Fitting Blackvue Dashcam

[JamesOC]

Hi

I’ve had my F Type for just a couple of weeks now and fitted front and rear Blackvue 750 plus a Cellink battery in the boot at the weekend. As I promised in my intro posting, here is how it’s is fitted.

First where to position the front camera. I’d liked to have put it centrally under the mirror, but this sat too low and near to sensors. from previous advice I moved it towards the passenger side, and up a bit so it’s not visible at all from the drivers side and is all behind the mirror

Next the rear camera, this is at the top of the tailgate.

That’s the easy bit, connecting it up is a bit more involved!
I wanted a backup battery to allow the camera to operate when parked, but didn’t want to drain the car battery. Blackvue do a battery, but the Cellink is a bit cheaper, and Blackvue sell it as well, it needs a switched live connection and automatically charges when driving, diverting live power to the camera and cuts over to the battery when the car is off. As the battery and a fuse box sit in the boot that was the sensible place to put it, and luckily there is a little shelf on the left side of the boot with an elastic strap- the battery sits there perfectly. I’ve no idea what should really be there?

There is a handy fuse box with a few empty slots on the left side of the boot. A bit of trial and error with a circuit tester identified socket 13 as switched and the upper connector as live, arrowed.

I attached the supplied fuse connnector into socket 12 then ran the live lead down from the Fuse box, under the carpet trim, behind the battery and into the boot floor, here is where I connected the earth, to a spare stud I’d also used for my CTEK, arrowed.

For those interested, the CTEK comfort connector is attached to the live bus bar in the bar, arrowed.

The cable to the battery was the routed under the boot carpet to the left corner and then up to the boot trim, the front part of the trim that the luggage cover closes onto snaps out easily and has a vent below to allow the cables the to drop down to the Cellink. This also provided a useful space to hide excess cable. I also used that vent to start routing the power cable to the front camera , starting at the rear quarter light then under the lower window seals and the bottom of the door opening and then up to the windscreen, all easy to hide.

Finally comes connecting to the rear camera. This was fiddly, the Video lead from the front camera I routed on the same side as the power, but going via the upper window and door seals and then through a joint in the roof trim to the corner of the tailgate opening.
I lifted the tailgate seal at the top and passed the cable with some extra insulation over the exposed metal and carefully refitted the seal back over it and then then into the grommet that’s takes other cables to the tailgate. I couldn’t find a way to remove the tailgate trim and to avoid damage I decided to route the final bit of cable from the grommet to the camera uncovered as it’s only a short length and sits fairly neatly. It’s not perfect, but is fairly unobtrusive.

As I say the rear camera was fiddly, but I think is still worth the bother.

Happy to clarify anything if there are any questions.

[Deleted User 1715]

Really useful thanks, I’ll have another look at it although mine's a convertible. Also, I cannot see that electrical connection box on the floor of my boot? Maybe somewhere else on MY 20?

[Lunar]

Great explanation James.

I think you've located the battery where the first aid kit would sit.

[Philskill]

Nice Job, looks very similar to my Evoque installation, although the Evoque has a handy Battery sized cubby hole within the Glove Box! Hadn't thought of putting it in the rear! Do you think it would it fit somewhere under the boot carpet/storage save it taking up real boot space?

[JamesOC]

Gusa- I think there are multiple versions of the connection box, essentially it’s hard wired to the positive terminal on the battery and sits adjacent to the battery, it’s not relevant for the dashcam but was more for info for the CTEK battery conditioner

Lunar- thanks for that, that must have been pinched from mine as was the towing eye.

Phil - Yes i was going to fix it with Velcro straps to the boot floor as it fitted nicely under the removable bin. But I completely forgot that in my post, as I had to rethink as my chosen wiring route meant the cable was a tad too short! So I went with plan B rather than wait for a longer cable. You can hardly see it from outside though; in the photo I’ve leaned right in so it’s stands out a bit more.

[Timbo]

Be careful with the battery there, i put the tyre inflator in the same position which doesnt weigh as much as that battery
and after some spirited driving the inflator was bouncing around in the boot

[JamesOC]

Thanks,

It’s quite tightly wedged in, but I’ll think about adding the Velcro straps or possibly extending the cable to it so it can go on the boot floor.

[Myer]

You have clearly spent a lot of time and effort in both fitting and detailing the installation however it all looks a little to Heath Robinson to me. Nasty cables crudely clipped to the rear window surround, not for me but hey hoe horses for courses!

[JamesOC]

Agreed the rear fitting isn’t perfect. If I can find a way to remove the tailgate trim I will reroute the cable - but I’ve not found a way and don’t want to risk damaging it. Helpful suggestions would be welcome.

Also the picture is from inside the boot looking upwards, to show the cable more clearly; from outside standing upright it’s doesn’t show, so I’m not unduly concerned.

[Skinnyman88]

I'm just about to fit my dash cam(s) and this is really helpful, thanks.

It's not clear from your pictures where the wire goes when it leaves the tailgate and how you get it into the headlining. Do you run it alongside the rubber gaiter that holds the main cables into the tailgate?

Thanks