Dash Cam Thread
 

The purpose of this thread is all things Dash Cam. Cam selection, installation, use, software and of course questions.

Dash cams are becoming quite popular and handy. They are commonly used to document accidents for insurance (and legal) purposes. They are also used to share amazing and weird and stupid stuff other drivers do. In addition, I use mine to document wonderful roads, scenic adventures, strange weather and stuff I happen across while driving.

For everything you'd ever want to know about dash cams (and more) the site on the web is Dash Cam Talk where you'll find helpful forums, comparisons, reviews and tons more.

When I decided to put in a dash cam in my car for all the above reasons, I selected the pretty standard G1W

https://dashcamtalk.com/wp-content/u...W-Dash-Cam.jpg

This was a fine little unit that performed extremely well and was quite cheap. Unfortunately the thing quit working and I replaced it with a newer unit, not available at the time, the B40/A118. Like the G1W, this is a Chinese generic type unit, but made with a quality CMOS and video chip, the two most important things in a digital camera.

https://dashcamtalk.com/wp-content/u...014/06/B40.jpg

This replacement unit has essentially the same internal components but has a dramatically better form factor - more steady (no suction cup mount), an easier to adjust lens and more stealthy.

Here's mine mounted in the car.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1437273481

As you can see it's pretty stealthy. Normally in sunlight conditions it blends into the rear view mirror and is essentially invisible. From the drivers perspective, it's completely invisible as well hiding behind the mirror.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1437273551

I chose to do a completely hidden and hands free installation. I opened the cigarette lighter adapter, fished out the positive and negative wires, closed it up again and then wired it into switched power. The power adapter is secured behind the dash and the extra long USB cable snakes up behind the A-pillar, across the trim valance and exits at the seam between the two pieces. There's just enough pigtail to plug in the cam with almost no excess.

A 32mb microSD card gives about 5 hours at 1080p 30fps. Around town I leave one card in all the time as it just overwrites the oldest file automatically. On my trips I rotate 4 microSD cards (mostly because my laptop is so slow it takes forever) and copy off wanted videos to an external USB hard drive.

Very nice. I have a cam mounted right under my front license plate and one mounted in the back. I have the in-dash a/v switcher to toggle between the 2 and a 7 in monitor in dash, but I'm lacking the ability to record with these cameras. I need to purchase new ones, but the system I have them connected to is amazing and I can probably get a 1 tb hard drive on there for days of recording.

My camera
 

I have one of the older cameras mounted in front of the rear view mirror with the power connection in the dome light, since the sunroof switch gets switched power. I also get about 5 hours of recording on a 32 GB card.

Jeremy

http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/n...psa43ca419.jpg

Software
 

Once you've got your prized video in raw form, it's time to process it and turn it into a work of art (read minimally acceptable video that's not embarrassing). There are tons of different options that will vary with computer platform, quality required, investment dollars available and on and on.

The goal is to define a repeatable work flow that will allow videos to be processed quickly and posted for others to enjoy.

My primary tools are DATAKAM - registrator player. This is a free utility that has the ability to join individual segments, delete overlap (most dashcams add a 1 second buffer to each segment to ensure no dropped frames) and integrate GPS data if desired. If I'm doing to work on a long segment I'll pre-process the segments with registrator player to end up with one long file with everything I want to work on.

My primary editor is Microsoft Movie Maker. It's chief benefit is, it's free and has a basic set of tools that can get me by. I used to work in Adobe Premiere, but can no longer afford it. I've also used an old version of Ulead and also Pinnacle. There is no right answer, just what you can make work for you....and afford...and works on your platform.

This is a topic that could take it's own forum, so that's about it to get things started and headed in a decent direction.

Are the still photos you post in the threads still from the dashcam recording or a separate digital camera? Just trying to get an idea on image quality

Though are very crisp pictures you post

The road trip images are all hand held digital camera images. I'll post some frame grabs to show quality...it's really pretty amazing how good they are.

In about a month, I am going to start building my own dashcam. I originally posted a thread on Dashcamtalk with what I am looking for, followed by a few manufacturers saying that my view was a minority and then several other people chiming in saying they are looking for the same thing.

In my present view, the makers of these proprietary dashcams are offering very little extra value over what it is possible to make oneself. Many of them use open source software but proprietary components. For someone who understands how to build the components themselves and use the same or similar software, one has to ask where the value add is?

I am going to be adding a Raspberry pi and embed it somewhere behind the stereo set and then add a USB battery pack that can be turned on (park mode) if I so desire and charged from the alternator while the engine is running. The screen for the Pi will be connected to the video in to a stereo set with a single-pole switch that mimics the signal for the transmission reverse. I will be using a tiny bluetooth keyboard/mouse to control the Pi and will have full WiFi capacity with full software control which means I can sync video with my home network when I return home and a bunch of other stuff easy to do in Linux that seems to elude builders of these devices.

The stereo I am planning to get is a Power Acoustik PD-454B 4.5" screen which is an oversized single DIN unit. I previously had a 7" mechanized stereo and as expected the motor capacity failed in a year. I vowed with the money I spent (it was expensive then) that I would never again buy a unit with a motor. I realize that the text quality won't be the greatest, but I think it will still be readable and I'm not exactly going to be editing documents with it.

I'll post some more info as I continue developing it. There are a bunch of threads out there where people have built these, so it isn't exactly groundbreaking.

Dkr.

My first go at a dash cam set up. I like the idea for road trips but the questionable driving habits of others can be documented, as well.

I am currently using a GoPro which takes outstanding vids but is not necessarily the best choice.

I've got it on a 5 minute loop and hardwired to keep the battery charged....which is kinda good because it will stay running if the car inadvertently shuts down....but then you also need to remember to turn it off!

So for day to day use....probably not a good choice....for road trips / vacations....pretty good....I can remove it from the car with a fully charged battery and film other stuff.....re-install it and drive to the next scenic spot and have a fully charged video camera again.

I actually have Paul on video as I used the big ass suction mount on my trunk lid pointing backwards.

So it's versatile but not necessarily practical for day to day use.

Great info, thanks for posting!

My reasons for the dash cam would be to help prevent insurance fraud and to catch idiot drivers. Thinking a rear camera would be just as useful - on Friday evening I got bumped from behind in my truck! No damage, but the lady sure hauled butt out of there.

Thanks again, I'll be keeping an eye on this, a dash cam definitely got moved up the list.

Here is a sample dashcam frame grab image. I tried to upload full sized but the forum software downsampled 1920 px wide to 800 px wide.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1437356842

Here is a full sized portion of the image showing representative resolution.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1437357142

And here's the video that that frame came from as posted on YouTube -

https://youtu.be/IYLqPoctePc

Notice the greatly reduced quality when posted on YouTube. They really compress it to make it take up reasonable bandwidth.

The real issue on dash cams is capturing license plate numbers. Many of the high-quality cameras are excellent, but still lacking in fully reading plate numbers.

Dkr.

My dash cam will resolve a license plate only if the camera is close (<50 feet?). It also helps if the relative speed is low and if the camera is directly behind the plate. Any other situations greatly reduce the odds. I suspect professional software would improve the video quality but question whether authorities would be willing unless you captured the crime of the century.

It would certainly help in a hit-and-run situation. Once the authorities find the other car in person, you have real forensic damage that can be compared to the dashcam video.

Dkr.

At work I'm using a security DVR to record machine malfunctions, it was a discontinued model from a no name company. The recorder works great, the cameras so so but good enough for what I'm looking for.

The DVR runs on 12 VDC as do the cameras making it a good fit for a car. It uses a mechanical hard drive but a SSD could be installed for reliability / impact resistance. ( In a decent crash I'd expect a mechanical hard drive to be damaged. )

In the first pic of post 10 I'm expecting:

A Russian army tank to come across the road.

A flying cow.

Someone passing on the shoulder then taking a row of trees out.

. . .. .

I'm looking for a new dashcam myself. I've used the Mobius for the longest time on my W123. I'd been meaning to get one for the longest time after a few near misses with jokers overtaking me from the shoulder!!:eek: Never a cop when you need one around.

Ironically, it was a cop who insisted that I blew through a stop sign that was the straw that broke this camel's back! No amount of trying to tell him that I have never ever done that in my life (I'm the kind of guy who signals to enter his own driveway) and he must be mistaken changed him mind. Oh well. Next day, took pictures of the intersection and where he was when he claims he saw me, and found that the lying SOB could not have possibly seen me as there were cars parked there. Anyways, I got a cam soon after, to protect myself from these and other land sharks. :D

Anyways, here are some gems from my cam.

The idiots are so many now that I have run out of time getting my videos out, editing and then uploading them. I edit in Quicktime, free, easy and fast. But like I said, so many bad drivers out there....

Curiously, I've not seen a single instance where a supposedly "distracted" driver was driving dangerously. I drive about 80 km a day, and every single "dangerous" maneuver I've seen is an "impatient" or "aggressive"driver. There's one where the lady just blew through the 4-way stop with me in it....I don't know what to call that. She seems to be angry that I honked her and averted a potential accident.

So about dashcams...does that stealthy one you posted catch as good details as the mobius? The only thing I don't like about the mobius is the cable routing. It has to come from the back, so I've got so ugly wiring going on in my W123.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hovans.autoguard&hl=en

FTW.

Image quality is probably just as good, but the Mobius is not designed as a dash cam. The stock Mobius has an 86 degree lens while the B40/A118 has a 170 degree lens (measured diagonal). So for those situations where you've got someone hitting you from the side, the Mobius will likely miss the important data. There are aux lenses for the Mobius however that can address this potential shortcoming.

Everything is a trade-off - price, stealth form factor, mount, lens, video chip, firmware, software features, channels, and on and on... and things are changing rapidly

Wish I had one today. Went to pick Mr. Benzasaurus up for lunch out front of where he works. Two lanes, no shoulder, just a high curb. A row of cars parked by the curb in the right of the two lanes. I am in that lane. I signal and look behind me. A dark blue Nissan Versa lane splits all the parked cars, me, looking right at the driver, and the row of cars starting to move forward in the left of the two lanes. They lane split a good 10 cars. No one honked. I think we were all just amazed someone could be that stupid.

...So is it hard to install dash cams on a w123?

The videos that you see on my link in the earlier post were all taken with a very small camera called Mobius. It was originally designed as a First Person View (FPV) camera for those who like to fly their model planes / helos like as if they were up in the air.

As mach14 said, it wasn't designed as a dash cam, and thus if someone were to hit you from an extreme side angle, the camera won't record it.

But for a cheap, stick it under the mirror kind of thing, it works. I like the size of the mobius and wish I could find a real dash cam in that size. Just with the power cable plugging in from the top or something so that I could hide the cable better.

Here is a frame grab from my $60 G1WC. I was going 45mph past the stopped black SL waiting to turn right. The LIC place is clearly legible.
https://i.imgur.com/VZTECbD.jpg

Thanks for the info!

I think I'd like to get two per car eventually. In the meanwhile it looks like I've got some research to do in order to figure out what I need in a dash cam. I think wide-angle coverage of the car is most important to me.

I watched a friend get t-boned turning into my driveway a few years ago in her brand new Hyundai sub-compact by a drunk guy in a F-150. She wasn't at fault because he was speeding but according to the insurance company you are always at fault if you are making a left hand turn. They told me that on the phone when they called for my statement before discrediting it because we're friends. A year before that, my boyfriend's colleague was waiting for his wife where they worked. She was t-boned in the intersection a block away by a cop who ran the light. You can guess how that turned out. The city ended up suing them. I guess the best defense is a good offense?

So something that catches people at fault when they t-bone you is something I think I would like in a dash cam.

Jalopnik had a link to a good dash cam on sale yesterday or the day before but it sold out before I got to it. Apparently it had a feature where if the camera sensed a change in g-forces, like heavy brakes or being hit, it would mark that section of recording so it wouldn't be deleted or overwritten. Sounds like a useful feature.

Edited to add: favorite amazon question for this camera: "Does this dvr have russian menu?"

Wow! Now THAT's a pretty neat camera, plus a rear view one as well! As was evidenced in my near-miss with the angry lady at the 4-way stop, if I had one like that, I would've caught her plates, and then caught it again as she went by me. That one got me so mad, I would've taken it to the cop shop and pressed for prosecution. That very same junction last year, a lady rolling her stroller across the road got mowed down by someone not stopping at the 4-way...:mad:

The only thing that bothers me about all these is...a clean installation. I just have no idea how to hide these wires for a clean install. And being a TD, I think I need quite a few more feet of cable to make it to the rear!!!:D

I was just looking at this one too to see what the top of the market is like. It looks like dual cameras have a ways to go so far as angles go. Nothing covers the sides of your car, but I suppose most side collisions are going to be caught on either front or rear (showing you having a green light before being hit in the middle of an intersection, or showing a car speeding up when you start your turn because a person is drunk, or showing someone hitting your parked car and driving off).

At the moment the Lukas one is $280 on amazon. It seems a little high, but then it's about the cost of getting your windows tinted. Which is something I need to do as well since I am refinishing my console wood and need to prevent UV damage. So I dunno. Maybe I'll splurge for the peace of mind. The thing I like about the Lukas one is that it can be hardwired for a parking mode and has a built in feature to not run down the battery beyond a certain voltage.

I'm gonna give it a few days and think about what I want and need in a dash cam setup. But I feel like every time I'm on the road I see someone doing something dangerous or a near-miss accident. So I'm leaning toward the idea of self-defense through documentation.

Dash Cam Thread
 

I run a $60 Chinese dashcam in my rx8. It records in 1080p and has been very reliable with great picture and great sound. Took a bit of figuring out as the entire box and manual was only in Russian...go figure. I'm pretty happy with it, need to get ones for the other cars. I would 100% recommend one, itll be cheaper than any insurance claim.


Sent from an abacus

Sometimes you catch something humorous and ironic on the dash cam that happens so quick you can't get the camera out in time, like this morning...

https://youtu.be/D2gCPvDpVRY

frame grab

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1437848735

My first edited GoPro dash mount video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxoUl5vNbgo

TBO,

Can you tell us what brand and model this camera is? $60 sounds like money well spent.

A great resource is DashCam Talk

Check the forums for user experience and other good info.

yeah I'm in the market as well this year.
what's the best unit on Amazon?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012CKNZC0?keywords=dash%20cam&qid=1448655723&ref_=sr_1_22&s=electronics&sr=1-22
super cheap unit

I'd be interested, too.

Dash Cam Thread
 

http://www.amazon.com/E-PRANCE[emoji768]-L6000F-Novatek-G-sensor-Digital/dp/B00FPHBGY2

This is what I have. No quality issues whatsoever like those mentioned in the reviews. The mount is somewhat flimsy but you get what you pay for. I used that c am for autox and it recently also caught a guy backing into me. I'd shop around a lot more as there are a ton of options but my experience with this one is positive. I purchased in April 2014, and it is still used daily.

I think my one gripe with it is that it will fill up the memory card and then not overwrite anything, it will just beep and you have to reset it (can do at a red light, it takes a few seconds). There might be something in the settings I'm missing with that but it's annoying, have to do every couple weeks with the amount of driving I do.

Sent from an abacus

Thanks!

vBulletin screwed up your link... I assume that this is it?

Yep that's the one. Serves them right for putting a copyright symbol in the URL


Sent from an abacus

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010H0SL9O/ref=ox_sc_mini_detail?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=

This was posted on another forum, thought I'd share it here. Looks about ideal to me.