HELP - How to Hardwire Viofo MT1 to Caterham?

[maximumhaze]

Hi there,

Complete beginner with dashcams and vehicle electronics here trying to hardwire a Viofo MT1 to a Caterham 7.

The camera was recommended to me by the organisers of the championship that I will be racing in this year as a novice and I have since seen that they posted on this very forum and were recommended the MT1 by @Nigel. I bought the car second hand so don't have the advantage of having put it together and understanding the wiring of the car.

The rules for the championship are:
"The camera must be hard-wired to the vehicle power supply and must start recording automatically either when the ignition is switched on, or when the vehicle exceeds a certain speed."

The camera's manual has diddly squat on how to wire it correctly which I'm assuming is due to safety reasons. The review and "installation" videos on YouTube are also pretty unhelpful.

As I understand it (please correct me if i'm wrong):

The black ground wire is to be attached to the negative of the battery or a chassis bolt.
The red power wire is to be directly connected to the positive of the battery.

As for the ACC cable do I follow these steps?

1. Locate ACC fuse in fuse box using multimeter (only receiving power when the ignition is on)
2. Remove Fuse and replace with fuse tap making sure it matches with the positive and negative of the fuse board
3. Put removed fuse in fuse tap
4. connect acc wire to fuse tap using bullet connector

Am I missing any steps?
Do I need to put a second fuse in the tap that matches the one removed from the car fuse box? I have seen this in a couple of hardwiring vids for other cams.
Will this fuse tap and bullet connecter suffice?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Max

 

[Nigel]

Hi,

The black wire needs 0 volts, which is either the battery "negative" terminal, or the chassis if your car has a chassis ground, which I think a Caterham 7 does. Don't just connect it to the bodywork though since that might not be grounded on a Caterham 7, make sure it is somewhere being used by other ground connections, maybe the fuse box has a ground point being used by other equipment.

The red wire is designed to connect to the battery permanent power and the yellow to switched power, however it seems to work perfectly well if you connect both red and yellow to the same switched power. So they can both share one fuse tap. I think having red and yellow may be because on a motorbike the power supply is a bit variable, and having the red on permanent allows it to shut down properly after yellow is switched off. If it is difficult to connect the red to the permanent power, try just connecting them both to the same switched fuse tap.

Your list is nearly correct, you will need to put the original fuse in the bottom slot of the fuse tap and a new 3 or 5 amp fuse in the top slot as the camera fuse.

Will this fuse tap and bullet connecter suffice?

Fuse taps are pretty reliable. Personally I solder the connections between the fuse tap and camera power wires, and protect them with heat shrink tubing, but a crimped bullet connector should be OK.

I do recommend getting some cable ties to secure the wires properly, especially in a Caterham. Make sure nothing can rattle about or wear the insulation off the cables as it rubs/vibrates against sharp metal edges. Cable ties are cheap and very effective.

You also need to think a bit about the mountings. If you are using it for competition then sticky pads are maybe not recommended. The clips on the lenses do come off, I think you can unscrew the front lens "cover" and then put other types of clamp around it, so consider clamps designed specifically for roll bar mounting of GoPro type cameras. A strong cable tie in place of the standard clip may be appropriate in some mounting locations. The lenses are not heavy, but they are made of metal and glass, so a potential flying hazard if they become detached. Again, cable ties for the wires to keep them secure.

I bought the car second hand so don't have the advantage of having put it together and understanding the wiring of the car.

Make use of that multimeter to check everything is as expected!

There should be 0 volts between the battery negative and your grounding point (black wire). This is sometimes not the case and can cause loads of problems!

The red cable needs 9 volts or more relative to the black wire. It consumes less than 1 amp, protect it with a 3 or 5 amp fuse.

Not sure how much the yellow wire needs, but it is just a signal wire needing positive voltage to turn the camera on, it does not consume significant power.

Hope that helps?

 

[maximumhaze]

Hey @Nigel

Thank you so much for your detailed response. I have run into a bit of a trouble though.

After wiring everything correctly but before mounting I tested the equipment and everything was working. I connected to the Wi-Fi and could see both cameras working on the app.

Following that I started organising the cables. I then turned it back on to get an idea of where I wanted to mount the cameras. This time I only had the front camera plugged in as I wanted to position the that first. However the screen was black on the app and when I clicked switch camera it showed an error message.

I turned the ignition off and on to now find that I’m getting no Wi-Fi from the device. When I turn on the ignition I get a solid red light which then turns to slow flashing but nothing from the blue Wi-Fi light.

I have tried both short pressing (needed for this model) and long pressing the Wi-Fi button to activate it but get nothing.

I have also held the reset button on the main console with both the ignition on and off and have had no luck.

Any advice?

All the best,
Max

 

[Nigel]

I can't think of an explanation for the wifi not turning on. It should work OK with only one camera connected.
Is it recording onto the card OK?

I think this is a question for @VIOFO-Support to help with ...

(Not sure how responsive Viofo support is right now, they have covid issues there at the moment, having been covid free until now.)

 

[maximumhaze]

It's baffling me too.

It was recording onto the card before but since the wifi has gone it no longer saves anything.

Update: I noticed that the red flashing light was slower than it should be... it was blinking every few seconds rather than every second (which its states it should be doing in the manual) and was staying on for a couple of seconds when on.

I took the SD out to re-format it.

I checked through the files and the footage when i was getting black screen on the app and it had actually recorded the footage.

I reformatted it to FAT32 and downloaded the newest firmware and followed these steps.

After the the slow then fast flashing that happens during the Firmware update process there were no lights at all. I waited a minute still nothing. So I held the reset button for 10 seconds as suggested by VIOFO support on a previous thread.

However it just started the firmware process again and I was stuck in this loop despite it saying the Firmware BIN file would delete automatically after the update.

I then reformatted the SD again to FAT32 and booted the camera without the firmware BIN file on it. Now the red light is coming on evert few seconds like before but is only briefly staying on compared to it previously staying on for a few seconds.

@VIOFO-Support any ideas?

 

[Nigel]

Does it work if you disconnect only the front camera, or if you disconnect only the rear camera?
I guess the wifi should work with no cameras connected, although I haven't checked.
Also, you can test the wifi without a card installed.

 

[maximumhaze]

Okay when the front camera is unplugged the blue light starts to flash.

I switched round the cameras and it's always the front camera connection that causes the blue light to disappear.

With the front camera unplugged and the blue light slow flashing, there's still no sign of the Wi-Fi on my phone and nothing being recorded onto the SD card.

Thanks for your help.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Okay when the front camera is unplugged the blue light starts to flash.

I switched round the cameras and it's always the front camera connection that causes the blue light to disappear.

With the front camera unplugged and the blue light slow flashing, there's still no sign of the Wi-Fi on my phone and nothing being recorded onto the SD card.

Thanks for your help.

Did you check for video files on you computer?

Try to reboot your phone, then connect.

 

[maximumhaze]

Yep i rechecked the SD card, nothing saving still.

I've contacted VIOFO Support to ask for a refund as I need an immediate replacement. I'll be sure to let you know if they have a fix / an idea of what is causing the issue.

Thanks both for your help.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Yep i rechecked the SD card, nothing saving still.

I've contacted VIOFO Support to ask for a refund as I need an immediate replacement. I'll be sure to let you know if they have a fix / an idea of what is causing the issue.

Thanks both for your help.

Tried another card?