Dashcam overview - wiring diagram

I am in the process of documenting the dashcam setup in case I ever need to use it in court. Here's what I got so far.

thanks, going to try rewire my jeep right now ..

Can u tell me What do u use for GPS and Overlay unit please ?

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Thanks

Yes. I would like to know the same.

Can u tell me What do u use for GPS and Overlay unit please ?

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Thanks

The GPS unit is a Garmin GPS18PC - a simple magmount 'puck' that is attached to the trunk lid and outputs NMEA 1083 sentences to a DE9 serial in 4800 8-N-1. I paid ~$75

The overlay unit is a OSD-GPS (ID) from Intuitive Circuits. This is simply a circuit board that I had to mount in my own enclosure and solder up the power/serial and video connections. Cost $119, plus about $15 at radio shack for connectors and enclosure. The big drawback with this is that the speed is displayed in KNOTS and the time is in UTC, direct from the GPS data. There are more expensive units on the market that convert to KPH or MPH. I am building a Zilog Z8-based circuit to convert time to ET, and speed to MPH. For know I'm just letting it display knots - it's still admissable, after conversion.

Nice concept. How would you recover your footage if the car was actually stolen?

Good Job!

There are many DVRs that have GPS input (RS232), which means video splitter and overlay equipment are not needed. Those products also have map viewer that draws trace of vehicles on the map on real-time and playback. (Maybe Google map or something like that)

Why dont you try that one?

He can track his car with the GPS!

http://www.trimtrac.com/

Good Job!

There are many DVRs that have GPS input (RS232), which means video splitter and overlay equipment are not needed. Those products also have map viewer that draws trace of vehicles on the map on real-time and playback. (Maybe Google map or something like that)

Why dont you try that one?

Two answers:

1) Yes, that would be a nice option, however... Right now I have two channels showing the front view - one with GPS data (time, speed, location and my name) overlay and one without. This means I can either use the video with speed and location overlay, or I can use the video without. Both are just as valid as evidence. There are a couple reasons why I may not want the speed/location/name displayed (ie posting videos to youtube etc).

2) There's a couple things that I will definitely demand for the next DVR. This one has a cold temp cutoff of 0C and you can't set it lower than that, nor can you disable the cold shutoff. It gets colder than that for a couple months during winter around here, so I wanted to buy an automotive hard drive good to -30C, but the DVR won't set to -30c! I'm talking with Aver right now and I have asked for a firmware that allows the cold protect to be settable to a lower temp, or disabled completely.

Oh, if the car gets stolen then I have no ability to track it at this time. That is a whole 'nother project. Working on that now, but in the very early research stages. I found at least one commercial product that charges per-track, not a monthly rate, so that sounds pretty good for a in-case-of-theft tracking solution.

Now, if the car is stolen and recovered withthe DVR intact then I have interior video to possibly identify the thief. The DVR is hidden and you wouldn't find it unless you are looking for it - although the dashcam is not in the least bit covert.

If the car is stolen for joy ride you may recover your DVR but if its ripped for parts forget it most jackers can have a car dismantled in aproxx eight minutes in a chop shop. What really works is a remote kill switch along with the tracking then you give the bad guy(s) a real problem. The more you can slow down a car thief the better the chance of defeating the crime, a pro thief thinks in terms of time and they are good at what they do...joy riders on the other hand are often pretty stupid or just kids on a high.

If the car is stolen for joy ride you may recover your DVR but if its ripped for parts forget it most jackers can have a car dismantled in aproxx eight minutes in a chop shop. What really works is a remote kill switch along with the tracking then you give the bad guy(s) a real problem. The more you can slow down a car thief the better the chance of defeating the crime, a pro thief thinks in terms of time and they are good at what they do...joy riders on the other hand are often pretty stupid or just kids on a high.

Understood. Thoguh this was never mean to be an anti-theft measure - just to provide evidence in case of an accident.

OK, sounds like a very interesting DIY project and you have been tweaking it for sometime....hope you never have a crash but just a side note if you do and take it to court hope the otherside doesnt have some tricky lawyer that trys to make it look like you had too much distraction going on with all the cams and gear operating......like they do when a person is operating a cell phone....although Im sure you would prove that there is no driver interaction needed for the operation....but some liars....opps I mean lawyers can be pretty slick