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- Dash Cam
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Once you get an in car camera you need think about the ideal mounting location, before you get to deciding where you’d like to install it, you should check on the legalities of using it, in some countries in car cameras are not legal, in others you may need to make sure there is a warning sticker visible to notify your passengers that their conversations may be recorded, in some the use of suction mounted cameras is a problem and there may be rules associated with the LCD screen and when it is permissible for the display to be on.
Legalities aside there are common sense rules that will always apply regardless of where you want to use the camera.
The camera should never block your field of view and should not be in a position to distract you, LCD screens and LED lights in your direct line of sight are easily distracting, particularly at night, for most vehicles the ideal location is behind the rear view mirror to keep it out of sight, what you do want though is to make sure that the camera lens is within the sweep area of the windscreen wipers so that you can keep the window clean in front of the camera.
Pic 1. The area pictured in red should always be unobstructed; the area behind the mirror covered by the sweep of the wipers shown in pink is the preferred mounting location.
Mounting up high on the window like this also gives the best field of view for the camera, you will most likely find that if you adjust the aim of the camera for more road and less sky you’ll obtain the best results from the auto white balance of the camera, there’s no perfect setting that is correct for all vehicles so a little trial and error is required to find the optimum results.
Once a mounting location is decided for your in car camera it’s important to consider the cabling, car cameras are typically supplied with power cables around 4 meters in length, this is to allow enough cable to be able to get from the top of the windscreen to a power outlet while being able to hide the cables for a more discreet installation.
For cameras that have direct 12v/24v input it may be possible to obtain power within the roof space, from an interior light or powered mirror circuit, some vehicles have auxiliary circuits in this ceiling space already but regardless they should always be checked to ensure they are appropriately fused and whether they offer switched or accessory power depending on your installation needs.
Under no circumstances should power ever be taken from any circuit related to SRS airbag systems.
When running the cables it is important to always run the wires on the passenger side, in the event of a cable not being secured correctly or coming loose while driving, if on the passenger side there is less chance of distraction and no chance of your vision being obscured or cables interfering with the controls as could happen if the cabling was run on the driver’s side.
Legalities aside there are common sense rules that will always apply regardless of where you want to use the camera.
The camera should never block your field of view and should not be in a position to distract you, LCD screens and LED lights in your direct line of sight are easily distracting, particularly at night, for most vehicles the ideal location is behind the rear view mirror to keep it out of sight, what you do want though is to make sure that the camera lens is within the sweep area of the windscreen wipers so that you can keep the window clean in front of the camera.
Pic 1. The area pictured in red should always be unobstructed; the area behind the mirror covered by the sweep of the wipers shown in pink is the preferred mounting location.
Mounting up high on the window like this also gives the best field of view for the camera, you will most likely find that if you adjust the aim of the camera for more road and less sky you’ll obtain the best results from the auto white balance of the camera, there’s no perfect setting that is correct for all vehicles so a little trial and error is required to find the optimum results.
Once a mounting location is decided for your in car camera it’s important to consider the cabling, car cameras are typically supplied with power cables around 4 meters in length, this is to allow enough cable to be able to get from the top of the windscreen to a power outlet while being able to hide the cables for a more discreet installation.
For cameras that have direct 12v/24v input it may be possible to obtain power within the roof space, from an interior light or powered mirror circuit, some vehicles have auxiliary circuits in this ceiling space already but regardless they should always be checked to ensure they are appropriately fused and whether they offer switched or accessory power depending on your installation needs.
Under no circumstances should power ever be taken from any circuit related to SRS airbag systems.
When running the cables it is important to always run the wires on the passenger side, in the event of a cable not being secured correctly or coming loose while driving, if on the passenger side there is less chance of distraction and no chance of your vision being obscured or cables interfering with the controls as could happen if the cabling was run on the driver’s side.
... @ me living in Ireland.
