out with! The only other modification I made do is run a small polarized filter on a bottle cap when the Sun is going down the glare on the windshield from the dashboard can sometimes get pretty bad.

avatar77

Wow, thanks for the input. Really appreciate it. The converter is 46x27x14mm, so that seems like it would conceal behind the mirror - is there a smaller size out there? The other option is to get papago's converter, which has the advantage of a battery minder feature which would allow me to tap the always-on circuit on the mirror and not worry about draining my battery. This would let me use the parking lot motion feature of the camera:




I agree with you that I don't love the mirror clips but short of adhesive or maybe velcro mounting it to the back of the mirror, I don't know that I can get around it. Last thing I found last night after I posted was this cable (meant for radar detectors) that would allow me to tap the mirror wiring harness without getting into splicing cables. It's not the cheapest considering I'm just going to lop off the detector end of the cable but I don't know where to get the little blade style terminals like that elsewhere.

onthefence

iTrader: (1)

He's not the only one. Thanks for sorting out the wiring up by the mirror; I was wondering what my options were.


I'm installing with grand total, a paltry $37. My brother already has the same setup in his car, says the video quality is fine. My cam arrived today, nice little unit. POwer supply is for cig lighter, so too bulky. Will be buying something compact to tuck up behind the mirror.

xxkevo

I am going to try this out, if I pick up another G37 or Q50. After my accident, i think a dash cam is important.

ToXIc

iTrader: (2)

nice mod..

one thing i like about purpose built DashCams is how they record, they record in segments (ie 1/2/5 min intervals) and if the card is full it automatically deletes the oldest clip and keeps going.

does the Mobius do the same?

*ICE*

iTrader: (8)

i bought a pretty good dashcam on Amazon for less than $100. Hardwired it to the fuse box next to my left foot area. The camera records very clear in 1080p, stay on for 5 minutes after you shut the car off and it accepts MicroSD card. It will record till full and will overwrite the oldest file for the new one.

Thirty_Seven

iTrader: (5)

Hard to beat the G1W-H for the price:


Quality is PERFECT and they even have capacitor versions if you live in hot climates and you're worried about the battery.

*ICE*

iTrader: (8)

camera that I have:



Pic of my setup:




I can't mount it in the middle because of my V1 radar but the view from the corner is just as good and wide. You can see everything from that angle. Usb cable is hardwired to the fuse box on my left foot. You will need to get this fuse adapter ( )

JSolo

iTrader: (14)

I have a thing about objects obscuring my vision. It's such an annoyance I don't even have the village tag displayed, but rather keep it in the glove box

The idea of installing a dash cam is a good one. I'd probably put mine on the passenger side though.

Thanks for the fuse link. I was going to order something on ebay but just don't have the time to wait. I got one of those switch replacement (TCS, sonar, trunk release) usb sockets (ebay item # 161547845462)