Soldato
Buy the cam and then let us know how you get on, I for one would be very interested.
Recommend a cheapish Dash Cam ideally with recording impacts when parked from lighter socket?
- Thread starter NeilF
- Start date
I'll have a quick look at my friends one.
It's frustrating other ones don't have this obvious feature. Personally I'd like to go for an Apeman for a cleaner looking/more subtle unit, and probably better video quality - https://www.amazon.co.uk/【Updated-Version】APEMAN-Recording-Detection-Monitoring-C-550/dp/B07GPWV9RV
or an Aukey - https://www.amazon.co.uk/AUKEY-Wide-Angle-Dashboard-Recorder-Recording/dp/B0711K92J1
Soldato
For my first venture into dash cams I went for the Viofo A119 V3 just have it connected via the cig lighter at the mo so no parking mode etc enabled.
Suppose to be a very good unit, but a tad pricey at basically £100 for me I suspect...
Soldato
I got on Black Friday when it was down to £59.99, wish I had got another now for the wifes car now. I've not really used it much but the clips, daytime only, that I have reviewed do seem really good. For me the acid test was to see if I could read the plates of other cars as I was driving around and in most cases I could get the plate cleanly. I need to look at some night time clips to see if the plates can also be read.
I often leave my primary car for days... So I really don't want the hassle of stressing the battery.
If there's a dashcam that can offer (to some degree) a feature where it can (using its own internal battery) record for a few seconds if an impact is detected while it's unpowered via the lighter socket (eg: parked), that's a nice secondary feature for me. eg: The unit in #9.
However, the quality of the dash cams footage and features remain my primary driver.
Note: I emailed Apeman, and they said all their cameras offer this feature - recording on their internal battery while parked. Frankly I don't think that's the case, so I've gone back for clarification.
Soldato
If you look at the size of the cams and look inside there's not much space for a battery or capacitor that could provide running the cam off the battery for hours. There are other ways of doing this by installing a dedicated battery so the cam runs off that and the car when running charges this separate battery but these things cost hundreds. Another way is to install a lipo battery and then a dedicated parallel charge circuitry but again the costs start to escalate.
There's seemingly not much room in a phone for all its gubbins, yet it can happily function for hours... Again check #9, that unit seems to offer at least a modicum of impact coverage while not under charge.
As for installing a dedicate battery, for a "nice to have?" - As you point out, that's hundreds of pounds and I wouldn't see as worth it personally.
Well an
A response from Petzio support seem to confirm this dashcam can record some footage while the car is parked, and no power is being supplied to the dashcam from the lighter socket it uses:-
"When the car is parked, the Gravity sensor is still on: when it is triggered, the internal battery will supply the power to the camera then shoot a video."
Odd how this isn't a fairly standard feature across most dash cams TBH. eg: Allow at least a minute or two to be recorded off the internal battery if required (eg: G-sensor is triggered while parked).
I'm half looking, but would like one that could, also, be powered from a USB battery pack, to ensure it would not take-out the car battery,
does the Petzio do that ? the amazon page which says 5V/1A would suggest it might.
The alternative, of either having a device that cuts off the car battery if the battery drops beneath a particular voltage, or even a 5V to 12V step up
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071X6VYXR (inefficient), seem less desirable.
does the Petzio do that ? the amazon page which says 5V/1A would suggest it might.
The alternative, of either having a device that cuts off the car battery if the battery drops beneath a particular voltage, or even a 5V to 12V step up
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071X6VYXR (inefficient), seem less desirable.
From my understanding, most dash cams that can monitor a vehicle (eg: record a collision) while parked, require wiring into the car (eg: fuse box) so are powered 24/7. The risk then is, over a long period of time (eg: you go on holiday for a week) they drain your battery. Therefore you need extra stuff (typically in the wiring kit) to ensure they don't drain the battery too much.
The alternative is to introduce a battery back which charges while you drive, and powers the dash cam (eg: then overnight). The problem is these need to be specialised (you can't use regular USB battery packs). These are expensive.
So most dash cams cannot record when parked unless wired to power them 24/7. It seems this cheap and cheerful Petzio (see post #9) is one of the only ones to instead just be powered by the lighter socket (eg: while the ignition is on) but can still have an attempt at recording an impact while your vehicle is parked at night (using its own internal battery power).
Soldato
70 mai dashcam pro. Been using this for about a year it runs on its internal battery/capacitor for parking mode and lasts about 2 days on it.
Thanks for the heads up on that one. It's a more "stealth" install instead of a suction cup, which I prefer!
It's a slighly low FOV (eg: 140 degrees instead of 170). Can you set it to turn off the screen after say 30s so it's not distracting (especially at night)?
QUESTION: If you have the parking sensor on, does this not record a "parking event" everytime you get into the car? ie: Open/close the door (before turning the ignition on)?
Thoughts on it?
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Soldato
Hi, Yes you can have it turn the screen off and it does this as default i think. I have it behind the mirror so dont actually see the screen and forget its there. When you get in the car if its seen anything it says new parking surveillance please watch but you can turn this off as well. Not noticed it doing anything when I close the door so it might wait a few seconds after power down to start the camera.
Sorry, I meant, obviously if you go away for an hour and then come back, the process of opening the door, getting in and slamming the door shut must be construed as a "movement" (impact?), so does this mean when you turn the ignition on 5 seconds later, the device (always) reports a parking event (ie: you getting into the car 10 seconds earlier)? Because obviously that would be annoying and counter productive? Or does it ignore a "parking event" if the ignition is turned on within a sensible period of time?
Soldato
Sorry been away for the weekend. I did have parking mode on while away. I found that if you slam the door it does indeed say you have a new parking surveillance file but just unlocking and getting in and closing the door without a big thud did not. Found no way to adjust sensitivity for the parking mode specifically so I think it takes the G sensor setting that you can change.
And I bet it doesn't tell you the date and time of the first "parking event" on the screen does it? Because that would be too obvious
ie: If the first parking event it recorded was 5 seconds ago, then clearly there's nothing of interest. But if it was 5 minutes, it would be.But I bet it doesn't show the data time of the first event, because people who design these things just struggle to do full user designs
ps: The 70mai seems to have very good optics for its price! Shame no rear camera support.