Dash Cameras

[thebigmacmoomin]

Can anybody recommend a good hard-wire kit for a dashcam ? Looking at replacing mine as it doesn't seem to cut power to the camera when the car battery voltage drops.

Would a Nextbase one be ok?

Thanks

[R Mutt]

Alextodrive said:

I remember reading that regardless of fault, insurance companies can put up your insurance premium. This was challenged in court and the insurance companies won on the basis that they were able to show, having had one accident, you are likelier to have more. The logic being the routes and journeys you are making are statistically more dangerous than the average with which your insurance will have calculated your original premiums.

I'm still paying extra for a crash two years ago when a woman wearing a lovely large winter coat in very high stilletos, lost control of her nissan micra at the top of a hill and smashed into me while I was parked at the bottom.

Dashcams are a great idea to prove you werent at fault, and they reduce premium a bit, but in my experience the key is to never come across anyone that cant control their car / never leave the house.

There's a whole thread on this with a bloke presumably in the industry justifying it all. In fact I'm sure it's the same guy on various threads.

Even in the most vanilla case of someone hitting you while parked, if this makes you a greater liability that could only be the case if you're likely to repeatedly park in stupid places. In reality those who park in very safest places every time must never actually leave the garage, so it must be very binary with those who are deemed all round very low risk drivers rarely seeing the road with the rest punished for that high risk activity of driving and parking on the road.

[A Winner Is You]

jakesmith said:

I’ve just installed my front and rear in my new a5. It’s the 6th one I’ve done and they get harder for the reason you’re finding. I suggest you get a £10 multimeter and simply touch the small exposed contact bit on the end of each blade fuse as they are in their holders, with ignition off, too see which circuits are off with ignition. I didn’t know the blade fuses had this till I saw and RAC bloke doing it. They all do though every size. Just look carefully. Saves a hell of a lot of time pulling fuses and testing circuits individually.

Which one did you use in the end? I've just put on in my A5 and tried the wiper fuse, which you would have thought would be switched but apparently not. 12v socket fuse would be the obvious one, but that's in the boot

[M4cruiser]

thebigmacmoomin said:

Can anybody recommend a good hard-wire kit for a dashcam ? Looking at replacing mine as it doesn't seem to cut power to the camera when the car battery voltage drops.

Would a Nextbase one be ok?

Thanks

I'm using the Nextbase £20 hardwire kit, but mine is connected to an ignition-switched source, so I don't know about cutting the power when the voltage drops, - I don't think it's meant to be a clever one like that.

[markyb_lcy]

thebigmacmoomin said:

Can anybody recommend a good hard-wire kit for a dashcam ? Looking at replacing mine as it doesn't seem to cut power to the camera when the car battery voltage drops.

Would a Nextbase one be ok?

Thanks

Only wanted to say ... if it is by chance (you don’t say) a garmin dashcam, you will need their expensive cable. I found out this the hard way. They use a proprietary voltage on the USB line that makes any other hardwire cable not work correctly (disables parking mode recording, for instance).

[thebigmacmoomin]

markyb_lcy said:

thebigmacmoomin said:

Can anybody recommend a good hard-wire kit for a dashcam ? Looking at replacing mine as it doesn't seem to cut power to the camera when the car battery voltage drops.

Would a Nextbase one be ok?

Thanks

Only wanted to say ... if it is by chance (you don’t say) a garmin dashcam, you will need their expensive cable. I found out this the hard way. They use a proprietary voltage on the USB line that makes any other hardwire cable not work correctly (disables parking mode recording, for instance).

Its not a Garmin camera, it a Senwow I got off Amazon & is connected to permanent live.

[ferrisbueller]

thebigmacmoomin said:

Can anybody recommend a good hard-wire kit for a dashcam ? Looking at replacing mine as it doesn't seem to cut power to the camera when the car battery voltage drops.

Would a Nextbase one be ok?

Thanks

£12 on ebay when I looked and I think they have a low voltage protection (may vary between types).

[liner33]

thebigmacmoomin said:

Can anybody recommend a good hard-wire kit for a dashcam ? Looking at replacing mine as it doesn't seem to cut power to the camera when the car battery voltage drops.

Would a Nextbase one be ok?

Thanks

I use these https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07F71RBR8/ref...

Just fitted one of these as a cheap camera for someone and they are really good for the price, nice and subtle as well

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0819BVCCB/ref...

[thetapeworm]

M4cruiser said:

thetapeworm said:

M4cruiser said:

I installed my Aukey DR02 a week or so ago (to replace my Mini 0801) and have just downloaded one file to see how good it is.

It's working; I just feel the pictures are a bit "washed out" and over exposed. Number plates are hard to read but just possible if you pause the film at the correct point (quite difficult to do). It's also a bit stuttery when playing on the pc.

Does anyone else have experience of it? Maybe I shouldn't moan too much for £70. It's not too bad, maybe I was just expecting a little better.

I have a couple of DR02Ds and haven't really experienced major issues with it being washed out, it's a bit overexposed in bright sun but on the whole I'm really happy with the quality. No playback issues either.

I'll try to grab a few frames and upload screen shots of different conditions.

One thing I am disappointed with is the boot time of them, I installed the motion sensor modules recently and came back to the car to find someone had lifted the wipers, presumably because I'd parked on "their street" (on the road, legally). I was hoping id have footage of them doing it but no, the video starts with the wipers up and there's no sign of the culprit on the front or rear camera views

Yes, maybe "overexposed in bright sun" is what I'm trying to say, here are a couple of frames, both the VW van and the BMW are too bright, and the road in the "foreground" is "blocky":-

My results are similar to yours in those conditions, better in more favourable ones as you'd expect.

I guess it's a lack of a polarised coating on the lens (or a removable filter) like some cameras have at to keep costs down.

[M4cruiser]

markyb_lcy said:

Only wanted to say ... if it is by chance (you don’t say) a garmin dashcam, you will need their expensive cable. I found out this the hard way. They use a proprietary voltage on the USB line that makes any other hardwire cable not work correctly (disables parking mode recording, for instance).

^^ This is interesting, and I found something similar with the computer-connect cables (i.e. standard-USB-plug to camera-USB-plug) - when I used an Aukey cable to connect a Nextbase, it didn't recognise it as an SD card for transfers etc, it just fired up the Nextbase in record mode; when I changed the cable it instantly let me transfer files to the computer.
I have no idea why that should be, but I guess Nextbase must include something secret in the cable or plugs.

[acme]

thetapeworm said:

I have a couple of DR02Ds and haven't really experienced major issues with it being washed out, it's a bit overexposed in bright sun but on the whole I'm really happy with the quality. No playback issues either.

I'll try to grab a few frames and upload screen shots of different conditions.

One thing I am disappointed with is the boot time of them, I installed the motion sensor modules recently and came back to the car to find someone had lifted the wipers, presumably because I'd parked on "their street" (on the road, legally). I was hoping id have footage of them doing it but no, the video starts with the wipers up and there's no sign of the culprit on the front or rear camera views

I have exactly the same issue. I have two also front and rear camera ones, it may have been yourself who mentioned the motion sensors which I wasn't aware of beforehand, anyway I purchased them and like you the cameras take so long to boot up that whatever sets them off as invariably gone, so in the event of an accident you're unlikely to actually catch them in the act.

Plus on my daily driver a MK7 Fiesta ST the hardwire kit I think comes loose a bit in the OBD, I assume due to the stiff suspension and reboots the camera. Odd.

[Brother D]

Would be helpful to have a sticky like this on dashcams

https://www.reddit.com/r/dashcams/comments/dyemr2/...

[jakesmith]

A Winner Is You said:

jakesmith said:

I’ve just installed my front and rear in my new a5. It’s the 6th one I’ve done and they get harder for the reason you’re finding. I suggest you get a £10 multimeter and simply touch the small exposed contact bit on the end of each blade fuse as they are in their holders, with ignition off, too see which circuits are off with ignition. I didn’t know the blade fuses had this till I saw and RAC bloke doing it. They all do though every size. Just look carefully. Saves a hell of a lot of time pulling fuses and testing circuits individually.

Which one did you use in the end? I've just put on in my A5 and tried the wiper fuse, which you would have thought would be switched but apparently not. 12v socket fuse would be the obvious one, but that's in the boot

Hiya, just took a snap for you. I found 2 ignition switched fuses, the other is for my iPhone cradle

[Brother D]

I just upgraded my A119 for a A219 Duo moving the A119 to the MIL car (only a matter of time).

Within a week it started shutting off randomly and I assumed this was due to the hot weather in AZ, but we've moved up to Utah and weather is still warm like upper 20's but I keep finding it switched off or can hear it rebooting. Certainly not worth the $250 and it's going back in the next day or so and swapping for the Blackvue DR900s even though another $150 more..

[Podie]

Brother D said:

I just upgraded my A119 for a A219 Duo moving the A119 to the MIL car (only a matter of time).

Assume that's a typo for A129?

Been contemplating the same move (A119 to A129) - pleased with it?

[Podie]

ferrisbueller said:

Some frustrating dashcam foibles.

Friend's daughter bought him a Nextbase 322 for Christmas. Didn't come with a memory card so bought a 128gb Samsung Evo card. This meets or exceeds all of the requirements specified in the manual. Put the card in the camera and it says words to the effect that it's not a Class 10 card. The card is a Class 10, it clearly gives details of spec on its packaging.

Contact Nextbase and they say "buy a Nextbase card". Their own cards are significantly more expensive than the market alternatives and, for two cameras recording at high quality you have to buy a large capacity card. Have they put something in the code/SD card to make their cameras only function on their own cards?

We're beginning to suspect Nextbase business model may be in rinsing the profit out of memory cards........

I've read something about this in the past - it's to do with the type of memory on the card, either MLC or TLC. From what I recall MLC type cards are best suited to dash cams.

[Brother D]

Podie said:

Brother D said:

I just upgraded my A119 for a A219 Duo moving the A119 to the MIL car (only a matter of time).

Assume that's a typo for A129?

Been contemplating the same move (A119 to A129) - pleased with it?

Yes sorry typo - A129 Pro Duo. It's scheduled to be returned and seems like it's quite a common issue. The A119 has been faultless for over a year. I wanted a rear cam which is why I got the duo, but I'm just going to get another camera and not worry about running the thick cable from front to back as there is an outlet in the rear anyway and also try a cheapo 4k camera there as it's not as critical if it goes wrong.

[Brother D]

Podie said:

Brother D said:

I just upgraded my A119 for a A219 Duo moving the A119 to the MIL car (only a matter of time).

Assume that's a typo for A129?

Been contemplating the same move (A119 to A129) - pleased with it?

So possibly the heat but the A129 kept constantly turning off or rebooting, even as we travelled from AZ to Wyoming. Frustatingly I returned it then purchased a $300 Q800 pro from the equivalent of Currys - and it died two weeks later! With the errosion of consumer rights in the US I only had a day to return it... And a to top it off their parking sign blew over and scraped the front of the car : /

I've given up on expensive cameras and just ordered a https://www.vava.com/products/2k-front-and-1080p-c... for the front windscreen and a https://www.apemans.com/product/23/101 for the rear as the jag has a lighter socket in the boot (and most come with ungodly thick front to rear cables when you get dual cams).

[mackie1]

Just installed a Viofo A129 Pro (4K jobby) with their 3 wire hardwire kit. Seems like a solid bit of kit, hopefully it won't give me any bother but Brother D isn't filling me with confidence.

I had a basic Rexing for 3 years without an real issue beyond the occasional slightly corrupt (but recoverable) partial file.

[M4cruiser]

I get occasional odd problems, telling me the firmware is still pretty flaky in this arena. We have 2 Nextbases, 2 mini0801s and a Viofo. The hardwire kit on the Viofo has just started not delivering its power unless I unplug it and replug at the camera. This happens about once a week. The best long termers are the minis, but they give up after about 3 years.
Overall though I'm prepared to put up with these minor issues for the benefit achieved.