Awesome plan with the 2 sets. I have 2 Thinkware f770's in my Forester XT (one set faces in and one faces out) but I'm on the fence between the F800 pro and the iRoad x9. Waiting for a sale to buy them. These cameras are a great addition and you won't see interference in that location. I have mine there in the forester with no issues. I also have 70% tint on the windshield and have no issues. Just saved some great wildlife footage from my cameras in Wyoming!

 

Cool, yeah I was looking at the F770 and 800 until I saw the prices Never heard of the iRoad x9

I'm liking the A129 because its got the wifi, dual cameras, can use 256GB cards, optional polarizing filter, and what I think is really cool, it will have an optional bluetooth emergency button. So you don't have to fumble around trying to hit the small save button on the camera, you can mount the bluetooth button anywhere more convenient. Plus it's a little more palatable to the wallet.

We've caught a few neat things on our dash cams so far. The best being right after I installed them on our other car. We were driving home one night at midnight coming over a hill and had to slam on our brakes because there was a lost horse just walking right in the middle of the road, lol. Came to a complete stop and it just walked right past us with not a care in the world, haha! Took us a while to help corral it, but it was fun.

 

That pretty much matches the Ascent guidelines. You will find the similar drawings in your Eyesight manual, and someplace in the forum in one of my posts. So, yep, you'll be fine.

 

Good to hear, thanks! Still trying to find time to get all those other manuals downloaded too :tango_face_wink:

 

I would think the "tricky" part would be hardwiring the camera without knocking the eyesight out of alignment in the process.

 

Yep, still brainstorming ideas on that front. I saw someone tap into the power wires going to the rear view mirror... not sure I’m “that” qualified to do that and still make it look stock. Plus even if I can do that for the power wire, there’s still the rear camera feed wire/cord I’ll have to run and tuck out of sight.

If all else fails I’ll probably just put the camera to one side of the windshield to safely and securely tuck the wires out of sight. Out of the way of the side curtain airbag of course. :nerd:

 

I just got in the mail my blackvue dr900s 2channel.

I have the dr750s in our minivan and my type R, so overall have a positive experience (although expensive).

Gonna install it next week. Hardwire directly into the fuse box.

 

I came close to going with this setup due to the frame rate out of 4k. The 4k isn't a bad feature either but ended up going with 2 pairs of the Thinkware f800 pro. I always go with a 4 camera setup for 360 degrees. Ill put one in the front window and the 'rear' camera from the front will face in to the cabin from the little cubby under the radio. The second pair will do the same but in the rear window. Nice rot know that video can be captured is someone breaks in to the car. Ordered from Blackboxmycar with the cellink Neo backups on each. Where did you order from?

post some photos when they come in! mine are set to arrive in 5 days. Installing on the 18th.

 

When you get the details of the new hardwire setup, the mods should definitely make that a "sticky." This is a mod all Subaru Ascent owners should do regardless of which dash cam they choose. There are too many people claiming the other driver was at fault, when they were actually the offending party.

 

Ok. If I remember to grab pics during install I will! And try to be as detailed as possible.

Fyi - For my minivan I tapped into door locks.

 

OK, so I installed 2/3 of my dashcam setup today.

Installed front facing dashcam. Installed rear facing dashcam too. I have not installed the hardwire directly into the fuse yet because i realized i picked up the wrong fuse taps.

I'll provide some more details once i finish the hardwire portion (fuse taps should arrive early next week). So front, as always, is super easy to install. Tucked the front's wire behind the Front Side Airbags and brought it down to the driver's leg area. Right now the wire is sitting beneath my drivers seat plugging into the 12v outlet in the center dash.

Rear dashcam was a bit more difficult since the weatherproof gaskets are a bit more difficult than Honda's. I pulled the 2 panels on the rear door off and feed the wires through the holes that already have factory wires for rear defroster, brake lights, rear-view camera, etc. Getting the gaskets back on the hole was a little more difficult, like i said, since it's a little different than Honda's.

But once that part was done, I ran the wires down the driver side. Tucked the wires behind the panels to the front driver's side. Again, i tucked the rear cam wire beneath the side curtain airbag.

That's all for now. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to upload pics and more details.

 

Blackvue DR900S-2CH dashcam fully installed with PMP hardwire into the fuse box.

I used the fuse box below the driver's steering column. I tapped the yellow (constant hot) into Key SW A with 7.5amp fuse. The red (switched hot) tapped into the 20amp Cigar/12v outlet fuse. Ground wire attached to a nut on the right side of the fuse.

Wires bundled together using a bunch of zip ties.

Works great! Love the quality of the DR900S; much higher/better resolution than my DR750S setup in our minivan.

Photos here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/TNsEUBKy4xqfa5Gx5

 

Nicely done! Which route did you take for the wire from the main camera to the rear?

 

***notes taken*** nice work!

 

Feel free to message me if y'all need any help.

The Ascent is my third personal vehicle install. It was pretty quick, but the first time on my civic took forever. Haha

 

Any way you could add captions via comments on the google photos? Some photos I'm not really sure what is happening. Sorry I'm new at this.

 

i'll try to get a brief "how-to" going.

 

A “how to” post or rough video would be fantastic! I plan to install a dash cam as soon as I get my blue touring… Hopefully by the end of August.

 

comments added.

 

So here is my 360 setup. I opted for the Thinkware F800 pro's backed up with the cellink NEO bluetooth batteries. I used the photos posted by YYHD to power the front pair of cameras and tapped into the rear cigarette lighter for the back pair. I choose to get the 360 protection in the event of a break in to the car. Some people go 360 to get video of side collisions. these cameras can capture that, but its not my goal. Here are some quick photos of camera placement. Front 'forward' camera is not visible at all by the driver when in the drivers seat. The camera is properly placed behind the mirror as seen in a few photos and has so far caused no issues with eyesight. The 'rear' camera up front is located in the cubby under the hvac controls. Set off to the side to still allow the area to be used for storage as can be seen with my wallet. The cellink neo for the front is tucked directly behind the center console and accessible by peeling back the carpet under the glovebox. For the rear, you can clearly see the cameras are set up high on each side of the rear view camera. The location dent bother me and I'm not concerned about the obstruction. The cameras are not visible at all from outside of the car through the added tint. The tint also has no effect on the available light to the cameras as seen in the screen shots. The cellink neo in the rear is located next to the plastic storage container to the left.
The container pops out and the battery is tucked off to the side to keep it out of the way and avoid drilling holes to mount it somewhere. Overall I am very happy and the app functionality for these cameras is superior to the other think ware app used for non cloud based cameras. I'd like to thank @yyhd for posting the details he did which made the process easier.

 

rear screen shots

 

Hey!!! That's awesome. Glad you had a smooth install.

I was actually considering going with Thinkware this time around instead of Blackvue. Still not entirely sure why i went with blackvue again. Next vehicle or next update i'll definitely get the Thinkware. I've heard great things about Thinkware's products.

 

The 4K almost sold me... but I stuck with what I know. Looking forward to seeing how well this Sony starvis works.

 

Did the same mod late last night but with the Street Guardian sg9663dc + parking hardwire kit. Didn’t quite take as long as I thought it would but I mounted the rear camera in a slightly more forward location. Will evaluate and see how it pans out. Still also trying to figure out how to customize all the settings. The front camera “body” got mounted high up and sits behind the darkened sun glare shade part of the front window above the rear view mirror in between the eyesight cameras. This allows the actual camera part to peek out just below the “tattooed” area but also just above the rear view mirror — Makes for a fairly stealth appearance. Once I get everything adjusted and figured out, I’ll post some pics.

 

Looking forward for your pictures of the install, I bought 2 dash cams (viofo a129 & thinkware 800) and wanted to install either one behind those "tattooed" area behind the rear view mirror, but there is a big problem - my white limited ascent is pushed back to august 17, so right now I don't know which will look stealthier with the ascent before I install the other one on my 17 accord.

If only garmin makes a version of the garmin speak plus with dual channel and less alexa, that would be nice

 

Looking at it now, I would not place the 800 up there... too close to eyesight

 

How about here?

 

That’s basically where I mounted mine. Here’s a few pics of the front camera location...you can see the lens just peeking out above the rear view mirror.
No eyesight issues that I am aware of yet. But the SG unit is fairly tall and narrow - I’ve noticed the more horizontally oriented cameras might need to be mounted closer to what @Stillmotion did.

 

That is my ideal location, I wish my ascent arrive really soon to try it as my A129 have similar form factor as yours, while the F800 have to peek to the left not on the bottom, is there a template available for the ascent or the one linked by OP applies to the ascent too?

 

You may wanted to install your Dash Cam more towards driver's side as you are almost blocking your auto-headlight sensor (auto-high beam sensor) on the back of the center rear view mirror
Just in case you are using your auto-high beam function

 

So I have a question about these dash cams. What purpose do they serve? Is it just in case you get in an accident? Does it help with insurance? I understand their appeal for commercial applications, I guess I’m just curious about their appeal to private consumers.

 

There's plenty of purposes for dashcams, but most folk probably like them for a sense of security if anything were to happen. For example, you get into an accident and it was due to someone hitting you. You can send the video to the insurance company as evidence to prove your innocence. Or if you capture a license plate from a hit and run driver.


It's a nice peace of mind for a minimal cost.

 

I’d also like to know what fuse # folks are using for their dash cams. Thanks!

 

@yyhd how do I remove this white clip and reinstall?

 

@yyhd how do I remove this white clip and reinstall?

Here you go:
https://www.ascentforums.com/forum/155-diy-how/4213-how-remove-re-install-tube-gasket-lift-gate.html

 

I didn’t noticed any details in this thread about the wire going to the camera behind the rear view mirror. Are you running that wire up the black cover that goes to the rear view mirror? Then where from there?
Once I get it to the pillar I’m good, I’m just hesitant to take things apart near the eyesight cameras...

 

On my installation, after the wire is past the pillar it's just tucked up between the top edge of the windshield and headliner. Once it gets to the driver's side eyesight camera, there is enough gap above that ES camera to run the wire over the camera housing. After crossing over the ES camera, the remaining few inches is partially tucked into the headliner again before popping back out to meet the dash cam. When the dashcam is installed it's all very neat and tidy with minimal slack in the cable.

I did use that black cover that goes over the rear view mirror wiring for my previous Subaru. That car had a dashcam installed dead center, so that route was the best to take. With the Eyesight system, it looks like most of us are offsetting the camera a little off center. It didn't make sense to use the black cover for the existing rear view wiring since the cable terminated before it would even reach midpoint of the windshield.

 

For those that want to simplify wiring they make OBD2 powered mini usb specifically for dash cam or radar detector installs

Can’t find them anymore but in my Lexus I had a dashcam wiring kit that used spades that you can insert into the back of wiring harnesses. Going around so many airbags, I prefer to tap into power already near the mirror.

Why can’t they just be cool and put a usb output up there by the mirror ??