Colinb17's kinda sorta build thread - now with 4-link and long travel

Just ordered yet another electronic goodie (thanks for spending more of my money SMKYTXN ) Dash cam this time. records on startup, records or takes photos when there is motion detected while the vehicle is off. has gps tracking/overlay. also has an accelerometer, so if you hit a certain g-force, it saves video from 15 seconds before and after the incident in a separate, locked file, that will not be overwritten, when card memeory is full. i think i may just put the rear view camera inside, to capture any break-ins, instead of trying to mount it in a way to capture a rear-end collision. the other option is to forget the second camera that it comes with, and instead, pull the feed from my existing back-up camera. some experimenting will happen.

good news is that supposedly, this one actually records HD, vs the "fake" hd that the other cheap cameras in this price range tend to record.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CY9PFRI/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I am looking forward to seeing the video quality from that unit. If it's even close to 720P I'll be upgrading mine.

Oh, and you're welcome!

 

I don't know if it'll be installed by the weekend, but i'll at least have it with me, along ith one of my laptops, so we'll at least get some nighttime and daytime samples for you.

supposedly the main camera is 1080 and the rear view is 720. being that it's only a $100 unit, i will be more than happy with true 720. 1080 would just turn it into the deal of the century.

 

Hmmm, seems someone has stolen my tow rig idea. Inestead of a trailer, i want to do this same thing, but with a duce and a half.

 

Damn, that's hot

 

Let us know how you like it please.

I'm interested in getting a dash cam but would like a review from someone I trust before I drop that amount of cash on one.

Matt

 

hoping to get it all installed tonight, so i should have an idea after the weekend. i did record a few seconds on it in the apartment last night, and my guess is that you should be able to make out license plate numbers.....but we shal see.


pictures for now:

The main camera and screen







top plug is for the auxilary camera, middle plug is charging, or corded data transfer, and the bottom plug is for the external GPS antenna (which i am actually mounting the unit from)



HDMI for viewing on an external screen; realtime or recorded. micro SD card slot. takes up to a 32 gb card. we'll see how many hours that holds before full.



here's all that it comes with:
-primary camera/screen
-auxilary camera
-auxilary camera cable extension
-GPS antenna
-suction cup mount
-non suction universal mount
-12v car charge cord
-data cord


here's how mine will likely be set up.

camera, GPS, Aux camera, and charger

The GPS antenna is installed in this picture. i put a 3m adhesive pad on the gps, to hold it to the windshield, instead of a suction cup.



Credit for this step goes to Nathan (SMKYTXN). instead of dealing with a plug, you can adapt the car charger to hard wire it into the IG1 or IG2 fuse.



only black wire i had was 10g, so while it is against my normal practice, i had to use red for ground as well. tossed black heat shrink on it every so often, so i can differentiate them.



all sealed back up, and ready for instal

 

For a second I thought you were saying you had used the 10ga wire on that Haha I have some interesting color combos going on with my wiring... you can't really use a color scheme when splicing into the ECU and such. Too bad you can't easily find 22 ga wire in random colors like pink with a blue stripe and green with a black stripe etc. Haha. Would sure make figuring out where all the red wires are going.

 

hmmmm, just realized, that if this thing ctually shoots half way decent HD video, and the battery life is more than 5 minutes after being unplugged, i've just gotten myself an hd camcorder for $100 even has 4x zoom (though it's probably digital zoom).

 

haha, no. i test fit the black 10g, and it didn't even fit out the end of the car charger. go buy the rainbow pack of heat shrink, and you'll be able to color code all of your wire terminations, regardless of shield color. it really does make life easier. hell of a lot cleaner than electrical tape too....

 

So is it supposed to plug into the 12V plug all the time? I guess you will see after finding out how long it lasts unplugged?

That is a big 12V charger connection(?) to be plugged in all the time.

Matt

 

you leave it plugged in (or spliced in in my case) all of the time. you do so to a port that cuts power when the keys are removed. when you turn on the vehicle, and supply power, it automatically turns on and starts recording. when you cut power, it goes into a battery fuled "sleep" mode, with only the motion detection active. when "signifficant" motion is detected, it will start snapping photos (good for if someone were to break into your vehicle)

 

Copy…I guess it just looks big to be poking out of the 12V plug all the time

Matt

 

that's why i soldered the wires into it. the adaptor will be stowed behind the dash somewhere. all you'll see is a couple inches of the power cord going from the headliner to the camera. everything else will happen behind the scenes.

edit: plus, my 12v has been moved from the stock location, to being tucked away inside the little cubby on the right side of the steering column.

 

Must be nice to have wiring skills. I'm pretty much on the level of a mentally retarded raccoon.

Matt

 

bah, you could do it. all it was, was two solder spots on the board, and then it's like powering and grounding anything else. toughest part is running the sire itself...

 

That camera looks pretty cool.

 

Looking forward to seeing some video from the new camera. Hopefully we won't have to wait as long as we've waited for the quad cam footage from Gilmer.

 

i got half done with putting everything together, and then my video software shit the bed i can upload the raw footage if you'd like. just a lot of dead time in it where i'm hovering with nothing going on....

 

Don't worry about it. I'm realy bad with editing, in that if I don't finish the editing within a day or two I give up on it.