[StormRune]

Here's an overview of the installation of a Blackvue front & rear camera set on a 2019 I-Pace. Overall it is pretty straightforward, especially if you use the OBD-II Power Magic Pro connector like I did here. If you don't already have plastic car trim tools the Blackvue installation kit includes the one you see me using here.

In general, I never completely popped off any trim items, I just created enough of a gap to slip the wires behind. I ended up going with an installation that centers the lens on the front up high enough behind the mirror that it creates no additional line of sight interference for the driver. If you want to see the status lights you might want to mount it a little lower. Here's the view from the outside:

From the inside. Note that I have both the front and rear camera. One of the wires is for power, the other is for the rear camera.

I found there was enough room under the front edge of the mirror assembly trim to tuck in both wires, barely. I did have to pop up the trim just a tad, and could then just get it to attach back down. Be careful to avoid prying up where the ventilation slots are since I would imagine those are easy to break. Pry in the more solid part like I show in this photo. You could also possible route the wires around the back side of that plate if you'd rather.

From there it is easy just to tuck the wires in along the headliner. To get the wires behind the A pillar join, you don't need to pop the trim all of the way off; just enough to push the wires down into the gap. In the second photo here you can see the wire down in the gap. If it is pushed down far enough the trim will join back up again nicely with no gap.

Then you just pull back the rubbery strip between the A pillar and the door and run the power wire only all of the way down to the A pillar trim to the horizontal join in the plastic trim near the bottom of the dash. The wire to the rear camera stays near the top of the A pillar so it can be run towards the back later... running above the window along that same piece of rubber trim (see second post)

Now you pry out the lower plastic trim just enough to push the power wire behind it and up into the area below the dash. You'll still have plenty of wire left. Plug in the OBD-II dongle, then bundle up the extra wire and tuck the bundle up behind the dash in a manner that it won't drop down into your footwell. Your power is now plugged in! See the switches on the power dongle to the desired power levels and parking mode selection. I've been leaving mine with parking mode enabled and a 12.0 volt cutoff and have had no problems even with the car sitting for a few days. If you want to play it safer go for the 12.5 volt option.

Continued in next post...

 

[StormRune]

For the rear camera, if you opted for it, the wire has so far been run along with the power wire. Before going any further, make sure the wire to the rear has been uncoiled and straightened out, making it easier to deal with along this longer run without any kinking.

Run the wire along the rubber trim above the driver's door, then pry out the trim at the top of the B pillar just enough to tuck it in. Keep moving along and run the wire behind the rubber trim above the rear door.

Where the headliner meets the plastic trim with the seatbelt, you'll run the wire along the top of the plastic trim until you get to the tailgate area. Since you are going to end up with a lot of extra wire, I made a U shape with the wire and pushed a lot of the extra down into the space behind the rear pillar (which is why you see what appears the be two wires in the following pictures. It is actually only one wire doubling back on itself.

From here you now have two installation choices. I tried the one using the drop-down tab first but wasn't happy that much of the view of the camera was the interior. It is the cleanest-looking when the tail gate is open though. The second one is a bit less attractive when the tail gate is open, but it gets the camera right up next to the glass for a really good view out of the back. There is another way to do this that requires more work to run the wire through the wire bundle going to the tailgate and removing much more trim (according the the installer at the Dashcam Store), but I came up with this approach as being less invasive and it leaves the camera well up out of the rear view mirror line of site and the wires aren't visible when the tailgate is closed.

See next post for option 1

 

[StormRune]

So option one is pretty easy if you buy the metal tab shown from the Dashcam Store. The wire just runs along the rubber trim and the tab hooks up over an edge under the trim to hold the camera in place. Note that this approach will probably allow the rear camera to vibrate some, but it seems that when the tailgate is closed it helps steady the plate a bit.

Unfortunately, with this approach more than half of the camera view is a shot of the interior and you are unlikely to be able to see the license plate numbers of cars up close behind you. Between the occluded view and the change of vibrations I abandoned this approach.

Next...

 

[Meldev##44]

I may not install a camera at this time, but I admire the effort you put into posting
step by step instructions online. Thanks :smile2:

 

[StormRune]

So this approach looks a bit less attractive when the tailgate is open, but it provides a really nice view and if you work with it, you can get the wires to hide when the tailgate is closed (unless you sit in the rear seat and try to look for them). If you take this approach, be sure to use automotive quality wire holders so the adhesive won't fail when the car interior gets hot. I'll post a like to the ones I used later.

So this approach is best shown than described. Here's a photo. It is a little hard to believe without seeing it but when the tailgate is closed you can't see all of this. Removal of the large plastic trim piece here would require a lot of work that I decided not to get into.

And here is what it looks like from the interior with the tailgate closed:

The real trick to making this work is the adhesive clip just above the built-in car wire harness that points the wire off to the left side, and metal paper clamp (hack) on the rubber trim at the bottom of the photo that holds that side of the wire in place and also points the wire off to the left side. Together, these wires allow the wire to fold into a U that moves off to the left when the tailgate closes and prevents the wire from dropping down into a visible space. Here's a shot from the back seat.

The camera now has the best possible view out of the rear, sitting up high out of the sight line of the rear view mirror and best able to rear license plates of cars close to the back of the car. I would show a photo, but it seems I can't load any more photos in this thread

 

[fedorachef]

Really appreciate you posting these steps. Interested to see rear camera mounting option 2.
When recording, does the recording save to a cloud location?
My step daughter just bought herself a new Subaru and it just got broken into. Rear window smashed. For those in Nor CA, she was in San Ramon at het bf apt. Whoever did it stole her jumper cables and first aid kit. Really!? Anyway, I was thinking if I had the rear dash cam maybe we would have caught the person. San Ramon PD were the ones who saw the window busted and called her. Other thought is if someone breaks in they might snag the camera so I would want one that saves recording to cloud.

 

[fedorachef]

Thanks for posting 2nd rear camera mounting option. Looking at the picture and seeing the wire mounted on top of the plastic cover vs under my initial thought was, yea I'll pull that cover off and mount under. Then I went out to my car and looked it over and went yea no I won't be doing that. Haha. Years ago I used to do car stereo installs with subs, amps, the whole deal. Sometimes no matter how careful you are and what tools you have things break when your pulling moldings and covers off. I inspected the molding & covers along where I think I'd route my wires, like yours, and like how you can lift without much effort and there's enough space to tuck wire beneath.

 

[StormRune]

I'm happy to see y'all liking the thread!

A couple of follow-ups: The clips I used from Amazon now only come in a 100pc set, but the price still isn't too bad. I think the 3M adhesive is a key: https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Management-Adhesive-Organizer-Fastening/dp/B07D3546GJ

BTW, the only downside I've experienced so for with the Blackvue DR900-S (2CH in my case) is the collision-event sensitivity is just too sensitive and was triggering too much, so I've disabled it. I still have it enabled for parking mode but have turned down the sensitivity a fair amount there so that when I close the door it doesn't trigger too frequently.

For fedorachef:

If you want to consider a camera that can connect to the cloud at all times, then the fairly new OwlCam (https://owlcam.com/) is one to consider. It has its own cellular connection and can call in to report an incident on its own. The OwlCam made the news here in Austin when someone broke into a Porsche's window and grabbed their radar detector. The OwlCam recorded his face (it has an interior-facing cam), it was published on the local news, and the guy was id'ed and arrested.

I have the Blackvue cloud feature auto-connecting to the WiFi in the I-Pace and to my home WiFi when the car is off and parking in my garage. At home it just makes it easier to pull video without having to get in range of the Blackvue's own WiFi. On the road, events like the collision events were getting upload to the cloud immediately and even showing up as a notification on my Apple Watch. This was cool until it started happening all too much, usually at least once per drive. Full "throttle" acceleration in the I-Pace is enough to trigger it too.

Sorry to hear about your stepdaughter's theft. I had someone steal some simple tools and tie downs out of the back of my pickup and the Thinkware recorded them (I park facing the street where it can see most of our circle), but it was so dark that you can't make out enough to identify them or their car. But it was still interesting to see how long they were on our block breaking into my car and the nearby neighbors; 40 minutes! I thought that was pretty brazen. At least they didn't see the camera and/or bust out my windows like they did some of the neighbors. The police took the video but I don't think it helped.

 

[StormRune]

And here's the view out of the back window with the camera in the better position (option 2). You can compare it to the earlier option 1 photo and see its a big difference.

Since it seems to site isn't going to let me upload more photos to this, here's a link to the view out of the back. This is a screenshot from the video of the guy that I mentioned earlier that seemed to be trying to follow us home:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dqlNOCmxlRspFvY16uVzWQpX3GiL9JC3/view?usp=sharing

 

[fedorachef]

I'm happy to see y'all liking the thread!

For fedorachef:

If you want to consider a camera that can connect to the cloud at all times, then the fairly new OwlCam (https://owlcam.com/) is one to consider. It has its own cellular connection and can call in to report an incident on its own. The OwlCam made the news here in Austin when someone broke into a Porsche's window and grabbed their radar detector. The OwlCam recorded his face (it has an interior-facing cam), it was published on the local news, and the guy was id'ed and arrested.

I have the Blackvue cloud feature auto-connecting to the WiFi in the I-Pace and to my home WiFi when the car is off and parking in my garage. At home it just makes it easier to pull video without having to get in range of the Blackvue's own WiFi. On the road, events like the collision events were getting upload to the cloud immediately and even showing up as a notification on my Apple Watch. This was cool until it started happening all too much, usually at least once per drive. Full "throttle" acceleration in the I-Pace is enough to trigger it too.

I visited BlackVue's site and do see they offer the cloud service and that it does require wifi connection. At home should be fine, although its parked in the garage where I have a security cam, but my thought is being parked at a mall or at the airport and wanting to check in on the car or get alert if tampered with or moving activity caught. The wifi in the car isn't active unless the car is on from what I know. I looked at the Owlcam after you provided the link, but it doesn't seem to be as good as quality as what the Blackvue is. Be nice if the Blackvue offerered the cell service.

 

[StormRune]

For those that tried to access the Google Drive link in my prior message (post 9), I've unlocked access to that link. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I visited BlackVue's site and do see they offer the cloud service and that it does require wifi connection. At home should be fine, although its parked in the garage where I have a security cam, but my thought is being parked at a mall or at the airport and wanting to check in on the car or get alert if tampered with or moving activity caught. The wifi in the car isn't active unless the car is on from what I know. I looked at the Owlcam after you provided the link, but it doesn't seem to be as good as quality as what the Blackvue is. Be nice if the Blackvue offerered the cell service.

Agreed, the OwlCam was very tempting for that feature and it was on my short list. But as you can see I decided the higher res on the Blackvue was more important to me. Typically this car doesn't sit in places where I think it will be burglarized. For me parking lot damage at the office parking garage is a bigger concern. Someone scraped my truck rear quarter with their bumper there and didn't leave a note. Unfortunately I had the camera parked facing the wall so I never got a view of their car.

 

[Rick]

I have similar problems. I use eyeride fleet camera on my car.

 

[Trielectric]

I have an older model Blackvue, I believe it is a 650 model, installed in my I-Pace. In the front of the car I installed my Blackvue low on the dash next to my radar detector. The wiring runs to the side of the car next to the base of the windsheild then runs under plastic and carpeting to the rear cigarette lighter power socket. The power socket in the back stays hot for a few minutes after the car is shutdown allowing some recording after you have left the car. I had experiences with my Ford Focus not being able to see anything in the sun when it was mounted up high, because of the shine on the front dash. In the low forward position I don't get this shine. I do have a problem. My GPS on the dash cam will not get a good enough signal to give a speed and location during the playback. It is getting some gps signal because the time is correct on the video. Putting the same dashcam in my BMW X5 and the GPS works good with the blue GPS light flashing. Something must be in the windshield of the Jag partially blocking the GPS signal. Anyone else had a problem with this?

 

[kkemp]

If you have the heated windshield I expect it would interfere with GPS signals. I think even without the heated windshield option the i-pace has an IR-rejecting coating that may also interfere. There are two designated areas at the top of the windshield to the left and right of the rear view mirror where there is no coating and no heating wires that are designed to allow radio signals through. It stands to reason that a camera mounted near the top go the windshield closer to these "RF windows" will have an easier time seeing GPS satellites than one placed near the bottom of the windshield.

 

[Trielectric]

I don't have the heated windshield , but I haven't heard about the coating before . I'll try holding it around the mirror and see what I get. Thanks.