FatherTo1

Thank you, peterharvey, I understand what you're referring to with ISO sensitivity and noise (amateur photographer here). I'm not sure if the Street Guardian used a CMOS sensor or CCD, but am impressed that it achieves very good low light performance without introducing noticeable noise. I think I'll stick with the VIOFO for now and maybe relegate it to the wife's car when I see a good deal on higher-end dash cam options. Thank you for sharing your expertise and first-hand comparisons. Greatly appreciate the research and testing you have done, and shared, for the benefit of others.

peteharvey

Excellent idea to stick to A119S, and pass onto missus car, as new tech comes along.

Pacman9270

Any thoughts by anyone about the Thinkware F100 dash cam? What about the F770?

kennyD

I currently have the F800 Pro in my 2015 GS. It's great, picture quality is great. But it is pricey. I have some sample videos if you want to see them. There is no complaints against this unit, does what it's supposed to, and easy to set up.

eddie420

I have the same. I recently bought the battery pack and need to hardwire it. Will allow 24 hours of dual channel parked recording; puts no strain on the car battery which is good.

Pacman9270

What about hardwiring it to the rear view mirror? Do I still need a battery backup? Also how does your lane departure warning work for you all?

peteharvey

Do you intend to record while parking?

If not park recording, then have you thought about plugging the dashcam's 12 V plug into the 12 V cigarette lighter socket inside the central console bin etc?







If you intend to record while parking, have you thought about hardwiring directly into the fuse box?
Hardwiring directly to the fuse box allows you to use both types of fuses, namely:
1) Continuous Fuses - which have a full time 24 hour power supply, eg the hazard warning fuse, or the power seat fuses etc.
2) Switched Fuses - which only have power when the engine is actually switched on, eg the radio fuse, or the air conditioning fuse etc.

The continuous fuses will allow you to record while parking.
Meanwhile the switched fuses will allow your dashcam to automatically switch on and record everytime your engine is started.

Pacman9270

I would have it on the car's power, through the mirror. It would be a nice to have parked monitoring. I also want the LKA and PreCollision warning features as well.

peteharvey

I'm expert at hardwiring to the fuse box.
I don't know how to hardwire to the rear view mirror, but I'm sure that I have come across threads where they have hardwired to the rear vision mirror.


More details.
If you park record for only 1 or 2 hours etc, then by all means, we can hardwire directly to the fuse box to tap on power from the car's battery.
However, parking for long periods like 8 hours per day, on a daily basis will damage the car's 12 V battery, and our cars won't be able to start up!

Thus, if we intend to park record for 8 to 10 hours per day, and 5 days per week, then we must use a dedicated battery pack.

(1) 5V "USB" battery pack.
Careful, they often claim a much higher Ah capacity than what really exists, esp the Chinese models on eBay.
Do remember that there are inefficiencies, such that a 5,000 mAH battery pack won't really have the 5,000 mAH that we are normally accustomed to.
These battery packs must be plugged/unplugged, and taken into the house to be micro USB recharged, hence normally it is best to have two of these battery packs; one in car, while the other in house charging.
Some people find continually plugging/unplugging, and recharging the two 5V USB battery packs a pain.
However, this technique works reasonably well for medium durations and is very cheap on eBay, and some people swear by this technique.




You need to buy a very long mini-USB to USB cable from dash cam to 5V USB battery pack etc - depending on your model of dashcam.








(2) 12V dedicated dashcam battery pack like a 2018 Egen Cellink Neo.
This battery pack is dedicated to dashcams.
It can power dashcams for 24 hours, or even longer!
With this particular model below, it is possible to purchase a 2nd battery pack, and chain wire it to the first battery pack for even longer recording times.
This type of battery pack uses a special iron phosphate formula to help reduce the "explosiveness" of lithium ion batteries in the warm conditions of a motor vehicle.
This particular model can be expensive at some $300 each.
https://www.blackboxmycar.com/produc...=5073937203237








Lane Departure Warning & Other Pre-collision Systems
Are you talking about the Lexus 4GS's built-in Lane Departure Warning System, or are you talking about Lane Departure Warning built into dashcams like the Taiwanese Vicovation Vico-MF3 dashcam?

https://www.vicovation.com/productdetial.asp?id=34CB3554-EA8E-4DBF-90BF-200D90C4778B&lang=eng





I know the safety features exist in a small number of dashcams, but unfortunately, I don't know how "well" the dashcam lane departure warning & other safety systems work...

eddie420

I have not installed my Cell link yet. Can you please tell me if I did this right? Thank you!

THIS IS THE INPUT SIDE THAT GETS INSTALLED TO THE FUSE BOX




THIS IS THE OUTPUT SIDE THAT CONNECTS TO THE DASHCAM



EDIT: Updated the "output" picture to make it less confusing.

peteharvey

Yes, it looks about right to me.
However, where do you intend to store your Cellink B V2 battery pack?
In the glovebox?
Or in your front central console armrest bin?

Because the glove box can get very hot when parked in summer conditions.
Meanwhile the front central console armrest bin is a cooler environment.

Here comes the catch.
The front central console bin in a Lexus 4GS already has a 12V DC female power socket.
Why not keep things simple KISS, and use the 12V male plug to plug the Cellink B into the 12V DC female power socket of the 4GS?
That's what I did with my Cellink B V2.





This is not only more simple installation, but easily removable.
Furthermore, the location of the Cellink B battery pack in the central console bin is a cool area, and the Off/5A/7A charging switch is easily accessible.

Switch it to Off when you do NOT want to park record eg at home.
Switch it to 5A mode when you want it to park record, and recharge from the 12V socket.
The 7A mode switch is only used when you hardwire the Cellink B battery pack to the fuse box, because the fuse box can supply 12V at a higher amperage.




Hardwiring is important when we want to directly use the car's 12V lead acid battery to power the dashcam for short term dashcam park recording.
However, once we have a dedicated dashcam battery pack like the Cellink B for long term parking, it is not of great value to hard wire the Cellink B high capacity battery pack to the car's 12V lead acid battery - because the dedicated dashcam Cellink B high capacity battery pack has possibly greater battery capacity & certainly greater power density than the car's very own lead acid PbSO4 battery.

In other words, hard wiring a Cellink B battery pack is having the internal combustion engine recharge the lead acid PbSO4 battery, which in turn recharges the lithium iron cobalt Cellink B dedicated dashcam battery pack - to power the dashcam.

It is not only easier just to plug the Lion Cellink Neo battery pack to the vehicle via the 12V cigarette plug, but it is also more convenient too, because the Lion Cellink Neo battery pack can be easily unplugged.
.

eddie420

I was intending to place the Celllink in the front central console armrest bin since it is cooler and because the glovebox gets very hot and can lead to the battery exploding. You do make a good point... but I already cut off the output cable so I need the cable to connect from Celllink to dashcam. I guess I have to buy it again..

peteharvey

So originally, you intended to have a longish input power cable running from the fuse box under the dash, tucked under the side of the central console all the way towards the central console bin to recharge the Cellink B battery pack inside the front central console bin?

Then you've basically made your own "custom" power output spliced hardware kit cable to run from the Cellink B battery pack to the dashcam?
To me, for the battery pack power output cable, you seem to have actually used the power input cable custom joined to the input power cable to your dashcam by cutting off the 12V plug - is that right?
If so, this may or may not work.

For battery pack power output and dashcam input power, it is easiest & detachable just to use the original battery pack 12V output female socket that came with the Cellink B battery pack, and attach this to the original 12V input male power plug [which is easily detachable] to power the dashcam.





Use these splitters below if you want to power two or more dashcams.

eddie420

Yes sir! That is exactly what I did.

1) I cut off the female 12V plug socket end (it came with the Celllink battery pack).
2) I cut off the male 12V plug male end (it came with the Dashcam).
3) I custom joined both and plugged it into dashcam.

Thank you so much for your help. I think it will get too expensive to go back to using the cigarette 12V plugs. I will just hard wire it and hope everything works good. The fuse I have right now is 20A, I think they said anything between 15A and 30A is acceptable. Maybe I should wire to the passenger side fuse box and use Fuse # 7 "WASH - Windshield washer" fuse. What do you think?

peteharvey

(1)
Type of Fuses.
If I remember correctly, Lexus presently uses a low profile mini blade fuses. Number 4 below.





(2)
Fuse Size
I have a StreetGuardian SG9665GC, and its maximum amperage is less than 0.5 amp, and I run two single channel dashcams: one for the front windscreen, and a second attached to the rear windscreen.
Apparently, both dashcams maximum amperage combined is still less than 0.5 amps.
Hence, we need to buy a fuse that is only 1A, 2A, 3A, or 5 Amps max.
Thus a 15A or 30A fuse would allow too high a current, and this may cause much greater damage and frying if a malfunction did occur.

Edit: If hardwiring for Cellink B battery packs, follow the manufacturer's instructions and use at least 15A fuses, because the battery packs draw a much larger current than little dashcams.

Purple = 3A
Pink = 4A
Yellow = 5A
Red = 10A
Blue = 15A




(3)
Continuous or Switched Power Supply
Do we want to hardwire to a continuous power supply socket in the fuse box, or only a switched power supply socket?
Because a switched power supply socket in the fuse box will only recharge your Lion battery pack when the engine is switched on, while a continuous power supply socket will recharge your Lion battery pack 24 hours/day and 7 days/week; I suspect you want only a switched power supply socket.

In my experience, our logical thinking often doesn't work, because I remember in one of my other cars, the windscreen wiper is "supposed" to be a switched power supply which only worked when the engine was switched on, but in fact it was "actually" a continuous power supply - confirmed after testing etc.
The way to ensure that we are really using a genuine switched fuse was to use an simple current tester like the one below, while I actually use a Fluke 87V multimeter, to measure the current to identify a number of switched fuses to tap into.






We are generally advised not to tap into critical fuses like the engine management system etc.
We are generally advised to use less critical switched fuses like the windscreen wipers etc.

With the ignition switched off, if there is NO current at all, then this is a switched fuse, and this is what we want.
With the ignition switched off, if there is a current from one of the metal receptors, then this is a continuous fuse, and we don't want this.






(4)
Fuse Polarity
After determining which fuses are switched/continuous, the next step is to determine fuse polarity.

Remove one of the fuses so the positive and negative socket metal contacts are exposed.
Within each fuse socket, how do we know which socket metal contact arm is positive, and which is negative???

With the ignition switched off, and again a second time with the ignition switched on, place the pointy red positive probe into the 1st of the two metal contacts in each fuse socket, and the pointy black negative probe or black negative alligator clip onto the ground chassis bolt at the bottom of the picture, and see if there is a current or not?
Then place the red positive pointy probe to the 2nd of the two metal contacts, and the black negative probe or alligator clips again to the ground chassis bolt, and see if there is a current or not?

A current will only run from the positive metal contact of the fuse socket, because the other contact is the negative return.
We must test both metal contacts in the suspected fuse socket, because we don't know which column of contacts is positive, and which column is negative.




With the ignition switched off & again with the ignition switched on, if there is a current from one of the metal receptors, then that is the red positive pole column!
The polarity is important, because it will determine the direction the add-on/piggyback fuse will be inserted below!!!




(5)
Photograph the fuse box first, so that we remember which fuse goes where.
Then remove the switched fuse.
The fuse tap has two slots: one for the original fuse, and a second slot in line with the output cable for the new add on fuse.
Insert our new fuse like below.

Make sure that we insert the add-on/piggyback fuse with the correct positive red polarity, marked by the 12 V below.
Note that a fuse itself does NOT have polarity, but an add-on/piggyback fuse below does indeed have polarity!!
If the add-on/piggyback/tap-on fuse [call it what you like] is inserted back to front, then there will be NO current going to the dashcam!










(6)
Insert our piggyback/tap fuse to the fuse box with correct polarity, and everything should run.
In the photo below, notice how the positive is on the right column of each fuse socket, while the negative is on the left!

Reverse the polarity of each individual fuse, and it will still work fine.
However, reverse the polarity of the tap-on/add-on/piggyback fuse, and the dashcam won't work.

Also notice how only a 3 Amp fuse has been used for each dashcam, and that is actually far more than enough for typical dashcams that run a maximum amperage still well below 0.5 amps each.

Edit: If hardwiring for Cellink B battery packs, follow the manufacturer's instructions and use at least 15A fuses, because the battery packs draw a much larger current than little dashcams.





(7)
Because of the extra height of the fuse tap, we won't be able to replace the fuse box cover with built-in diagram, so store it in a safe place, like the glovebox or front central console armrest bin etc.