Do windshield-mounted dash cams all require a cord run up or around the windshield from a power source to function?
They all require power to function.
Your car may already have power in/near the rearview mirror which greatly simplifies the wiring run. Absent that then yes, you’re looking at running wire around the perimiter of the windshield to a lower corner then into / under the dash.
Some of them can be powered by plugging them into the AUX port or where older cars had a cigerette lighter. Others can be plugged into a USB type port. Most cars will have a place. It is usually easy to hide the wires.
You are going to want it powered all the time. Most will go into “sleep” or parking mode when not active. It is recording but not saving the files. Mine goes into parking mode until it senses an event, like someone walking up to the car. Then it goes back and saves the previous 30 seconds or so before the event and the later activity. Somebody walks up and kicks your car, you will have that on camera including them walking up before doing anything. Parking outside may cause an “event” everytime the wind blows and tree branches move. Or rain.
You may need to upgrade your car battery too.
I’ll chk. Thx.
Another point that batteries usually won’t charge in subzero temperatures, something annoying since I get ads for battery-powered wifi cameras in the Great White North. But it may be practical to have a mount and the camera be removeable, so you can bring it in and charge it (USB?). This simply guarantees when you absolutely need the footage it will have a dead battery.
I installed mine a year ago. You should be aware that you could be working around the airbags when running the wire up the pillar(s) to the top of your windshield.
Apologies if I sound like Captain Obvious, but you’ll need to be careful to route wires so they’re behind the bags, for obvious reasons. I ordered a set of upholstery tools from Amazon that proved invaluable for removing and reinstalling segments of the interior while running wires (I installed front and rear cameras).
Good point. I have a 115 Ah battery in my vehicle, so I just leave them running 24/7. There was an installation option for shutting off 10 minutes after turning off the engine, but the draw from the cameras is so low I decided not to worry about it.
We had a good discussion about these devices a few weeks ago.
I’ve been thinking about getting one for a long time now, and I’ve probably posted about it. This reminds me of that, and maybe now I’ll do something about it. Thanks @Railer13 for the link to the other thread.
Subaru batteries are notorious for being bad. My ‘24 Outback wasn’t even 7 months olds when it failed and had to be replaced. Under warranty, so it’s another crappy OEM battery. I’ll certainly have to upgrade that.
Amazon has power adapters for a rear view mirror that has power. Here’s one for Toyota.
(I posted this in another recent thread on dash cams…)
My thoughts: Go ahead and buy a dash cam that you like, one that has the features you need. Use a suction cup to mount it and use the included “cigarette lighter” adapter to power it as you learn how to use it and decide on if it’s what you want.
A great opportunity for this testing would be a road trip. A couple of years ago my wife and I rented a car and drove from coast to coast, there and back. I wanted to try out a new dash cam, so I bought the Garmin model and bought a suction cup mount. It did the job spectacularly.
When our trip was over, I then took the time to carefully install the same camera in my wife’s car. At some point, you really want to commit and install it nicely.
Do your research. Buy a cheap set of trim tools ($10 or 20) from Amazon.
I would suggest looking for an OBD-II adapter made specifically for your model. This allows you to simply plug the other end of the long wire into the OBD-II port by your left knee, the one that mechanics use for their diagnostic tools. By doing this, you avoid all of the headaches of trying to do the electrical work yourself.
It’s surprisingly easy to sneak the wire into the crack between the trim and the windshield. You might have to remove some trim, but there is a pretty good chance you will be able to tuck the wire in using a trim tool for the entire length, from beside your mirror down to the OBD-II port. If it’s harder than that, do a search for how-to videos for your car, and you surely will find a handful of videos done by folks who have been there.
Some important thoughts on this:
- Use good micro SD cards meant for dash cams
- Do a dry run to prove you know how to get at the video in the heat of the moment. Consider writing down the steps for how to get at the video on a little card and keeping it with your car documents in the glove compartment.
- Test that it works on a regular basis. Maybe grab the video from the latest bozo who cut you off in traffic or something like that. Not only does it give you confidence in the system, but it sets your expectation about the chances of being able to read a plate (very low)
- Because of the aforementioned slim-to-none chance of reading a plate, if you are ever involved in an incident, read the plate number out loud so your camera records your voice (you do have it set to record audio, right?).
- If you use the OBD-II port for power, always check your camera is on after you have your car serviced or go for state inspection. Both places need to access the OBD-II port and the guys will forget to plug the camera back in. It would stink to find out in time of need that your camera hasn’t been connected for two months.
Also be sure something plugged into your OBD-II port doesn’t drain your battery flat in 12h by keeping all your car’s computers alive.
Ask me how I know. On second thought, don’t. Ugly day.
While most of this is good advice, I’m calling out this one item as spectacularly bad. Cams will either fill up the card (& not record anything else) or (more commonly) overwrite the oldest file. It would suck to get to the end of your day/trip & find out that that clip you wanted from early in the day, whether that was something funny or an accident in front of you that promised to the victim / PD is gone; overwritten because it can only record so many hours. Instead, drive around your home for half an hour or an hour & figure out how much of your card that used with the settings you have set on your camera & then determine if you can make it thru your road trip &/or if you need to purchase a larger SD card
I bought a dashcam a couple of months ago but have yet to mount it. And I did notice that the side curtain airbags are behind the trim on the side pillars. I was planning to leave the cable loose around the trim piece on the passenger side, not wanting to mess with that airbag. (I was afraid of accidentally setting it off.)
I want a dashcam that only records the bad actions of others, not of me.
Any suggestions ? Oughta be easy for an AI. 
Which only records your bad actions. And adds random fictional events.
Honest Officer, I never flew under that bridge. And especially not inverted. 
It was my evil twin: Skippy.
Good catch, though I would consider your own classification of “spectacularly bad” to be unwarranted. You have pointed out an important additional concern.
It is absolutely important to understand the rate at which the card fills. You are highlighting a critical point of initial familiarization, and I hadn’t mentioned that. This kind of goes with the “learning how to use the camera” part, but I can certainly imagine some unfortunate person putting in the silly 16GB card the camera came with and thinking they were OK.
That doesn’t, however, invalidate the recommendation for a trial period.
I think @pullin’s concern was about leaving the loose cable dangling in front of the trim, where the airbag’s violent deployment could propel it toward you at injurious speeds. Better to keep that cable tucked in behind the pillar trim.
The dashcam cable wants to be behind the pillar trim, but it needs to not be in front of the airbag hidden behind the pillar trim. Knowing where the bag is and isn’t and what shape it deploys into is key to selecting a route that doesn’t put the cable between you and the bag.
“Look, in the cabin footage, you can clearly see I had all twelve fingers on the wheel throughout the incident”