Dash Cameras

[chris watton]

Ranger 6 said:

Ranger 6 said:

...have ordered an 0801 from E-Prance on Amazon so will report once it arrives.

Well, it arrived a while ago and has sat in it's box in the kitchen. I finally got round to checking and testing and all is well so far.

One small issue is positioning, it appears I'm going to need to put it at the top of the drivers side and switch the screen off during recording - so my request is post up your location shots please?

I put mine (in my Tamora) to the left of rear view mirror bracket. It seems to be working well - I took a couple of stills from the video from Saturday (following wife...)

[cootuk]

http://youtu.be/MnGqUavJuXo

Mobius cam here, pretty amazing video quality and so easy to use even swmbo uses it.

[garycat]

I had a problem with my 0801 in that the picture had a lot of interference, a pink flickering and noise on the audio.

The problem was that I was using a cheap USB hub to distribute power to the dashcam, phone charger and DAB radio. Changing it for a more expensive quality one sorted that out.

I've also ordered some ferrite cores which should help the interference problems even further as the supplied power cables all seem to have them.

All the memory card now gets filled, and hopefully the stable power supply will sort out the date/time issue.

Edited by garycat on Monday 31st March 16:36

[Censorious]

Must look into these!

[Ranger 6]

chris watton said:

I put mine (in my Tamora) to the left of rear view mirror bracket. It seems to be working well - I took a couple of stills from the video from Saturday (following wife...)

Thanks - my issue is that to the left of the mirror high up it's out of the wiper sweep and lower down it's a bit obvious. To the right of the mirror is just to the top of my eye line so would need tape over the flashing light etc, etc,..... (first world problems.... )

[threadlock]

cootuk said:

http://youtu.be/MnGqUavJuXo

Mobius cam here, pretty amazing video quality and so easy to use even swmbo uses it.

There's no sound on your video, but were you indicating when you turned right?

[threadlock]

Ranger 6 said:

One small issue is positioning, it appears I'm going to need to put it at the top of the drivers side and switch the screen off during recording - so my request is post up your location shots please?

I've got an 0801 and I've stuck the power foot onto the screen exactly in the centre of the screen under the rear view mirror pod in both my cars. If it's off to one side the curve of the screen means the camera points away from centreline. (The effect is small because of the wide-angle of the lens, but still...) In this location the body of the camera is hidden completely behind the mirror body so my screen stays on all the time.

Discovered as I took this picture that it's not actually centred on the screen!



One day I'll hide the charging wire...



The view from the driver's seat:

[therealpigdog]

http://youtu.be/qYkOyUJltQI

The view from mine. Tricksy things these MX5s.

[chris watton]

therealpigdog said:

http://youtu.be/qYkOyUJltQI

The view from mine. Tricksy things these MX5s.

Great vid! Must have some shocking tyres on that MX5 to spin off at such a low speed!

[Ranger 6]

threadlock said:

Ranger 6 said:

One small issue is positioning, it appears I'm going to need to put it at the top of the drivers side and switch the screen off during recording - so my request is post up your location shots please?

I've got an 0801 and I've stuck the power foot onto the screen exactly in the centre of the screen under the rear view mirror pod in both my cars.
The view from the driver's seat:

Thanks - that helps

[cootuk]

threadlock said:

cootuk said:

http://youtu.be/MnGqUavJuXo

Mobius cam here, pretty amazing video quality and so easy to use even swmbo uses it.

There's no sound on your video, but were you indicating when you turned right?

Indicating, yes, but really another car shouldn't take a lack of indication as assuming we arent turning right...a bulb could have blown.

[Censorious]

I've just downloaded 'Daily Roads Voyager" to my phone (android) not used it yet but it looks very good.

Has GPS. Date and time, speed and location and a g-force facility for incidents.

Appears to be simple to use.

Oh, and it was free from Playstore

[Pappagallo]

Here's mine in her indoors' Mazda:

This has been neatly (if I do say so myself) wired in by cutting into the cables that power the auto dimming mirror, with one of these concealed inside the very roomy housing for the rain sensor:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vktech-Car-Charger-Voltage...

Here's a pic of the installation.

[chris watton]

Pappagallo said:

Here's mine in her indoors' Mazda:

This has been neatly (if I do say so myself) wired in by cutting into the cables that power the auto dimming mirror, with one of these concealed inside the very roomy housing for the rain sensor:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vktech-Car-Charger-Voltage...

Here's a pic of the installation.

That is a very neat job!

[Ranger 6]

chris watton said:

Pappagallo said:

Here's mine in her indoors' Mazda:

This has been neatly (if I do say so myself) wired in by cutting into the cables that power the auto dimming mirror, with one of these concealed inside the very roomy housing for the rain sensor:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vktech-Car-Charger-Voltage...

Here's a pic of the installation.

That is a very neat job!

Ohhh Yus <churchilldog>

[smiffy180]

Been talking to a guy who's started his own manufacturing line from the dash cam forum, how do the dashcams look compared to others on sale?
http://www.guardtrak.info/products/

[GrumpyTwig]

smiffy180 said:

Been talking to a guy who's started his own manufacturing line from the dash cam forum, how do the dashcams look compared to others on sale?
http://www.guardtrak.info/products/

They look like a bit of an eyesore :\

[RZ1]

Pappagallo said:

Here's mine in her indoors' Mazda:

This has been neatly (if I do say so myself) wired in by cutting into the cables that power the auto dimming mirror, with one of these concealed inside the very roomy housing for the rain sensor:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vktech-Car-Charger-Voltage...

Here's a pic of the installation.

That does look quite impressive, how did you do it? Will get a pic of mine shortly

[smiffy180]

GrumpyTwig said:

They look like a bit of an eyesore :\

Yes that doesn't bother me. Its more most bang for buck. Having reading from the beginning he was hoping to use good technology to create a camera that is better but cheaper than competition. However I've no idea what to look for

[Pappagallo]

RZ1 said:

That does look quite impressive, how did you do it? Will get a pic of mine shortly

Cheers.

The rain sensor housing came apart quite easily without removing anything else (it's in two halves, with the split running down the centreline of the car if you know what I mean, and just pings apart when you spread the two halves)and there's loads of room inside. All the original wiring is wrapped in flocked insulation. I cut this back to expose the wires that feed the auto dim mirror. There were three cores in there; I cut two of them, stripped a few mm off the ends, used a multimeter to checked that there was 12V across them (only when ignition is on), then used connector strip to connect them back together along with the 12v to 5v adapter in the above link.

I then wrapped it all up in flocked anti squeak tape that I bought on eBay, then fitted the housing back on with the new wire running out of the opening at the top (the original wires run into this opening which is up against the headlining). You can see the flocked tape in the photo as I wound it round most of the cable. It's a bit fiddly working above your head but just needs a bit of patience.

I initially assumed I'd be able to connect it to the interior light module. This all came out very easily but using my meter I found that it was permanently live, regardless of whether the ignition was on.

Also I feel I was lucky with the rain sensor housing. I looked in my 5 Series to see if I could do the same in there, but the rain sensor housing in that is much more compact (and let's face it, much better looking) and at glance I can't see if it would come apart.