Experience Hardwiring VIOFO A129 Dashcam

Discussion in 'Clarity' started by Kyle’s Clarity, Mar 16, 2019.

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  1. So I just spent the better part of about 90 minutes getting my VIOFO A129 Duo hardwired to my 2019 Clarity. Thanks to some helpful folks here and on the r/Clarity subreddit I was able to get it done without a hitch. I wanted to share the experience with you all in case this might make someone’s life easier.

    First thing’s first, if you’ve made no other electrical changes to the car, you can use the 3-wire hardwire kit for the A129 without piggybacking on any active fuses. You’ll want to use slots 2 (ACC wire) and 18 (BATTERY wire) in the driver’s side footwell (under the steering column to the left) which are both empty.

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    In addition to the 3-wire hardwire kit, you’ll also need 2 fuse taps (this is the pack I ordered: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01J9GTL6O) to connect to the hardwire kit leads (VIOFO also sells fuse taps so if you’d prefer to get theirs, you can). Once you’ve connected the taps to the leads (use a crimping tool or a pair of needle nose pliers to pinch the taps onto the leads), insert one of the included fuses into the top slot in the tap. With the tap’s pins pointing down and the fuse slots facing you, insert the fuse in the top slot (see below).

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    Now it’s time to connect everything. The tricky part for me was getting to the ground post. Sorry I didn’t get a good picture of it but if you’re looking at your fuse box, you can’t miss it. It’s in behind and just below with about 342 ground wires already attached to it. It’s circled in yellow in the next picture which also shows the fuse taps connected to the fuse box.

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    You’ll need to loosen the bolt a little so you can slide the ground wire pins around the post. Tighten it up and you’re in business. I found that I had to pry the plastic plate with the fuse diagram on it off to give me enough room to work. This cover takes some dedication to get off but it does come off and goes back on surprisingly easily. The nice thing about doing this is that it makes tucking the hardwire kit’s fuse wires behind it much easier.

    Once you have the fuse taps plugged into their respective slots and your ground wire secure, tuck the coloured wires into the space below the fuse box (where they’ll be covered by the plastic cover). Pull the in-line low voltage protection box out toward the driver’s side door jam before replacing the plastic cover. Run it out the left side of the plastic cover not over the top of it.

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    You should now have everything in the footwell tidied up and a small plastic switch box and long USB cable dangling out your driver’s side door. See below for placement of the low voltage protection box. It fits PERFECTLY in this space, leaves the switch easily accessible if you want to change the setting (say, if you know you’re going to be parking your car for an extended period of time and want to protect your 12V battery), and this orientation has the high setting at the top and low setting at the bottom.

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    I found at this stage it was easier to work backward from the camera because the slack in the USB cable can be more easily tucked into the frame of the car in the door jam than into the headliner. You’ll need to pull off the rubber door trim and you’ll see a couple of open spaces where you can tuck the excess cable before sealing it back up. From your camera, run the cable along the edge of the headliner, tucking it in, until you get to the windshield side beam. With a little force you can press the cable into the seam between the hard plastic beam and the headliner. Then, with the door seal pulled off, you can run the cable down the door jam and feed the excess slack into the spaces down edge until it’s all tucked away. Replace the door seal strip and make sure the low voltage box is oriented as you see it in the pictures and you’re all set.

    If you have any questions I’m happy to provide more detail on the steps I took.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2019
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  3. Mowcowbell

    Mowcowbell Well-Known Member

    A very neat and well documented installation. I really need to do this for my dashcam, as mine is just draped across my passenger seat and connected to the 12v plug under the gear selector.

    I may go a slightly different route by using the ODBII port for my power source instead of the fuse block. Here's an example kit available online: https://www.amazon.com/Hardwiring-Continuously-Recording-Compatible-blackbox/dp/B07FQT6YHR/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=hardwiring+kit+for+dashcam&qid=1552743764&s=gateway&sr=8-3-spell
     
  4. I wonder if you could take some pictures of how you routed it around the A Pilar to avoid interfering with airbag deployment....
     
  5. I’ll try to take some today but the short answer is that there’s a good deal of space in the pillar behind the airbag so I just have it run down behind it.


    Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
     
  6. I just wonder about a couple of things with this route:

    1. Is there a mechanism for voltage cutoff so not to drain the battery?
    2. Will the camera’s parking mode (assuming that’s what you intend to use) recognize different power states in the vehicle (ACC vs ON vs OFF) to trigger time lapse/low bitrate recording vs regular recording?


    Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
     
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  8. So the wiring runs through the seam here:

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    And down under the stripping here:

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    Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
     
  9. ManKo

    ManKo Member

    Thank you so much for your detailed instructions and pictures. I actually have this exact same camera to install in my Clarity. If I may ask, how did you route the rear cameras wire (it’s quite thick)? Also, do you have any picture of how the camera looks mounted?
     
  10. Mowcowbell

    Mowcowbell Well-Known Member

    Kyle, to answer your question #1 ...that ODBII device I linked does have a rocker switch on the ODBII connection to allow you to cut the power without needing to unplug it from the ODBII port.

    Regarding question #2, I am not sure.
     
    Kyle’s Clarity likes this.
  11. I got some feedback on this on my post on Reddit. It’s pretty tight and running the wires (for the hardwire line and the rear camera) behind the airbag is a bit tedious but it’s doable. I was rewiring my incorrectly wired install so I ran the cable from the door frame under the airbag toward the camera (not from the camera, under the airbag, toward the doorframe as I indicate in the instructions) and I managed to get it. The included cables have some chunky parts (ferrite core and the USB connectors themselves) that require some nudging to get through. I feel like coming from the other side (across the headliner to the pillar and under the airbag) would be an order of magnitude more difficult because visibility would be practically 0.

    This is the best picture I could get of the wiring under the airbag at the seam between the headliner and the pillar of the driver’s side door:
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    Excuse my fingernail. The plastic in these parts is treacherous.


    Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
     
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  13. No problem! I figured if I’m going to do the work I might as well share with others. Despite the rear camera’s cable thickness, I didn’t experience any real difficulty with the process. There’s ample room along the trims to tuck it away. In fact, I have both the rear camera cable and the hardwire cable running side-by-side across the headliner to the camera with room to spare. Here are some pictures showing the cameras installed:

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  14. RobinBrain

    RobinBrain Member

    Thanks for the write up. Why did you put your camera where you did? I was plannng in putting it on the dots, with the the lens just below the dots
     
  15. No worries! Happy to contribute.

    I placed it there for a handful of reasons. The first is that I didn’t want to stick the adhesive to the dots should it, in the future, create some sort of trouble for me (if I tried to remove it and it peeled off the dots or left adhesive goo between the dots or what have you). I also wanted to make sure that it was going to stay adhered to the window (you can feel the dots on the inside of the windshield and it just made me concerned that it might not be as secure there). Additionally, I like to have my dashcams aligned so that there’s about an inch or so or the car’s hood visible in the footage for reference. Placing the cam where I did framed footage optimally for my preferences. And finally, with where I sit in the car (given my height and seat alignment preferences) having the camera where it is lets me see the lights on the bottom which indicate if it’s recording or not. Not a huge thing but sometimes I like to glance at it for reassurance.

    Hope this answers your question! If you have any others, let me know.
     
  16. RobinBrain

    RobinBrain Member

    How much of the trim/weather stripping did you have to physical remove? I was planning of just trying to tuck what I can, and let the other wire hang a bit lose. Only have a front camera atm. Also what SD card are you using?
     
  17. RobinBrain

    RobinBrain Member

    Forgot to ask do you remember what size socket that was for the ground?
     
  18. jdonalds

    jdonalds Well-Known Member

    I put my camera where you want to, on the dots with the camera just below the dots. That was 18 months ago wit no problem having it stick. We get extremely hot weather and freezing in the winter.

    I wanted it to be as hidden as possible.
     
  19. I basically removed the stripping along the entire driver’s side of the car. Front to back. It’s pretty easy to remove and replace though so don’t be dissuaded by that.

    Edit: I’m using a Samsung EVO+ (or Plus...whichever is the newest edition, I can’t remember right this second).

    Edit2: The ground wire that came with the hardwire kit had the right size fork to fit around the ground bolt. I couldn’t say what that was though.
     
  20. That’s good to know. I hadn’t heard from anyone who had done this so I wasn’t sure. Thanks for the input!
     
  21. RobinBrain

    RobinBrain Member

    So the black strip? You just grabbed on end and pulled until it all came off? Did you have to use any tools to remove/reattach?
     
  22. Lurker2019

    Lurker2019 New Member

    I got a Rexing V1P Pro dash cam and its hard wire mounting kit from Amazon and took it to my local auto stereo shop in Southern California for installation. The shop charged me $150 for labor and did a very good job installing the front and back cameras and hiding all the cables.
     
  23. megreyhair

    megreyhair Active Member

    Thanks for the info. I think there is another way that might be simpler and that is to use a long USB cable, run it down the A pillar, under the dash and connect to the usb port in the center console under the 'wing', next to the lighter port. That port is 5V and has enough (1amp) current to drive a dashcam. The port is tied to ignition so no need to worry about draining battery. I don't use that to charge phone since 1 amp is too slow and that port won't work with android/apple auto.
     

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