XC60 & Roadhawk DC 2 Dash Cam

[AJC30]

DDpai mini 2 looks very discrete I have tints in the back so it will be invisible from outside so l,ll look into fitting one as soon as I can. I’ve always done all my own upgrades on cars but I chucked my Ducati into a drystone wall in the bad weather in the borders last weekend no broken bones but still not as bendy as I was again yet.....oops ! I’ve probably learned a lesson regarding the dealer talking up the job when as you say with a bit of thought an planning it can be done with little or no problems.
As I said the front cam is now sorted but I will fit the rear one thanks for your advice it’s always good to know a product is recommended because it is being used without issues

[Quacker]

Here are a few pictures of my Ddpai and Goluk installations in the Volvo.
When the ignition is switched on, we are greeted with "Hi, Goluk" from the front and "Hello ding ding pie" from the back cameras. The volume of each is adjustable thank goodness.
Ddpai is also available in black, which if I had known would have been better for the back untinted window. If tinted it wouldn't matter at all.
The picture out of the windscreen has been edited so that irrelevant stuff is hidden.


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I forgot to mention that both brands come with wi-fi remote battery driven buttons that I've such in front of the gear selector. These are for convenient quick protection of short clips from six seconds before and six seconds after the button press. These will not then get over-written.

One tip, the current sweet spot for SD cards is 32GB class ten as far as value goes. It is the size that also suits dash cams so they retain a good few hours of footage before a file is over-written.
Goluk usually come supplied with an SD card. Most don't.
Ddpai currently selling on Amazon for £50 plus free promotions, which is pretty much unbeatable value. It's all you need if you don't hard wire it. Plus a micro SD card of course. £10 for a Samsung 32GB card.

[nu11eaf]

Quacker what is the night vision like on these two dashcams, especially the rear facing one as there are no headlights lighting up the field of view.
I have a cheap cam in the rear of my XC90 and its next to useless at night. Night mode only lights up reflective signs like number plates but everything else is too dark. And you have to start car then go to the back of car lift tailgate and press the night mode button manually before setting off so never gets activated.

Anyone thinking about buying a dashcam and it says it has night mode check to see how it is activated before buying. Especially if its for the rear view.

[Quacker]

Originally Posted by nu11eaf

Quacker what is the night vision like on these two dashcams, especially the rear facing one as there are no headlights lighting up the field of view.
I have a cheap cam in the rear of my XC90 and its next to useless at night. Night mode only lights up reflective signs like number plates but everything else is too dark. And you have to start car then go to the back of car lift tailgate and press the night mode button manually before setting off so never gets activated.

Anyone thinking about buying a dashcam and it says it has night mode check to see how it is activated before buying. Especially if its for the rear view.

No tiny sensor camera will light up total darkness and no camera will work with headlights aimed at it. They will work quite well on lit streets however.
Forget those with infra-red array around the lens. They are useless, because the range is tiny.
There is no manual night mode on these two models or any other that I have, although they do automatically EV-compensate somewhat. They do not record speed or have satellite location. None of which are necessary on dash cams and are features that are seldom, if ever utilised.
Have a look at various Youtube reviews for comparisons, while remembering that many reviewers like to nitpick on very minor differences to fill time

[nu11eaf]

Originally Posted by Quacker

No tiny sensor camera will light up total darkness and no camera will work with headlights aimed at it. They will work quite well on lit streets however.
Forget those with infra-red array around the lens. They are useless, because the range is tiny.
There is no manual night mode on these two models or any other that I have, although they do automatically EV-compensate somewhat. They do not record speed or have satellite location. None of which are necessary on dash cams and are features that are seldom, if ever utilised.
Have a look at various Youtube reviews for comparisons, while remembering that many reviewers like to nitpick on very minor differences to fill time

Thanks, my rear view cam is the infra-red type and as you say only picks up very close reflective images like car number plate of car very close up. It was a very cheap thing but works fine in daylight but I need a better one and will put this one in my Defender as a front camera when I replace it with a better one.

[toymaker2]

Not sure that I agree that the dealer is just saying what suits them. I was told the same by my dealer about fitting a Road hawk to my 2017 V90 D5 Inscription. I subsequently e mailed Volvo customer support to ask the question and received the following reply.

I have raised this query with our Accessories Team and have responded with the below.

The V90 has an ASDM "Active Safety Domain Master" situated in the top centre of the windscreen under the rear view mirror. This controls City Safety, BLIS, Adaptive Cruise Control etc. As such the camera could interfere with the camera-dependent functions and is therefore not recommended by Volvo.

Damages to components caused by modification or alteration so that the car no longer conforms to its original specification will invalidate your warranty policy.

Thank you once again for contacting Volvo Car UK, I hope I have been able to assist.

[Quacker]

Originally Posted by toymaker2

Not sure that I agree that the dealer is just saying what suits them. I was told the same by my dealer about fitting a Road hawk to my 2017 V90 D5 Inscription. I subsequently e mailed Volvo customer support to ask the question and received the following reply.

I have raised this query with our Accessories Team and have responded with the below.

The V90 has an ASDM "Active Safety Domain Master" situated in the top centre of the windscreen under the rear view mirror. This controls City Safety, BLIS, Adaptive Cruise Control etc. As such the camera could interfere with the camera-dependent functions and is therefore not recommended by Volvo.

Damages to components caused by modification or alteration so that the car no longer conforms to its original specification will invalidate your warranty policy.

Thank you once again for contacting Volvo Car UK, I hope I have been able to assist.

It may be an issue specific to Roadhawk?
There’s plenty of people apart from methat have dashcams on full spec versions of these cars with no issue whatsoever. It’s just a camera for goodness sake, that is positioned to the side of the intellisafe cameras.
I think Volvo are covering their arses at the behest of some rather too careful legal people who have no idea what they are technically talking about but only hear ‘an extra gadget of unknown provenance stuck to the windsceen near safety related equipment’. They are paid to eliminate risk for insurance companies even when there is no real risk. That’s the idiotic world we live in today.

Fit a dashcam at your own risk. Nobody else will risk you suing them, that’s the truth of it, because even if a claim wasabsolutely baseless, there is a fair chance that some dumb jury could award millions in compo.

[nu11eaf]

The way I interpret the warnings are; there is a camera and radar unit pointing forward at the top of the screen, dont stick anything infront of them or in the indicated angle/range that will interfere with them, which I find obvious.

[Quacker]

Originally Posted by nu11eaf

The way I interpret the warnings are; there is a camera and radar unit pointing forward at the top of the screen, dont stick anything infront of them or in the indicated angle/range that will interfere with them, which I find obvious.

Yes and since we are talking about sticking things at a 90 degree angle to them, to the side and in the passenger compartment, there is unlikely to be any issue.

Can anyone here relate any personal experience of a dash cam interfering in any way with the Intellisafe monitors? All I can sat is that mine don't and they are the screenless type that connect to tablet or phone by wi-fi when I choose to do so, which is very seldom.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Quacker

It may be an issue specific to Roadhawk?
There’s plenty of people apart from methat have dashcams on full spec versions of these cars with no issue whatsoever. It’s just a camera for goodness sake, that is positioned to the side of the intellisafe cameras.
I think Volvo are covering their arses at the behest of some rather too careful legal people who have no idea what they are technically talking about but only hear ‘an extra gadget of unknown provenance stuck to the windsceen near safety related equipment’. They are paid to eliminate risk for insurance companies even when there is no real risk. That’s the idiotic world we live in today.

Fit a dashcam at your own risk. Nobody else will risk you suing them, that’s the truth of it, because even if a claim wasabsolutely baseless, there is a fair chance that some dumb jury could award millions in compo.

The Roadhawk is/was an official Volvo UK accessory about 2 years ago , they have all the fitting ,wiring and position instructions . These kind of cameras of most makes produce a lot of interference though so position is chosen carefully . You may find it interferes with the normal radio .