New Owner of a SG9663DCPRO - From Purchase to Install

MedicalFlyer

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Dash Cam
Mobius C Lens, Mini 0906, SG9663DC Pro, A229 Plus
Been a while since I've posted here but I've been eagerly watching the updates on the dual remote version.

But with the current sale price of the DC Pro currently on hiniko for the UK and am very tempted to make the move from the less than ideal mini 0906 (it's been better since the last firmware but now seems adamant to fall off the windscreen every few days)

At £217.49 it's now very tempting to get a well supported and seemingly well regarded unit.
I would like to get the genuine hardwire kit also as it'll likely be better suited than the NextBase kit I'm currently using. However, these don't seem to be included in the sale and I'd like the Pro kit ideally to future proof against any car changes.
@niko I don't suppose there's any chance of a discount on the hardwire kit when bought with the DC Pro?

It's a shame they no longer seem to sell through Amazon as I have a £50 voucher that'd be useful.
 
@niko will be able to do something for you I'm sure

Looming Brexit changes killed Amazon sales in the UK at the moment as Niko is located in Ireland and Amazon made some changes already
 
Thanks jokiin
Hopefully once our (in)glorious leadership finally decide what they're actually up to things will settle down and normality may resume.
It's a shame because when I was given the voucher my first thought was to put it towards a better dashcam :)

With the DR still a little way off and the 9963 series being well established now it seems a good time to make the change.
I can put the 0906 in my dad's car then and he can stop asking me about random cheap eBay mystery cameras hah.
 
Yeah, amazon is on standby at the moment, waiting for some things to sort out. Hence I have added additional extra discount (plus cut amazon commission related charge) to my early new year sale prices, so buying directly would be way cheaper than via 3rd party "middleman".
Send me a PM and I will figure out some special one time offer on top of existing discount price.

P. S. your 50£ voucher could be used to buy a memory card from amazon.
 
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Thanks Niko
Message sent.

I should be okay on the card front, the 128GB one I'm currently using is pretty decent and not had any issues in the 0906. Seems to hold a suitable period of my usual driving too. Maybe if I start fiddling with the parking mode a bigger one might be in order.
 
Thanks Niko
Message sent.

I should be okay on the card front, the 128GB one I'm currently using is pretty decent and not had any issues in the 0906. Seems to hold a suitable period of my usual driving too. Maybe if I start fiddling with the parking mode a bigger one might be in order.
PM sent.
 
Thank you so much Niko.
Good job I've got a few days off lined up to get things swapped over. Plenty of time to fiddle and transfer the mini over to my dad's car (then he'll ignore it or turn it off hah)
 
Thank you so much Niko.
Good job I've got a few days off lined up to get things swapped over. Plenty of time to fiddle and transfer the mini over to my dad's car (then he'll ignore it or turn it off hah)

Thanks, order received. Will dispatch on Monday (2d. courier delivery)
Any questions feel free to contact me.
 
Cam and hardwire kit arrived today and all seems to be okay having quickly powered it up at my desk. Latest firmware already on and everything seems pretty straight forward.

Will probably be the weekend or early next week before I have a chance to tear in to my car. I've also got a new Atoto DAB stereo coming so plenty of things to be swapping over and my car will end up with more wiring and antenna's than most spy satellites hah.

Thank you for your great help and service @niko . Hopefully won't run in to too many issues as I'm swapping over from a similar setup and have done a few installs before.
 
DAB antenna type and placement will be important also, they are quite prone to interference
Seems to be the way, no matter what type you use. I live and work in two fairly strong areas for reception so that should help.
Between that and the new camera I'll have 2 GPS antennas, 1 wifi and 1 DAB to find homes for. Plenty to be playing with. I like fiddling around with such things luckily and usually have to wait for something to break first hah. The next thing might be a hidden away 4G hotspot if I can find something that would go on and off with the ignition without much fiddling.
 
Well so far so good. I spent some time getting the old Mini 0906 out. Thankfully, despite forgetting how hard one bit was, it was an equally smooth process to get the DC Pro installed.
Hardwire kit fits very nicely inside the fusebox, with both taps being run from fuses that power the two 12v sockets in the car. I never realised till I was poking about that one of them is constant live at the fusebox but switched at the socket - how odd.

Will get some pictures up once I'm done, it was getting late and rather dark by the time I finished the other day so didn't have much time to get photos along the way.

Only hiccup so far was I thought I'd mount it as high as possible, just close enough to the headlining to be able to unclip it still. Looked super stealth from outside but couldn't connect the rear cam lead. The cables with this kit have some rather robust connectors, no bad thing by any means. So popped it off and lowered it enough but might reposition again for a slightly better view, we'll see.

One question though. Does it matter if the GPS unit is placed at the top or bottom of the screen?
I'll test for signal strentgh while fitting but just wondered if in the long term it made any real difference.
Ideally I'd put it at the top but I can't poke the entire cable inside the headlining which is my usual trick for hiding small excess amounts.
I'm thinking to take off the a-pillar and route it to the bottom and then carefully hide the rest behind that trim out the way of the airbag.
Although typing that I've just realised I could do the same with it being at the top and just route the cable up and down enough to hide it.

The bigger problem was the Atoto stereo. Very, very nice unit that just needs a little refining on the software side. But that's more to using Android in a way it's not officially developed for. The biggest issue was that I just couldn't get it to fit. Every way I tried meant that there was either a massive gap around it or it was so far in the dash it'd be like delving into the unknown any time you wanted to reach it. Thankfully that was an Amazon job so back it went. Back to the drawing board for that as the old factory unit is slowly dying.
 
Thanks Niko
Message sent.

I should be okay on the card front, the 128GB one I'm currently using is pretty decent and not had any issues in the 0906. Seems to hold a suitable period of my usual driving too. Maybe if I start fiddling with the parking mode a bigger one might be in order.

Micro SD card prices are a great value right now and my guess is that they won't be getting any lower. There are also a few newer cards with great performance and endurance. Wasn't so long ago that cards were priced dearly and that can happen again.

Phil
 
It's been cheap for a long time when you consider how much you can store on such a small device. Long gone are the days of a few hundred kb on a 5" disk.
If you want expensive check out the Huawei NM cards. Your only option with some of their phones such as the Mate 20 Pro I have.
 
What I paid for my last 128GB cards was about 20% less less than what I paid for equivalent 64GB cards a couple years ago. I really never thought I'd be able to afford such an upgrade. It sure is nice to be able to save an entire days worth of my away-from-home recordings :cool:

Phil
 
So everything's finally in place and seems to be behaving extremely well.
First of all I'd like to send a massive thank you to @niko who arranged an excellent bundle and got it to me in no time at all. And to @jokiin and the rest of the SG team for their endless devotion and hard work on these products - it really shows in the products and their omnipresent nature on these forums.
I've not had a chance to get out for a good drive with this installed yet, my mechanic has had the car for a couple of days with a list of jobs to do.

Installation was no harder than any of the previous cams I've had.
I don't have a huge amount of pictures as I prefer to keep working until I'm finished, especially if there's a hurdle to overcome.
The Camera - SG9663DC Pro
The Car - '08 Kia Cee'd 5dr Hatchback
Tools - Multimeter, trim tools, cable ties, cutters, swearing, a good cup of tea (x4 minimum)

It requires one 12v live and one 12v switched input for the HW kit which are mere inches away in the same fuse box. And there's a nicely placed 10mm bolt that works perfectly for the ground.
The USB cable was then fed out from the bottom of the fuse panel in to the door weather seal and up to the top of the A pillar. It's then poked in the top of the A pillar trim (which needs to be changed as you'll see in a bit) and along the front of the roof lining to the camera. Pretty much invisible install, I can easily access the HW kit to adjust the cut off. Both of the fuses used are for 12v sockets in the dash, the constant live one (upper connection) was a bit of a surprise as both sockets shut off with the ignition.


Next up was the rear cam, getting this in place means you know how much cable you need and spare you have to play with or hide away. For my car, this is the single most difficult bit to do.
Between the tailgate and the roof of the car are two rubber tubes, one hiding the wiring loom and the other the rear washer hose. They require just the right amount of swearing and encouragement to get off and reinstall properly.
These are sealed up for weatherproofing which means they're also the perfect way to keep you rear cam cable nice and safe. The problem comes in getting the connector through the damn things. Being careful not to pull at things too hard and patience are the only way to go here. Mine goes through with the washer hose as it pops out neatly the other end. Be extra careful with this one as you don't want to puncture it or detach it anywhere.
Other than that it's just a case of pulling away the boot seal, unclipping the rear of the head lining, and coiling up the excess cable and storing it in the lining.
The cable is then routed along the gap between the rear trim panels and head lining, along the top of the door weather seals and through to the front with enough excess for playing around with positioning.


The last piece of the puzzle is the GPS receiver. This tiny little box just need to be out the way enough and the excess cable hidden away. My thought was to do my usual of poking the cable away and then forget about it. But being that I'll be needing to get the A pillar trim off for and DAB install soon that I might as well have a look behind while I've got the tools out. One hidden screw and some clips and it pops right off. This gave gave me a bit of a shock. The airbag behind it is right where I've been poking cables in at the top (oops). So I carefully routed the rear camera cable behind it (will need to do the same with the power on the driver's side I've just realised) and looped the excess GPS cable away in there too.


Once everything was all plugged in and the camera was moved over to a better position for recording I am very happy with the end result. Takes up less space than the mini0906 did and, to me at least, looks a lot cleaner from outside the car. Plenty of discrete beeps to tell you everything is working as it should and goes into and out of parking mode just fine. I can easily reach the buttons if needs be to activate the wifi mode. From the passenger side I can move the mirror and see the screen well enough. Accessing the SD card is a doddle and will now be a 200GB one thanks to Amazon having a timely sale on them for £20.


From the outside. Hopefully the air bubble on the GPS unit will sort itself out. I'll give it a week or two and if I remember I'll re-stick it.


Anything I would change with the kit provided?
Honestly the only thing I would say is a few more spare 3M pads for the main camera as I initially placed it too high up to connect the rear camera and then in a position that left too much of the view covering an unwiped area of the screen. I used one of the GPS pads without realising. On the other hand if I'd got it powered up and connected to my phone to help position with the live view this might've been avoided. Other than that there is more than enough in the box to cover 99% of installs and the StreetGuardian team will generally go above and beyond to help that last 1% from what I've seen.

Purely by coincidence I think (and hope) since installing the first few bits my car's battery has rolled over and died. The HW kit is set at 12.4v and cuts off exactly at that mark but the last few days it's being a bit temperamental to start. It's an old OEM battery with a good few years on it I'd guess so I'll see what getting a new one in does for things. If that doesn't do it then I'll poke about and at worst will disconnect the permanent fed to the HW kit. For now I think it's unrelated.

Comparison to the mini0906:
This was as hidden and central as I could get the mini and still have the mirror in the right place. It's surprising how far these stick out from the glass.


My stealthiest installs were with the mobius. Setup I had on a Honda Accord:
This had the benefit of being removable just by taking the mirror off


And for the ultimate in hidden away was my original mobius Vauxhall Astra install:

Going back to the original mobius install shows I've been using dashcams for nearly 5 years. All three purchased based on posts at these forums :cool:.
 
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