In-car video on the cheap

[Floosy]

So I was reading a thread the other day where someone posted some video clips from their in car video (a Roadhawk). I decided to check out the website as I fancied one myself for my personal car as its always interesting to review your drives and see what you could have done different/better. I was slightly taken aback to discover these things cost £200 for what is basically a digital camcorder with a fixed lens and some circuitry to record gps etc. So I got me to some thinking and decided to see if I could do one cheaper. And I have....

First I got myself a cheap PAYG Android phone with a reasonable camera - in this case a Samsung Galaxy Europa for £39 which came with a 1GB SD Card and a 3 PAYG sim with unlimited data on it. This is a £5 top up per month for unlimited data if I want to keep the mapping going although this isnt strictly needed, and using google maps cacheing feature you could download all the UK areas and then let the top up expire. (To test this I removed the SIM and the recording funtions all still worked fine). I then purchased and downloaded the Torque app from the Android Market for £2 and the free Track Recorder add on (I already have a generic OBD2 bluetooth dongle I bought a while back for a tenner which works fine), stuck the whole lot in a £5 stick-on-the-window-with-a-sucker generic phone holder (making sure the camera lens was able to see passed the holder) and hey presto! A perfectly serviceable in car video recorder with GPS/speed/rev/etc and map overlays able to record continously for several hours for under 50 quid. Tried it on the way home from work tonite and it worked like a charm. I'll post some video from it at some point.

So basically I was wondering if anyone else had tried this and what results they had got.

[Floosy]

Sample Video (Its pretty dull and excuse the chatting over it ...my daughter likes to talk but it gives an idea of how it works )

Please note its also compressed for upload to flickr, the original is VGA quality and looks far better. This is just to show the idea.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48115506@N00/69186521...

Edited by Floosy on Tuesday 21st February 22:39

Edited by Floosy on Tuesday 21st February 23:02

[rottie102]

Floosy said:

Sample Video (Excuse the chatting over it ...my daughter likes to talk )

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48115506@N00/69186521...

Flickr said:

This video is private.

Oops! You don't have permission to view this video.

[Floosy]

rottie102 said:

oops. Try again

[TheInternet]

Floosy said:

I got myself a cheap PAYG Android phone with a reasonable camera - in this case a Samsung Galaxy Europa

It's a good idea, and I appreciate it's on a budget, but that's quite some way short of a reasonable camera in my book.

You might also like to try aLapRecorder.

[Floosy]

TheInternet said:

It's a good idea, and I appreciate it's on a budget, but that's quite some way short of a reasonable camera in my book.

You might also like to try aLapRecorder.

Sorry the video was compressed down to make it small for upload to flickr...the original is VGA quality

You could use a phone with a better camera but the idea was to make an incar recorder with GPS/Speed/OBD and map overlays for as little as poss. Its good enough for reviewing your driving or even to "witness" what goes on infront of you as is though.

I looked at that app but havent had a play with it yet.

[Hoofy]

Quite clever. Should catch out those whiplash con artists.

[thebullettrain]

What car is it? It's seems to accelerate rather well!

[Floosy]

thebullettrain said:

What car is it? It's seems to accelerate rather well!

Cheers... it's a Seat Exeo 2.0TSI re-mapped to 265bhp. I wasnt actually giving it many beans there as my daughter was in the car, but on a dry road it'll do 0-60 in 5.5ish

[TheInternet]

Floosy said:

You could use a phone with a better camera but the idea was to make an incar recorder with GPS/Speed/OBD and map overlays for as little as poss.

You can't complain for the money, but if it were me I'd have gone for something a little better second hand. The one you have seems to be limited to 320x240 with nothing really in focus and dodgy framerate, it's all a bit 2005.

Floosy said:

it's a Seat Exeo 2.0TSI re-mapped to 265bhp... it'll do 0-60 in 5.5ish

You can get another app to check that too. I used one once, it said my car was old, slow, noisy, revolting etc.

[Bullett]

I found a Roadhawk type app in the android store. Can't recall the name right now and as a recorder/gps/speed monitor it worked ok. Recorded constantly and you could then tell it to keep the last x minutes if something occured.
The biggest issue I found was power, with the screen, camera and gps running it was draining power faster than it could charge. Not much cop when I wanted to use it as a phone at the end of my journey. Now this could have been my cheap aftermarket charger or the fact the Desire is thirsty but it made the whole escapade a bit pointless.

Edit - Daily Roads Voyager was the app.

Edited by Bullett on Wednesday 22 February 00:55

[Floosy]

Bullett said:

I found a Roadhawk type app in the android store. Can't recall the name right now and as a recorder/gps/speed monitor it worked ok. Recorded constantly and you could then tell it to keep the last x minutes if something occured.
The biggest issue I found was power, with the screen, camera and gps running it was draining power faster than it could charge. Not much cop when I wanted to use it as a phone at the end of my journey. Now this could have been my cheap aftermarket charger or the fact the Desire is thirsty but it made the whole escapade a bit pointless.

Edit - Daily Roads Voyager was the app.

Edited by Bullett on Wednesday 22 February 00:55

Tried that app today and it's pretty good. Records in HD too at 30fps with android 2.3. The power on the phone seems fine and has so far managed 2 hours of recording with screen on ands is only at 80% charge without power connected but with smaller lower res screen and lower spec phone it will consume less. Incidentally your power issue was probably because you were using a 500mA charger which isn't enough to charge the desire with screen on.

I'll post up an hd video off it at some point, but all in all it's shaping up quite well.

[Floosy]

TheInternet said:

Floosy said:

You could use a phone with a better camera but the idea was to make an incar recorder with GPS/Speed/OBD and map overlays for as little as poss.

You can't complain for the money, but if it were me I'd have gone for something a little better second hand. The one you have seems to be limited to 320x240 with nothing really in focus and dodgy framerate, it's all a bit 2005.

Floosy said:

it's a Seat Exeo 2.0TSI re-mapped to 265bhp... it'll do 0-60 in 5.5ish

You can get another app to check that too. I used one once, it said my car was old, slow, noisy, revolting etc.

The 320x240 was because it was converted and compressed for upload as was the frame rate, the original was 640x480. I've now got it recording in full hd thanks to android 2.3, and it is much better.


I'll probably skip that as 0-60 times don't really float my boat.

[Bullett]

You are probably right about the charger, it was only for emergencies.

[AcidReflux]

Floosy said:

it's a Seat Exeo 2.0TSI re-mapped to 265bhp

*wanders off to the classifieds*

[GC8]

I use DailyRoads Voyager.

[Floosy]

GC8 said:

I use DailyRoads Voyager.

Yes that seems to work very well. It certainly gives as good a functionality as road hawk and the cheap droid phones are more than capable of decent video now

[GC8]

Floosy said:

...First I got myself a cheap PAYG Android phone with a reasonable camera - in this case a Samsung Galaxy Europa for £39 which came with a 1GB SD Card and a 3 PAYG sim with unlimited data on it. This is a £5 top up per month for unlimited data if I want to keep the mapping going...

Do you have a link for the vendor please? Ive been looking to do this usung a separate dedicated phone, as opposed to my personal phone.

[Floosy]

GC8 said:

Do you have a link for the vendor please? Ive been looking to do this usung a separate dedicated phone, as opposed to my personal phone.

Car phone warehouse. They have it on payg for 39.99.

It's the setup I'm now using...normal phone in cradle bluetoothed to in car audio as a phone and this stuck to the windscreen running daily voyager. Works a treat.

[Pints]

If we're talking cheap in-car footage, what's wrong with a helmet camera fitted to see out the windscreen?

Granted, it won't track speed, etc. but surely the important thing is recording the actions of the driver or incident in front of you. You'll forgive the possible naivity of my assumption, but would that not be sufficient if you're needing to do it on the very-cheap?