New to DashCams and the Forum

GTI Guy

GTI Guy

New Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2020
Messages
5
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8
Location
Maryland
Country
United States
Hi,

Thought I'd introduce myself.

I live in Maryland in the US, live close to DC. Just ordered my first DashCam directly from Street Guardian website. I bought the X2PRO+, if it works well for me then I'll add a hardwire kit (maybe standalone battery) for parking (and more elegant wiring) and maybe a rear camera. And as my username suggests I drive a VW GTI (mk7).

Why a dashcam? The two main reasons; crazy driving of others could impact me (pardon the pun) and it's some new tech for my car. More specifically it was a crazy driver yesterday that drove my purchase.

I know little about dashcams and wiring, so it was this forum that helped me have the confidence to purchase the dashcam as you all are actively educating and helping others...like me when I get my dashcam.

Regards,

John
 
Welcome - my sympathies for having to drive in and around DC.
 
GTI Guy said:
Hi,

Thought I'd introduce myself.

I live in Maryland in the US, live close to DC. Just ordered my first DashCam directly from Street Guardian website. I bought the X2PRO+, if it works well for me then I'll add a hardwire kit (maybe standalone battery) for parking (and more elegant wiring) and maybe a rear camera. And as my username suggests I drive a VW GTI (mk7).

Why a dashcam? The two main reasons; crazy driving of others could impact me (pardon the pun) and it's some new tech for my car. More specifically it was a crazy driver yesterday that drove my purchase.

I know little about dashcams and wiring, so it was this forum that helped me have the confidence to purchase the dashcam as you all are actively educating and helping others...like me when I get my dashcam.

Regards,

John
Click to expand...
Welcome @GTI Guy (John) great choice for your first cam. Have fun you will purchase more for sure :)
 
welcome to the forum.
Newer cars can some times be a little problematical as the smarts now also extend to the simple wire loom of a car, so a once simple thing might not be as simple anymore.
A few people doing hard wire have been forced to go all the way to the battery + to get the always on +12 that are often the problem ( wired to a fuse the car smarts can some times think its a drain and then shut down that circuit )
But lets hope your little GTI will play ball and be nice, your camera will, or the SG guys will be all over it.
 
Thanks Kamkar1 for the welcome.

I have seen a few threads on a GTI forum that show the fuse box and have identified "always on" or "on with ignition" fuses. And it appears the car didn't throw any errors. So while this is outside of anything I've ever done, I think by taking my time, reading and asking questions then it should work.

John
 
Hi,

Dashcam partially installed. It's attached but I have not hidden the cables yet, they just dangle from the cable holder (I used the short one) down to the 12V plug.
I did not add GPS yet but I did download the SG MP4 viewing app and I did attach the CPL filter as part of my commute is directly into morning sun.

Used it today during commute and then had a look at the playback of a couple of files (didn't know that the default is 2 minute long files) on both the SG's DashCam viewer software and a generic MP viewer. Both viewers played the files without issue (I removed SD card after the DashCam was off). Overall it appeared to be great quality and while it was a very uneventful journey (good news) I did watch for longer than I thought I would.

I also drove at night, where it started dry and then rained. Again, very happy with the quality. In the dry the picture was clear and the lights of oncoming cars did not over-expose the view. In the rain, street lights and on-coming cars had more glare but that was expected and even then the clarity was good.
Now, I am not trying to read license plates- just wanted to capture clean images to show who was doing what.

Now that I'm more confident that I want to make this permanent, I'll add the GPS and then I'll play around with the software since it makes the GPS data come alive- at least it looks like it will. I'll also see if I can zoom in, didn't see how to do that initially so maybe it's not possible. Anyway, if that all works well then I'll likely figure how to hide the wires and wire it to my car's fuse box. That should be interesting, removing panels, avoid impeding the A pillar airbags...and choose the right fuse and fuse jumper size (will probably use an Add-a-fuse).

John
 
The plastic trim in my car, most of it tear right off, or have a screw or two to hold it in place.
The largest piece on trim i have is on my B pillar, it don't even have a single screw to hold it in place, but it do fit rather tight so to pry it loose the little plastic trim crowbar that some with many dashcams are nice.
If not a screwdriver or something like that can be used too.
I assume the way plastic trim install in most cars are more or less the same.
 
Hi Kamkar,

I have seen a video with someone doing this on my car make/model so I'll give it a try.

I did install the GPS and just reviewed the video on the SG DashCam Viewer software. Really cool. Not sure the practicality, but cool none the less.

Some homework on the fuses to use, get the right hardwire kit and then install and clean up the cord.

John
 
Yes the player are cool, so is SG providing it for free. but personally i just use a regular media player software to view my videos.

When first i got my car i had to tear into the dashboard / center console to install a radio, but i just could not figure out how to attack it, so i drove to my dealer and asked then, and the front desk sent me to their detaling guys, which promptly jammed a spatula under the plastic and pried it off, and once that pice of edge trim was off i could see all the screws holding the stuff i needed to work on.
Cost the car dealers 1-2 minutes, and made for a happy customer driving home with his center console partly taken apart.

The trim on the A / B pillars and elsewhere i figured out myself.
The main plastic on my A pillars have some plastic prongs with some steel folded over on top of that, which hold / snap it in place, mine have been on / off so many times now this means of attachment are worn and partly failing.
Been meaning to get 2 new pieces at a salvage yard, and paint those flat black instead of the tan / grayish original plastic color ( bottom part of it and its reflection in the windscreen can be seen in my videos )

Getting to my fuse box on the left side if the driver footwell are,,,,,,, problematic for a guy in my age / health, i sure don't fold up as well as i did in my young days.
 
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