[Nouseformonkeys]

I know you can just let the dash cam power cord just hang from the cam unit mounted on the windshield down to the power plug below but that’s kind of messy. I’m wondering how much of a pain it is to route the power cord from the windshield down the A Pillar and into the space under the dash.

Anybody do this yet?

Plus bonus points if someone has installed the rear mounted cam and hid those wires.

 

[Roadkill401]

I have installed a Viofo A129 in my Nero. I ended up using the spare fuse stop that is 3 across and 2nd down. I used the micro2 fuse tap in my Dashcam power kit. Ran the cable along the front of the roof liner, then across the A-pillar and then inside rubber door seal down to the driver side floor and loop back up to the driver fuse box. It took about 15 minutes to install once I figured out what fuse spot to use that was triggered on/off by the ignition.


Now the rear camera I was thinking of but decided against it as the Niro comes with full curtain airbags and that would require you to take off all the side roofline pannels to run the wire behind the airbags. The last thing you'd want to do is to run a wire where the airbag will deploy. A friend had suggested that you could consider removing the whole roof headliner and run the cable the through the middle, but it seemed like way too much work for any benefit. Let's face it. If you get struck from behind, the law is pretty much on your side that the person who hits you is at fault. That is unless you are reversing in what case the law says you are at fault.



I am not sure if you are wanting photos.

 

[Nouseformonkeys]

I have installed a Viofo A129 in my Nero. I ended up using the spare fuse stop that is 3 across and 2nd down. I used the micro2 fuse tap in my Dashcam power kit. Ran the cable along the front of the roof liner, then across the A-pillar and then inside rubber door seal down to the driver side floor and loop back up to the driver fuse box. It took about 15 minutes to install once I figured out what fuse spot to use that was triggered on/off by the ignition.


Now the rear camera I was thinking of but decided against it as the Niro comes with full curtain airbags and that would require you to take off all the side roofline pannels to run the wire behind the airbags. The last thing you'd want to do is to run a wire where the airbag will deploy. A friend had suggested that you could consider removing the whole roof headliner and run the cable the through the middle, but it seemed like way too much work for any benefit. Let's face it. If you get struck from behind, the law is pretty much on your side that the person who hits you is at fault. That is unless you are reversing in what case the law says you are at fault.


I am not sure if you are wanting photos.

Thanks for the info. Seems pretty straightforward for the front. The rear does sound like it’s not worth the effort.

I saw a couple of examples from a YouTube video where the rear cam came in handy. One instance was where the car was rear ended, but the other driver went around the first car and turned down a side street before it could be captured in the front camera. Another was where a car pulled into a gas station and parked past the main pumps at a 90 degree angle from them. One of the cars at the pump backed out and turned right into the first car. If the rear camera was not there, the owner wouldn’t have known which car hit him. In this case, the front camera also captured the hit and run car that was already at the pumps when it first pulled into the station.

But those are extreme cases.

 

[KK6PD]

I put my Garmin 20 in, it hangs off of the mirror mount. ran the wire up behind the mirror, under the head liner where it meets the glass, that was simple. The wire transitions on the seam to under the lip on the inside of the rubber door seal. Once at a entry point to under the dash ran it there, then to center console where it rests in the left cig socket!

 

[Nouseformonkeys]

Thanks KK6PD. Is the camera mount actually attached to the mirror stalk or is it stuck to the glass just underneath it?

 

[Arthur]

I would recommend running the wire down the side of the windshield to avoid aircurtain interference. See photo

 

[Roadkill401]

For the two cases that you have given, does it really matter? I don't know what the insurance rules are in your state/province/country. Here where I live, we have no-fault insurance so your own insurance company pays for all your damages and medical. You only need to sue the other side for extreme injuries that would keep you from work, but then again, if the crash was that bad I doubt that the other side hitting would be driving away from the accident.


The idea of having a rear-facing camera is novel, but I don't really know how much more it will actually offer. I guess it might come into play if you get a cop pulling up behind you and you want to document what they were doing. like did they come out with guns drawn demanding you to put your hands out the window where they can see them (or is that just on American TV stations)??


I also have come to the conclusion that for the most part, you want to be able to record that there was someone else involved, but it's not your job or requirement to be able to provide proof positive of who it is. Like, it would be fine to be able to show it was a Blue Sedan that sideswiped you, but it really doesn't matter if you can see if it was a man or woman driving, nor what the exact license plate was.

 

[Roadkill401]

I would recommend running the wire down the side of the windshield to avoid aircurtain interference. See photo

I know that dealing with Airbags is a rather tricky thing. What you don't know is what direction and how the airbag is deployed. If the A-Pillar where the airbag is located has the tear away side towards the door, then running it along the window seam is the smarter way to go. But if it's the other way, then your probably best to tuck it away under the rubber along the door frame.



Best choice is not to get into an accident where you need an airbag deployed, but that option is just a given.

 

[KK6PD]

Thanks KK6PD. Is the camera mount actually attached to the mirror stalk or is it stuck to the glass just underneath it?

I used the doughnut portion of the Scangauge mount I had, added a 1"piece of turned aluminum round stock, that mates with the camera holder portion on the Garmin Model 20. Yes, it's custom, but geeze, it works great. I prefer the 2 piece doughnut type, it simply fits perfectly, secure! It seems that many new cars have gone to a 1"diameter piece to hold the mirror with. With a ball joint at both ends, it makes adjusting a snap if still tight, annoying if loose or wonky. Just place the ring, it splits half, around the mirror arm, and attach your cam holder to that!

 

[Nouseformonkeys]

For the two cases that you have given, does it really matter? I don't know what the insurance rules are in your state/province/country. Here where I live, we have no-fault insurance so your own insurance company pays for all your damages and medical. You only need to sue the other side for extreme injuries that would keep you from work, but then again, if the crash was that bad I doubt that the other side hitting would be driving away from the accident.


The idea of having a rear-facing camera is novel, but I don't really know how much more it will actually offer. I guess it might come into play if you get a cop pulling up behind you and you want to document what they were doing. like did they come out with guns drawn demanding you to put your hands out the window where they can see them (or is that just on American TV stations)??


I also have come to the conclusion that for the most part, you want to be able to record that there was someone else involved, but it's not your job or requirement to be able to provide proof positive of who it is. Like, it would be fine to be able to show it was a Blue Sedan that sideswiped you, but it really doesn't matter if you can see if it was a man or woman driving, nor what the exact license plate was.

I’m not sure what the exact rule is here in Florida, but I got into a minor collision where the person in front tried to do a u-turn but traffic in the lane she was trying to get into was backed up, so she decided to back up to change lanes just as I was passing her to turn left. She clipped my back bumper on the driver’s side. The cops were called and luckily another lady who witnessed it stopped to give the cop her statement proving that I wasn’t at fault. I called my insurance company and the agent told me it would probably be best to contact the other lady’s insurance and not file a claim with mine (what am I pay for?). Anyway, I did just that and they ended up paying me because the other lady didn’t even bother to call and tell them her side of things because she was obviously at fault.

TLDR...I got paid by the other driver’s insurance company instead of going through mine.

I’ve been driving for 30 plus years and never had a situation personally where I needed a rear cam. This is more for my teenage daughter who will also be driving the car.

 

[TLH1310]

Too bad we can't tap into the cameras the Niro already has. There's already a back-up camera and there are cameras in the front for the Lane-keeping system. Just a thought.

 

[cockedandglocked]

Too bad we can't tap into the cameras the Niro already has. There's already a back-up camera and there are cameras in the front for the Lane-keeping system. Just a thought.

I don't know about the LKA camera, but the picture quality of the backup camera is pretty bad, I think you'd be better off with a dedicated dashcam anyways.

 

[Nouseformonkeys]

Lol. Being the cheapskate that I am, I looked up videos of turning an old smartphone into a dash cam. It’s doable and there are even dashcam apps that capture and manage the small video clips. The only issue is recreating the 140-170 degree angle to capture more of the road. I actually already have a clip-on wide angle lens for phones. Oh, and I’d need to buy some sort of base to mount it to the dash or windshield.

You can get an okay dashcam for around $50, so the cost savings is not that much. I might do it anyway for the heck of it.

 

[jjplace1]

I have a geko dash cam from Costco and ran it down the same as several of you have and have really enjoyed it on my 2017 Niro EX.. Before the Niro, we had a Kia Sorrento and used the same dash cam which was mounted similar.

About 1 1/2 years ago we were involved in and accident without any damages to our car, but the dash cam recorded the incident with the color of the traffic lights and coming to a stop with sounds. The camera recording made it clear the I said and you said of the people involved, its recording to the SD card. We have the camera mainly to support what has happened IF NEEDED. In today's environment with a need to cover your own behind and provide proof of almost everything, A DASH CAM is a wise investment. We are thinking about a rear cam but still looking into it.

 

[Mark Helmandollar]

Too bad we can't tap into the cameras the Niro already has. There's already a back-up camera and there are cameras in the front for the Lane-keeping system. Just a thought.

Tesla just started doing that.

 

[Nouseformonkeys]

Here’s my experiment using a smartphone and dash cam app. The app is pretty good. It records video in preset lengths just like a dedicated dash cam and allows you to manage them and even link them to a YouTube account so that they are uploaded when on WiFi. The wide angle clip on lens that I used isn’t the best and I think it made the image less sharp. Plus there was a smudge on the lens so that made it worse. I just propped the camera in between the dash and the windshield and it fell a couple of times when I accelerated.

Overall it was a fun experiment, but not very practical since I’d have to get an extra long usb cable and charger and a windshield mount and at that poin I could by a real dash cam for not much more.

 

[Roadkill401]

I would be more worried with the smartphone opton that you'd get into the car and start driving and totally forget to set it up and that is the time that something happenes.



I thankfully have not gotten into an accident since having a dashcam. but i have had times where i just could not beleve what i was seeing and the dashcam came into use to prove my point. We have issues with cycleists in my area that don't seem to get traffic lights, what side of the road to ride on, or general safety when it comes to riding. But how do you go about raising the concern with your local city coucil unless you have something concrete to show them. I love my Viofo as it shoots increadible clear video and it made it very easy to point to coucil there was a problem in my area and they changed their tact that 'oh we will look into it' to actually painting direction arrows for bike lanes and putting officers on the troublesome intersections.



I have helped other accident sufferers to detangle the mess they were in as I had footage of a wacko driving reckless who passed me. (he had a very distincive car). About an hour later on the way back he was in an accident with another motorist and I stopped and spoke with the other driver who gave a story about him cutting her off and she ran into him. A little bit of video and the police charged him instead of her. Hopefully the dude will be getting lessons on how to drive, or at least having to pay for damages he caused from his bad driving.

 

[Nouseformonkeys]

The auto on/off function of a real dash cam is a definite benefit over the repurposed smartphone.

What model of Viofo do you have?

 

[Roadkill401]

I moved my Viofo A119v1 that I pulled out of my Ford Edge over to my wife's Kia Nero.



I initially purchased a new A129 for myself, but it was boxed back up and shipped back to Amazon as I had issues with it. Power problem with the GPS base, and the Viofo app didn't want to play nice with the LG G5 phone. Also, I realized that it was going to be very hard bordering on impossible for me to run the cable from the head unit to the rear camera. As it comes with a 15' mini usb cable, you don't have enough cable to go from the front camera down to floor level to the back and then back up again. I think they expect you to run along the roof line, but as the Niro has airbags effectively the whole perimeter, I wouldn't want to do that job yourself as you'd have to remove all the panels and run the cable behind the airbags or else you could be compromising their effectiveness or even be dangerous. I'd not want a thick usb cable coming at me head at 250+mph (the speed airbags are deployed)


I purchased a new A119v2 as I personally prefer the higher resolution image that it gets (1440p over the sony chipped A119S that only does 1080p). I did get to compare the video quality of the two units to each other and I found that the A119 at the higher res got a sharper and better image with the modded firmware over what I could get from the A129. The picture quality was slightly less at night on darker roads, but on the 400 series highways, they are so brightly lit that the 119 actually was better. At daytime, the 119 was by far a better picture.



The only real difference between the A119v1 and the v2 is the GPS base on the latter was redesigned as they were having issues with failure on the v1 if you are constantly pulling on and on the camera. She is not.

 

[yticolev]

I believe the side air bags deploy from the seat edges. The headliner doesn't have them.