Full install with photos - dual dash cams and BDP in my 1 series BMW

Jez

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Hi all,

I've just installed a Mobius and Street Guardian SGZC12RC in my car so thought I'd share the install with you.

As always with these kind of things, there were frustrating moments but it's all turned out well.

Here's all the kit I had bought.

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And here's the car it was going in :)

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The BDP I bought was a Vicovation Power Plus. I liked that the screen shows the battery voltage, and it gives higher voltage cut offs than some other BDP devices.

Before starting the install, I installed a super capacitor in the Mobius and installed msetup on my computer to setup the mobius correctly. I also put the memory cards in both cameras, formatted them and then tested each camera.

So...onto the install..

Here's the fusebox, which is behind the glovebox and an absolute pain to get to!! Think you're going to touch on the fuses with a multimeter? Yeh right! This photo doesn't show how far behind the glovebox this is, it's incredibly hard to reach with a torch in one hand and a fuse tap in another.

I've already connected the BDP ground in this photo, found a nice chunky screw and put it underneath.

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The other issue that I found with my car, and a lot of modern BMWs I think, is that even the ignition switched fuses don't turn straight off after the ignition is turned off. It can take half an hour for them to turn off, once the car has "gone to sleep". This made identifying an ignition switched fuse and a permanently live fuse slightly more problematic but you'll see how I did it.

The vicovation power plus requires 3 connections - ground, ACC wire and battery wire, just like other BDPs. I started by just connecting the ground. Then I added a fuse tap to the ACC wire and plugged it in to an empty fuse slot. I then locked the car, left it and returned half an hour later. I repeated this a few times and eventually, this happened!

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It had turned off. So I'd found an (almost) ignition switched fuse.

When I unlocked the car, it came back on. The blanket was to shield the sun so I could still see the screen from the outside.

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Turning the engine on, the voltage went right up. Nice healthy battery :)

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This was the fuse I found as the ignition switched fuse. Fuse 15.

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After some more testing, I found another empty fuse slot which is permanently live.

For those of you with a BMW, the first post in this thread helped me to identify a permanently live fuse slot.

http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=737785

Fuse 2:

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Testing all the gear together.

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Now onto fitting...

Street guardian video cable above the front mirror.

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Running it above the lining

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Using a trim tool to pry out the A pillar trim to get it round the corner. I didn't remove the trim.

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I found going under the rubber seal is an easy way down.

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Pulling back the rubber trim, I found a hole to get into the glovebox :)

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And it's through!

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Now onto the rear. There's a plastic moulding in the middle of the rear screen that I was going to stick the mobius mount onto. It was just clipped on and came off easily.

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I ran a 5m USB-Mini USB cable under the lining to the back of the plastic moulding.

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Around the side..

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Here I got stuck. And it really annoyed me lol. I couldn't go round to the left of this piece, there was just no space at all. So I ended up pushing the cable down the window side.

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There was a gap between these plastic trims about the thickness of the wire, so I slotted the wire in and kept in taut. Slightly annoys me that it's on show but no one will know except me.

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Pulled up the door trim.

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Removed the clips with pliers and put them back onto the trim.

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Ran the wire underneath. Lined up the clips, which takes a few minutes, then pushed it back on.

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Back through the same hole into the glovebox.

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During testing, I had just taped the fuse taps. Now I was ready to connect them properly so stripped some more wire to get a good connection.

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Cleaned the screen and fitted the street guardian

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I then decided the mobius mount I had was a bit bulky. So I drilled a hole in the plastic moulding from the rear of the car. I realised I only needed the thumbscrew and the mobius shell/casing.

A couple rubber washers were needed because the thumbscrew didn't go in all the way (because the rest of the mount was missing).

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It then turned out that rubber washers interfered with the clips when re-installing the moulding onto the car. So I put metal washers on the outside instead.

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It looks pretty good and is very secure.

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I then changed the fuse tap fuses to 5A fuses which is more than sufficent for two dash cams.

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I then tested the BDP cut off function by only plugging in the battery fuse (because the ignition fuse would still be "awake"). I then set the cut off very high and crossed my fingers...

This showed up and the cameras turned off!

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I then plugged in both fuse taps.

Both fuse taps went into empty fuse slots. It was much easier doing this because the fuse box was so far behind the glovebox and removing active fuses would have been very difficult. Fortunately I found two empty fuse slots that are ignition switched and permanently live.

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Then I put everything behind the glovebox (which was not easy!), except the BDP device and the Street Guardian unit. The LED on the left is the cigar lighter splitter.

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:D
 
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Very detailed step by step install. Nice job !
 
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Yeah nice job, and proof that its not such a big deal to do a install yourself, at least not if you have a little DIY skills.

I guess you still have to secure the BDP and main unit in the glove box ?
 
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Thanks guys. No it wasn't a big deal to do the install but does take some planning and time. Including testing (when I was just waiting and doing other things) probably one day total but I did it over two half days. There's also the time to program the cameras, install the mobius super capacitor, etc. But now that it's all done I should never need to touch it :)

The BDP and SG unit just sit on top of my BMW folder (service book, car manual, etc inside). They don't seem to be moving but if they do slide around I'll just put some velcro on them.
 
nice and detail install
 
Thanks guys. Had the car for a year and still love it :)
 
When I get a chance I'll post a video, but I just thought I'd say that this setup is working perfectly.

I have the motion detect on the mobius set to to high, and the street guardian motion detect turned on also. Both cameras only record when motion is detected, and are only on until they reach the low voltage cut off, which is currently set at 12 volts.

I'm sure this kind of thread would help a lot of people new to dashcams, especially those looking for BDP and cameras in the front and the rear. It might be helpful if it didn't get buried in the threads which are asking for help...so it could be made a sticky? But I've seen that there aren't many of those on the forum.
 
Hi @Jez! Thank you for sharing such a detailed installation guide with us featuring Vico-Power PLUS.
 
I hear you about BMW fuses and the sleep mode. There are some fuses which remain powered up for 10 minutes and others that stay on for 20 minutes! Was a right pain as even though I use add-a-circuits I still prefer to tap into non-critical fuses and the selection was dropping fast as I ruled each potential fuse out. Even more annoying is how the BMW would share a fuse across multiple devices and often unrelated. Can't remember exactly but you could have a ciggy light fuse sharing with an ECU unit or something! Grrrr.

Ended up using the headlights as the always on fuse. I'd know quick enough if they went out lol

Nice right up :)
 
Thanks everyone. I've had passengers in my car and they haven't even noticed the cameras :)

Hi @Jez! Thank you for sharing such a detailed installation guide with us featuring Vico-Power PLUS.

It's a nice piece of kit :) One of the reasons I chose it is that I wanted it to power two dash cams and it has a max output current of 2A, which is plenty. Some BDP devices (like the Lukas ones if I remember correctly) can only output 1A which may not be enough for two cameras.

However...the Power Plus instructions say only use it for one camera! Your tech support couldn't really give me a reason why it's not suitable for two cameras :p And it does work perfectly.

The only thing, and it is very minor, is that if the voltage is near to the cut off point, and I unlock the car, the drop in voltage from powering the central locking will result in the cut off being activated. But then immediately afterwards it turns back on again, so it's not actually an issue. If anything, it just tells me that everything is working how it should.

I hear you about BMW fuses and the sleep mode. There are some fuses which remain powered up for 10 minutes and others that stay on for 20 minutes! Was a right pain as even though I use add-a-circuits I still prefer to tap into non-critical fuses and the selection was dropping fast as I ruled each potential fuse out. Even more annoying is how the BMW would share a fuse across multiple devices and often unrelated. Can't remember exactly but you could have a ciggy light fuse sharing with an ECU unit or something! Grrrr.

Yes it was a massive pain, especially because access to the fuse box in my car (and other BMWs I'm sure) is so difficult. I was pretty much praying that I found empty fuse slows that did what I needed because it would have been so much harder to do testing on fuse slots which were in use. I would have had to use long nose pliers to take out any mini fuses and would pretty much have been doing it blind and in the dark!
 
My 330D has three fuse boxes, one in the engine bay, a small one in the rear offside wheel arch area where the battery is also at and the main one is under the false floor in the rear of the boot. Very easy access and lots of space to put wires and the battery protect unit. The only down side is having to run at cable to the front but it is actually very easy to just push it into the top of the door seals, no unscrewing necessary.
 
Here's some photos of it and also the only wires visible

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Tidy job arctic, good work :)

I did consider using the fuse box in the rear but wanted the remote unit from the 12RC in the glovebox.
 
For those who are coming to this thread late like I am: I uploaded the photos onto imgur. I couldn't see them (because they're on photobucket) and they match the order they are in the post. The only one I couldn't get is the second one but it's just a generic 1-series BMW coupe. (E82)

Link to photo album.(Or not? I am a new user after all)
imgur dot com/a/Yn0iT


I'm thinking of installing a mobius or something to my 135is. (Kind of want rear visible cam but I have a convertible and so I might have to give that up) So I stumbled on this thread in my search for installs.
 
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