Dash Cameras

[vikingaero]

Dash-Cam Man said:

The clubman is a bit of a faff to do for the perfect wire free finish so it's understandable why the above method seems reasonable.

Your picture reminded me of how easy it is to remove the plastic rear panel from the door. I dropped my Clubman off at my mechanic to replace a seized door lock motor and said I'd come back later. He said it was a 5 minute while u wait job if I wanted to wait. It was literally pull and lift up. So I'll give it a go and properly route a cable. Shame you're in Glasgow 400 miles away as I'd get you to do it!

[Dash-Cam Man]

vikingaero said:

Your picture reminded me of how easy it is to remove the plastic rear panel from the door. I dropped my Clubman off at my mechanic to replace a seized door lock motor and said I'd come back later. He said it was a 5 minute while u wait job if I wanted to wait. It was literally pull and lift up. So I'll give it a go and properly route a cable. Shame you're in Glasgow 400 miles away as I'd get you to do it!

The trim is indeed a piece of cake to remove on this one, but that's not what the picture was really highlighting.

My point on this installation being a 'faff' was more around the fact the rear rubber conduit on this vehicle is enclosed on the chassis side, so you have no clean way of running through a cable through the rubber conduit that you see disassembled in our picture and catching it on the other end, without piercing it, which we never do, as it will break the water tight seal these conduits have.

This is where the professional side of an auto spark obviously comes in, as we noticed this vehicle had 4 earths at the rear, something that's completely excessive for the purpose that was required. By utilising one of the earth cables, we used this cable to be our connection, and with some stripping back of the dash camera cable, some polarity testing and some neat soldering skills, we managed to fit a rear dash camera as per my picture in the previous comment.

[Dash-Cam Man]

ashleyman said:

I’ve tried both and the clips do the same thing. It’s definitely happening on the camera / record side rather than playback.

Been told a repair is £35 and takes 90 days. Or I can have 10% off a new camera but that’s £330.

I assume you have done all the basics -

- Format SD card on the unit (hold button on the unit for 10 seconds)
- If the above doesn't work, format SD card on a laptop FAT32
- Clean the SD card metal connection point
- Update the firmware to the latest available
- Placed in the original Blackvue 16GB card, and tried to see if the problem can be replicated on that
- Reset the camera to default settings

[ashleyman]

Dash-Cam Man said:

ashleyman said:

I’ve tried both and the clips do the same thing. It’s definitely happening on the camera / record side rather than playback.

Been told a repair is £35 and takes 90 days. Or I can have 10% off a new camera but that’s £330.

I assume you have done all the basics -

- Format SD card on the unit (hold button on the unit for 10 seconds)
- If the above doesn't work, format SD card on a laptop FAT32
- Clean the SD card metal connection point
- Update the firmware to the latest available
- Placed in the original Blackvue 16GB card, and tried to see if the problem can be replicated on that
- Reset the camera to default settings

Yep. Tried all that. Made sure the viewer software was up to date on computer. Changed the way I was reading the SD on the computer than tried a whole new computer. Same clip. Same problem.

So annoying that BlackVue say a repair will take 90 days. They suggested buying a new camera whilst mine is in for repair and then selling the old one when it’s returned. Mines only 18 months old. Very very disappointed.

[julian64]

Any recommendations for a front and rear facing camera all in one. Wife now has a convertible 4 series BMW and there is no way in hell that I will get her old unit wired to accommodation the complicated folding into the boot convertible system.

I would like it to be unobtrusive such that its not an obvious target for thieves if she leaves the car with the roof down.

[Dash-Cam Man]

julian64 said:

Any recommendations for a front and rear facing camera all in one. Wife now has a convertible 4 series BMW and there is no way in hell that I will get her old unit wired to accommodation the complicated folding into the boot convertible system.

I would like it to be unobtrusive such that its not an obvious target for thieves if she leaves the car with the roof down.

In a normal circumstance, these one bodied dual cameras can never really record anything useful going on at the back, as they simply don't have the detail or the zoom required to see all the way from your front window to the back. In addition, a rear camera also needs to be angled downwards slightly, to cover the whole of your rear end, so you can see even a small bumper to bumper accident. If it faces directly out, your camera could actually miss the detail where bumpers make contact.

A vario roof shouldn't present a problem to many installers, it's not complicated to do if you have methodological approach to it.

We have done a fair few, as some installers refuse to touch them, but you just remove the correct interior trim required to follow the existing wiring loom from the rear into the front. It's even easier in your BMW, as the fuse box is in the rear, so you have to start from the rear anyway.

Il attach some pics of a Blackvue DR750S in a BMW 4 series convertible, to give you an idea of how it's not intrusive at all in this vehicle, once fitted. Personally, I would get a proper 2 channel camera, and have the rear properly installed, and if you don't opt for this, you may as well get yourself just a front dash camera and give the rear a miss, I can almost guarantee you that in this vehicle, the dual bodied front & rear cameras will pick up nothing at the rear of any real value.

Let me know if you need any further pics or help.

Thanks, Jay

[julian64]

Dash-Cam Man said:

In a normal circumstance, these one bodied dual cameras can never really record anything useful going on at the back, as they simply don't have the detail or the zoom required to see all the way from your front window to the back. In addition, a rear camera also needs to be angled downwards slightly, to cover the whole of your rear end, so you can see even a small bumper to bumper accident. If it faces directly out, your camera could actually miss the detail where bumpers make contact.

A vario roof shouldn't present a problem to many installers, it's not complicated to do if you have methodological approach to it.

We have done a fair few, as some installers refuse to touch them, but you just remove the correct interior trim required to follow the existing wiring loom from the rear into the front. It's even easier in your BMW, as the fuse box is in the rear, so you have to start from the rear anyway.

Il attach some pics of a Blackvue DR750S in a BMW 4 series convertible, to give you an idea of how it's not intrusive at all in this vehicle, once fitted. Personally, I would get a proper 2 channel camera, and have the rear properly installed, and if you don't opt for this, you may as well get yourself just a front dash camera and give the rear a miss, I can almost guarantee you that in this vehicle, the dual bodied front & rear cameras will pick up nothing at the rear of any real value.

Let me know if you need any further pics or help.

Thanks, Jay

Have you actually managed to get the camera on the rear window there !!, It isn't clear from the pictures

[Dash-Cam Man]

The customer never bought a 2 channel camera for his 4 series above, it was just a 1 channel installation, hence why I haven't posted a picture of the rear camera. The picture was merely to answer your other point on finding a camera that wasn't intrusive on a convertible 4 series front window.

My point is, the rear camera isn't impossible to do on vehicles with a vario roof, we have done them before on SLK's without issues.

Thanks, Jay

[julian64]

ah okay thanks, the rear shot of the car confused me. I'll have another look at how the rear screen gets the power to the heater matrix.

However I'll probably persevere with the idea of the front and rear camera in the front screen as being better than front only, if only by a small margin

[FreeLitres]

Has anyone had a micro SD card go wrong in their dashcam?

I bought a Sandisk Ultra 32gb class 10 in December from picstop. Everything was working fine for a few months. Today I noticed it wasn't recording anything and when I try to delete the files or format the card, I can't delete anything.

Actually it's weird. I can select the folders and hit delete and they look to be deleted. However, if I remove the card fro the laptop and plug it back in, all the files are still there.

Is this a duff card? Should they last longer than 4 months?

[saaby93]

FreeLitres said:

Has anyone had a micro SD card go wrong in their dashcam?

I bought a Sandisk Ultra 32gb class 10 in December from picstop. Everything was working fine for a few months. Today I noticed it wasn't recording anything and when I try to delete the files or format the card, I can't delete anything.

Actually it's weird. I can select the folders and hit delete and they look to be deleted. However, if I remove the card fro the laptop and plug it back in, all the files are still there.

Is this a duff card? Should they last longer than 4 months?

Depends which dashcam
Quite a few dont like class 10 - check out class 4 instead

Didnt your sandisk come with a couple of years warranty?

[indigochim]

FreeLitres said:

Is this a duff card? Should they last longer than 4 months?

Could well be broken. I've had 2 128GB cards fail on me in 2 different phones (I suspect they overheated) and they say the standard cards aren't warrantied for use in dash cams due to the continuous writing.

[gmaz]

indigochim said:

Could well be broken. I've had 2 128GB cards fail on me in 2 different phones (I suspect they overheated) and they say the standard cards aren't warrantied for use in dash cams due to the continuous writing.

The Sandisk Ultra High Endurance are designed for use in dashcams

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-SDSDQQ-064G-G46A-...

[saaby93]

gmaz said:

indigochim said:

Could well be broken. I've had 2 128GB cards fail on me in 2 different phones (I suspect they overheated) and they say the standard cards aren't warrantied for use in dash cams due to the continuous writing.

The Sandisk Ultra High Endurance are designed for use in dashcams

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-SDSDQQ-064G-G46A-...

2 year warranty
It's still class 10 not class 4 so may not work in a number of dash cams

[acme]

Morning all,

Anyone bought Techmoans recommended Aukey DR02D recently? The included links on their site shows Amazon aren't selling it at the moment and I'd rather buy from a 'trusted' site.

Cheers

[Heidfirst]

FreeLitres said:

Has anyone had a micro SD card go wrong in their dashcam?

I bought a Sandisk Ultra 32gb class 10 in December from picstop. Everything was working fine for a few months. Today I noticed it wasn't recording anything and when I try to delete the files or format the card, I can't delete anything.

Actually it's weird. I can select the folders and hit delete and they look to be deleted. However, if I remove the card fro the laptop and plug it back in, all the files are still there.

Is this a duff card? Should they last longer than 4 months?

https://www.carcamcentral.com/guide/recommended-sd-cards-avoid-sandisk-ultra-cards
& the files will be there until overwritten.

[FreeLitres]

Excellent - thanks for the info on suitable micro SD cards. I'll try the Sandisk high endurance one this time. It's only a fiver more.

[thetapeworm]

acme said:

Morning all,

Anyone bought Techmoans recommended Aukey DR02D recently? The included links on their site shows Amazon aren't selling it at the moment and I'd rather buy from a 'trusted' site.

Cheers

I'm sulking because Amazon mailed me a lightening deal for it with £15 off and when I clicked they were all sold. Since then they don't seem to have had stock.

If you find one let me know, I'm tempted to wait for another £15 off though.

[indigochim]

FreeLitres said:

Excellent - thanks for the info on suitable micro SD cards. I'll try the Sandisk high endurance one this time. It's only a fiver more.

Try here £27 if they're in stock.

[M4cruiser]

Nextbase vs Mini080n series

A question, and has anyone else noticed: Our Nextbase gradually reduces the available card space; yesterday I pulled it from the cam to download something and was surprised to find only 30 minutes of video. Using "Properties" the available space (in total, used and free) was about 8GB on a 16Gb card.
The Mini 080- series doesn't seem to do this, and happily goes for months (years even) writing / deleting etc, and when the numbers reached 9999 it opened a new folder and carried on.

In fairness to Nextbase the manual does recommend re-formatting the card every 2 to 3 weeks, but it's a bit of a pain to do this when you don't know if something stored will be needed.