Do any of you use a dashcam?

I have the Street Guardian SGGGCX2PRO front and rear camera in my Prime and in my 4Runner. Yes, I catch interesting and stupid stuff all the time. Some safe for work and some not safe for work.

 

I had a close call last week, the dashcam allowed me to review the situation and determine that the other guy really did run the stopsign.

The playback also showed me his out-of-state plate which I hadn't noticed in the moment, and likely explains his error since it was a very off-the-beaten-track intersection.

My wife was in a minor scrape last year. The video shows nothing, but the accelerometer data embedded in the metadata clearly shows when/where it happened. It turned out to be a non-event anyway with one piece of plastic trim broken.

I spent some time working in Russia. Over there, insurance fraud has become so common that your claim is not going to be paid without supporting video, period. (This is also why we see so many Russian dashcam videos on youtube- everybody has a camera by now.)

 

I have a front facing camera. It's captured all sorts of bizarre behavior. One odd one was a pickup truck in the next lane that rear ended the pickup truck in front of him so hard that it bounced stuff out of the target vehicle's bed. Target vehicle started to pull over and then floored it and zoomed away. Maybe he suddenly remembered an outstanding arrest warrant.

 

I bought one after reading some threads here, but have not installed it yet... oh, over a year now. I may eventually get to it this summer on my new 2020 PRIME, but all I will capture on the camera will be my driveway. No driving planned.

 

I have a Garmin Mini for the front. I'm considering getting a second one for the rear. I like the small size, but the device seems to have serious design flaws (it gets extremely hot, and it generally doesn't work too reliably), so I'm not sure if I would get another one or something else.

I'd also like to record while the car is parked, but I don't want any drain on the 12V battery with all the stories about how weak it is. I wonder if any dash cams include a large internal battery?

 

You don't want 'large' on an item that will be on the windshield blocking views and catching foreheads in crashes. And you don't want 'battery' in the cabin on a hot summer day; well maybe not a lithium-ion battery left out in just about the hottest part of the car.

But there is a specialty line of accessory batteries which are generally mounted in less sunny parts of the car and wired up to these cameras, you can use Power Magic Pro as a search key. They are specifically engineered to provide power for unattended recording, hopefully without the battery starting a fire in the host vehicle.

Ours is a Blackvue; they are one of the brands that don't use batteries at all to skip the associated thermal problems. A large onboard capacitor makes sure that video files are closed appropriately when the vehicle power gets cut.

We had no need for recording during parking so we didn't address that end of it at all.

 

I just bought some Arlo battery powered security cameras for my house. They are about the size of most dash cams, and they have 17 Wh batteries that let them record motion for months between charges. They use a PIR sensor, so the power usage while waiting for motion is very low, but that won't work through glass. But I would expect a similar size battery could power a dash cam with image based motion detection (through glass) for at least a day or two. The Arlo cameras can also do image based motion detection, but only when plugged into a continuous power source.

The primary purpose of the battery in most dash cams is just to save the last clip after you turn the car off. A capacitor is definitely a better solution for that.

 

I also have a BlackVue, a 2-channel camera, though it Is an older model from 2015 which is 1080p in the front and 720p in the back. Not great by current standards, but still works well enough to protect my car. Never caught anything exciting on camera though.

I originally used the Power Magic Pro to hardwire it to the fuse box and 12v to enable parking recording, but it really didn’t give that much time since my (aged) 12v didn’t have a ton of extra voltage before the camera would shut down (which also puts the 12v at risk). Later I added the BlackVue B124 which is the “big battery” the OP was asking about, which gives plenty of standby recording (approx 14-16hrs of parking monitoring on my 2-channel cam, and takes about 40 mins to fully charge while driving). The battery is expensive though, but like the dash cam, if it saves me one insurance claim it pays for itself...

I originally got it because my Gen 2 took a beating with many negligent people leaving huge door dents (2x dents of > 8”...), and was hit & run 2 other times, minor damage, and was just fed up...

Since installing the cam.... nothing. . Guess it has been a good deterrent. Lol.

 

Hey, a $400 set of snow tires has prevented significant snowfall in Eastern PA for two years running. Together we can fix anything.

Seriously though I'm surprised you can still only get 14 hours of recording out of that accessory battery. I briefly looked into it, but we don't have many parking problems and our circumstances dictated that the car would be parked for 3-5 days at the airport, and not always outdoors. Never did find a setup fit to handle that so we just skipped it and went for drive-time recording only.

 

Re snow tires - indeed, lol.

Regarding the battery life, it is somewhat of a guess, I am not normally around to know exactly when it dies. But pretty sure it is usually around 14-16 or 17 hours. It’s also worth noting that battery life is impacted primarily by whether it is a 1 or 2 channel camera (mine is a DR650GW-2CH), and I am on a reasonably busy suburban street. Camera sensitivity will also lead to more usage and drain. 2-channel cams seem about 16-18 hours or so. Note that I have the regular b124, I think the “x” model is newer.

Power Magic Ultra Battery (B-124) - BlackVue Dash Cameras

Anyway, provides plenty of charge when leaving my car parked in some public place for a few hours, so it works well for me.

 

I run a good quality front windshield mounted camera, this one has built-in GPS and two lenses, a front facing lens and rear facing lens.

Then the rear widow has a separate simple inexpensive camera pointed out the back.

I run this setup in my Prime & Prius v.



Rob43

 

I REALLY want to get a dash cam for my prime but every time i go shopping for one, I get lost in the specs and dont know what Is need vs what is not needed. I know i want 1080p front and a rear camera. with at least 4 hours record time.

 

Since you're unsure, consider going cheap on your first dash cam to get your feet wet. It can always be moved to the rear window like the way I run both of my cams.

$30 shipped:
www.amazon.com/Crosstour-Dashboard-Recording-Detection-CR300/dp/B078B56BYJ/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_crs_dp_rhf_k2p_0_10?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B078B56BYJ&pd_rd_r=58b83138-bc24-4339-98fc-8d2b887af555&pd_rd_w=ZonFI&pd_rd_wg=sKX3y&pf_rd_p=19e936ea-548d-48be-af7d-3c9ad58b2970&pf_rd_r=XB6HB9K0GTTE834QDQNV&psc=1&refRID=XB6HB9K0GTTE834QDQNV


Rob43

 

How do you power it? Do you have to run the cable all around the dashboard?

 

I hardwired mine, and wrote this thread when I did it. So now there's a 6" stub of the original camera power cable sticking out of the headliner right next to the mirror/safety pod mount, just enough to reach the camera mount on the glass.

There is switched power available up by the mirror mount in nearly every modern car, so if you are comfortable with automotive wiring work and have the appropriate diagram for your car it is a quick and easy job.

 

Have used a Hero2 for 10 years. uses small cheap battery's I can change at a light if need be.
last hours.. There cheap tough as hell quick & easy to get off the windshield and have a fish eye HD picture on SD card.

There cheap there bulletproof and have every accessory known to man. Picture and audio is perfect. I Don't drive 10 feet without that in the windshield. Your crazy driving without a camera. You get T boned in an intersection at night its your word against his who ran the light.

You have nothing more financially liable in your life than driving a car.

Can use as video camera anywhere. I once took a wedding with it they loved it as there photog never showed up. Can be used to take regular pictures with a timer Has upside down feature waterproof cover helmet mount car hood mount windshield mount on and on and on.

Go on youtube and look up hero2 videos. Just looked you can buy a whole kit for $35.

 

I really should get one of these for my bike.