I have installed dashcams on all sides of a car after an incident that was someone else's fault but I could not prove it was them, & they lied. I would have needed a side camera.

Rear camera, pulling the USB cable through the rubber tube was the most difficult part of the whole job. Attached it to a stick & massaged it through. In the end easier than I thought it would be.


Cut a 1.6mm thick aluminium plate & use 3M high bond tape to hold it in place. Also wedged a screw at the edge to prevent it seperating from the edge near the trim panel clip.


I cut off the dashcam's mounting bracket & tapped a screw into the back of it, so the camera still clips on as designed.



Folded up a custom bracket out of 1.6mm anodised aluminium. Also used a heat gun to pre heat the aluminium before bending to minimise the aluminium cracking.

Needed to get the camera as close to the glass as possible & have it pointing down a bit.


Bonded to the side window, a little bit of the corner of the aluminium cut off as it was in view of the lens.


A master on/off switch so when the car is serviced the cameras can all be turned off so workers are not photographed.


I ran all the cables to the rear, keeping well away from airbags, then down the rear edge of the C column taped into the corner. Used the negative from the boot light. Positive I connected to a previous feed for the TPMS at the front.

Polarising filter. I had a sheet of plastic optical linear polarising sheet & it is working fine on the cameras. It reduces reflections a lot. The front camera, I already had a 30.5mm linear polarising filter for a pocket camera & a step up ring, with a bit of modification I have stuck it on the front camera, works well, so far I haven't seen the need to get CLP filters.

In Australia: I got high endurance micro SD cards from Techbuy, they were cheaper than most places.

Side


Rear


The dashcams have a diagonal FOV of 140° which is about 117° horizontally. The images at the rear corners of the car overlap close to the car. The overlap at the front corners starts at about 5 metres away from the car from the rear camera. But in the scheme of things, it's only a small wedge missing out of a 360° view, so a lot better than no cameras on the side. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

now you need 'software stitching' of all the images to give the bird's-eye view.

impressive!

Nice work Sir!
You ran the cables over the roof lining? Do you have a sunroof? How much of a pain was it to lower your roof lining?
Many thanks

@CraigMate, you have clearly never followed any of Lightwater’s posts or you wouldn’t be asking that question  (Now Sold). 2008 Freelander 2 (Nazca Sand) SE TD4 Auto. Statutory write off & on WOVR for hail damage but still road legal.
171037Km as of 09/05/22
Superchips Bluefin Flash
Nanocom Evo II (also sold)

Once you have taken the ceiling down 5 times, it's about the quickest job anyone can do in the back of the car!

https://www.freel2.com/forum/topic33026.html Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

Many thanks @Lightwater

What is the camera system you used? (Did you already say that and I missed it?)

I didn't say as this was more about layout, ideas & modifications. I bought Garmin 56 cameras. Also thought if there is an issue with one camera, say the front, I can quickly relocate a side camera. Also bought SanDisk high endurance 256GB cards. You get about 17 hours of footage before it's overwritten.

The only problem with the Garmin was when it is first set up you need to get a full satellite signal otherwise you have to go through the process again, again..... This is not documented anywhere which is pretty poor. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

did you have a patent out on that idea ??

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393391002283?fi...mp;LH_BO=1

Click image to enlarge

Just an idea for over heating cameras in hot countries.

I had a Noctua 40mm x 10mm fan & had a bit of a test to see if it was possible to mount the fan on the camera for forced cooling & to see how noise was in recordings.

Fan temporarily cable tied to Garmin camera bracket & wiring is temporary for the test. There is some recorded noise but it is an acceptable level. The fan with the resistor to reduce fan speed to quieten it is basically not audible in the car with other noises, and the car itself is pretty quiet.

The air flow is not a lot but I feel it is enough. One could add a heatsink if there is space on a camera to increase surface area. Mounting the fan a touch further away if one is really fanatical and on a rubber isolator. The recorded fan noise is minimal, so not really an issue.

One just needs to make up more presentable bracket if cable ties are not acceptable out of a piece of aluminium or look for something in the hardware store to modify. A good excuse to get out. Or maybe bend up a piece of wire as a bracket. A bit of grey matter exercise required!

These fans are not cheap, but they are very good. This 40mm fan has been running a few 1000 hours for a different purpose. I have used about a 100 of the larger size Noctua fans, 80, 92 and 120 in computers for more than a decade. A few have been running continuously over this period at a reduced speed with their supplied resistor.

A 40mm fan at a reduced speed will be a lot quieter than a 25mm fan at full speed.

Looking at the specs of the Noctua 40mm x 10mm and 20mm thickness fans, the 20mm is the one to go for.

40mm x 20mm:
5000rpm 9.4m³/h 14.9dB(A) 2.26mm H₂O
4400rpm 8.3m³/h 12.2dB(A) 1.75mm H₂O
3700rpm 6.9m³/h 8.5dB(A) 1.23mm H₂O

40mm x 10mm:
4500rpm 8.2m³/h 17.9dB(A) 1.78mm H₂O
3700rpm 6.6m³/h 12.9dB(A) 1.21mm H₂O

I already had the 10mm thick fan. The 20mm at 3700rpm has basically the same pressure but is considerably quieter, 8.5 vs 12.9

Maximum input for both fans is 0.6 watts. So 1.2AH over a 24 hour period. Not something to stress over too much. Or power it with a small solar panel.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge