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Best JL dash cam for hard wiring?

Cjanak21

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Looking to get a good dash cam which I can hard wire in so it can watch over the Jeep while parked and turned off. Any good suggestions? Did you hard wire yours, and how easy or hard was it?
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TrailScooter

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Looking to get a good dash cam which I can hard wire in so it can watch over the Jeep while parked and turned off. Any good suggestions? Did you hard wire yours, and how easy or hard was it?

I have 2, viofo a129 duo pro 4k. Motion, shock, wifi front rear,yuda yuda meow meow...

I've had no problems and have been impressed with the 4k video.
 

redsyphon

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I've used both the DR900X-2CH (Current) and the BlackSys CH200 dashcams.

I liked them both.

The only drawback I've had with the BlackView is it records short clips and no full videos in addition to incident clips like the BlackSys did.

The only drawback I had with the BlackSys was it's size can make it more difficult to mount if you have the smart rear view mirror. The only reason I changed it was to put it in the wife's Trailhawk.
 

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A bit pricey but blackvue has a parking mode.
 

Headbarcode

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I've been looking at the Thinkware dual camera setup. It seems to generate one of the clearest images, both day and night, as far as accurately picking up details like plate numbers.
 

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Looking to get a good dash cam which I can hard wire in so it can watch over the Jeep while parked and turned off. Any good suggestions? Did you hard wire yours, and how easy or hard was it?
Hey Chris:

I've owned the Blacksys CH-200 like James @redsyphon and am currently using the Q800 Pro from Thinkware as Mike @Headbarcode is considering (at least the brand if not my model.) I acquired both from blackboxmycar.com and am happy with their customer service.

I like both cameras, especially the latter, for the clarity Mike cites. Using the PC/Mac software in particular, (as opposed to just the smartphone app) I can zoom images to get the clarity I need to make positive IDs, need be.

As you aspire to, I have mine hardwired: and this typically involves tapping two different types of power sources in the vehicle: accessory and battery: which are, respectively, defined as power sources that are only energized when the vehicle is on, and ones that are always energized--irrespective of the parked or started/cranked state of the vehicle.

When the accessory source is live the camera knows to be in "drive mode." While when only the battery source is live the camera knows to be in "parked mode"

I tapped the wires in the driver's sun visor for my accessory power source. The "battery" (always energized) source originally came from a long cable plugged into the 12V outlet in my cargo area (available on most JLs). The latter, by default from the factory, is always energized.

For someone who can splice wires I did not consider the install that technically hard to do.

I'd make sure to acquire a dash camera with a voltage cutoff option. Unless you drive regularly such that the alternator charges your stock battery/batteries, you don't want that dash camera depleting the battery/batteries under the hood when it operates in parking mode for long stretches of time. Infrequent drivers can, where available, plug their batteries into a 120V based trickle charger.

Beyond the scope of this reply, but available on request, I can discuss how I put a solar panel on my roof rack and stored its power in a small battery in the cargo area that runs the dash camera in parking mode, such that the batteries under the hood (I have a 3.6L JL with the two batteries) are not drained when the vehicle is parked. At home my JL's stock batteries are on a trickle charger. But I envisioned wanting the camera to work in parking mode for days, parked, say, in some outdoor lot at the airport with no place to plug the stock batteries in.

There are other long term parking mode options including dash cam specific battery systems energized from the alternator but they were pricey and I envisioned additional uses for the battery I acquired to do this beyond just energizing the dash cam in parking mode.

If you live in a climate that can get below freezing their are, additionally, battery chemistry decisions.
 

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Hey Chris:

I've owned the Blacksys CH-200 like James @redsyphon and am currently using the Q800 Pro from Thinkware as Mike @Headbarcode is considering (at least the brand if not my model.) I acquired both from blackboxmycar.com and am happy with their customer service.

I like both cameras, especially the latter, for the clarity Mike cites. Using the PC/Mac software in particular, (as opposed to just the smartphone app) I can zoom images to get the clarity I need to make positive IDs, need be.

As you aspire to, I have mine hardwired: and this typically involves tapping two different types of power sources in the vehicle: accessory and battery: which are, respectively, defined as power sources that are only energized when the vehicle is on, and ones that are always energized--irrespective of the parked or started/cranked state of the vehicle.

When the accessory source is live the camera knows to be in "drive mode." While when only the battery source is live the camera knows to be in "parked mode"

I tapped the wires in the driver's sun visor for my accessory power source. The "battery" (always energized) source originally came from a long cable plugged into the 12V outlet in my cargo area (available on most JLs). The latter, by default from the factory, is always energized.

For someone who can splice wires I did not consider the install that technically hard to do.

I'd make sure to acquire a dash camera with a voltage cutoff option. Unless you drive regularly such that the alternator charges your stock battery/batteries, you don't want that dash camera depleting the battery/batteries under the hood when it operates in parking mode for long stretches of time. Infrequent drivers can, where available, plug their batteries into a 120V based trickle charger.

Beyond the scope of this reply, but available on request, I can discuss how I put a solar panel on my roof rack and stored its power in a small battery in the cargo area that runs the dash camera in parking mode, such that the batteries under the hood (I have a 3.6L JL with the two batteries) are not drained when the vehicle is parked. At home my JL's stock batteries are on a trickle charger. But I envisioned wanting the camera to work in parking mode for days, parked, say, in some outdoor lot at the airport with no place to plug the stock batteries in.

There are other long term parking mode options including dash cam specific battery systems energized from the alternator but they were pricey and I envisioned additional uses for the battery I acquired to do this beyond just energizing the dash cam in parking mode.

If you live in a climate that can get below freezing their are, additionally, battery chemistry decisions.
Would love to hear more about this solar panel setup.
 

qnet

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I've used Blackvue for a while in all my vehicles. The only issue I had is, the front camera has gotten too hot a few times in the summer over the years, This mainly happened to some earlier versions I've had.

Right now I have the DRX900- 2CH in my M2 and the new DR750-2CH with LTE in my Jeep. I'm happy with both so far.
 

treesmacker

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I have 2, viofo a129 duo pro 4k. Motion, shock, wifi front rear,yuda yuda meow meow...

I've had no problems and have been impressed with the 4k video.
So, how are these working for you after many months of use? Are you happy with them still? Did you hard wire them? Do you use the parking mode?
 

TrailScooter

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So, how are these working for you after many months of use? Are you happy with them still? Did you hard wire them? Do you use the parking mode?
I have two: both are working great. However, one seems to get a little warmer than the other unit. I do have them hard wired and parking mode has proven interesting.
 

treesmacker

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I have two: both are working great. However, one seems to get a little warmer than the other unit. I do have them hard wired and parking mode has proven interesting.
Great... I purchased one and installed it on my Wrangler JL. I hard wired it to the "Batt" and "ACC" wires of my factory installed auxiliary switches using the optional hardwire kit. The front camera worked through the first night in parking mode and then froze up... I couldn't get past the boot screen, even after reinstalling the firmware, reformatting the SD card, and resetting to factory defaults. So, I had Amazon send a replacement and it is working great for about 4 days now. Fingers crossed that it will continue working and won't get too hot in the summer. Thanks for your reply!
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