[McRat]

Well, hanging it from my existing mirror was a fail. So before my trip last weekend, I did a temporary setup. It can be completely removed in under 10 minutes, and worked very well. It provides both forward and reverse video recording, a digital rearview mirror that hides the pillars and passengers and luggage, provided better low-light forward vision. It comes on when I start, and shuts down after parked a few minutes. It will monitor the car while parked, and records for about 8 hrs of driving on a 65gb micro-SD, then rolls over.

This is a total ghetto build done at the last minute very quickly, so replacing white zip ties with black in on my list, and I need to hide wires better. But it does not block my vision at all, and worked flawlessly for ~1,500 miles so far.

I used:

A digital rearview dashcam - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HL3J2XF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A Cellphone Holder - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0793RL2D9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A OBDII power supply for cameras - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XS33J2N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Micro-SD memory sticks - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P18ZSCM/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A power drill, small drill bit, 4 small screws, some computer wiring standoffs, some zipties, and a utility knife. This is stuff I have laying around.

I pushed the wires under the interior door frame black trim, or used the computer wiring standoffs to hold them in place. They do not mar the plastic, but they don't stick to leather. Stronger tape would be better though. When it's hot, they can come unstuck.

I trimmed the straps on the Digital Mirror, so they are flat. Then drilled a clearance hole in them, then a pilot hole in the iPhone Holder clamshell. Then put the mirror on the open clamshell with the screws.

I used high quality 2-side tape to hold the rear camera on, which worked well in heavy rains. Yeah, I have two side tape in stock.

Picture 1 is what it looks like from the front.
Picture 2 is what it looks like from the driver's perspective, notice it's not in the way of anything.
Picture 3 is where I put the rear camera, but it's supposed to be on the plate frame.
Picture 4 is where the OBDII power supply plugs in. All it does is draw power from there instead of a cigarette lighter. It knows when the car is off, and has a delay function.

 

[2761]

Sweet set up, McRat. I would like to figure a way to directly feed rear view video into the existing rear view mirror. Rear visibility is not great and a digital system would be nice.

 

[McRat]

I still have to go through about 30 hrs of both forward and rear camera video. Like 99 gb of data. There is a segment where you see the cop on the side of the road with his radar, then you look at the rear camera as he chases you, switch to the front to see him pass you, then bag the guy who didn't slow down, the switch to rear to watch him pulled over.

But we saw several interesting things I need to recover so can I chuck the rest.

 

[McRat]

Sweet set up, McRat. I would like to figure a way to directly feed rear view video into the existing rear view mirror. Rear visibility is not great and a digital system would be nice.

This camera mirror was intended to be strapped onto the front of the existing mirror, but it was not a good system. Hard to wire, too many reflections, and the factory mirror has better 'cop spotting' ability. Having both the stock mirror and the 170° view mirror both is much better.

Our Cadillac has a digital rearview, and I like it, so I tried to add that feature somehow. I think I can do better, but the second effort isn't too bad.

 

[2761]

I admire your ingenuity! It looks fine and if it improves rear visibility then it's win-win. I may be coming to you for advice if you don't mind.

 

[alphanstein]

I posted on another thread about finding a switched fuse source for my radar detector. It would allow you to remove the OBD connection. Wouldn't it be better to mount a digital rear view over your existing mirror? Then you can run the wires under the eve of the headboard and have a cleaner install.

 

[McRat]

I posted on another thread about finding a switched fuse source for my radar detector. It would allow you to remove the OBD connection. Wouldn't it be better to mount a digital rear view over your existing mirror? Then you can run the wires under the eve of the headboard and have a cleaner install.

The light reflecting from the roof and side glass made it so it was hard to see the LCD when mounted to the OEM mirror. Probably because this model work fine as a mirror when the power is off. It's not up to Cadillac standards.
The OBDII has a switch for Always On, for parking surveillance, or 5 min delay for dashcam/mirror only.

If I spent a few more minutes, I could have hid the wires between the leather and plastic interface on the dash. But I did not want a permanent install at the time. I could have made the whole wiring invisible. I hid about 3/4 of the wire. You can see a bit behind the driver side upper rear seat speaker (could be pushed in), a short segment between the doors (could be pushed in), and the dash right side in front of the HUD.

The OBDII power is perfect. It's fused, short, hidden, and not in the way of anything. Unlike a radar detector, you need two wires with this system. One for the back camera that goes all the way to the license plate area, and the other for power.

But the #1 reason for doing as I had, was I didn't know how it would work, and wanted to be able to change it in minutes. Seriously, it would not take 2 minutes to pull everything if I was in a hurry.

 

[alphanstein]

The switched fuse I found is on a delay, it was not five mins, more like 1 minute or so when I was playing around with it, so that should still suit that requirement you have need only for a short delay. Makes sense on your other points.

 

[LauderdaleFE]

I still have to go through about 30 hrs of both forward and rear camera video. Like 99 gb of data. There is a segment where you see the cop on the side of the road with his radar, then you look at the rear camera as he chases you, switch to the front to see him pass you, then bag the guy who didn't slow down, the switch to rear to watch him pulled over.

But we saw several interesting things I need to recover so can I chuck the rest.

Congrats on the setup! Down and dirty meets functional.



What Nx fast-forward speed is available for faster that real time playback scanning? Would it depend on what program is used to view the footage?


Are there any non-wired bluetooth or other rear camera setups available?

 

[McRat]

Congrats on the setup! Down and dirty meets functional.



What Nx fast-forward speed is available for faster that real time playback scanning? Would it depend on what program is used to view the footage?


Are there any non-wired bluetooth or other rear camera setups available?

I called them Ghetto Mods years ago, even though that is no longer politically correct. The term ghetto is not racial, ie - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

I brought test footage into Microsoft Movie Maker... That program is stunningly slow. I've never play much with video editing though. Are there video editors that are massively parallel that will use the GPU as a compute card? I have both big GPU cards, and up to 32 physical core computers. But I got out of the Overclocking It Till It Breaks hobby. I doubt my desktop is 5ghz anymore. It certainly isn't more than 8 physical cores.

There are wireless rear cameras, and we have a power port in the rear. That would remove one wire.