Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[Martin (Admin)]

 
Dashcams anyone?

I've been mucking about with Dashcams recently, anyone else got one?
Which one did you buy / use?

I've been following Matt of Techmoan on Utube - https://youtu.be/5YKlaJL8If4
He does a lot of Dashcam reviews ( and other technical gizmos and retro HiFi ), all very interesting!

Anyway bought one, the G1W from ebay, turned out to be a fake. I settled for a 80% refund and not bother return it.
It works OK but it's not very good.

Then bought a A118C, an excellent design, discrete and easily removeable. This was the one I really wanted to work as the feature was excellent but again mine was a fake,  quite a good fake but a fake nonetheless.  Day video was OK but night video was terrible. It died totally after a week. Full Amazon refund. Couldn't find a genuine A118C as a replacement.

.... so now have a  Transcend Drivepro 100, so far so good.  A much better built device that the other two.

Most of the mounts for these dashcams are horrendously under designed usually involving a sucker mount, most of which are bigger that the Dashcam itself! With that I mind I've been fooling around with various different mounts and ideas and I think I come up with an idea that seems to work well, well for me anyway!  I'll post deatils if anyone's interested.


G1W Dashcam



A118C



Transcend Drivepro 100

[tigertiger]

I have one with a sucker mount. My glass was 3m film covered (heat reflection and slight tint), and so the sucker does not go direct to the glass. I have to say that it has only fallen off once each year, and then only on extremely hot days. Then just a case of wiping the screen clean of dust, then licking the sucker and re-mounting.


If I was going for one now, I would get one that you can replay on the dash cam (no need to take out the SD card and insert it into a computer. Only because in China most issues are finalized at the road side when it comes to blame and compensation, and so having the footage to show to a cop is useful.


Thinking about avoiding fakes. You can sometimes get a better price from Halford's website than you can from the store.


On that subject. That is how my brother used to buy tires. But on line and then drive to the Halford's center for fitting. They could not offer the same low prices in store. This may still be the case.

[C-3PO]

Ocado delivery vans are fitted with these - not sure which brand/model but presumably they went through evaluation loop using them with their commercial fleet - I will ask the driver what make/model next time I have a delivery
C-3PO

[Tug Fanatic]

Dashcams anyone?

..........................

Most of the mounts for these dashcams are horrendously under designed usually involving a sucker mount, most of which are bigger that the Dashcam itself! With that I mind I've been fooling around with various different mounts and ideas and I think I come up with an idea that seems to work well, well for me anyway!  I'll post deatils if anyone's interested................

Yes please particularly if it won't result in a mot fail for obscured vision and doesn't attract the attention of local low life.

The other problem that I can see is hiding the wiring.

[dougal99]

Why is it called a Dash Cam when they all seem to be mounted on the screen. I looked at them before doing Route 66 but I wanted one that mounted on the dashboard itself - no luck.


As an relevant aside I recently read that they must be mounted outside the wiper area eg top left windscreen. Anybody have authoritative information?

[Tug Fanatic]

..........................As an relevant aside I recently read that they must be mounted outside the wiper area eg top left windscreen. Anybody have authoritative information?

If that is true they won't capture much if it is raining or your windscreen is as clean as mine most of the time

[Liverbudgie2]

I have one sold by Maplins. it worked reasonably well however, three weeks outside the guarantee the mount broke and they refused to do anything about it. That being the case does anybody know where a replacement mounting could be obtained?

The chap in the shop also told me that it was a common fault.

The camera still works so, in future should I obtain another example, I shall mount the old one on the back screen as well.

LB

[Jerry C]

I've just got one for £30 from Aldi. I put it on the top of the screen behind the rear view mirror where I can't see it. The mirror is regarded by law as a "driving aid which may obscure vision. The dash am is not regarded as such so must not obscure vision. Putting the cam behind the mirror means it looks through a swept area. So far it seems a good little camera. Fit and forget. If involved in a collision it automatically saves and locks the previous 10 minutes recorded.
Jerry.

[Andyn]

The other problem that I can see is hiding the wiring.

Mine is right next to my rear view mirror (passenger side, I found it distracting on the driver's side), I routed the cable up behind the mirror to the sun visor, across the top and over to the door seal, then right the way round the door seal to under the passenger seat, then up to the socket. I plan to move it to the secondary socket in the boot. Very tidy install you won't notice unless you're looking for it.

[Andyn]

A photo from below, you can't see it whilst sitting normally

[grendel]

I bought 2 really cheap (£10.99 each) and have one mounted front behind the mirror, and rear (in the corner of the rear screen. I use a USB power pack for the rear one, the front runs off the cigarette lighter socket - they do have inbuilt batteries, but these are only good for about an hour.
Quality isny great, but its good enough to read a number plate and show what happened.
when I nearly sideswiped a taxi in the bus lane while turning left, the rear camera showed him racing down the inside after pulling into the bus lane from 2 cars behind (there was only about 300m of bus lane before my turning, and I was doing 30mph (on the speed limit), so if I had hit him it would have proved he was speeding and undertaking at the time.
Grendel

[TheLongBuild]

I have one sold by Maplins. it worked reasonably well however, three weeks outside the guarantee the mount broke and they refused to do anything about it. That being the case does anybody know where a replacement mounting could be obtained?

The chap in the shop also told me that it was a common fault.

The camera still works so, in future should I obtain another example, I shall mount the old one on the back screen as well.

LB

If the guy in the shop advised you that it was a common fault, then I would have thought that you would have grounds to get a replacement as it has not lasted a reasonable amount of time. I had an issue with my Fuji Camera and found out that this was to a common fault acknowledged by Fuji and after a few emails with links , and proof that they had replaced others F.O.C they repaired mine as well.. Saving £ 80.00 for a repair. 

[TheLongBuild]

I bought 2 really cheap (£10.99 each) and have one mounted front behind the mirror, and rear (in the corner of the rear screen. I use a USB power pack for the rear one, the front runs off the cigarette lighter socket - they do have inbuilt batteries, but these are only good for about an hour.
Quality isny great, but its good enough to read a number plate and show what happened.
when I nearly sideswiped a taxi in the bus lane while turning left, the rear camera showed him racing down the inside after pulling into the bus lane from 2 cars behind (there was only about 300m of bus lane before my turning, and I was doing 30mph (on the speed limit), so if I had hit him it would have proved he was speeding and undertaking at the time.
Grendel

Could you actually prove you were only doing 30 if an accident had occurred ?. I would have thought the best place for a camera is where it can also video speed etc, although not sure how you could mount it there without it being a pain.

[grendel]

No, I couldnt prove my speed, but considering the length of that bus lane I am sure his could have been calculated, by the time between 2 fixed points easily measured on google earth.

[grendel]

and the fact he easily undertook 2 cars in 300m to get up alongside me.

[TheLongBuild]

and the fact he easily undertook 2 cars in 300m to get up alongside me.

Yes, But again your word against theirs, hence why I think the camera's should pick up your speed display.   

[Netleyned]

Don't think I would have been doing 30 if I was about to turn left 


Ned

[GAZOU]

for my motor home I bought in a supermarket on special offer a system which records everything with an integrated GPS(GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM):
Exact place, speed, embellishes with images on 180 °
It in the dimension(size) of a credit card, a thickness 1cm. Practically invisible in front of the rear-view mirror.
I had an accident in Glasgow, the woman phoned while driving.
When the woman went out of her car she told me: my husband is police ....................
Gazou in the bottom ...........
The police arrives, Gazou always in the bottom .............
Gazou tells a policeman: look there, there is a black box(flight recorder) which records everything and which sends the image to my computer at my home(with me) (it is not true, LOL) the police changes behaviour but Gazou always in ......
I gave the SHDC card to my insurance(assurance) and gazou in ....... that goes
The black box(flight recorder), in case of shock, still registers(records) 2mn after the shock and the  SHDC  card becomes inviolable. We were able to see (fleetingly) the woman by the telephone .
I would have wanted another black box(flight recorder) for my car but I have never found

[essex2visuvesi]

Something to bear in mind.... When sending video footage to the police/insurance companies, only send the footage relvant to the incident. A colleague of mine has just received a court summons for jumping a red light.  Footage of which was on the SD card that he sent to the police for an unrelated matter.

[Martin (Admin)]

A colleague of mine has just received a court summons for jumping a red light.

Opps! 

[GAZOU]

I cannot send that the sequence, I am obliged to send all the card.

The card is locked and inviolable to avoid scheming.

The card (32Mo ) is lost for me but I got back my pledge ( 2000 euros)

[Tug Fanatic]

Something to bear in mind.... When sending video footage to the police/insurance companies, only send the footage relvant to the incident. A colleague of mine has just received a court summons for jumping a red light.  Footage of which was on the SD card that he sent to the police for an unrelated matter.

& watch out if you were doing 31mph in a 30 limit and that is recorded on the tape

You can edit a recording to send only the bit that is relevant. Any video editing package will do that. Download card to your computer. Get rid of unwanted bits in an editing programme and save the bit you want to save to another SD card which you send to your insurance company &/or the police stating that it is a copy that you are sending. Do not cut or change the immediate sequence before/ during/ after the accident. Keep the original card!

[Netleyned]

Where do you buy these video Tapes
If you can edit yours, so can the other guy/gal
If they have a tape also


Ned

[TheLongBuild]

Where do you buy these video Tapes
If you can edit yours, so can the other guy/gal
If they have a tape also


Ned

Special Digital Video tapes, When we digitally record stuff on the TEVO we say Video Tape, bit stupid saying could you digitally record the programme , suppose you could say just to Record the programme , but where is the fun in that.
Same as 3d printing , just words..

[Tug Fanatic]

Netleyned

I am not saying that you should change the sequence that related to the accident but merely that you can get rid of the previous 50 minutes (or whatever) that is not relevant (& which might show you jumping a red light 30 minutes before). The other party in the accident can do the same & yes you will get two different views of the accident but they should both show the same person to be at fault. An unedited clip that shows say the 2 minutes before the accident + the accident should surely be enough. What would the 48 minutes (or whatever) before that prove?