I am considering buying a front & rear dash cam that will remain on when my car is switched off. My car has picked up a fair sized scrape on the rear wheel arch whilst parked up last night.
All (sensible) advice gratefully received.
You’re on the wrong forum
1 Like
Yeah, I guess I do set myself up for this. Let me rephrase:
All sensible answers gratefully received. Possibly even rewarded with beer.
Other answers, if funny, received with less gratitude, and possibly rewarded with tea.
No advice, just questions
How will cameras be powered overnight?
Assuming you want them in case someone hits you again?
What will be the benefit? Even if you do get good footage, will anyone do anything about it?
If you report it to police to try and pursue, you then probably should report it to insurance when they ask.if youve been in an accident.
So you might end up being out of pocket twice.
My opinion is you chalk it down to city living and an associated risk…
1 Like
How often do you drive the car? You could wire standard ones too a constant 12v feed, then they always record, just need a big enough memory card.
I have seen ones that do motion detection, and record when something happens, never used them or even know where to look. The Tesla standard cameras do this though
EDIT: sunbathing changed to something
Sunbathing? 
if thats what you want to see
Good questions Serrisan:
- Hardwired directly/indirectly to the car’s battery.
- Yes, plus additional security for the car when it’s parked, and to my house when it’s parked outside.
- Evidence. Yes.
- If someone hits my car and doesn’t stop, and I’ve got its registration number, then that is illegal and the police can bust them for failure to stop. Depending on the cost of repair, I may sort it out privately.
Let me assure you they will not! If my camera footage of a hit and run is not enough. Then leaving a scratch on a car has no chance!
Anyway to your question - As Boris has mentioned, you can get motion sensitive cameras which will probably be the friendliest option for your battery.
2 Likes
Motion sensing. Good idea.
Following with interest, I’m interested in doing a similar thing on my car. I want one I can hard wire power supply to behind the dashboard with a neat power supply outlet for wherever I decide to install them front and rear.
By wire directly to the battery I just want to make sure you know that you have two lives in your car - switched and permanently live (usually red and yellow respectively but do check). Perm live keeps the clock in radio etc running even with ignition switched off as well as other important anciliaries used when key out of ignition. Tapping into the permanently live found behind your radio will suffice. Apologies if this was patronising!
Not patronising at all. Very useful information, just what I’m looking for. Thank you.
For my other project that is particularly useful - Red (switched) wire for the auto-launch RPG rigged up to the speed camera detector.
1 Like
Been thinking about this as well but not settled on one just yet. Some other points for you Martin, look for one that fits behind the rear view mirror as high levels of theft from vehicle. Hard wiring, you can get kits that simply use a blade fuse adapter so not much faffing about. Apeman seem to get decent reviews.
Bump activation would definitely be a good idea 
4 Likes