Like my dashcam, huh?

Went to Jiffy Lube to get my oil changed, and told the guy I was walking across the road to a store. On my way back I saw about 3 of the Jiffy Lube folks gawking into the open trunk. One of them saw me and quickly closed the trunk, and when I asked "Can I help you find something in my trunk?" they denied it.

I spoke with the manager asking if it was normal to go through the trunk of a car during an oil change and he said no. I asked him to go ask the techs why they had my trunk open.

The manager cam back and said; "One of the techs remembers your car with all the cameras, and was showing the Area Manager and District Manager all the computer stuff in your trunk. (The Area Manager and District Manager were taking part in the gawking?? Well, no point complaining - who would I complain to?? :

This is what they were looking at:

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m159/Scruit/b4.jpg

Well, after about an hour's work this afternoon I have a new look to the trunk:

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m159/Scruit/af1.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m159/Scruit/af2.jpg

So no more gawking techs. Also, if someone breaks into the trunk they are less likely to see the camera gear.

The stuff is my dashcam. On steroids and Red Bull.

I've posted a couple threads on this install before. Give me a sec to find some links.

I bought an $80 dash cam that has disappeared. It had an SD memory slot and would take up to 2GB - or six hours of recording. It was very buggy though - only worked about 60% of the time.

I'd like a more professional setup but I can't justify the cost.

Step by Step Installation, Part 1: http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77627

Step by Step Installation, Part 2: http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78161

The trim piece was a piece of plywood cut using the same technique as the baseboard in part 1 - and then covered in 'replacement carpet' from Walmart.

Example videos:

Near miss for left-turner: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPhiOj0EWJM]YouTube - Near miss for left-turner[/ame]

On-screen GPS Data: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StIVSLyTmKE]YouTube - Why have GPS speed readout on the dashcam[/ame]

The famed "Scruit Road Rage Incident": [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DT6_pO9-s0]YouTube - Road Rage Incident[/ame]

Near-accident in the snow: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITHQjfSbEKo]YouTube - Accident in the snow[/ame]

Who needs stop signs?: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ogJ9zjB0NY]YouTube - Who needs stop signs?[/ame]

Oblivious driver pulling out of BP: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T31aO7VIOLs]YouTube - Oblivious driver pulling out of a gas station[/ame]

I bought an $80 dash cam that has disappeared. It had an SD memory slot and would take up to 2GB - or six hours of recording. It was very buggy though - only worked about 60% of the time.

 

 

I'd like a more professional setup but I can't justify the cost.

This setup has been 100% reliable for about a year now. If I had to rebuild this whole setup from scratch using these same components then it'd cost about $850. It stores 6 weeks of video based upon 1.5hours driving per day. It has 4 channels (two front, one rear, one drivercam). The front cam is split into two channels - one has the GPS data and the other doesn't.

Ironically, $850 is the amount of damage done in the road rage incident, and without the video I believe I'd have had to pay for the damage myself, so this dashcam paid for itself already.

If I ever get a traffic ticket then I'll know for sure if I am guilty, and could prove it if I was not.

you could make a killing off these things on miata boards.

tons of them get into accidents because other people cant see them. with a dashcam they can make sure they're not gonna get screwed by lying drivers

This setup has been 100% reliable for about a year now. If I had to rebuild this whole setup from scratch using these same components then it'd cost about $850. It stores 6 weeks of video based upon 1.5hours driving per day. It has 4 channels (two front, one rear, one drivercam). The front cam is split into two channels - one has the GPS data and the other doesn't.

 

Ironically, $850 is the amount of damage done in the road rage incident, and without the video I believe I'd have had to pay for the damage myself, so this dashcam paid for itself already.

 

If I ever get a traffic ticket then I'll know for sure if I am guilty, and could prove it if I was not.

Nice.

What was the deal with that Road Rage guy - what did you do to piss him off?

Nice.

 

What was the deal with that Road Rage guy - what did you do to piss him off?

You saw it.

Here's a diagram:

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m159/Scruit/Roadrager.jpg

I was pulling out of the sidestreet and he was wanting to turn into the road I was coming from. I thought I was allowed to pull out halfway and wait in the median, but it turns out that's illegal. He wanted to go around in front to me, not behind me, and he got angry when he realized there was no room for him to get around.

You saw it.

 

Here's a diagram:

 

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m159/Scruit/Roadrager.jpg

 

I was pulling out of the sidestreet and he was wanting to turn into the road I was coming from. I thought I was allowed to pull out halfway and wait in the median, but it turns out that's illegal. He wanted to go around in front to me, not behind me, and he got angry when he realized there was no room for him to get around.

Coming out of my apartment I have to deal with a very similar left turn. If you wait for it to be clear both ways, you'll never get across.

The guy was a moron. When you make a left turn you do it from the inside, this way people behind you don't block people making left turns the opposing way. He knew what you were trying to do, and he obviously wanted to get in your face for whatever reason.

Glad he owned up to it. If you hadn't had camera evidence, I wonder if his attitude would have been different.

 

Glad he owned up to it. If you hadn't had camera evidence, I wonder if his attitude would have been different.

The trooper said it was *my* fault until I told him about the dashcam and he spoke to the other driver again. Not sure what the other driver told him, but the dashcam definitely saved my butt.

I want..

Great footage..

The DVR is a standalone unit that has it's own OS. It has a USB connection that allows me to download the videos in digital format, or I can play them back through an RCA composite cable. (The yellow/red/white "Line In" connections on your TV.)

I am working on a consumer-level DVR combination. This unit has a single channel recording 30fps in CIF mode (320x240) (same as my big DVR) with audio. It has a rubber suction windshield mount and is fully self-contained - meaning you only have to plug it into the cigarette lighter and stick it to the windsield. I'm developing it to be easily portable from car to car because I'm about to start a new job that will require me to be travelling up to 50% so I'll do half of my driving in rental cars for the forseeable future. I have given the portable DVR to a work buddy for him to 'beta' it for me. I'm sure I'll wind up selling him the prototype for the cost of the parts to build another. But therein lies the problem - the parts are all off-the-shelf and cost about $300 when purchased at the consumer level, but it gives really good video and has been 100% reliable in testing so far.

Depending on how well the prototype functions, I'll build a second generation prototype and share the plans here. Everything except the mount is available from ebay and the mount cost $6 and took me about 30 mins to make in my garage.

I'd be in for the consumer-grade device! I don't require portability, but do require small form factor. Portability could be nice, but I rather have stealth permanent solution - so I know it's always there. $300 is nothing, can pay itself off 100 fold.

Actually your post reminded me about rigging up a in-car digicam setup. So did my today's wife story that her friend has been blamed for rear end collision... while she was stopped and hit from behind which pushed her into a car in front of her. Why this society of "good hardworking citizens" is so full of lying scumbags when it comes to automotive accidents? (reminds me about my accident when a bitch, which otherwise gets I am sure described as a "good hardworking mom", driving a minivan ran a stop sign in front of me - I could not avoid her and hit her. Then she tried to accuse me of speeding, which I didn't it... luckily the cop was honest and thorough and confirmed my speed by measuring skid marks).

Anyway... I am thinking about getting:

bullet cam: Sony CC-5HR

recorder: ChaseCam PDR-100

Even if the cam is not that great at night, I am okay as we don't do that much night driving. I also like the recorder writing to compact flash, no hardrive to be damaged, etc.

Comments?

'Better' cameras tend to handle adverse light conditions better. All cameras will give you a good picture in bright day with no direct sun, but once you get into situations that involve extreme differences in lighting in the same image (ie blinded by sun/reflection/headlights then you'll see why they are cheap cameras. Conversely, the cost of getting from 80% coverage to 90% coverage is very high, and goes up exponentially after that. You can spend 400-500 just on the front-facing camera if you wanted to - but that extra money would only help you in those adverse lighting conditions.

$600 for the ChaseCam? Wow, $300 in parts for my portable DVR assembly seems pretty cheap in comparison. Maybe I *should* look into selling them. ;-)

'Better' cameras tend to handle adverse light conditions better. All cameras will give you a good picture in bright day with no direct sun, but once you get into situations that involve extreme differences in lighting in the same image (ie blinded by sin/reflection/headlights then you'll see why they are cheap cameras. Conversely, the cost of getting from 80% coverage to 90% coverage is very high, and goes up exponentially after that. You can spend 400-500 just on the front-facing camera if you wanted to - but that extra money would only help you in those adverse lighting conditions.

That Sony cam gets very favorable reviews compared to cheapo bullet cams:

http://www.s2ki.com/Home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=212&Itemid=44

http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f133/improved-video-system-34427/

I figure if I am covered in most cases that we'll be okay. I just won't mount a chunky camera on the windshield - need something small.

$600 for the ChaseCam? Wow, $300 in parts for my portable DVR assembly seems pretty cheap in comparison.

The biggest problem I have with the protable DVR prototype is the size of the wiring bundle. The camera and DVR are only a couple inches away from each other and the voltage regulator is right there too, but they are all supplied with cables that are 2-3ft long I have to choose between cutting up the wires and re-soldering them shorter, or using a larger enclosure and stuffing all the wires in there. Cutting and resoldering is not a problem, but it's an expensive operation and woudl make a production version of the system more expensive. Whereas keeping the longer cables would be cheaper, but require a much larger case that makes the DVR setup pretty big.

I'm going to see how much work it is to cut and resolder the video cables. Or maybe I could purchase new solder-on RCA ends and shorten the wire that way, but then that adds more parts cost as well as labor cost. We'll see.

I'd also like to have the DVR stay on for a couple seconds after the power is lost (ignition key turns off). The DVR records video to a temp file and commits it to the SD card every 14 seconds. If th DVR loses power without the video being stopped then the current 14 second segment is lost. That could be a problem if the power is lost because of an accident. I'm going to look into using either a huge capacitor or a couple of regarchable batteries to keep power to the DVR for long enough to ensure the latest video is comitted to SD card. It will force-commit if the video signal is lost but the DVR still has power, so I'm hoping that just whacking a humungous capacitor on the output of the DVR's 5v voltage regulator will keep it alive for a second - enough for the DVR to recognize that the video signal is gone and force-commit the video.

I'd also like to have the DVR stay on for a couple seconds after the power is lost (ignition key turns off). The DVR records video to a temp file and commits it to the SD card every 14 seconds. If th DVR loses power without the video being stopped then the current 14 second segment is lost. That could be a problem if the power is lost because of an accident. I'm going to look into using either a huge capacitor or a couple of regarchable batteries to keep power to the DVR for long enough to ensure the latest video is comitted to SD card. It will force-commit if the video signal is lost but the DVR still has power, so I'm hoping that just whacking a humungous capacitor on the output of the DVR's 5v voltage regulator will keep it alive for a second - enough for the DVR to recognize that the video signal is gone and force-commit the video.

The chase-cam recorder has that if you order one with.... capacitors. Indeed they keep it up for a while after loss of external power is detected. From what I gathered from reading their forums they recently implement full suite of features for always-on record at power on, stop at power off. Perfect.

The chase-cam recorder has that if you order one with.... capacitors. Indeed they keep it up for a while after loss of external power is detected. From what I gathered from reading their forums they recently implement full suite of features for always-on record at power on, stop at power off. Perfect.

The portable DVR setup I'm testing starts recording automatically and shuts down automatically too.