Thought Some of Ya'll Might Be Interested In This Dash Camera Option

Avslash

Avslash

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I have been looking for a dash camera for a while and thought I had settled on the Wolfbox until I read some comments that you need to dissect the factory mirror and affix a factory circuit board to the back of the Wolfbox to maintain some functions. That didn't appeal to me, as I wanted something as unobtrusive as possible, so I went back to the drawing board and happened across this on Amazon that replaces the factory plastic rain sensor cover with one that has a 4K dash camera molded in.

Sapium Dash Camera for Super Duty

I hadn't heard of the brand, but it was Amazon so I decided to give it a try since it would be easy to return.

It arrived well packaged, with two different options for power. One is a simple pigtail connector that grabs power from the rain sensor and the other runs to the OBD2 connector for constant power and thus "parking mode". Wire length included for the rear channel camera and the GPS sensor was more than adequate. Installation was as simple as popping the factory cover off, plugging in three wires, popping the new cover with the camera in place and then tucking the wiring above the edge of the headliner. The new cover with the camera is a good color match for the factory black cover.

It will run off of either of two different apps that are specified in the instructions. You connect to it with your phone via Wi-Fi to download files and manage various settings. It has 128gb of built in storage, or you can opt to use up to 1TB microSD card. I personally like that option so I can grab the card after an accident and try to maintain control of the evidence.

So far, the only thing I wish was different is having to plug it into the OBD2 for parking mode. I would have preferred a simple hard wirable harness that I could have done myself. I might dissect the OBD2 harness they sent and do that anyway. It does have a third pin in the connector that hooks to one of the canbus pins in the OBD2, so would have to figure out if that is needed, and if so, how to handle that.

Pictures to follow shortly.

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Interesting. Looks clean. How hard would it be to connect it to an Aux switch?
 
VB! said:
Interesting. Looks clean. How hard would it be to connect it to an Aux switch?
Click to expand...

Great question. Shouldn't be hard at all, even if you have to snip off the obd2 connector, to route the power down to a pass-through wire and then to an upfitter. Ground can be picked up anywhere. The question is what (if anything) does than pin for the canbus do?
 
Can we see some screenshots, day/night?
 
That looks super clean
 
Very clean. This would solve my main complaint about the Wolfbox too. I don’t like that it doesn’t somehow integrate with the existing.

I’d love to see them integrate a in cabin cam in there as well, and like you, would rather the option of fusing versus OBD-ing. Maybe I’m paranoid, but I’ve never been a fan of things pulling power from the OBD port when the vehicle is off.
 
Avslash said:
Great question. Shouldn't be hard at all, even if you have to snip off the obd2 connector, to route the power down to a pass-through wire and then to an upfitter. Ground can be picked up anywhere. The question is what (if anything) does than pin for the canbus do?
Click to expand...
Went down the rabbit hole here on this, not a lot out there on it. I now have it sitting in my cart though. 😂

I wonder is the CANBUS pin for pulling voltage level so that the camera can shutoff park mode when batteries are too low.
 
Bought a similar setup for my wife's suv - FitCamX. Replaces the cover for oem look, pulls power from rain sensor and need the app to set up and pull video via its wifi. So seamless that I was pulling video off it after we drove out to look at some property and she asked what I was doing. She had completely forgot it was up there.
 
mattagc said:
Went down the rabbit hole here on this, not a lot out there on it. I now have it sitting in my cart though. 😂

I wonder is the CANBUS pin for pulling voltage level so that the camera can shutoff park mode when batteries are too low.
Click to expand...
@mattagc

You might be right on that. I Read through the manual and played with the app last night. It has two configurable features to protect the battery. One is to shutoff the camera after 24 or 48 hours, and the other is to shut it off based on one of three battery voltage levels that can be selected in the app. 12.3, 12.1 and 11.9, IIRC.
 
ibeb said:
Bought a similar setup for my wife's suv - FitCamX. Replaces the cover for oem look, pulls power from rain sensor and need the app to set up and pull video via its wifi. So seamless that I was pulling video off it after we drove out to look at some property and she asked what I was doing. She had completely forgot it was up there.
Click to expand...

I had looked at the FitCam, but realized//suspected it was going to give me issues with my radar detector mount since it kinda hangs down off our mirror post in the Fords.

Avslash said:
@mattagc

You might be right on that. I Read through the manual and played with the app last night. It has two configurable features to protect the battery. One is to shutoff the camera after 24 or 48 hours, and the other is to shut it off based on one of three battery voltage levels that can be selected in the app. 12.3, 12.1 and 11.9, IIRC.
Click to expand...
I suspect I’d rather just go with a timer shutoff over plugging it into the OBD. The checkout button is getting tempting.

One of the reviews mentioned it talked a lot, and the WiFi was a bit cumbersome. Noticeable in your opinion?
 
I will likely end up cutting the obd2 connector and hardwiring it to a switch, but I'm going to do a before and after voltage test first to determine how much it impacts the battery over 48 hours first.

It had some kind of startup cycle of noise, but turning the volume all the way down in the app fixed that. I don't want to hear anything but the engine when I start my truck. It's unoffensive from that viewpoint. It does have a couple of LED lights that cycle as it boots up, and then once recording it indicates that via a flashing blue LED. It's not horrible, but I would prefer a more subdued and steady LED, but that is really getting into nit picking on my part. A smidgeon of window tint applied over the LED would make it better IMO.

I didn't have any issue with the WiFi, it seemed just fine to me. Connected and reconfigured password easily enough and stable enough to download a couple of files and screenshots for testing. The wifi is active on startup and then deactivates after a couple of minutes if you don't connect to it. After that, if you want to connect you need to either do a button press to wake up the wifi or power cycle the truck. One thing to be aware of if you run wireless carplay or Android auto is that your phone can only be connected to one wifi at a time, so either camera or carplay but not both at the same time. Not an issue for me once the camera is configured, as it starts up and does it's thing automatically which can be verified by the flashing LED.

I also threw in a 512GB card last night, so can confirm both the onboard storage and card storage are functional.
 
You’re making this a very tempting purchase, especially with the 24% off coupon Amazon is offering. 😂

Or maybe the used one for $110 off…
 
mattagc said:
You’re making this a very tempting purchase, especially with the 24% off coupon Amazon is offering. 😂

Or maybe the used one for $110 off…
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Yeah. I used the coupon too. No regrets so far.

I think in intuited out what than canbus pin is for based on the manual and observing how the thing works.

My theory is that it uses it to sense the power state of the truck. This is because when connected to the obd port you can configure the camera to be active in parking mode or not. If parking mode is off, when you turn off the truck, the camera is off. If parking mode is on and you turn off the truck the camera stays on subject to the voltage and time cutoffs set in the app.

Thus, I’m thinking if you ditch the obd connector and wire to both a constant 12v source and a keyed power on source that you would end up with Intended function that is consistent with the app settings. Add a switch to your constant on circuit if you rely want to kill it for parking at the airport or something similar.
 
Avslash said:
Yeah. I used the coupon too. No regrets so far.

I think in intuited out what than canbus pin is for based on the manual and observing how the thing works.

My theory is that it uses it to sense the power state of the truck. This is because when connected to the obd port you can configure the camera to be active in parking mode or not. If parking mode is off, when you turn off the truck, the camera is off. If parking mode is on and you turn off the truck the camera stays on subject to the voltage and time cutoffs set in the app.

Thus, I’m thinking if you ditch the obd connector and wire to both a constant 12v source and a keyed power on source that you would end up with Intended function that is consistent with the app settings. Add a switch to your constant on circuit if you rely want to kill it for parking at the airport or something similar.
Click to expand...
Yeah; could be just that too; might be like any other red-black-yellow dash cam hardwire cable for power-ground-accy, they just decided to terminate it with an OBD2 end rather than a couple of fuses and eyelets.
 
Thanks for finding this, I ordered just the front camera since I have a camper shell on the back. $163.72 with the coupon
 
securityguy said:
www.fitcamx.com

fitcamx.com

FITCAMX Dash Cam for F-150 F-250 RAPTOR 2021-2026

fitcamx dash cam
fitcamx.com fitcamx.com
Click to expand...
I forgot to mention it above, but in addition to adding a bunch of bulk around the mirror stock base, these FitcamX cameras only support up to 256Mb of memory, so you’re only getting 10-15hrs of video before it starts to loop if you have both front and rear cameras.

The Sapium can give you up to 1TB of memory, so you’ll have a couple days to retrieve data, assuming you shell out $300 for a 1TB card.

(Disclaimer: Card prices specified for Endurance//Dashcam rated microSD. As to whether or not endurance cards are worth it 🤷🏻‍♂️)
 
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