I have thought about getting one for sometime…. anyone have a dashcam, if yes what features do you like/not ?
You would think all cars that have cameras would add a recorder option, yet there are only a few that do
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I was looking on eBay for one.$45 + $15 shipping. Then it needed a TF rated Micro-SD (not included) that ran another $30 at least. With tax about $100
Then a seller (the OEM I’m guessing) from China had the same exact camera, free shipping and with a Micro-SD card for a total price of $8.77
The only thing it does odd is it has a wireless connection for a rear camera that I didn’t get and occasionally when driving around get a popup that the rear camera battery is low - when I;m near a car with a compatible rear camera.
As for features this one has a movable selfie camera for the egotistic, so I just turn it around and aim it at a 45° angle to record driveways and side-streets.
The one thing it does NOT do is the suction mount doesn’t swivel enough, it’s made for a very vertical windshield like a pickup would have, and my SUV windshield is very much at a different aerodynamic angle - I had to order a suction mount for a Go-Pro and Frankenstein them together.
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Following. I too have been thinking about getting one.
My problem is my car a 2026 Honda, does not have a standard “cigarette lighter” power port. Only USB-C. So that limits my choices.
You also have to make sure the cigarette lighter is ignition controlled, not always ON.
Mine powers up & starts recording when the lighter outlet turns on, then stops and shuts down when it goes off. But it does have a battery and if the G force sensor is triggered it starts recording with the car off.
Another thing they do is if they are recording & the G force sensor detects a collision that section of video will be locked and never overwritten. The 32GB Micro-SD holds about 120 hours of recordings on mine & then starts overwriting the oldest that aren’t locked. To get around that put the Micro-SD in a PC and all the videos can be deleted.
Up in the rear view mirror area a lot of cars have power, I was going to use it so running wires down below…. Still looking at options
But do they have a power plug up there?
Or do you need to open the headliner and tap into wires?
I have never seen a power plug up there, I had a Hellcat and put a radar detector just below the mirror and was able to tap into the power up top, I think I found 12vdc but a USB would have 5vdc, I think I will open up the top and see whats there then see what power options are available on the cameras
I had a car that I opened the overhead map lights to get 12V out of, since each bulb had a 3 way switch (Off/Door/On)
Turned out there was no constant 12V up there, the On switch sent a 3.3V signal back to the vehicle control that then turned the bulb on. Also on that when activated by Door the bulbs didn’t get 12V - they only got 10.5V
Another odd one that had with bulbs was it didn’t have 2 filament bulbs for Park/Turn and Tail/Brake. It had single filament bulbs it gave 7V to for Park/Tail and 12V for Turn/Brake.
I don’t remember which SUV that was, but it’s long gone.
EDIT: Now thinking that was a Buick Rendevous, that some credit guy online verifying my identity through Equifax asked me if I ever owned a Buck Rev, and I had him spell it out saying I never heard of a Buck line of cars. No he wasn’t in America.
With newer cars having cameras for the black boxes (that they say are collision detection cameras and don’t tell you it records video in the event of a collision - along with ALL the cameras in the dashboard, roof and car pillars) there might be a constant 12V.
[About those cameras, I rented one car that if you turned the ignition off with ANYTHING on the back seat the dash showed a Check Back Seat popup, because parents seem to forget they have children in car seats, but it would go off if there was an empty Coke bottle on the seat so it wasn’t weight or seatbelt activated- so there was cameras looking at the back seat too]
I’ve had one in my 2017 Tundra for a few years now. The battery is dead, so it doesn’t record shock-based events, and the settings go to default every start up (which is fine because it defaults to recording in a loop) but it also turns sounds back on, which means it chimes at every start of the vehicle. I don’t like unnecessary noises. I did install a front camera with a toggle switch for front/rear/none cameras, it would be great if I could get a recorder for both those camera feeds, but that’s beyond my desire level of vehicle hackery.
Looking at the specs of the one below it comes with all the power options USB, USB C, and lighter… still researching
This looks good, its solar so no power cord needed Amazon sells them for 140
Interesting.
No wires - except the USB-C (with a 12 foot extension cable) run to the rear camera and that extra wire going to the lighter plug
What I would like to know is if it’s being run on solar: When does it record? Or does it record 24/7 with a 4 hour loop on a 32G SD card? Only when it senses motion on the camera? Or a motion detector in the camera along with the G detector?
I bought one last night, I will report back later with the pros and cons
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Man, if I had one for the last ten years on this job, I would have recorded no less than 5 viral videos. Drivers in Oklahoma are mostly great, but the ones that aren’t good are complete idiots. All the ones in Comanche county fall into that second group.
That’s one of the 2 reasons I got one.
- Idiot drivers to post
- I drive around Detroit Metropolitan airport a lot and actually have mine tilted up so it doesn’t record the hood of my SUV and possibly catches a plane (or 2) doing something that getting on video might be worth something to one of the local TV news departments
So 99% sure I still need to run power and the solar power is just for when the car is not on, I will try and install it the weekend