[Cilonen]

Hi Guys,

Just finished my little project and thought others may like a guide to do the same. The usual caveat applies - do this at your own risk! I will not take any responsibility for problems arising with your car or camera in following this guide. I am not an automotive or BMW expert!
I got a Blackvue 380 for Xmas from my darling wife, but got fed up of plugging it in, and didn't want cables running past the A-pillar airbag. I wasn't bothered by having parking mode active, so I did some research and found some guides on hardwiring radar units into the F30 and camera guides for other cars. A little combining of methods and materials later, and SUCCESS

This is what you'll need (& where to get it):
=DC power plug - 1.3mm x 3.45mm (Maplin FK05F)
=Speaker wire - 15 to 30cm of approx 24 AWG (can also use 2-core power cable but will need to strip off the outer cable insulation to just the individual wire insulation). The length will be dependent on where you want to site the camera - go longer if unsure.
=D-sub connector pins (AWG 20-24/24-28) Farnell http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/pro...03&sku=1772767 (I couldn't find these anywhere else in UK)
=35mm heatshrink x1m (Maplin BF88v)
=Soldering iron & solder
=Multimeter if you want to confirm the 12v and ground connections
=Credit/membership card (latter is better as it's usually more flexible)
=A long, sharp sewing needle may be helpful

Optional items (if you want to add an additional fuse protection):
=Quick-blow fuse, 2A: either circuit board type if soldering inline (Farnell http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/pro...03&sku=1123045) or tube type if fitting into a fuse holder (Maplin GG26D)
=In-line fuse holder (Maplin RC71N) if going for tube type fuse (saves 1 bit of soldering, and will be easier replacement if fuse blows in future)

The kit:


Solder the cable to the DC plug - the wire going to the SHORT connector will be the ground cable, the cable to the LONG connector will be the 12v. I forgot to take the pic for this myself, so have copied the image from this guide: http://www.radardetectorforum.org/wi...e_hardwire_kit Make sure you remember which is which, depending on your cable colours!


Slide heatshrink about 2/3 along the cable, then snip the 12v cable and cut space for the fuse (if using). Solder the fuse in line, or connect the fuse holder and fit the fuse. The fuse holder does add a lot of bulk, but there is space in the mirror housing.



Place electrical tape over the fuse and slide some more heatshrink over the remaining cable to about 3cm short of the end. Trim the insulation off the cable ends to give just enough to slot into the D-sub pin and allow the larger crimp to sit over insulation. Crimp the pin onto the wire and seal with a piece of heatshrink or electrical tape.



That's the cable made, now onto installation!


Here's where the membership card will be needed. Sit in the passenger seat for easier access and slide the card into the centre groove in the mirror housing, angled toward the passenger side. You need the card to bend with the shape of the housing. Push gently left and up toward the headlining and the clips will pop releasing the housing. Use your fingers to pop the clips near the windscreen and remove both sides of the housing.


You can now see the molex power connector we need to jack into, and the cables we will need. These have been confirmed by me (car has lane departure camera) and by this thread http://www.f30post.com/forums/showth...mirror+housing by a guy who doesn't have the lane camera.



If you want to check your connections, now is the time to grab the multimeter and follow these instructions:
Guidelines on Using a Voltmeter to Locate Power and Ground
First set your voltmeter to the continuity setting (should beep when you touch the red and black probes together, telling you they are shorted)
Find a ground on the car somewhere, like a bolt under the dash, or a metal cross member.
Put the black probe on that ground, and touch the back of each exposed wire connector in the mirror harness with the red probe.
For each wire that beeps, that means that wire is grounded. Turn the ignition to the on position, then back to off, and make sure it beeps regardless of ignition position.
Put the voltmeter into VDC mode, to measure DC volts, turn the ignition to the on position.
Put the black probe on the ground wire found in #4.
Touch each of the wires in that harness with the red probe, and note which one(s) gives you +12-14 volts, turn the ignition off to verify that the volt readings go down to zero or close to zero.
That should define which two ports in that harness into which you would plug the cable, the ground connector into #4 above, and the 12v to #7.

In the F30 cases I've seen and in mine, the 12v cable is the Brown-black at the top right of the molex, and the ground is the Green-brown(tan) in the middle lower row.

Push the D-sub pins into the back of the molex as shown.


I checked with the multimeter at this point on the DC plug at the other end of the cable, but found no power
After some fiddling I realised that the pins I got were just a fraction short and weren't making a stable connection. Rather than remove everything and start over, I used a sewing needle to carefully slice into the insulation of the cables and create a better connection. Once I was happy that the connection was sound and the pins were stable and not likely to slip out, I plugged in the Blackvue for a test:


We can see power and GPS lock, so I was happy. I tried a couple of placements as the cable had enough length to run along the headliner to sit above the driver's sightline


and also to sit on the passenger side or below the mirror. Once I was happy that my chosen location had clear view and GPS lock I mounted the camera and tidied the cable, clipping the mirror housing back into place. The camera can't be seen from the driving position, so doesn't distract me at all.



And finally the view from outside - not conspicuous, so quite happy!


Now I just have to adjust the camera angle (this is the test shot), but the system was quite happy on a 45 minute test drive, and no errors showed in the car or the camera/video recordings.


The same setup can be done for a radar/GPS speed camera unit (just change the DC connector for whatever matches your unit), and I believe there is also a permanent 12v feed somewhere in the mirror unit from what I read, which would be useful for those who want parking mode with the Blackvue, but I can't say how you'd avoid battery drain.

[gatsojon]

Very interesting post and thank you for taking the time to post up. I'm looking into cameras and want something unobtrusive. Your installation fits that requirement nicely.

Your mirror housing looks smaller than mine as I have a camera for the visibility pack. Still, nothing that can't be worked around.

[Cilonen]

Gatsojon,

I have the visibility pack, so the setup should be identical. Everything seems to look smaller when viewed close-up on camera (so I'm told)

[gatsojon]

Originally Posted by Cilonen

Gatsojon,

I have the visibility pack, so the setup should be identical. Everything seems to look smaller when viewed close-up on camera (so I'm told)

I know what you mean

I have this type of housing and camera

[doomsday runner]

Let us know how you get on with it, had 3 of these for my staff at work and they have all gone faulty, keep coming up with no data card installed. Eject the card and put back in then its OK, but keeps doing it. All 3 ended up doing the same. Work well when they work though!

[Cilonen]

Gatsojon - ah, see what you mean.
Pop the housing open and take a look, there should be ample space inside, just a case of checking the connectors

Doomsday - there are some issues known with the Blackvue. Primary is the need to format the card on a regular basis due to the constant writing which SD cards were never designed to handle. That's probably what's messed your cards up.

[doomsday runner]

Originally Posted by Cilonen

Gatsojon - ah, see what you mean.
Pop the housing open and take a look, there should be ample space inside, just a case of checking the connectors

Doomsday - there are some issues known with the Blackvue. Primary is the need to format the card on a regular basis due to the constant writing which SD cards were never designed to handle. That's probably what's messed your cards up.

Thanks for that, will check it out!

[Hprice1099]

Originally Posted by Cilonen

Gatsojon - ah, see what you mean.
Pop the housing open and take a look, there should be ample space inside, just a case of checking the connectors

Doomsday - there are some issues known with the Blackvue. Primary is the need to format the card on a regular basis due to the constant writing which SD cards were never designed to handle. That's probably what's messed your cards up.

I was under the impression this was an old issue? I've had my DR550 hardwired in for 3 months now and never had to reformat it.

[BMWSKI]

Thanks. Great post but still seems a bit too technical for me. I might have the balls to try it one day...

[Cilonen]

Originally Posted by doomsday runner

Thanks for that, will check it out!

This is from the Blackvue FAQ:

I keep hearing “Please Check the SD card” from my unit

You hear “Please Check the SD card” message when your SD card has been through too many read-write cycles, which causes bad sectors, clusters, blocks. If you don’t make disk check your files on the SD card might get broken. Thus it is advised to perform disk check at least 1 time a week. To do that please follow these steps.

On your PC desktop click Start->Type cmd into the search. Now you see that command prompt
Type in CHKDSK x:/F: (x: letter of your SD card drive) and hit “Enter”
If there are any bad sectors fix them
If all bad sectors cannot be fixed at once perform the above procedure several times
Format the SD card (best using the SD formatter)
After formatting the SD card, download compatible firmware and install it

Firmware and SD formatter can be downloaded from the links at:
http://blackvueshop.co.uk/support/downloads/ adn instructions for use are also there.

[Steve C]

I've had a camera in my car for over a year and never had any SD card issues. And my camera is a cheap £20 effort!

[MarkG_M5Comp]

Originally Posted by Cilonen

This is from the Blackvue FAQ:

I keep hearing Please Check the SD card from my unit

You hear Please Check the SD card message when your SD card has been through too many read-write cycles, which causes bad sectors, clusters, blocks. If you dont make disk check your files on the SD card might get broken. Thus it is advised to perform disk check at least 1 time a week. To do that please follow these steps.

On your PC desktop click Start->Type cmd into the search. Now you see that command prompt
Type in CHKDSK x:/F: (x: letter of your SD card drive) and hit Enter
If there are any bad sectors fix them
If all bad sectors cannot be fixed at once perform the above procedure several times
Format the SD card (best using the SD formatter)
After formatting the SD card, download compatible firmware and install it

Firmware and SD formatter can be downloaded from the links at:
http://blackvueshop.co.uk/support/downloads/ adn instructions for use are also there.

That is BS - what a cop out... I wonder if it's related to quality of the SD card. Perhaps an industrial grade version would be ok - I had issue with 'consumer' cards in robots previously which was fixed by the industrial version.

[BMWSKI]

So is there a way to view the footage without being in the car? Via the web for example? The reason I ask is because if the car gets broken into then they could easily steal the recordings.
Also, wouldn't having a camera in the car make it more likely for a break-in due to it's value?
I guess I'm trying to find the real benefits of the system and I can't help but think you may end up incriminating yourself if someone came across footage from a more 'spirited' drive!

[Steve C]

Originally Posted by BMWSKI

Also, wouldn't having a camera in the car make it more likely for a break-in due to it's value?
I guess I'm trying to find the real benefits of the system and I can't help but think you may end up incriminating yourself if someone came across footage from a more 'spirited' drive!

If I park in a dodgy area I remove my camera from the car.

I use only a small capacity memory card to reduce the chances of any spirited drives being on the card at any one time.

[Steve C]

Originally Posted by BMWSKI

I guess I'm trying to find the real benefits of the system

I got my camera after the following incident 18 months ago.

I was parked on the roadside and was still in the car when a lorry drove past on the (fairly narrow) road and mis-judged things. His front qtr hit my rear qtr causing £5k of damage. I got out thinking "this is a straightforward insurance claim" but after exchanging details and both driving off he then proceeded to deny it was his fault and said I drove into him!

I eventually won through after issuing a small claims court summons on him but the lack of witnesses meant I had 3 months of hassle. The £20 camera I have now would have made the whole process a lot easier.

[BMWSKI]

Originally Posted by Steve C

I got my camera after the following incident 18 months ago.

I was parked on the roadside and was still in the car when a lorry drove past on the (fairly narrow) road and mis-judged things. His front qtr hit my rear qtr causing £5k of damage. I got out thinking "this is a straightforward insurance claim" but after exchanging details and both driving off he then proceeded to deny it was his fault and said I drove into him!

I eventually won through after issuing a small claims court summons on him but the lack of witnesses meant I had 3 months of hassle. The £20 camera I have now would have made the whole process a lot easier.

This would make me so angry! Glad you won in the end
I guess it's knowing when to stop really. I'm now paranoid about just getting a front camera incase the incident happens at the rear!
I also wonder that because I have a saloon (no rear wiper) that the visibility will be compromised anyway???