Dashcams!

Avalon · 5 Jul 2019 at 11:24

iMacMart said:
Guys the in-laws dashcam just gave up, any half decent ones on amazon for £30-£50 I can buy on prime?

Scroll up a little, A119v2 is slightly over budget, Yi Dashcam is low end but slightly more intrusive to install etc. others options are available.

acemastr · 11 Jul 2019 at 13:53

My Roav C1 Pro's battery has bloated so much it popped the screen out! Wondered what a rattling noise was and couldn't find it, looked at the dashcam and it's all hanging out! Amazon reviews are all saying the same thing now (they were 5star when I bought it)

BigDannyO · 11 Jul 2019 at 14:51

iMacMart said:
Guys the in-laws dashcam just gave up, any half decent ones on amazon for £30-£50 I can buy on prime?

Avalon said:
Scroll up a little, A119v2 is slightly over budget, Yi Dashcam is low end but slightly more intrusive to install etc. others options are available.

I bought the Yi one a couple of weeks ago as something cheap to stick in and forget about and have no complaints so far. It's pretty bare bones so don't expect any features, not even a parking mode. The quality is pretty good though in most conditions. My windscreen is long enough so that I could tuck the camera right up behind the mirror so it's pretty onubtrusive.

I pulled this from this morning, it made me smile:

Rroff · 11 Jul 2019 at 15:16

Do we have a thread for footage?

Had a couple of impatient drivers today heh:

I was on the brakes and they'd been following behind me so not like they could have mistaken me for parked. (Lucky as well I didn't just follow on the vehicle ahead without looking behind me or the RAV4 would have had nowhere to go and definitely come off worse).

For some reason when I converted to AVI the aspect ratio got broke and I don't have the original footage to hand to reprocess.

ShiWarrior · 11 Jul 2019 at 17:34

I've had that, just by me there's a shop on a right corner with a parade of shops, people park all along there, and even after shops end they park along the road , it's so difficult to get through most days, people wizz past people, think I've deleted most of the footage now, I don't bother saving them anymore, can't be bothered to upload them all the time lol

Rroff · 11 Jul 2019 at 18:33

ShiWarrior said:
I've had that, just by me there's a shop on a right corner with a parade of shops, people park all along there, and even after shops end they park along the road , it's so difficult to get through most days, people wizz past people, think I've deleted most of the footage now, I don't bother saving them anymore, can't be bothered to upload them all the time lol

I don't usually bother but there was a situation earlier on - nothing very interesting but I was academically wondering how other people would have approached it and had been contemplating posting the video from it and then a bit later that happened.

EDIT: Should have included this bit in the video - as I was going out the other end of the village from the video above this guy just parks on the junction sticks the hazards on and jumps out right infront of me - good thing nothing was coming the other way - no wonder there is a huge dent in the van:

Rroff · 12 Jul 2019 at 02:17

So this is what got me originally thinking about uploading some video today - nothing at all interesting but I'm curious what other people's take would be as I don't really have good instincts for stuff like this

I could see this was going to happen a mile off right from where the video starts and with the traffic coming up behind me, who were already reacting and moving over to lane 2 if not already, the Audi would have been sitting behind the scooter for awhile but was it really advisable to slow down and let them in - potentially disrupting, though very slightly as they were still catching up on me, the traffic behind who might not have expected me to slow down - or would it have been better just to keep up with the traffic and leave the driver to his fate so to speak?

jpaul · 12 Jul 2019 at 18:25

Rroff said:
or would it have been better just to keep up with the traffic and leave the driver to his fate so to speak?

looking at your video - is showing the speed optional ? if the guy had cut into you say, your speed would probably count in his conviction
when you watch it yes the guy was getting impatient with his indicator to pull out and overtake the bike going up the incline, so presumably the gap you had left was a bit more generous than others in the 'train' so he chose you, and it was a fait accompli. ... if it were a 90mph train that would be bad !

Rroff · 12 Jul 2019 at 18:32

jpaul said:
looking at your video - is showing the speed optional ? if the guy had cut into you say, your speed would probably count in his conviction
when you watch it yes the guy was getting impatient with his indicator to pull out and overtake the bike going up the incline, so presumably the gap you had left was a bit more generous than others in the 'train' so he chose you, and it was a fait accompli. ... if it were a 90mph train that would be bad !

I don't have the GPS module for the camera needed for speed to show.

I'm not complaining about the behaviour of the other driver - I intentionally slowed down and flashed him to let him out - partly out of consideration and partly because his driving earlier had been a touch erratic and I didn't want him suddenly pulling out on me.

I'd seen from his driving earlier - very late reactions and starting to pull out before checking mirrors, etc. that he'd almost certainly end up in this situation once getting behind the moped - I knew from about the start of the video that he'd likely end up caught behind it unable to pull out. (I suspect probably a novice driver).

What I'm curious about - kind of like how some people just seem to know what to do on the dance floor seemingly without hesitation and for others it is a complete mystery - I don't really have good instinct for situations like this - my dad for instance would have taken a course of action here without second guessing himself, etc. while for me I'm not really sure whether the best thing to do (or even if there is a best thing) was to just continue past with the traffic or intentionally slowdown potentially causing drivers behind to have to react.

Steampunk · 12 Jul 2019 at 21:02

Rroff said:
What I'm curious about - kind of like how some people just seem to know what to do on the dance floor seemingly without hesitation and for others it is a complete mystery - I don't really have good instinct for situations like this - my dad for instance would have taken a course of action here without second guessing himself, etc. while for me I'm not really sure whether the best thing to do (or even if there is a best thing) was to just continue past with the traffic or intentionally slowdown potentially causing drivers behind to have to react.

There's a few things going on here.

1. Space. Leaving space means more time to decide, react, is more thinking time, braking time, etc. It makes your decisions easy, because they are not in a last moment panic. I find people who do most of their driving in cities are often caught out when having to deal with fast roads where things happen much further in front of you.

2. Anticipation. People who don't look far enough up the road get caught out. They are looking at what is going on, not what is likely to happen. They accelerate up behind a slow moving vehicle, and then get stuck unable to move out and overtake, because the rest of the traffic is moving faster. They didn't look up the road far enough, they didn't anticipate that they would close on the slow moving vehicle, and then need to move to an overtaking lane. If they had, they could have done is sooner, more easily, and maintained momentum.

3. Momentum. On faster roads, momentum is important. You want to keep a flowing progress, not being at a vastly different speed to the traffic around you. You don't want to get behind something slower, and then not have the momentum to join faster traffic and overtake.

I would not have slowed down for the blue car (unless I was almost as slow already), because on a fast road like that, you can't get into the outside lane and slow down because cars behind you can be caught out. As soon as you are doing unexpected things (like not taking your right of way or making progress at the expected speed) people can get very confused and start driving unpredictability. Your "driving body language" becomes difficult to anticipate for those around you. Someone might have come up behind you as you were slowing, and then had to swerve around you and hit the blue car or moped they'd been unsighted of.

Ideally you want to control those around you by they way you drive and position your car so that they understand what you are going to do, and respond accordingly.

So, to answer your more general question on how people know what to do, everyone on the road has a kind of "driving body language", and you can anticipate what they might do based on that. You did it yourself when you saw that the blue car was being somewhat poorly driven. Like a lot of skills, some people have a natural, instinctive ability to read the traffic conditions and the drivers around them. Some people can learn those skills. Some people are hopeless and never really have an understanding of traffic and unknowingly rely on everyone else around them to not get squashed. [*]

Let's face it most people pass their tests and then never give a second thought to how they drive, improve their skills or learn from their mistakes.

[*] I saw it happen today. A car in front of me cruised up a slip road to the A40 at about 35-40 mph and made no effort to accelerate. At this point I hung far back and left a lot of space because I knew he was a poor driver. The guy cruised into the inside lane, oblivious to the very large DHL arctic doing 50-60 in the same lane, and didn't bother to accelerate to NSL speeds. The DHL truck driver was caught out, and closed very rapidly. Although he'd left plenty of space, he was obviously expecting the car driver to actually speed up to join the traffic. Instead, he had to do a quick swerve and lane switch to overtake (luckily there was no one in the middle lane). On passing the car, it was a little Indian man with earphones in, dancing and singing with with music, and not realising how close he came to getting crushed into the front of an arctic.

I saw it all happening before it came together, and stayed well clear until the scene unravelled safely.

jpaul · 12 Jul 2019 at 21:57

Steampunk said:
I would not have slowed down for the blue car

also depends on how you appraise the driver behind you, if they were driving responsibly not right up your boot, then irresponsible to upset them,
more usually the person behind is too close and wants to do 75mph - I may tap the brakes in situations like that, to make the guy behind aware of whats coming up , he drops back, so there is no surprise if you brake more sharply, they may then characterise you as a poor driver so are more alert - reverse pyschology.
the blue car may have pulled out through frustration/immaturity anyway as soon as the car in front of you had cleared them , so letting your foot off the accelerator may have been the best choice.

probably have never flashed someone though (edit : in a situation like that) .. can always be misinterpreted

Rroff · 12 Jul 2019 at 22:18

Steampunk said:
There's a few things going on here.

1. Space. Leaving space means more time to decide, react, is more thinking time, braking time, etc. It makes your decisions easy, because they are not in a last moment panic. I find people who do most of their driving in cities are often caught out when having to deal with fast roads where things happen much further in front of you.

2. Anticipation. People who don't look far enough up the road get caught out. They are looking at what is going on, not what is likely to happen. They accelerate up behind a slow moving vehicle, and then get stuck unable to move out and overtake, because the rest of the traffic is moving faster. They didn't look up the road far enough, they didn't anticipate that they would close on the slow moving vehicle, and then need to move to an overtaking lane. If they had, they could have done is sooner, more easily, and maintained momentum.

3. Momentum. On faster roads, momentum is important. You want to keep a flowing progress, not being at a vastly different speed to the traffic around you. You don't want to get behind something slower, and then not have the momentum to join faster traffic and overtake.

I would not have slowed down for the blue car (unless I was almost as slow already), because on a fast road like that, you can't get into the outside lane and slow down because cars behind you can be caught out. As soon as you are doing unexpected things (like not taking your right of way or making progress at the expected speed) people can get very confused and start driving unpredictability. Your "driving body language" becomes difficult to anticipate for those around you. Someone might have come up behind you as you were slowing, and then had to swerve around you and hit the blue car or moped they'd been unsighted of.

Ideally you want to control those around you by they way you drive and position your car so that they understand what you are going to do, and respond accordingly.

So, to answer your more general question on how people know what to do, everyone on the road has a kind of "driving body language", and you can anticipate what they might do based on that. You did it yourself when you saw that the blue car was being somewhat poorly driven. Like a lot of skills, some people have a natural, instinctive ability to read the traffic conditions and the drivers around them. Some people can learn those skills. Some people are hopeless and never really have an understanding of traffic and unknowingly rely on everyone else around them to not get squashed. [*]

Let's face it most people pass their tests and then never give a second thought to how they drive, improve their skills or learn from their mistakes.

[*] I saw it happen today. A car in front of me cruised up a slip road to the A40 at about 35-40 mph and made no effort to accelerate. At this point I hung far back and left a lot of space because I knew he was a poor driver. The guy cruised into the inside lane, oblivious to the very large DHL arctic doing 50-60 in the same lane, and didn't bother to accelerate to NSL speeds. The DHL truck driver was caught out, and closed very rapidly. Although he'd left plenty of space, he was obviously expecting the car driver to actually speed up to join the traffic. Instead, he had to do a quick swerve and lane switch to overtake (luckily there was no one in the middle lane). On passing the car, it was a little Indian man with earphones in, dancing and singing with with music, and not realising how close he came to getting crushed into the front of an arctic.

I saw it all happening before it came together, and stayed well clear until the scene unravelled safely.

Thanks that is very helpful - the bit about doing something different to what other drivers might be anticipating would be my reaction which was having me second guess myself.

jpaul said:
also depends on how you appraise the driver behind you, if they were driving responsibly not right up your boot, then irresponsible to upset them,
more usually the person behind is too close and wants to do 75mph - I may tap the brakes in situations like that, to make the guy behind aware of whats coming up , he drops back, so there is no surprise if you brake more sharply, they may then characterise you as a poor driver so are more alert - reverse pyschology.
the blue car may have pulled out through frustration/immaturity anyway as soon as the car in front of you had cleared them , so letting your foot off the accelerator may have been the best choice.

probably have never flashed someone though (edit : in a situation like that) .. can always be misinterpreted

In this case there wasn't anyone immediately behind me or I wouldn't have slowed down like that - but there was traffic catching up fairly quickly so if I hadn't got back upto speed fairly briskly they'd have had to adjust to me slowing down and as it was would have had to take into account I had slowed down.

Dandle · 13 Jul 2019 at 23:02

To update my GW522 locked up today and just had the blue led lit when plugged in. I had to reset it with the button underneath (which didn't loose all my settings) and it came back to life. Going to have to keep an eye on it as I wonder if its a battery issue starting to raise its head.

Avalon · 15 Jul 2019 at 23:42

The A119v2 was down to £45.99 as a Prime Day lightening deal or £54.99 with the CPL filter, so I grabbed a v2+CPL for now. When the v3 prices settle down, i’ll move the v2 to the rear and drop a v3 in at the front.

ShiWarrior · 16 Jul 2019 at 08:23

I'm wanting to move up from my thinkware f770 to the q800

I'm currently having a play with front detection system, put the sensitivity on medium and it doesn't work all the well lol more of a gimmick to me

Anyone else tried FDS ?

Reality Bites · 16 Jul 2019 at 19:58

Had a couple of incidents this week, accelerated my purchase of a camera.

Is the VIOFO A129 duo set still a good purchase? £109 with Bluetooth remote but I’ll add the cpl for £12 too

DampCat · 16 Jul 2019 at 22:06

I'm after the smallest, most discreet dashcam that can be hard wired front and rear. I don't want Alexa (Jesus why?), a screen, warning systems or any of the associated gumpf (thinkware F800 Pro would otherwise be perfect). The Garmin Dashcam Mini looks alright but can't tell if it can be hardwired? Anyone know? Any other contenders?

Avalon · 16 Jul 2019 at 23:23

DampCat said:
I'm after the smallest, most discreet dashcam that can be hard wired front and rear. I don't want Alexa (Jesus why?), a screen, warning systems or any of the associated gumpf (thinkware F800 Pro would otherwise be perfect). The Garmin Dashcam Mini looks alright but can't tell if it can be hardwired? Anyone know? Any other contenders?

Any dashcam can be hard wired, you are just running power after all. The A119 is a small camera that depending on the car can be very easily hidden.

Reality Bites said:
Had a couple of incidents this week, accelerated my purchase of a camera.

Is the VIOFO A129 duo set still a good purchase? £109 with Bluetooth remote but I’ll add the cpl for £12 too

You may want to double check that price, the standard A129 kit is a single camera at that price in the UK, to get the duo at that is cheap, to get it with the BT remote is very cheap.

ShiWarrior · 17 Jul 2019 at 13:05

DampCat said:
I'm after the smallest, most discreet dashcam that can be hard wired front and rear. I don't want Alexa (Jesus why?), a screen, warning systems or any of the associated gumpf (thinkware F800 Pro would otherwise be perfect). The Garmin Dashcam Mini looks alright but can't tell if it can be hardwired? Anyone know? Any other contenders?

one of these
https://www.blackvue.uk/collections/product-page/products/dr590-2ch

i use a thinkware F770- 2ch myself, so id recommend that or a F800 Pro too

my brother has the blackvue, its very good

Reality Bites · 22 Jul 2019 at 14:24

Avalon said:
Any dashcam can be hard wired, you are just running power after all. The A119 is a small camera that depending on the car can be very easily hidden.

You may want to double check that price, the standard A129 kit is a single camera at that price in the UK, to get the duo at that is cheap, to get it with the BT remote is very cheap.

It was a prime day deal. Duo camera kit with bluetooth remote for £110. I paid £12 for the CPL too.