Dash Camera Life Cycle, Replacements, the Trouble of Replacing Wiring

[Edsel]

I'm under the impression that current Dash Cameras either last or reach obsolescence after a few years at the most.

My issue is the wiring involved, after going through all the trouble of hiding them in the vehicle's pillars, pulling the headliner, and perhaps tucking them under various trim panels - that's a lot of work for a novice.

For instance, if I were to use a dual - channel Street Guardian (micro USB power, micro USB video from front to back) now, and a dual channel Blackvue (small plug for power, coaxial from front to back) three years later - the wiring would have to be replaced.

It would seem to make more sense to install some really "nice, permanent wiring" with plugs on both ends; in the event that the dashcam needs to be replaced, all one needs to do is splice the connectors on the newer dashcam, attach new plugs compatible with those on the power and / or video cable, and click them into place.

That way, the "nice, permanent wiring" stays - but the dashcams can be replaced without much hassle (apart from soldering in new plugs and cleaning up the adhesive).

Has anybody taken this approach, and do you have pictures of your setup?

What would you recommend?

 

[Edsel]

I'm thinking of a permanent wire harness with plugs (some kind of) on both ends.

Plug / Unplug dash cameras as needed when they need to be replaced.

The downside is, having the need to solder in new plugs for the replacement dash cameras.

I hope this makes some sense.

 

[kamkar]

No that's not always the case, my Lukas LK-7500 from 2012 still work just fine, same go for other old cameras of mine.

It is true the connectors have evolved, at least when it come to the power plug and the interconnect wire to a rear camera.
But the wire to the rear camera are not a simple 5 wire USB wire, more wires are in play, and the plugs while shaped like standard USB plugs, there are more connectors but some pin out can be shared with standard USB plugs.
But this evolve, and i assume more and more will move to USB C connectors.
But as far as soldering new plugs on wires, i doubt most people have the skill or the very fine tipped soldering iron to do this.
I actually have a RAW USB C plug i can share a picture of.

 

[kamkar]

The solder pads are less than 1 mm wide and the gap between then less than 1 mm too, so soldering that small that close take some skills and tools.
I know cuz as a modder / overclocker of computer motherboards and GFX cards i have some times had to solder on additional components, ans this often to a leg of a IC, so you had to be right on the money or fry a expensive piece of hardware.

I put the USB C plug on top of my metric caliper.

 

[Edsel]

You wouldn’t have to touch the USB plugs themselves, just the wires trailing from them.

I bet only four wires are actually in use, even if the power and video signals are kept separate.

 

[Dashmellow]

This is an impractical idea that would never work for a variety of reasons. It assumes that everything about dash cam wiring stays the same and never evolves. It also assumes that every product and every dash cam manufacturer uses the same wiring scheme. For example, only a few years ago practically all dash cams used a 5 pin USB-A to micro-B cable. Most of the time only the two power wires in the five wire cable were in use, but not always. Now, many dash cams make use of other internal wires for data or parking mode. Some cameras now use 10 pin USB cables. This gets even more complicated with dual channel cameras that have their own proprietary mulit-wire cables between the main unit and the secondary camera. Even if you could swap new plugs onto the existing cables you would likely find it nearly impossible to determine which wires in the 10 wire bundle were used in the wiring scheme used by the manufacturer. The existing wiring scheme may not and likely would not work with some other manufacturer's camera. This could even change from product to product from the same manufacturer as new products are introduced going forward for any new features and designs.

 

[Dashmellow]

Oh, BTW, there's also another pitfall. Once you start stripping back cables to solder on new plugs you risk damaging the RF shielding on these cables and this can lead to all kinds of unwelcome interference issues.

 

[DT MI]

I'm under the impression that current Dash Cameras either last or reach obsolescence after a few years at the most.

If you look at the reality, assuming they're still functional, in 5 years the cameras will still do what they did the day they were purchased. There may be newer cameras with different features, capabilities, etc. but the old ones still do what they have always done.

As to life expectancy don't rely too much on some of the negative reports posted around the internet. I purchased 2 SG9665GC V1 cameras in Feb. 2015 and both are still in daily use today. The same is true for a couple of SpyTec A118C cameras purchased in June 2015. I also have a Black Box G1W-B that predates all those that is still functional today, although it's been sitting in a box somewhere for quite a while now.

 

[Edsel]

Oh, BTW, there's also another pitfall. Once you start stripping back cables to solder on new plugs you risk damaging the RF shielding on these cables and this can lead to all kinds of unwelcome interference issues.

Is there any shielding used in the Street Guardian cable (micro USB)?

 

[jokiin]

Is there any shielding used in the Street Guardian cable (micro USB)?

yes the cables are shielded (they're not Micro USB but that's neither here nor there), there's no standard among the cables or manufacturers that would make one cable run workable across multiple brands and models

 

[joe384]

I think it will be difficult as the wiring could change so much. Eg. some of the older blackvues use analogue cables, some now use coaxial. Other cams use USB and I'm not sure they all conform to the same standard

 

[Nigel]

The downside is, having the need to solder in new plugs for the replacement dash cameras.

Then your next camera will use optical cables for front to back communications and soldering will be impossible!

More likely to use coax, but there is more than one type of coax connector.

pulling the headliner,

No need to do that to replace the existing cable, just tape the new cable to the end of the old and pull the old out, the new will be pulled into place.

Apart from the battery based cameras, which generally have short lives, most dashcams should last as long as you have the car, if you stock up on memory cards before the cards they need become obsolete. At some point it may become necessary to replace the super capacitors, but if you can solder a tiny mini USB / USB C / coax / whatever connector then super capacitor replacement should be easy.

 

[Dashmellow]

yes the cables are shielded (they're not Micro USB but that's neither here nor there), there's no standard among the cables or manufacturers that would make one cable run workable across multiple brands and models

Oops! I meant to say Mini-B instead of micro-B and it's not even the first time I've done that.

 

[jokiin]

Opps! I meant to say Mini-B instead of micro-B and it's not even the first time I've done that.

I missed that you had written that actually although the comments were fairly general in nature and not really product specific as such

 

[Dashmellow]

I missed that you had written that actually although the comments were fairly general in nature and not really product specific as such

Yeah, but most dash cams we have all owned or tested, including Street Guardian have used Mini-B plugs at the camera end of the cable so I guess it applies universally.

 

[jokiin]

Mini B has been more common among USB powered cameras but there are those out there that use Micro USB, eg the Mini series cameras

 

[Dashmellow]

Mini B has been more common among USB powered cameras but there are those out there that use Micro USB, eg the Mini series cameras

Are you sure about that? The mini-0806 and mini-0906 I have both have Mini-B ports on the camera. Perhaps other iterations of the Mini series use Micro USB?

I'm aware that some other cams use micro plugs though.

 

[jokiin]

0801 had mini USB, they changed to Micro USB for 0803, 0805, the 0806 and 0906 are not from the original Mini factory so I can't say for sure on those, I did have samples of them here somewhere but haven't looked at them for a long time

 

[Dashmellow]

0801 had mini USB, they changed to Micro USB for 0803, 0805, the 0806 and 0906 are not from the original Mini factory so I can't say for sure on those, I did have samples of them here somewhere but haven't looked at them for a long time

Oh, ok, that makes more sense to me now. These minis but not those minis.

 

[jokiin]

Oh, ok, that makes more sense to me now. These minis but not those minis.

a quick browse on a couple of websites suggest the 0806 and 0906 are also Micro USB, don't have them on hand right now to check though