Hi, 

i am thinking about fitting a dash cam in my F31, as much as I would have liked to have the BMW advanced car eye fitted, I don't want to shell out the silly price that dealers charge to fit (don't feel confident fitting it myself either)! I was looking at the Nextbase 512g that is on offer at Halfords, but wanted to clear up a few things first, if anyone would be so kind enough to help?😉

firstly, I thought about fitting myself and routing to the 12v socket under the glovebox, but I believe that this powers down soon after, thus rendering the park function of the cam useless...is this correct?

secondly, I thought about getting them fit it for me (assuming they would power it from the fuse box and know which one is always on)...this would allow the park function to work.........however....I have heard about people getting battery drain warnings? And also wonder if this would mean that the start/stop function would basically never work unless I did a long enough journey to charge it up (my daily commute is 10 miles each way)!

I tried searching on this forum, but struggling to find any info (maybe I'm searching incorrectly😟)...so I apologise if the answers are already on here.

any thoughts/advice would be welcome...as would recommendations for something that has a similar spec/price, but has proved to not have an adverse effect on battery drain? I have read about people fitting little chargeable backup power supplies that will continue to power it, but I don't want it to be too difficult to source, setup and install😀

 

thanks in advance

 

 

Hi Patrick,

Firstly, the 512G is a good dash cam - I have one myself so can vouch for it.

Don't worry too much about the parking mode - the camera isn't designed to be on all the time as it would drain your battery. The 512G has a built in rechargeable battery and a motion detector so if there is movement around the car it should detect it and run on the internal battery.

They're quite easy to install yourself using the fusebox. You just need to find a fuse that comes on and off with the ignition and preferably is not for a very important function. Halfords use these fitting kits:

http://www.halfords.com/technology/dash-cams/dash-cams/nextbase-incarcam-hardwire-kit

You could do that yourself - it just plugs into the fuse box once you have located a fuse to use and you can earth it to a bolt etc. Hardest bit is running the wires behind the trim in more modern cars but it shouldn't be too hard.

Hope that helps  

Thanks Paul....may go for the 512g then😃

probably won't get much use out of the park mode, as when it's not parked on my drive, it spends 40hrs a week parked at work ....and somebody pointed out today that, as I work on a Nuclear Licenced site, I am expected to knock the dash cam off before entering site (for security purposes). Will be handy for the journey there and back as its heavy traffic, mixed with cyclists (5:30 in morning in all weathers) and several idiots who think they deserve to get home before everyone else😡

will install to the under glovebox socket (which doesn't and likely won't get used for anything else) and see how it goes (I am lead to believe it goes on/off with ignition)...if neat enough, will save buying the hard wiring kit😉 saw a video showing best way to do this.

Just try it I suppose to see if it goes on/off.

Yeah, I'm not too fussed with the parking mode to be honest but nice to have. Hardwire is pretty simple if you ever decide to do it.