Porsche Macan Forums

Since one or two have said that they plan to install a dash cam I thought I'd start a new thread in Technical as a place to share experience and a resource for those contemplating it. So apologies for reposting from another thread, but it's a start!Here's some pics of my recent dash cam installation. It's a Mi-Witness camera that I've moved from a previous car.I wanted to conceal the wiring as far as possible and that turned out to be quite easy in the Macan. Power is supplied to the cam from the passenger side fusebox via a battery protector and power pack that reduces the voltage down to 5.5v. Spare fuse slots 6 and 10 in Fuse Carrier A provide permanent and ignition controlled 12v respectively. I used two piggyback connectors from Halfords in these slots, fitted with 5A fuses. Rather than use the bullet connectors on these leads I soldered them to the battery protector leads and used heat shrink sleeves for insulation.The power cable runs from inside the fuse carrier, behind the A pillar trim then up the A pillar, tucked behind the door seal, behind the trim at the top left of the screen, along the top of the screen behind the head lining, then down the side of the mirror console and terminates at the camera.The only tool needed for the installation was a plastic scraper which was used to press the cable behind sections of trim, headlining, etc. So no alterations were made to the car and the camera and power supply can be removed quickly and easily leaving no trace.I have a rear camera but I'm still pondering its installation as concealed routing for that cable is a more complicated operation altogether.It all works OK after a couple of days testing. Thankfully the car hasn't objected so no alarms have appeared telling me that a non-Porsche device has been detected. However, for anyone installing their own cam, all the usual disclaimers apply!
Nuclear Nick2016-10-31 11:35:56

Good stuff. Did you use magic pro for battery protector? You might want to take a pic of it and show where you installed it and what it does, just for the newbies I went the powerbank route to avoid the hardwiring but what you did is the best for discretion.

Good suggestion, will do. It's in the pic of the fuse banks but I'll do a bit of labelling and post another pic or two and the details of the battery protector.

Good stuff Nick!

Here's a pic of the battery protector and connections. It's a Skybatt SB 0-A supplied by TTW Partners who supplied the camera. It has two settings, 12.2v and 11.8v. I've set it on the higher one so the car's battery should not drop below 12.2v.

This is a great idea Nick. It might even help me hardwire the one I will buy when I get my Macan. I had planned to get it done professionally

Any comments on Blackvue DR650S-2CH? They also do a specific external battery pack for 12 hours.

I have installed the two Dash Cams below today, installation straightforward and very similar to Nicks images but as yet I have not hard wired them.

The front facing cam (the A119) is a neat unit with GPS base that is fixed to the screen and the camcorder slots into the base unit. A mini USB connector to full sized USB with a lead length of 5m is supplied as is a two way 12v plug. Temporarily installed so I will not include any images

I did specifically want a GPS data logger included with the Dash Cam.
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Two off units the packaging and following installation they were removed from car to download video files
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Front Facing
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Rear facing, please note that this unit is over 2 years old but has not been fitted until today so I expect a lesser quality of the produced video.
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Youtube footage below, note that there are two video clips one from the front facing camera (which needs angling down a bit and the right date and time putting in the thing) and another of the rear facing cam, not sure how it looks on Youtube as Youtube does degrade the quality. Being an older but unused unit the rear cam definately does not produce as good a quality video as the front cam
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Col Lamb2016-10-31 17:19:48

I am thinking to get the Blackvue DR650S-2CH. They also do a specific external battery pack for 12hours usage. Any comments?

I am thinking to get the Blackvue DR650S-2CH. They also do a specific external battery pack for 12hours usage. Any comments?