Here's my notes on this project in case anyone else is considering it...
I owned my Vulcan for about 3km when someone turned across traffic from the turning lane while I was doing 60km\hr in the straight lane (with right of way) and I -almost- plowed into their passenger side door. This reminded me of bike life and how no one seems to be aware of you on busy streets. So with that in mind I decided to install dash cams on my bike so if they find me in a pile in a ditch somewhere the culprit will hopefully be on video.
I did alot of research and opted to go with the Vsysto Q6L found on amazon. Here's some of the specs:
Cost: 219$ CAD (157USD) at the time of writing this thread. I got it on sale for 175$ CAD (126$ USD).
Quality: 1080p
Other: weatherproof, front and rear cameras, no drilling necessary, GPS that embeds your route into the video along with speed, VIBRATION SENSOR that detects when your bike is parked and if any movement happens (with the ignition off) it will power up and record for 30 sec intervals to catch vandals\thieves and people who back into your bike in the walmart parking lot. It also has a G impact detector so if a sudden shock (crash) is registered it will automatically start locking the video being recorded so it isn't over-written by accident. There is an optional wired remote control you can mount, but the unit can be installed to automatically power on and off with the bike so you don't have to remember and don't need the remote. It's an install it and forget it unit.
The install was pretty straight forward. The hardest part was removing the gd seat, Kawasaki really should have put a better lock cylinder connected to the cable that can turn more than 1\1000th of an inch... Pics attached at the end.
Control Box: This is the main processing unit. Install your MicroSD card (it takes a maximum of 256gb Class 10 card) ahead of time. Look at the orientation arrow and don't try to force it in upside down. The vulcan has very little storage room under the seat but I was able to fit the control box under the part of the frame the gas tank bolts down onto.
Power Box: This is a small rectangular box that acts as a relay and power supply for the control unit. It has 1x black wire 1x red wire and 1x yellow wire. I noted the positive (red) wire did NOT come with an inline fuse. You have 3 options here:
1) Cut the positive wire end off, solder\shrink tube an inline glass tube fuse holder, then solder the wire end battery terminal back on after the fuse. I went 10a, you could probably get away with a 5a if needed. This is what chose to do.
2) Find an accessory connector under your seat. Some exist and look like a female blade connector (test it for 12v to be sure). This should be already fused in your fuse box. Splice a male blade end to your positive wire from the control box and connect them.
3) Don't add a fuse and see if your bike burns to the ground one day.
Remove the battery tray top cover (plastic plate the tool roll lives in) so you can get to it. After connecting the negative and fused positive wires to the battery the unit will have power, but won't be turned ON. I then applied the 3m tape to the power box and stuck it on the back of the battery box so it would be out of the way and ran the wires around the box to the top. Connect the color coded power box wire to the control box connector.
NOTE: The yellow wire from the power box is a SENSE wire, it draws virtually 0 current. It's whole job is to detect with 12v appears in the system so it can tell the power box to click it's relay over and supply the control box with power from the battery. To tell that the unit is working you can simply touch this yellow wire to the positive on the battery and after 2sec should hear the control box make a chime and turn on. This wire needs to be connected to an accessory that only receives 12v after the ignition is turned on. I opted to run it up the left side, under the cover for the fuse box. I stripped and treated the wire and because it is so small I was able to run it into the fuse box without making any holes.
Here's the important part: I chose to piggy back it off the horn 12v supply because the horn is rarely used compared to other items and it's not the end of the world if something happened to it (compared to say the ECM). BUT you want this yellow wire to still be fused in the event that it somehow gets rubbed through and touches the frame. So I connected it to the top leg of the horn fuse but your bike may vary. The safest way is to verify with a voltmeter. Pull the fuse and turn the bike ignition to ON. Take your voltmeter and test the top connector in the horn fuse bay to ground, if it shows NO voltage then check the bottom, if the bottom shows voltage then you should use the TOP. That is because the power is entering the fuse bay from the bottom prongs and then traveling across the fuse and exiting through the top prongs. You want the yellow wire to receive it's 12v after the fuse. Once that is securely connected the small yellow wire should fit out the side of the fuse box lid by the clip lock. There is already a tiny bit of space there so this can be done without damaging it. Now when you turn the ignition key to ON after a couple seconds the control box should give out an audio queue that it's on and recording. When the ignition is turned off it will shut the unit off. Test your horn to make sure you didn't mess it up.
Forward Camera: This installed underneath the headlight and it gets a good straight unobstructed view. It installs with the good grey rubber 3m tape that seems indestructible. The mount is secure and the camera is well held. I ran the wire up under the headlight (being careful not to pull it sideways so it doesn't get pinched when turning the bars to full lock. I put 1 zip tie to hold the wire from the camera to the headlight wire so it will stay in the centerline and then ran the wire under the gas tank hump along the other wire backbone zip-tying as needed to prevent it from falling out. It then easily came up from the middle of the gas tank into the under-seat area. It connects to the obviously marked "front camera" cable of the control box.
Rear Camera: Installed on the license plate light, it does stick out a bit if you look down at it, but from behind it's barely noticeable. I wanted to do a full "no drill" install and this met that need. I may change it's position later just for cosmetics. The wire easily goes up above the license plate light, under the fender, and follows the clips along the right side (facing forward) of the fender\frame where the taillight cables are already run. The wire can then poke through the existing wiring hole under the seat in the rear fender and connect to the other camera port on the control box.
GPS (optional): This fits perfectly with 3m tape on top of the left side belt cover (see pic). It needs to face the sky unobstructed and shouldn't be stuck under the seat. The wire easily slipped up and to the control box area.
Vsysto App: There is an app you can install from a QR code in the kit (apple and android). It works just fine, especially for testing that the cameras are orientated the right way. After you install the app here's the trick, you have to disconnect from your home WIFI connection, power up the camera control box and then in the App it will find and connect to the control box like a WIFI router. If you are stuck connected to your house WIFI it won't be able to connect to the control box.
The hardest part of this whole install, other than releasing the seat, was really finding where to safely tuck the wires and fitting the excess in. There's alot of extra wire in the kit, I managed to run it all to under the seat and ziptie\pack it up out of the way, but you could probably find other areas along the chassis to store some of the slack. Because the cameras have a data connection with multiple wires running in them you can't exactly easily snip them and splice them smaller.
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I owned my Vulcan for about 3km when someone turned across traffic from the turning lane while I was doing 60km\hr in the straight lane (with right of way) and I -almost- plowed into their passenger side door. This reminded me of bike life and how no one seems to be aware of you on busy streets. So with that in mind I decided to install dash cams on my bike so if they find me in a pile in a ditch somewhere the culprit will hopefully be on video.
I did alot of research and opted to go with the Vsysto Q6L found on amazon. Here's some of the specs:
Cost: 219$ CAD (157USD) at the time of writing this thread. I got it on sale for 175$ CAD (126$ USD).
Quality: 1080p
Other: weatherproof, front and rear cameras, no drilling necessary, GPS that embeds your route into the video along with speed, VIBRATION SENSOR that detects when your bike is parked and if any movement happens (with the ignition off) it will power up and record for 30 sec intervals to catch vandals\thieves and people who back into your bike in the walmart parking lot. It also has a G impact detector so if a sudden shock (crash) is registered it will automatically start locking the video being recorded so it isn't over-written by accident. There is an optional wired remote control you can mount, but the unit can be installed to automatically power on and off with the bike so you don't have to remember and don't need the remote. It's an install it and forget it unit.
The install was pretty straight forward. The hardest part was removing the gd seat, Kawasaki really should have put a better lock cylinder connected to the cable that can turn more than 1\1000th of an inch... Pics attached at the end.
Control Box: This is the main processing unit. Install your MicroSD card (it takes a maximum of 256gb Class 10 card) ahead of time. Look at the orientation arrow and don't try to force it in upside down. The vulcan has very little storage room under the seat but I was able to fit the control box under the part of the frame the gas tank bolts down onto.
Power Box: This is a small rectangular box that acts as a relay and power supply for the control unit. It has 1x black wire 1x red wire and 1x yellow wire. I noted the positive (red) wire did NOT come with an inline fuse. You have 3 options here:
1) Cut the positive wire end off, solder\shrink tube an inline glass tube fuse holder, then solder the wire end battery terminal back on after the fuse. I went 10a, you could probably get away with a 5a if needed. This is what chose to do.
2) Find an accessory connector under your seat. Some exist and look like a female blade connector (test it for 12v to be sure). This should be already fused in your fuse box. Splice a male blade end to your positive wire from the control box and connect them.
3) Don't add a fuse and see if your bike burns to the ground one day.
Remove the battery tray top cover (plastic plate the tool roll lives in) so you can get to it. After connecting the negative and fused positive wires to the battery the unit will have power, but won't be turned ON. I then applied the 3m tape to the power box and stuck it on the back of the battery box so it would be out of the way and ran the wires around the box to the top. Connect the color coded power box wire to the control box connector.
NOTE: The yellow wire from the power box is a SENSE wire, it draws virtually 0 current. It's whole job is to detect with 12v appears in the system so it can tell the power box to click it's relay over and supply the control box with power from the battery. To tell that the unit is working you can simply touch this yellow wire to the positive on the battery and after 2sec should hear the control box make a chime and turn on. This wire needs to be connected to an accessory that only receives 12v after the ignition is turned on. I opted to run it up the left side, under the cover for the fuse box. I stripped and treated the wire and because it is so small I was able to run it into the fuse box without making any holes.
Here's the important part: I chose to piggy back it off the horn 12v supply because the horn is rarely used compared to other items and it's not the end of the world if something happened to it (compared to say the ECM). BUT you want this yellow wire to still be fused in the event that it somehow gets rubbed through and touches the frame. So I connected it to the top leg of the horn fuse but your bike may vary. The safest way is to verify with a voltmeter. Pull the fuse and turn the bike ignition to ON. Take your voltmeter and test the top connector in the horn fuse bay to ground, if it shows NO voltage then check the bottom, if the bottom shows voltage then you should use the TOP. That is because the power is entering the fuse bay from the bottom prongs and then traveling across the fuse and exiting through the top prongs. You want the yellow wire to receive it's 12v after the fuse. Once that is securely connected the small yellow wire should fit out the side of the fuse box lid by the clip lock. There is already a tiny bit of space there so this can be done without damaging it. Now when you turn the ignition key to ON after a couple seconds the control box should give out an audio queue that it's on and recording. When the ignition is turned off it will shut the unit off. Test your horn to make sure you didn't mess it up.
Forward Camera: This installed underneath the headlight and it gets a good straight unobstructed view. It installs with the good grey rubber 3m tape that seems indestructible. The mount is secure and the camera is well held. I ran the wire up under the headlight (being careful not to pull it sideways so it doesn't get pinched when turning the bars to full lock. I put 1 zip tie to hold the wire from the camera to the headlight wire so it will stay in the centerline and then ran the wire under the gas tank hump along the other wire backbone zip-tying as needed to prevent it from falling out. It then easily came up from the middle of the gas tank into the under-seat area. It connects to the obviously marked "front camera" cable of the control box.
Rear Camera: Installed on the license plate light, it does stick out a bit if you look down at it, but from behind it's barely noticeable. I wanted to do a full "no drill" install and this met that need. I may change it's position later just for cosmetics. The wire easily goes up above the license plate light, under the fender, and follows the clips along the right side (facing forward) of the fender\frame where the taillight cables are already run. The wire can then poke through the existing wiring hole under the seat in the rear fender and connect to the other camera port on the control box.
GPS (optional): This fits perfectly with 3m tape on top of the left side belt cover (see pic). It needs to face the sky unobstructed and shouldn't be stuck under the seat. The wire easily slipped up and to the control box area.
Vsysto App: There is an app you can install from a QR code in the kit (apple and android). It works just fine, especially for testing that the cameras are orientated the right way. After you install the app here's the trick, you have to disconnect from your home WIFI connection, power up the camera control box and then in the App it will find and connect to the control box like a WIFI router. If you are stuck connected to your house WIFI it won't be able to connect to the control box.
The hardest part of this whole install, other than releasing the seat, was really finding where to safely tuck the wires and fitting the excess in. There's alot of extra wire in the kit, I managed to run it all to under the seat and ziptie\pack it up out of the way, but you could probably find other areas along the chassis to store some of the slack. Because the cameras have a data connection with multiple wires running in them you can't exactly easily snip them and splice them smaller.
