Zel's Fleet Blog - Xantia Activa, BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D, AC Model 70.

[elma]

You know I've ceased to do any of that stuff now Zel, it's more frustrating than it's worth. We've got a local Dominos driver who drives like that but if I take the time to try to do anything about it I know I'll just get wound up chasing my own tail. Theres far too many nutters about and they are best left to it otherwise it's easy to turn into one yourself. Police don't care about driving on the pavement unless you hospitalise or kill someone. I've been had off a bicycle twice and both times they wouldn't even give me an incident number or visit the driver as I had no evidence. The James shape dent in the cars wing the second time I thought was a dead giveaway.

Zel if you have the company name I'd suggest you email them and explain the situation. Don't ask for anything or make any threats just see how they respond. Chances are they'll be either appalled by the drivers behaviour and very amenable to helping fix your car or they'll be very rude.

Helpful = they fix your car and no hassle
Rude = Police etc

Thats how I'd handle it anyway.

[Zelandeth]

That's probably a very sensible way forward James. Probably be the sort of route I'll take.

Is really a further demonstration of why I need to get video recording kit installed in the cars...

[elma]

Totally agree, something I want to get asap.

Been considering fitting this to the Xantia which would cover it nicely. It'll just fit vertically, leave about 10mm horizontally which I thought I'd 3d print a spacer to fill with 2 usb sockets in it. It should fit plush like the original stereo as it's quite a bit shorter (forget the measurements), how much modification will be necessary to achieve this I'm unsure.
Bit expensive for me at the moment though with all the jobs that need doing on the car so I think a cheap camera will be ordered instead.

[Zelandeth]

Indeed. Biggest headache for me is that I have a *major* almost pathological hate for cables and clutter in the car. Even having the Satnav and the associated charging cable dangling around annoys me no end. The idea of sticking more junk in the window with even more spaghetti just makes my skin crawl.

That, being honest is the main reason I've not already got one fitted...

I've seen a couple which have the unit built into a rear view mirror assembly, which I reckon is more likely the sort of approach I'll wind up taking. Whether it be a pretty made unit, or getting the various modules and building something myself. Or more likely, buying a commercial kit, reducing it to its component parts, then reassembling it in a way that I find far more useful...

[elma]

I share your distaste for cables all over the shop. I'll also favour a camera that clips onto the mirror as it's easy to hide the power cable.

If I get the head unit I'll try to install the cameras invisibly.

[Zelandeth]

Probably my single biggest headache will be getting power up there. Windscreen pillar is out unless I can get away with some super skinny cable...And the engineer in me doesn't like that. There just isn't room for something I trust to stand up the sort of hot, cold, dry, damp and vibration in a car. So will probably be out the back of the dash, into the bundle down along the sill, up the B pillar, through the roof to the general vicinity of the mirror. The interior lights are in the top of the B pillars like in the Xantia, so chasing wiring through there should be doable if necessary.

Wiring at the other end will probably be straight to one of the accessory blocks on the fuse box. Makes it easier to document and keep track of for later. I'll probably be wanting to install both an immobiliser and a tracker at some point, so the less faffing about with stock wiring at this stage should help prevent headaches in the future.

There is going to be a USB charging block installed anyway though (fed up of complaints that people can't charge their phones...Surely if mine (a Huawei P9) can last a full day so can theirs?), it'll be bolted onto the back of the ashtray with the ports screwed onto the side of the box of the glove box. Easy to get at, but you wouldn't ever see the sockets if you didn't know they were there. Easy to swap out in ten years if we've moved on by then to some standard that is as ubiquitous as USB is these days too.

[elma]

What about mounting the camera in the grill. It would be discreet and easier to put wiring in. Obviously a slightly more waterproof camera would be needed but I quite like the idea of it going under the bonnet.

[Zelandeth]

Not a bad thought actually. Not necessarily to the grill itself (especially until I get the older style grill fitted...The "facelift" grill has about as much strength to it as a soggy teabag), but probably to the slam panel.

Right next to where the connectors are for the variants with headlamp washers/wipe...Hello nice convenient ignition switched 12V feed. Could even use the washers then to trigger the "emergency" record mode too with a quick tap of the stalk...

[elma]

The only disadvantages will be decreased field of view and potentially road dirt ruining the image. I think I may try one out here and see the results. I'm having a little browse of cameras at the moment seeing if there is anything suitable. My van I chose a separate camera and recording box but the all in ones seem a lot better nowadays.
I think the only thing I don't like about mounting it so discreetly is that if people can't see it theres no deterrent to being silly. Being able to point at the camera when a person is playing up is quite a valuable tool in helping them decide to move on.

[Hell Razor5543]

I have a dash cam on the van set up where the rear view mirror would be (as the storage area is boxed in there is no mirror). I have been able to run the cable the camera came with up the nearside pillar (it easily went under the trim) and then inside the headlining until it reaches the camera. Most dash cams come with a 3 meter cable that is powered off the cigarette lighter (although you can get ones that can be wired into the electrics).

I got both myself and my Mum an 0801 dash cam (with GPS logger and 8GB internal RAM), similar to this;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-0801-Car ... SwNnRYhEFe

And this is an adaptor suitable for it;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hard-Wire-Pow ... SwNSxVYYM5

[bobins]

If you're going for the grille mounting, then have a look at motorbike cameras. I've got a very small bullet cam on my motorbike - it doesn't do GPS or speed recording, but it works very well for just filming what's going on.... and it's very waterproof

[elma]

That's a good idea bobbins, I couldn't find an appropriate dash camera last night. I was struggling to search a little as I was very tired, I will try again but looking at biker cameras.

[Zelandeth]

Not a bad thought. Bike cameras for mounting under the grill may well be easier to sort out from both a positioning and wiring perspective.

Rear (should I decide I need one back there too) one's not too hard as I should be pretty easily able to attach it to the tailgate hinge, though getting power to it does again become a bit of a headache - though there must be a feed in the general vicinity for the fuel gauge...Not as though these things pull much juice.

[Hell Razor5543]

Most dash cams are USB, which means 5 volt and 0.5 amps.

The cameras I got for Mum and I were less than 2" long and 1" wide.

[Zelandeth]

True enough on the USB power supply. Most camera kits I've seen come with a power "brick" of some sort though, whether it be a cigarette lighter plug or with flying leads for connection to 12V. Cig lighter for me isn't much use as that's a permanent live. To be honest, most things are...In terms of readily accessible switched live feeds inside the cabin you've basically got the instrument panel feed, heated rear window and heater blower circuits. The latter is probably most appealing as the connection onto the switch is by discreet spade terminals, so it would be trivial to piggy back a feed off there.

This is a bit of a ways down the list yet to be honest though. If I were to grab a car to throw a camera at right now it would be the 107 - but that's coming off commuting service for a while at the end of the month (yay, can give it the service it was due two months ago...), so is less urgent than it was.

Today I had a moment of realisation...The main reason I haven't got around to getting a disc brake installed on the front of the Sinclair is because there's no bracket for the caliper. So some work with a welder is needed to create the bracket, and ideally to add some bracing as well given the brake will be slowing down quite a lot of rolling mass (and husky in my case...). There's a guy who will do this for a sensible figure, though you do need to take off the fork and send it and the wheel off to him to have it done. I've just never got around to it though.

Suddenly this afternoon though, I remembered...I have a working welder now! There is absolutely nothing stopping me from fabricating the bracket myself.

Quick run over to Chaineys Cycles (not cheap, but the service we've always had has been great - even dealing with Abby's e-bike which is a royal pain to work on) to grab a disc set and...I ran out of daylight.

Tomorrow I hope to have a proper look at it and get the caliper fixed in place. Fixing the disc to the wheel is pretty simple thanks to the wheel being plastic (nylon I think) so drilling it to accept the disc is pretty simple - if requiring careful alignment so the disc runs true.

Will be really nice to actually have a brake that's something resembling useful on that thing!

This week turned into something of a washout, but really hoping to get moving on the Lada next week. Not least because the carb is playing funny business again.