[BorisB]

I just purchased an Innovv K2 camera system and am looking for the best spots to mount the cameras. I was thinking about mounting the front camera just below the tip of the beak and the rear camera to the top of the License Light enclosure. I am concerned that these spots might have too much vibration. Does anyone have any experience with cameras located in either one of these spots?

The K2 cameras are 120° viewing angle and I although I have thought about other locations (crash bars, Tail Frame, etc.) they all seem like they would block large portions of the image.

I would really like to here you opinions.

Cheers!

 

[Bugzy]

Vibration is a real problem, as are bugs and dirt.

The center rear of the bike gets horribly dirty really fast as you can see from looking at your license plate, not a great place for a camera unless your on dry pavement all the way. The front of the bike gets all the bugs. You could put it behind the windshield, but then the shield gets covered and you still can't see, sucks.

The best place to put a camera is on your helmet, on the sides, or at the top center, or even on the chin if you do not have modular. You might still get bugs there, but not as many if your shield is high enough.

I am still using gopro camera, but added a gimbal to it, and put on top of helmet, the video is nice and smooth even though it looks ridiculous on top of there.

 

[BorisB]

I have a Sena Prism Tube camera which works great. It's on the right of my helmet and the Sena 20S is on the left. The problem is that I get only 2 hours recording time on a charge and then it takes 3 hours to recharge the battery. I'd like to get something that I don't have to recharge, gets more than 2 hours recording time and I don't have to remember to turn on or off.

Cheers!

 

[RebornRider]

Hi Boris,
I mounted an Innov C5 camera ( only one camera facing forward) to my supplemental LED lighting assembly on the right side. I can't figure out how to post pictures here, but if you go to the Twisted Throttle site you can see the assembly made for the Denali lights on the '14 DL 1000 pictured. On playback I can see the whole road in front of me and a small bit of the beak and front tire. There is vibration, for sure, but it's not so distorting that I don't get a decent video. I'm almost 100% on paved roads, and of course it depends on the road quality. On looking at the bike, I think mounting on a crash bar would be too far rearward to work. I think mounting to the TOP of the beak would work. I haven't found bug splatter to be a problem at all. I think there is true value to keeping a looping constant video record of your rides. Hopefully we won't have to use it for crash evidence, only for preserving a record of interesting rides and perhaps wildlife that we may encounter
( without a crash! ) on the roadways. I hope this helps.
Ride safe all.
gary

 

[Grimmer]

Boris,

Did you get your K2 cameras mounted? If so, where did you settle on? Have you been satisfied with the mount? Any spots you've tried that you would not recommend?

I need to mount up my K2 cameras. I was planning to attach the rear to the givi monokey plate's reinforcement bar on the side opposite the muffler. That will give me a clear view of all the road and hopefully being tucked between the luggage rack and the side case it will stya pretty clean and protected.

I've been thinking about the top center of the beak for the front camera, but the potential for vibrations on the plastic beak give me pause. I don't want to drill a hole in the beak if it isn't a good mount spot. Not sure if I can trust tape. Too many have failed on me. Maybe some black RTV to help. Maybe tape as a temporary option and something more permanent if it works out...

 

[chicago]

Not sure if this might work for a k2 but I ended up with my mobius cam mounted like this but vibration does affect the video quality. I have an alternate mount on my helmet that I would choose if I want to make a quality video to share. I feel the dash mount works ok for keeping a basic record of events. On/off with ignition. The ram mount and bracket come from AdventureTech.

 

[Grimmer]

Here is another dilemma... I originally planned (I have even completed the wiring) to mount the DVR module in the compartment under the seat for maximum weather protection as well as tamper protection. However, the only indicator that the K2 unit it working and actually recording is built into the DVR module. So I'm considering mounting it where it can be seen, but still need weather protection and some degree of obscurity. Thought about mounting to the frame that sits between the upper and lower triple clamp pieces. Or perhaps the bottom right corner of the dash console.

Anyone already installed? Suggestions?

Too bad there isn't a remote status indicator led on the Innovv K2.

 

[Grimmer]

Another question...

The installation instructions indicate that the GPS antenna should have a clear view of the sky... Is it also required (or even recommended) that the antenna be parallel to the ground?

I have considered mounting the antenna to the top of the gauge console; however, it doesn't have any flat surfaces that are parallel to the ground. Would being at an angle to the sky above hinder the acquisition of the satellite signals?

 

[BorisB]

Sorry about taking so long to respond. I really could have used the cameras on December 6 when I was hit by a 2019 Toyota Corolla. It was changing lanes and side swiped me. I managed to stay up and the damage was limited to my crashers (really did their duty!), kick stand (punched the car's door) and left foot peg (ripped off by the car's rear wheel).

Anyway, I have attached a few photos of the camera installation. I didn't want them to be too obvious so I mounted the front camera under the beak and rear camera in the license plate light housing. I used a 3/4 inch (19mm) aluminum bar bolted at the rear end and glued at the front to mount the front camera so that I wouldn't have to drill any holes through the body work. It seems pretty sturdy so far and is not too obnoxious. I was worried about the vibration but it doesn't seem too bad.

To mount the rear camera I had to make some fairly radical modifications to the license plate lamp assembly. I removed the entire incandescent lamp fixture (socket and lamp) and replaced it with a flat LED fixture and then drill a 1" (25mm) hole through the rear reflector. I also had to enlarge the old socket opening a bit at the to fit the rear of the camera. I then used silicon glue to mount the camera in place.

I also mounted the GPS unit under the beak and although it is not perfectly parallel to the ground (and inverted) it seems to have adequate reception.

I put the power supply next to the fuse box on the left and it fit really well . I connected the switched 12V to the appropriate wire in the ABS connector on the right side of the tail frame (I had already reworked that to add a switched ABS to the bike).

The biggest problems I had were mounting the rear camera (it's not quite level but Oh well...) and the LEDs are really bright. I may have to tone them down a bit (quick way is with a dark filter, more permanent is with some series R). There was plenty of cable and I ended up coiling it in the the rear compartment under the seat. I put the DVR in there too because the spot on top of the ABS valves was already taken up with a McCruise controller.

I am not too worried about be able to see the DVR indicator lights. If I really needed to know something I can use the app to check it out on my phone. The one biggest pain is that the bike has to be on for the app to work. So, if I want to leave the DVR in place but download a video, I have to turn the ignition on. But at least it's fairly dry and tamper-proof.

Anyway, it's all up and running and so far so good!

Cheers!

 

[Grimmer]

… Anyway, I have attached a few photos of the camera installation. I didn't want them to be too obvious so I mounted the front camera under the beak and rear camera in the license plate light housing.

I also took a crack at mounting the K2 system.

I put the front camera on top of the beak. I was a little worried about vibrations and video ripping; however, it turned out that the beak mount has less ripping BY FAR than the rear camera in its current position. I also wanted the cameras to be as obscure as possible, but I was more concerned about the significant amount of debris and grime that hits the front of the bike under the beak. I washed my bike not too long ago and the amount of crap already collected on every surface below the beak gave me pause. However, the bottom corner of the headlamp had significantly less crap stuck to it, so I opted to mount it on top of the beak. I hoping that the angle of the beak and tendency for wind to go up and over, plus the headlamp pushes some air and might provide a little buffer zone, may protect the camera from collecting as much bugs and grime. Only time will tell. I took the plunge and just drilled a hole right through the beak. Running the cable over the lip and through the vent slot started out as a temporary way to test the installation before committing, but ultimately I didn't want to drill another hole (especially one big enough to pass the entire connector) in the beak and it seems to work well enough.

I mounted the rear camera to the bolt that braces the Givi Monokey plate to the frame. I had high expectations for this location; however, the video ripping is extreme. I will have to redo this mount. I suspect that since the camera's weight is mounted at the end of the provided mounting "L"-bracket, it just vibrates too much. I will have to either reinforce the bracket with some corner bracing for rigidity, 3D print some other style of mounting bracket, or move it to another location all together (perhaps the rear tip of the bike's frame is inherently too buzzy). I also thought about mounting a bar between those two givi plate bolts and mounting the camera directly it. This would eliminate the lever arm of the "L"-bracket and provide better options for mounting the camera on rubber. However, the space right there is very limited.

As for the GPS antenna, I mounted that on the top of the clutch master cylinder reservoir cap... clear view of the sky and mostly parallel to the ground. Hopefully the tape they provided will hold up better than the tape that came with my Oxford grips, which failed in a few days of summer heat. If so, the black silicone glue will probably solve the GPS problem as well as it did for the grip controller.

The power cube and the DVR unit were installed into the compartment under the seat, which is getting pretty crowded. The front camera cable and the GPS antenna cable were routed down the right side of the bike under the tank and zip tied to the existing wiring harness. The GPS antenna lead was barely long enough to make it all the way back.

If you read the forums on the Innovv K2 website, you will find a conversation about the power cube being designed to supply power to the DVR when the bike is off so that it can record shock sensitive "Park" videos. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and many DashCam's include this feature; however, the DVR while sitting around waiting to record park videos consumes ~45mAh. Since the bike comes with a smallish ~14Ah battery, there is significant concern with draining down the battery to where it will no longer start the bike. Some posters on that forum reported loss of starting within a few days of being parked (different model bike? sketchy battery?). As a safety feature, the power cube will cut power to the DVR if the system's voltage drops below 12.0V. To get around this my thought and also suggested by one of the posters on the Innovv forum is to include a diode in the circuit to drop the voltage 0.5V or so. This effectively tricks the power cube into thinking that the system's voltage is too low all the time and therefore after the ignition off timeout, the power to the DVR is cut off. The parasitic draw with the DVR off is about 8mAh, not perfect but much improved. If anyone decides to install the diode, beware that park mode recording will be disabled and no recordings will occur when the bike's ignition is turned off.

My concern with not being able to see the DVR indicator lights stems more from the possibility that there is an error, glitch, or anything wrong that prevents the system from recording as it should. Without visibility of the indicator lights, I would never know if it quit or failed to start recording. Then when I go to pull evidence from the DVR...there may be nothing there. I've been toying with the idea of setting up a fiber optic filament or something to transmit the "I'm recording" blink up to where I can see it. Perhaps the system can win my trust with an excellent show of reliability and the indicator won't be needed after all.

One additional note. I originally used the provided tape to hold the DVR still within the under seat compartment. This proved very difficult to remove and replace the micro SD card. Since the GPS antenna cable was barely long enough, my choices for orientation and position of the DVR were limited. Ultimately, I simply removed the tape and let the DVR free roam within the compartment. (It actually can't move very much.) I then positioned the cabling and other things in there to provide some protection from the power button being accidentally pushed. Some may say leave the card alone and just download the videos via WiFi... To them I reply, WiFi is "dial-up" slow compared to the USB 3.0 port on the computer. It is significantly faster to copy directly than to download. Take care when replacing the micro SD card that it goes into the actual card slot and not between the card slot frame and the case of the DVR, ask me how I know and how difficult it is to tweezer the thing back out of there...

Now for the pics:

Edit: remounted the rear camera... Pics of new mount in post below.

 

[Grimmer]

Boris, a question for you...

As you can see from my rear camera picture, the camera mounts that were provided with my K2 are not a single piece as was depicted in the instruction booklet. Were yours?

It seems to me that the ones depicted in the instruction booklet have one less axis of articulation than do the two piece mounts provided with mine.

 

[BorisB]

Hi Grimmer. I routed the front camera cable the same way as you but I routed the GPS cable down the opposite side of the frame. The reason was that I noticed that the GPS cable was seriously shorter than the front camera cable and I was putting the DVR on the left side of the rear compartment. I was able to route it with a a few inches to spare.

I originally tried to put the DVR on the rubber flap that covers the ABS controller but I have the McCruise controller already mounted there and there wasn't room for both of them. So I moved it back to the rear compartment where it barely fits because I already have the McCruise throttle solenoid and the vapor recovery canister (CA) there. But it just fits and the GPS cable just reaches it. The power supply is on the left side of the fuse box and pretty much fits like it was designed for it. I had plenty of cable length for both cameras and ended up coiling both of them. I used a good many tie wraps dressing all the cables.

I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't much vibration on the front camera The video is pretty clear although I can really only read license plates from vehicles directly in front of behind me. Anything over 15 feet away is not very readable. I decided on the under beak mounting because I wanted it to be inconspicuous and I haven't noticed a lot of grunge down there. Most of my riding is on street but I have done some dirt road riding. In California there hasn't been too much mud lately so it's mostly dust that collects. The only place that bugs seem to be bad is in the Central Valley. Driving at sunset on I-5 is guaranteed to get you covered to the point where you can't see out your face shield and your arms start to feel crusty. But along the coast or in the desert bugs aren't much of a problem. The rear camera is pretty clear, too, but there seems to be a little more vibration than on the front. I never had much dirt accumulate on the reflector so I thought it would be a safe place. I also wanted to get it past the tail light so that it wouldn't be too much glare at night.

I attached a photo of the mounting kit that came with the camera. It does look different than yours. There is an L-bracket, a single piece mounting clamp, one long and two short screws (6mmX1.25, I believe), three isolation washers, two round washers, two lock washers, and nut. I have the extra kit because I didn't use it for the rear camera. I used two of the isolation washers on the front mounting which seams to have helped reduce the vibration. The L bracket is the weak part but the other pieces are quite robust. You don't get quite the articulation with this one compared t the one in your photo, and quite frankly, I may have rethought the rear mounting had I had that one. Oh well, it's done now.

 

[gdrew]

On my 2008 Wee I mounted the forward facing camera under the front cowling between it and the fender, offset to the right. The rear camera is mounted under the top box mounting rack. I had to add a 1" square tube spacer to get the camera low enough to clear the rack. The GPS is mounted to the right top side of the cowling not far from the instrument cluster, not exactly flat but seems to work. I decided to put the PVR in a pouch under the seat behind the tool kit. I had the PVR mounted to the handle bars but didn't like that setup, had to work around it to get the keys in and out of the ignition.

Front Camera:

Rear Camera:

Tool Kit:

PVR:

 

[Grimmer]

... I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't much vibration on the front camera The video is pretty clear although I can really only read license plates from vehicles directly in front of behind me. Anything over 15 feet away is not very readable.

I find that the 15 feet to read a license plate is more or less on par with all the 1080p dash cameras I've owned regardless of vibration. Nowadays the 4k are more prevalent, but I haven't owned one to compare. For the most part, if someone makes contact with us, then they should be close enough at some point (before, during, or after) to get a shot of the plate, although not necessarily guaranteed.

How is the vibration in your rear camera mount? I was originally trying to avoid all contact with plastic pieces because of the potential for vibration. Since the front worked out OK, I've considered rather than making the L-bracket more rigid, I could just add support down to the plastic fender piece (the camera almost touches now and even wedging one of those isolation washers between them would work, if I can squeeze it in. If the rear fender plastic buzzes too much, I'll might have to figure out how to mount without the L-bracket. Bolting directly to the camera loop mount with an isolation washer on both sides of the bike portion is probably why the front works so well for me.

 

[BorisB]

On streets both from and rear are pretty smooth, but on the freeway at speed (at least the concrete ones with grooves and junctions) they get a bit bouncy. I can still read the license plates of the cars near me even in adjacent lanes so that's OK for me. It's much better on asphalt. I can't see a lot of difference between front or rear. To be honest, I wouldn't use either for YouTube, But they are good enough for documentation which is what I wanted.

Cheers

 

[gdrew]

The PVR may become the only reliable evidence with respect to a incident. When mine was mounted on the bar between me and the ignition, I actually hated it there, and in a severe crash it could fling off the bike and be lost. I decided to put the PVR under the seat behind the too kit and will just have to hope that its recording properly every time I start the bike. If something happens and I survive, I'm just going to pull the card and hope that it captured what happened. I will check on it from time to time to ensure its doing what its supposed to do.

 

[Grimmer]

The PVR may become the only reliable evidence with respect to a incident. When mine was mounted on the bar between me and the ignition, I actually hated it there, and in a severe crash it could fling off the bike and be lost. I decided to put the PVR under the seat behind the too kit and will just have to hope that its recording properly every time I start the bike. If something happens and I survive, I'm just going to pull the card and hope that it captured what happened. I will check on it from time to time to ensure its doing what its supposed to do.

Don't forget that memory cards are consumables with regard to surveillance applications. Formatting them from time to time will help keep the file system squared away and they will need to be replaced every once in a while. How often? Depends on the card and how many times they are overwritten. Many of the higher end cards intended for use in continuous recording applications will offer a "marketing spec" for how many times they can be written, then you just need an estimate of how much data is recorded by your camera system per minute. (many times this can be found in the camera's manual.)

For example (with lots of assumptions), if your camera records 80 MB / minute / camera and your card is 32 GB... It can record roughly 200 minutes before it has to overwrite the first video pair. So about every 3 hours of recording will count as 1 write cycle. How many write cycles does the card manufacture claim it will last? And on the same camera system with the same brand and series card but double the capacity (64 GB), it will overwrite half as much and potentially last twice as long.

 

[gdrew]

Don't forget that memory cards are consumables with regard to surveillance applications. Formatting them from time to time will help keep the file system squared away and they will need to be replaced every once in a while. How often? Depends on the card and how many times they are overwritten. Many of the higher end cards intended for use in continuous recording applications will offer a "marketing spec" for how many times they can be written, then you just need an estimate of how much data is recorded by your camera system per minute. (many times this can be found in the camera's manual.)

For example (with lots of assumptions), if your camera records 80 MB / minute / camera and your card is 32 GB... It can record roughly 200 minutes before it has to overwrite the first video pair. So about every 3 hours of recording will count as 1 write cycle. How many write cycles does the card manufacture claim it will last? And on the same camera system with the same brand and series card but double the capacity (64 GB), it will overwrite half as much and potentially last twice as long.

Yes, good points on the card life and formatting. My son told me brands to avoid getting and I don't mind paying a little extra and swapping them out from time to time.

Thanks!

 

[Grimmer]

Yes, good points on the card life and formatting. My son told me brands to avoid getting and I don't mind paying a little extra and swapping them out from time to time.

Thanks!

Poke around on the dash cam websites and you can find more details about the memory technologies used and which will survive multiple writes better. Unfortunately, many SD card manufacturers aren't forthcoming about which technology they use in which series of cards. Others are starting to clue in on the savvy consumer and the rise in action camera and surveillance applications and are starting to push their products and marketing in the right direction.

I don't think they will need close attention, but can't be completely forgotten. With a fairly large card and my average traveling speed. I might consider reviewing the files and reformatting the card with every oil change. Not sure about replacement interval. I'm not using the specific card that made this claim, but if I recall correctly one of the premium options was claiming 6000 hours of recording without failing. I figure that the best I can do for now is to use a larger card so it doesn't overwrite as much and keep an eye on it within my motorcycle maintenance regime.

One other thing that I thought was odd... I have a dash cam in my cage that seems to want me to reformat it based on the passage of calendar time rather than anything meaningful. Every few weeks it is crying for a format of the card when most likely it hasn't even looped more than once. Perhaps when it formats, it reallocates the dedicated space for continuous recording to another section of transistors on the SD card. I thought for sure it would do some sort of long format where it verifies integrity of the memory so it could inform me of imminent failure, but since it reformats in less that 2 seconds... it must be simply wiping the file allocation table. I wonder if there is a firmware update for that unit that uses a more intelligent algorithm for routing formatting...

 

[DesertBike]

On my 2008...

Thanks so much for posting this. I have a K7 and have been looking at the Innovv K2 system for it.

Overall how do you like the system so far?