Dashcam shroud design?

gr1nch

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Has anyone made their own shrouds? i.e. a dashcam cover that:

* conceals the dashcam (lens still visible from outside the windscreen obviously) - for stealth

* to minimise reflections from inside the car - for image quality

The end result would ideally look like it was a factory fitted camera in an integrated, plastic housing. For now, I've got hold of some flexible, black foam sheets, to fashion a design. I guess it could be 3D printed too, once a design has been prototyped. I'm intending to make the, I guess cup shaped, semi-rigid shroud using the foam and stick to the windscreen with double-sided tape. I want to retain easy access to the dashcam (e.g. by a flap say) to get to the SD card.

Any shroud/cover designs or tips to share?

** I've been looking out over the last year for good windscreen-hugging, stealthy dashcams, like the A119S https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B06Y2RRSWN
 
Due to the wide angle lenses used, if you plan to film thru a hole the lens will have to be right in it or the hole will need to be large.
The wedge design cameras often come off as a rain sensor or other array found on modern cars, and if you have a dotted area on top of the windscreen that can conceal the bulk of the camera housing, then only the very bottom part with the lens will peek out below the dotted area.

As seen from the inside of the car a camera will be more noticeable depending how good you can hide it behind the mirror, in my car the camera are visible over the mirror that's hung off the sealing and not the windscreen.
Hiding the camera inside something might not be the best idea from a thermal standpoint, they do generate some heat of their own, and driving on a sunny day will bring even more heat into the "housing"

I think a lot of people in here will tell you that passengers / guests in their car never even notice the camera if it is hidden in front of the mirror.
 
Someone recently butchered an A119 recently didn't they? Using the lens extension and cutting away half of the casing....

I'm sure it wasn't a dream
 
one thing I like/d about the new Logi(tech) Circle 2 is the window mount. Today's dash cams leave a lot to be desired.
 
Due to the wide angle lenses used, if you plan to film thru a hole the lens will have to be right in it or the hole will need to be large.
The wedge design cameras often come off as a rain sensor or other array found on modern cars, and if you have a dotted area on top of the windscreen that can conceal the bulk of the camera housing, then only the very bottom part with the lens will peek out below the dotted area.

As seen from the inside of the car a camera will be more noticeable depending how good you can hide it behind the mirror, in my car the camera are visible over the mirror that's hung off the sealing and not the windscreen.
Hiding the camera inside something might not be the best idea from a thermal standpoint, they do generate some heat of their own, and driving on a sunny day will bring even more heat into the "housing"

I think a lot of people in here will tell you that passengers / guests in their car never even notice the camera if it is hidden in front of the mirror.
I'm planning on making a shroud concealing, as much as possible, the dashcam, mount and USB cable. I've no intention of taking the camera apart. Here's what it currently looks like.
ae60e9de32d6d34b2bb3a770ad7583eb.jpg

As can be seen there is no room behind the rearview mirror as the car already has a biggish moulding there, housing multiple cameras and sensors.

Today I sat in the car with a foam sheet and scissors making a basic prototype which leaves enough space around the dashcam for airflow and doesn't obstruct the vent (sound, air?) in the housing. The 2mm foam has proven flexible but too thin. I'll get hold of some 4-5mm to try it. In the end it'll be a dark, smooth truncated* wedge attached to the windscreen with double-sided number plate tape foam tape, to fit in with the plastic housing and hopefully discreet when viewed externally too.

* To not get in the way of the 155° wide angle lens.

Sent from my G3112 using Tapatalk
 
Looks like you want to extend the dotted area of your glass to the other side of the camera - use matching sun strip material, then the camera will be in the shade and wont be very visible from inside either.

120463
 
Has anyone made their own shrouds? i.e. a dashcam cover that:

* to minimise reflections from inside the car - for image quality
No shroud is going to do that. You can't conceal the lens without compromising the FOV, so even if the front of the lens is at the edge of the shroud, it'll still capture any existing reflections. I've tried all sorts of things, including something similar to what your aiming for, and nothing worked.
The only way to end any reflection is to eliminate its source.
 
Looks like you want to extend the dotted area of your glass to the other side of the camera - use matching sun strip material, then the camera will be in the shade and wont be very visible from inside either.

120463
That's an interesting lateral-thinking idea Nigel, which I'd not thought of. The dotted area (or surround) is opaque and black. I'll investigate to see if that's the best solution.

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Akenori makes a wedge cam which has the lens shrouded to the windshield to eliminate problems with reflections. While that seems to work OK, it makes the cam much more visible from the outside :( Reflections from the sides are rarely a problem- it's the ones from underneath which can be a bugger :mad: So in my way of thinking I'd try only a thin flat extension on the bottom as that would add almost nothing to the footprint as seen from outside, especially if it stopped just short of actually touching the windshield :)

An interior shroud could be a very good idea if it incorporated forced-air cooling from rear-to-front which would help keep dust off the window in front of the cam :D In cooler climates that might be overkill as long as the cam can still get good airflow around it. With my Mobius, only one person has asked what it is and nobody suspects it's a cam :D It looks out-of-place in my old van from the inside but it's not noticeable from the outside unless you're looking for a cam there. This is another one of the Mobius unusual assets (y)

Phil
 
That's an interesting lateral-thinking idea Nigel, which I'd not thought of. The dotted area (or surround) is opaque and black. I'll investigate to see if that's the best solution.

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I quite often use black electrical tape on mine, hides the cameras very well from the outside and isn't obviously added, but you have a big area to cover and you could do with a dotted edge, some of the sun strips have very good dots without having to do each one by hand.

The tricky bit is matching the curves to the car, get it right and it just looks part of the car, get it wrong and it is immediately obvious!
 
No shroud is going to do that. You can't conceal the lens without compromising the FOV, so even if the front of the lens is at the edge of the shroud, it'll still capture any existing reflections. I've tried all sorts of things, including something similar to what your aiming for, and nothing worked.
The only way to end any reflection is to eliminate its source.
In fact, It's possible though. The car manufacturer (M-B) has designed such a shroud for their own cameras on the car windscreen, but it extends down the glass quite a bit to retain the FOV, which may not be that wide (as there are cameras in the wing mirrors too).

I agree about not being able to eradicate the reflections completely. I think it'll be possible to minimise the refection source by shielding with the lower part of the shroud, up to the point the FOV is negatively affected. At the moment all the bonnet is in the FOV so the shroud can mask most of that off. Ultimately as a project I'm thinking of 3D printing an eventual, effective design.

Had anyone got any pics of covers or shrouds they've made?

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I quite often use black electrical tape on mine, hides the cameras very well from the outside and isn't obviously added, but you have a big area to cover and you could do with a dotted edge, some of the sun strips have very good dots without having to do each one by hand.

The tricky bit is matching the curves to the car, get it right and it just looks part of the car, get it wrong and it is immediately obvious!
[emoji16]

If I can't make it look good (discreet, tidy, blending in) and functional (minimal reflection, adequate FOV, access to the buttons and SD card) then I'll revert to the naked dashcam.

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Not sure what that face is, looks like a Wallace & Gromit face!

But give it a go, you might do a lot better than you expect, I was just suggesting that you don't just cut it square, cut it to match the car, and if it doesn't look right keep using the scissors until it either looks right or you need to start again!
 
Akenori makes a wedge cam which has the lens shrouded to the windshield to eliminate problems with reflections. While that seems to work OK, it makes the cam much more visible from the outside :(
Link to Akenori : http://www.akenori.com/
I reviewed the NX01 here : https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/akenori-nx01-review.25772/
I think it was no more visible from outside than most manufacturer's "cameras" used for collision avoidance etc. The main issue was that to keep the shroud to a decent size, the FOV had to be very small, <90deg.
 
In fact, It's possible though. The car manufacturer (M-B) has designed such a shroud for their own cameras on the car windscreen, but it extends down the glass quite a bit to retain the FOV, which may not be that wide (as there are cameras in the wing mirrors too).
Not with the dashcam you have. I tried everything, even a plastic ring around the lens' barrel of my narrow-ish G1W-H (FOV around 100 degrees horizontal), which was protruding close to 1cm in front of the lens' edge (the limit where it wasn't visible in the picture) and very close to the windscreen, and it made no difference whatsoever to the reflections.
 
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