Dash cameras: good idea or paranoia

[JPolen01]

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[ScottyB]

still pussyfooting around with this but i think i've settled on a cam setup. it gets stupid, stupid hot down here for prolonged times and i wasn't feeling great about the batteries in some of these cameras in that environment. found what i think is a well priced, relatively high feature camera setup for less than $85 which i'll try out in the wife's car first since she does the most driving.

Black Box G1W-CB

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P8F3LD0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2QZXFNL566IW9&coliid=I258P27ICJGWP1">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P8F3LD0/ref ... P27ICJGWP1</a><!-- m -->

a test of essentially the same cam, but with a battery and chrome accents (the "CB" in the name means "capacitor model, black trim
[youtube]Eo76bkytA3o[/youtube]

you can get it even cheaper buying straight from China, but then there's no warranty support and you're looking at a 2 week ship time. but still, $40!

1080@30FPS or 720@60FPS, 140 degree wide lens, nice screen, g-sensor, lots of cable, etc. all the basics covered. no GPS which I'm fine with. can detach and use as a camera w/flashlight if needed.

i'm looking at a 32gb card, that should be enough without lots of overwriting all the time, i think?

[JPolen01]

Please post a review once you try it out. I have been contemplating getting one.

[SlimKlim]

^ Same. Ever since I saw a dude on heroin careening down FFX parkway, a dash cam sounds like a pretty strong purchase.

[Jake]

I kinda want one for the Denali. My commute is always full of stupid, but you get all sorts of entertainment when you're towing long distances. I could make tens of dollars with a monetized YouTube channel and one of these bad boys.

[ScottyB]

Please post a review once you try it out. I have been contemplating getting one.

review incoming.

wifey had to pull some autocross moves on the interstate yesterday thanks to some shit-for-brains Joe Commuter pulling the ol' "here's my exit OH WAIT NO ITS NOT" divebomb attack almost straight back into her passenger fender.

stories like this from her every couple days...at this point i'm just being a stubborn ass. its time, so i ordered it today via amazon. i want to have my ammo ready when (not if) the contact happens, and if it works out i'll get one for the subaru too.

[Evan]

I had a G1W. (See page 2) Quit working after about 6 months. Unfortunately it quit right before a big wreck happened right behind me when a guy almost rearended me and swerved to hit the guy in the other lane. Video quality was good, but its really big.
now Im using mini 0801 in the front and the newer version mini 0805 pointed out the back. they are $65 at gearbest. Im considering getting another one for my truck and annes car, or I may do something multi-use like an sj4000

i love the rear facing camera. i could start a youtube channel of "cranky NOVA/DC drivers getting pissed at me because my car exists in front of theirs"

oh i did get video of almost squashing ginger on his motorcycle when he was lanesplitting while i was changing lanes

[ScottyB]

I had a G1W. (See page 2) Quit working after about 6 months. Unfortunately it quit right before a big wreck happened

ah crap, forgot about that. well, good news is i bought from the US distributor and not directly from China so if it does take a dump then at least i have some recourse. the rearview in the Xterra is pretty big so i'm not too concerned about the size. i'm just glad to have something and at this point i've overthought the purchase so much that i just had to click "buy" for the catharsis.

thanks for the head's up on the 0801/05. i'll probably do something in the subaru next and that will be on my short list.

i'm really thinking about a rear cam too...you should post that footage, people are fun to watch when they don't get their way

[Evan]

yeah I wouldnt sweat it, its a good camera. Works great for most people I think I just got a bad one. Ordering from china i think Im more likely to get a 2nd.
I wouldnt hesitate to buy another.

[ScottyB]

did about 800 miles with the new cam setup over Christmas vacation and came away pleased. it was eerily timely too since the ride home was in atrocious weather and included lots of tired people driving way over their heads on foggy/downpouring interstates in overloaded cars.

i did hardwire the cam beforehand so that it turns on and off with the ignition and it took only slightly longer to wire up than your average healthy Chipotle dump. i'm not going to post footage (of the cam, or the dump) since you can find that all over y00t00bs if you search for the G1C.

i used a "piggy-back fuseholder" that simply shares the cigarette lighter fuse socket. i had my soldering iron at the ready but it was not needed. here's a list of parts i used apart from the actual camera:

• • Add-A-Circuit Blade Fuse Holder, 20A - linky
  • 3A 15W DC 12V To DC 5V Dual USB Power Charger Adapter Converter Module - linky
  i intend to run a rear camera someday which is the reason for 2 USB output lines
  • 15ft USB 2.0 A Male to Mini-B 5pin Male 28/24AWG Cable w/ Ferrite Core (Gold Plated) - linky
  again, i bought 2 in the event i want to wire in a rear camera later. in hindsight 15ft of cable was excessive at least for the front camera.
  • mini-blade low-amp fuses, shrink wrap, eyelet terminals, and butt-splice wire connectors - i Harbor-Freight'ed these, just get whatever's super cheap
  • you'll need a couple odd tools like screwdrivers, a pair of pliers that can crush the butt-splice, and a lighter/heat gun to shrink up the tubing.
  

what you're doing here is taking power straight out of an already nicely sorted power source, i.e. your car's fuse panel via the Fuse Holder piggyback (you don't have to do it this way, but its super easy and allows the cam to turn on/off with the ignition). however, that juice is coming out at 15W and needs to step down to 5W which is what your cam wants to run, thus the Adapter Converter Module. after your electricity hits the Converter, we send it along a USB cable, up behind the pillar trip and under the headliner, and plug in to the cam. that's all it is.

in terms of work, you basically just need to strip and connect the blade piggyback wire to the converter's red power wire via a butt-splice, then shrink wrap it up to prevent any chance of a short. then just strip and connect an eyelet to the converter's ground wire (shrink that too) and bolt it to anything metal under the dash. mount it, and hook up the USB cord to the cam. done and done.

here's the exploded view of what you just built, except you did it with slightly different parts and without paying an 80% markup:


here's how it looks, with the piggyback fuse (red wire) taking power from the cig lighter socket (a safe play since its not crucial to the operation of the car if the fuse blows for some reason) and sending it to the converter which is the black box. it wouldn't be half the cluster-cuss you see before you if i had a better place to shove all the excess USB cable.


i was able to push the outgoing USB cable into the dash-to-door-frame rubber insulation with a screwdriver to hide it and then pulled the A-pillar trim and ran it up to the headliner from there. our headliner has a gap at the front and i pushed the cable up in there to hide/secure it and then did some tweaking of the cable length to get it to feed exactly the right amount out of the headliner to the cam. its all very discrete.


after firing it up for the first time, i found that the cam did fine but our cig lighter wouldn't work. i had set up the fuse sequence sloppily in the blade piggyback due to time constraints. i was only using the original 15A fuse in the wrong ("top") slot only with no secondary fuse, so essentially there was no power going to the lighter and a way-too-high fuse rating in the cam's slot. no surprise it wouldn't let the lighter work. i now run the original 15A fuse in the correct, "lower" slot and a little 2A fuse in the "top/extra" slot as the cam should never pull more power than that. here is an explanation of how the fuse piggyback works to send power to an extra thing from a fuse slot, and how you utilize the appropriate fuses:


pro bro tips:
• all those parts i link to take forever to ship since they come from hong kong on a slow boat. give them at least 3 weeks.
• the suction cup mount that come with the G1C is crap and fails after 5 minutes. get the solid mount you see in my photo.
• under-dash work blows. get a good work light
• i had to cock the converter at an angle so the fuse panel door could latch closed...you might have to tuck the converter somewhere weird if you have limited space like i did
• zip tie all the loose stuff away. under-dash rattles get old really fast.

[Jake]

Nice install! Those add-a-fuse things are pretty nice for small electronics stuff. We used one on my ex's 330i when we did that Nexus tablet install. Makes things super simple.

[WRXtranceformed]

Nice work! My SmartCord is hardwired with one of those too, makes uninstallation really easy too if you ever decide to

[JPolen01]

This is great. Definitely going to remember this for the future. I want to get a dash cam but over the past year or two this area has had a lot of car break ins due to people leaving various electronics in plain sight. I'm thinking I need to wait until I have a garage because I don't feel like having to disconnect and hide the camera every night.

[JPolen01]

Great deal on the Black Box G1W-C today. I might have to buy it. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-Box-G1W-C-Capacitor-Dashboard/dp/B00MIO2KRC?tag=kinjadeals-20&ascsubtag=38778e26a68a26e2fc022ab10118ccdc1aa66a99&rawdata=%5Br%7Chttp%3A%2F%2Fjalopnik.com%2F%5Bt%7Clink%5Bp%7C1772009704%5Ba%7CB00MIO2KRC%5Bau%7C5727177402741770316%5Bb%7Cdeals">http://www.amazon.com/Black-Box-G1W-C-C ... Bb%7Cdeals</a><!-- m -->

[ScottyB]

fuuuuuuu. wish i would have seen that yesterday. satisfied enough with my current one that i would have bought another for my scoob.

[JPolen01]

fuuuuuuu. wish i would have seen that yesterday. satisfied enough with my current one that i would have bought another for my scoob.

Went up but only to $65. Still a deal.

[ScottyB]

got a SpyTec A118-C (capacitor version) for myself today. its another budget alternative to the G1W-C that i installed on my wife's car above, but i decided to get something different to see how it compares for relatively the same price. the A118 is now on the way out after the introduction of the A119 this year so they're getting cheap. compared to the G1, the A118 has a little better resolution and mounts a bit more discretely. my car also stays parked in the garage most of the time so i'm not as nervous about heat destroying the 3M tape that the A118 uses to adhere to the windshield.

i considered a $100+ camera but i just can't do it. the point of this thing is just a cover-my-ass measure, and all it has to do is be clear enough to help our case to insurance or the police...i'm not making movies here. The A118 is ~$80 on amazon, and you can get it cheaper buying direct from the manufacturer in China but i wanted to buy through the US-based distrubutor, SpyTec, in case a warranty return might be in order.

here's the unit:


it installs like so:


because my car rides like an old wooden roller coaster i'm hoping the solid windshield mount also removes any vibration/shaking that an armature mount might induce, like what i showed a few posts above. installation should be exactly the same as the G1.

[rherold9]

About to pick up something similar. People drive real stupid here. Probably normal these days though... just not used to it. Feel like I need a dash cam as multiple accidents happen every day here.

[ScottyB]

we had quite a little show this morning. nothing super crazy but enough to get our attention. apparently chevy sparks have a cup holder big enough to hold a 40 of OE, because that's probably what this guy was having for breakfast. no idea if they caught him after we called it in.

this was on our G1W-C. picture is, again, nothing impressive but good enough to get the tag number at the light.

fun starts about :40 in.

[youtube]npZkEUhWy0g[/youtube]

[BLINGMW]

I keep checking in here to see something Russian dashcam worthy... you're getting close!