Any interest in a dash cam group buy?

I might be pm-ing you later this week. Taking Wednesday off and intend to install it then.

 

Please do. If available I’ll set up a time for you to call me to walk through it.

 

On a side note, really wish I had that thing installed earlier...dumbass didn’t have a queen sized mattress secured properly and I almost ate it into the windshield....fortunately I was far enough back to see it fluttering react quickly...thought I was going to have change my shorts

 

Yea, I'm thinking of swapping out the 15amp fuses that came with the add-a-tap's for some 5amp fuses.

 

the default password should be 1234567890 or 123456789. when i set mine up initially it was 1234567890 but then later after having some issues with a new phone not connecting, i did a factory reset and it reset to 123456789 which annoyed me because i was still trying 1234567890.

once you connect it via wifi, you can go through the setup process and reset the password to something else.

thinkware has bunch of tutorials, probably because it seems a lot of people have had issues with it:





Even one on factory resetting, which I had to do the one time when I got a new phone and it wasn't connecting:

 

mini fuses will work in a low profile fuse slot, they will just be taller. I use mini fuses and mini add a fuses in my tacoma.

https://www.blackboxmycar.com/blogs/news/using-mini-size-fuses-in-low-profile-fuse-slots

 

Here is some info for those that might not have much electrical experience. In this pic, the micro is the factory size fuse in our trucks. The mini, is a direct replacement and will work in both fuse blocks, under hood and dash. The only difference between the 2, is the mini has the longer legs. The mini size is what I keep spares of.





If you don't have a volt meter, here is a pic showing orientation of fuse. The red mini is 10a, which is the direct replacement for the removed 10a micro fuse. Pic is dark, but notice the 10a is placed toward the legs of the tap. The Lt purple fuse is 3a and used for the cam. Notice it is to the outside of the fuse tap legs. With these taps, if you blow the 3a, the camera will lose power but the factory circuit will still work. If the factory 10a blows, neither the cam or factory circuit will work. That is why the orientation is important. A 3a will blow too easily for the whole circuit and 10a is way too much for the cam. Remember that a fuse is designed to be the weak link. 10a for the cam word either make the camera itself, or the cam wiring from factory the weak link. Best case in a bad situation is your cam is ruined. Worst case in bad situation is wiring catches fire and burns a truck. I experienced a dash fire 30 years ago in my first 4x4 when I was in HS. It was caused by a prior owners improper wiring and I have been anal about wiring since. All the taps I have seen, have had a decent quality butt connector so I have used them instead of soldiering. When I do solder a connection I alway use a butt connector also, but I use the kind that have no plastic coating on them. You can easily remove the plastic from a connector with small dikes or a razor knife if needed but be careful as I'm sure a missing pinky finger would hurt. I alway use heat shrink on every connection. If a non soldered connection is used (plastic on BC) I use 1 layer of heat shrink, but 2 layers on soldered connection. Vehicles vibrate and get bounced around so it is simply added protection from chaffing. On double HS connections, cut 2 pieces of HS, and install over the wire. Place 1 at connection and heat with the other moved away from heat. After the first is done, then slide the second HS over and heat.

As I stated, I am anal about electrical but for good reason with personal experience and I have seen vehicles burnt to the ground including a log truck.







This last one shows fuse placement in dash on my 14. If possible, always use a voltmeter to find your switched or constant sourced power.

I used WSH 10a for switched(power with key)(acc. power)
I used POWER OUTLET 15a for constant.

The taps I have seen have been factory recommended 10a. The tap can and will handle 15a safely. Like with a tow strap, they might be rated for 5k lbs, but have been tested to 8k or even 10 k before breaking. It is a built in safety margin.
EDIT: at my local parts store they sell 10a, I looked online and see they do in fact sell higher rated ones, but without having one to find out what size wire is used, they may just be the same thing from a different manufacturer.

A voltmeter (multimeter) is something everyone should own. You can get a cheap one from harbor freight for less than $5. Get one, watch some YouTube vids, and go test your wall plugs in the house. Test your battery while off, and running. That will show you how much voltage your alternator is putting out. Learn how to use the ohm function to test fuses without having to pull them. I have schooling for electronic/electrical but there is a bunch of basic stuff you can learn on your own which could save you mechanic/ install money or your truck/ home in a bad situation.

Hope this info can help some out. I have learned a bunch from this site, and want to give back with my knowledge and experience when I can.

And Thanks again to USdashcam for putting this together. Couple hiccups but a learning experience for all of us and I'm sure the next one will be even better.

 

So I hope people have been installing their cams without too much trouble. If anyone does have any trouble, blackboxmycar.com has a great live chat and a real person can walk you through any issues. The F800 seems to have issues with people doing the install, a few people messaged me about it. It seems like a common problem these days which is strange since thinkware's smart phone app never had issues for me before.

I have been trying to keep up on this thread, but I picked up a moonlighting job to try to help pay for my daily driver and more truck parts haha so I am not on as much.

 

Thanks for your help so far.

What’s the easiest way people have found to copy videos from their camera to an iPhone?

Currently I have to have the truck on, phone hotspot on, and then open the app and tell it to connect to my phone, then navigate to the videos, and guess which one I need by the time in the title.

Anyone else have a better way to do this?

 

if something happens you can always hit the emergency/manual record button. cant remember did you get a thinkware or blackvue? blackvue also allows the motion sensor "button" on the side to be a manual record.

personally if something happens i just look at the time and later look up based on the time stamp on the file name.

 

I got the F800 Pro.

 

saving for later use

 

So electrical gurus, bought the 800 pro and this is going into my 16 civic. Appears the dome light has the constant power and the fuse for that is 10a. I have a few unused slots but unsure if they have constant power (have a harbor freight multimeter to check but dunno which setting to use). Didn’t buy any add a fuses or the likes yet so not sure what I am doing electrically.

I can handle install and running the wires but connecting is not my forte (electrical scares the crap outta me )

 

So I got hit with the BS brokerage fee.

UPS is cunning. They found I have an UPS account associated with my address and simply billed the fee to my account!!!!

Shady bastards. I guess I will be giving blackboxmycar a call.

 

Need 2 fuse taps. One for acc and other for hot. Basic electrical is 2 types. AC/ alternating current (house) and D.C./ direct current (vehicle, farm equipment, lawn mower, i.e. Has a battery. 12 or 24 volt)

On volt meter, AC has a horizontal swiggle line above the V for voltage. D.C. Has a solid horizontal line, with a few horizontal dots below it above the V.

 

@USDashCamera Can you share your F800 settings from the app?

Also, what does the "priority" setting do. I believe it's under the recording section. There isn't much info on the configuration of the camera that I could find.

 

@Ridgeline001 Thanks for the help!

 

^^^^X2 @Ridgeline001 is the man! I've got a feeling he has helped a few people today lol.

 

I’m all hooked up and running. Accessing the camera is a bit annoying in the app when you have to restart WiFi a half dozen times to get it to appear. I had about 6 feet of extra rear camera cable for my little civic had to tuck it all up in the headliner and thought I was gonna run out of room lol

 

I set my priority to parking mode. Basically it means majority of the memory will be reseved for parking mode. The reason I choose this is if I get into a car accident while driving I am going to save the video ASAP. But if I am hit and ran in a parking lot I might not notice it even if it's just minor damage so I want to have days worth of parking mode back log.

Tomorrow I'll try to make a video on the app and all my settings, maybe also my install.