Overlook Cache
A Raspberry Pi that takes the place of your Rivian’s USB drive. The car records Gear Guard, incidents and saved clips to it as usual, and whenever the Cache is on your Wi-Fi it backs them up to your Overlook cloud by itself, before the car can overwrite them. Away from Wi-Fi, the Overlook app plays footage straight from the Cache.
Put it on a microSD card
Pick your board, then let Raspberry Pi Imager (free, from the makers of the Pi) write the card. Don’t have it? Download Raspberry Pi Imager for Mac, Windows or Linux first.
1 Which Raspberry Pi?
Not sure? It’s printed on the board. A Zero 2 W has a square silver chip in the middle; the original Zero W a black one.
2 Write the card
- Put the microSD card in your computer.
- Open in Raspberry Pi Imager
- Imager asks to switch to a custom repository: choose Switch.
- Choose your board → Overlook Cache → your SD card → Write. Imager checks the card and ejects it when it’s done.
Nothing opened? Install Raspberry Pi Imager (version 2 or newer) and click the button again. Or download the Overlook list for Imager and double-click it.
Pick a board above.
Then write it with Imager (Choose OS → Use custom) or balenaEtcher. In Chrome and Edge it’s checked as it saves.
3 Then
Put the card in the Pi and power it up, then set it up from your phone or computer (below).
What you need
| Board | Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (small, low power), or a Pi 4 or Pi 5 (faster uploads). The original Pi Zero W works too, slowly, with its own image. |
|---|---|
| microSD card | 128–256 GB, high endurance (made for dashcams). About three quarters becomes the car’s drive. |
| Cable | Zero 2 W or Zero W: a USB-C to micro-USB data cable into the port marked USB. Pi 4/5: a USB-C to USB-C data cable. |
| Plan | Overlook Plus for the cloud backups. The Cache software is free. |
As an Amazon Associate, Overlook earns from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t change the price you pay.
Set it up
- Put the image on the microSD card (above). Imager goes straight to writing: Wi-Fi and the rest are set up from your phone in step 3.
- Power it up with any USB charger. The first start takes a few minutes while it prepares the car’s drive.
- Set it up from your phone or computer within 30 minutes: open your account → Overlook Cache → Set up a Cache nearby. Pick the Cache, choose your Wi-Fi, done. This works in the Overlook app, and in Chrome or Edge on Android, Mac and Windows. (Missed the window? Unplug it and plug it back in.)
- Plug it into your Rivian, in the USB port you record Gear Guard to. If the car offers to format the drive, let it.
No Bluetooth handy? Before step 2, copy overlook-box.example.txt on the card to overlook-box.txt and fill in your Wi-Fi. Then link the Cache with the code on its status page (http://overlook-box.local) or by running sudo overlook-box pair over SSH.
Already running Raspberry Pi OS?
Install on top of Raspberry Pi OS Lite (Bookworm or later, 64-bit):
curl -fsSL https://overlookcam.app/pi-cache/install.sh | sudo bashQuestions
Does it slow the car down or miss recordings?
No. The car writes to the Cache like any drive. The Cache only reads from instant snapshots, never from the drive the car is using.
What gets uploaded?
Gear Guard events, incidents and saved clips, unless you change it on your account page. Drive recordings can be turned on too (about 4 GB an hour). Uploads count toward your Plus storage, and you get the usual notification when something new is backed up.
Is it secure?
Setup over Bluetooth is encrypted and only open for a short time after the Cache powers on. The Cache gets its own key that can only back recordings up: it can’t read your library, share anything or change your account. Remove it on your account page and it stops working at once.