A dash cam is only as good as the way it is fitted. We hardwire cameras at our northeast Calgary shop so the cabling sits behind the trim, the camera runs off the vehicle instead of tying up a 12-volt socket, and everything is tested with you before you drive away.
Cables run behind the headliner, A-pillar and trim panels rather than across the glass.
Wired to the fuse panel using the hardwire kit your camera supports.
One, two or three channels, chosen around how you actually use the vehicle.
Installed in our northeast Calgary bay, then set up and checked with you.
Most dash cams arrive with a suction mount and a long cable meant for the cigarette lighter. That will record. It also leaves a wire hanging down the windscreen, occupies your 12-volt socket, and stops recording the moment you switch the car off.
The install is the part that turns a camera into something you forget is there. Power is taken from the fuse panel so the camera comes on and off with the vehicle, the cable is routed inside the trim, the camera sits where it sees the road without blocking your view, and any rear or in-cabin channel is run through the vehicle properly.
We quote per vehicle rather than from a fixed price list, because routing a cable through a hatchback and routing one through a three-row SUV are not the same job. Tell us the year, make and model and what you want it to cover, and we will confirm the price before we start.
Dash cams are sold by channel count. The right one depends on what you want a record of, not on which box costs the most.
A single camera behind the mirror recording the road ahead. The simplest fit and the least cabling. If what you want is a record of what happened in front of you, this covers it, and it is the quickest install of the three.
Adds a second camera at the back so you have both directions. This is the configuration most drivers ask us for. It is also the one that adds rear cable routing to the job, which is where most of the extra labour sits.
Adds a third camera for in-cabin recording, facing the interior. The usual choice for rideshare and delivery drivers, or anyone who wants a record of what happens inside the vehicle. Most private drivers do not need it.
More channels is not automatically better. Tell us how you use the vehicle and where it is parked, and we will tell you what is actually worth fitting.
Hardwiring is the difference between a camera that looks like it came with the car and one that looks like an accessory. It is the part of this job we spend the most time on.
Which of those apply depends on the camera and the vehicle. A single-channel camera that only needs to run while you drive is a much shorter job than a three-channel setup with parking mode on a vehicle with a powered tailgate.
Fuse-panel work is the part that most often goes wrong when a camera is fitted in a hurry: the wrong circuit, a tap that works loose, or a ground made to a painted panel. We would rather take the time on that than have you back with an intermittent fault.
We are describing the service here rather than writing a wiring guide. If you want to know exactly what we would do to your vehicle, ask us and we will talk it through before you book.
Parking mode is the feature most people are really after: the camera keeps an eye on the vehicle after you have walked away from it. It is also the feature that most depends on the hardware you have bought.
To record with the ignition off, a camera needs power with the ignition off. That is why parking mode generally means a hardwire kit rather than the 12-volt socket, which on most vehicles cuts out with the key.
What the camera then does while parked varies by model. Depending on the camera and kit, that may include some of the following — not every camera supports all of them, and some support none:
Before you buy, it is worth checking that the camera you are looking at supports the parking behaviour you want, and that a hardwire kit is available for it. If you tell us the model, we will check that with you.
Parking mode draws power from the vehicle while it is parked. How much, and for how long, depends on the camera, the mode and the kit. We set it up to the protection your hardware supports and explain what to expect on your vehicle.
Anything that runs while the engine is off is drawing on the battery. That is true of a dash cam in parking mode as much as anything else, and it is why the power side of the install matters.
Most parking-mode hardwire kits include low-voltage protection. The kit monitors system voltage and cuts power to the camera when voltage falls to its configured threshold, so the camera stops drawing before the battery is pulled down further. Some kits also have a timer that ends parking recording after a set number of hours.
The thresholds available, and whether they can be adjusted, depend on the kit. We set them to sensible values for your vehicle and tell you what they are.
What we will not tell you is that parking mode can never affect your battery. A protection cut-off is a safeguard, not a guarantee, and it cannot compensate for a battery that is already weak or a vehicle that is only driven short distances. If your battery is near the end of its life, parking mode will find that out for you.
If you park for long stretches — at an airport, or over a winter week away — tell us, because that changes what we would recommend and how we would configure it.
We confirm the camera, the hardwire kit and how you want it to behave, look at the vehicle, and confirm the price before anything is opened up.
We place the camera where it has a clear view of the road and does not sit in yours, and agree the position with you before it is mounted.
Cable goes behind the headliner and trim, power is taken at the fuse panel, the ground is made properly, and any rear or in-cabin channel is run through the vehicle.
We set the date, time and recording options, check the app connection, confirm parking mode behaves as expected, and show you how to pull footage off it.
Open Monday to Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Closed Sundays. Most single-camera installs are same-day; multi-channel and parking-mode jobs take longer, and we will tell you which yours is when we quote it.
Adding a rear camera is where a dash cam install stops being quick. The camera itself takes minutes. Getting its cable from the back of the vehicle to the front, invisibly, is the work.
The cable runs along the headliner and down a pillar, with the camera usually on the rear glass. Generally the most straightforward of the body styles, because nothing the cable crosses moves.
The tailgate opens, so the cable has to cross from body to hatch. That crossing is done through the factory rubber boot with the existing looms, which is slower but keeps the cable protected and hidden.
Depends heavily on where you want the camera — rear glass, cab, or the back of the box. We will look at the vehicle and tell you what is realistic before you commit to it.
What we will not do is tape the cable along the roofline or run it around the door seals on the outside. It looks temporary, it catches, and it fails in a Calgary winter. If a clean route is not possible on a particular vehicle, we will tell you that before we start rather than improvise.
Yes — we fit customer-supplied cameras regularly, and we have no problem with a camera you bought online. A camera bought anywhere is only as good as the install.
What the job involves, and what it costs, depends on a few things we need to know before you book:
We cannot promise in advance that every camera will do everything you want it to — some models simply do not support parking mode, and some have no hardwire kit available. Send us the model before you book and we will tell you honestly what it can and cannot do.
We keep FineVu cameras at the shop, and we will fit a camera from any brand you bring us.
We are not going to reproduce a catalogue here. If you are buying rather than bringing your own, the useful conversation is a short one: tell us your budget, how you use the vehicle and where it is parked overnight, and we will point you at something appropriate rather than at the most expensive thing on the shelf.
If you would rather read first, we wrote a comparison of what actually matters in a Calgary winter: the best dash cam for a Calgary winter.
None of this is exotic. It is simply the difference between a job done at a bench and a job done in a hurry.
The A-pillar is a common cable route and, on most modern vehicles, also where a curtain airbag sits. Cable is routed so it stays clear of the airbag and its deployment path.
The circuit chosen, how the connection is made and where the ground goes all decide whether the camera behaves in two years. This is the part worth doing slowly.
Panels come off with the right tools and go back without marks, rattles or gaps. Broken clips are cheap to avoid and irritating to live with.
High and close to the mirror keeps the lens in the wiper sweep and out of your sightline. Badly placed cameras block your view or film the sky.
We quote per vehicle. Routing differs a lot between models, and a rear or in-cabin channel adds real work. Send us the year, make and model and what you want covered, or book a slot — either way we confirm the price before we start.
While you are driving, no — the camera runs off the vehicle. In parking mode it does draw power, because it has to. Hardwire kits with low-voltage protection cut the camera off at a set voltage to stop the draw before the battery falls further. That is a safeguard rather than a guarantee, and it cannot make up for a battery that is already weak.
If the camera supports parking mode and it is hardwired, yes. What it records — motion, impacts, time-lapse — depends on the model. A camera plugged into the 12-volt socket usually cannot do this at all, because that socket cuts out with the ignition on most vehicles.
Yes, we do that regularly. Tell us the model and whether you have the hardwire kit for it when you book, so we can check what it supports before you arrive.
It should not be. Cable is routed behind the headliner, A-pillar and trim panels. From the driver’s seat you should see the camera and nothing else.
Yes. The cable is run through the vehicle rather than taped along the roofline, including across the tailgate on SUVs and hatchbacks, which is the slower but correct way to do it.
It faces the interior and records inside the vehicle. Rideshare and delivery drivers are the usual customers for it. Most private drivers do not need one.
A single front camera is usually a same-day job. Front and rear takes longer, and adding parking mode with a hardwire kit longer still. We will tell you which yours is when we quote it.
It should not, and that is exactly why the routing matters. Cable is kept clear of the curtain airbag in the A-pillar, and trim is removed and refitted with the proper tools.
Usually, but check your lease or fleet policy on hardwired accessories first. If you would rather not have anything wired into the fuse panel, tell us and we will talk through what is possible.
Send the details and we will come back with a price for your vehicle. No call centre, no generic quote.
If the dash is already apart for a camera, some of this is cheaper to do at the same time than to come back for.
Speakers, amplifiers and subwoofers, wired in behind the trim and tuned before you drive away.
Car audio
Added behind the factory screen on most modern vehicles, or with a new head unit where it is not.
CarPlay
A common winter pairing, and the wiring overlaps with dash cam work more than you would expect.
Remote starters
If something has stopped working, we find out why rather than replacing parts and hoping.
Auto electricalSend us the year, make and model, the camera if you already have one, and whether you want it recording while parked. We will confirm the price before anything is opened up.
#129 10985 38 St NE, Calgary AB T3N 1Z2 · Monday to Saturday, 10:30 a.m.–6:30 p.m.