Dashcams!

Soldato
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5 Jan 2009
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I have a Thinkware F770, now superseded by the F800
I paid £250 for front and rear, they are possibly less now id imagine

I don't suppose you could point me towards all the little extra bits needed? I'll be using the fuse piggy back method, but I'm not sure if I need one or two adapters, plus any extra fuses etc.

Cheers!
 
Soldato
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On the Amiga500
I don't suppose you could point me towards all the little extra bits needed? I'll be using the fuse piggy back method, but I'm not sure if I need one or two adapters, plus any extra fuses etc.

Cheers!
All you need is 2x piggyback fuse kits, they come with a 10amp mini fuse included, thats if you're hard wiring to have parking recording. Everything else comes in the dashcam box. If you weren't intending on parking recording you don't need to permanent live it. You could always just plug into the cigarette lighter to start.
 
Soldato
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All you need is 2x piggyback fuse kits, they come with a 10amp mini fuse included, thats if you're hard wiring to have parking recording. Everything else comes in the dashcam box. If you weren't intending on parking recording you don't need to permanent live it. You could always just plug into the cigarette lighter to start.

Thanks. I was just about to order the F800 Pro, but by the time I order it, the install kits, and a 64GB SD, it's going to be £300. It's getting silly, so I think I might rethink and look at more basic models.
 
Associate
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Thanks. I was just about to order the F800 Pro, but by the time I order it, the install kits, and a 64GB SD, it's going to be £300. It's getting silly, so I think I might rethink and look at more basic models.
In that case, I'd recommend the Thinkware F100-2Ch. Put one in my wifes car and it does a perfectly good job. Only thing it misses over my F770 is the GPS.
 
Underboss
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I don't suppose you could point me towards all the little extra bits needed? I'll be using the fuse piggy back method, but I'm not sure if I need one or two adapters, plus any extra fuses etc.

Cheers!

All i ordered sesperately was this :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-Bla...982170?hash=item2ccc0d42da:g:h8AAAOSwTiRZfODn

"Mini Fuse Tap"

i put this into the "ignition live"
just make sure you put the fuses the right way around

I think iirc, the one currently in the car you put at the TOP , and another fuse in the BOTTOM
I may be wrong thogh

I asked for help on the Ford Owners Club for my vehicle before I did anything
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Aug 2005
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3,340
Hi, i have a few questions.
Do most dashcams use the same power plug into the camera?. ie when i sell the car i could leave it hard wired up as a feature.
When you hardwire to the fusebox, is there a way to turn it off overnight or do you need to unplug the camera.
Would full HD at 60fps be better than 2560x1440 at 30fps, motion blur seems to be the main reason number plates aren't readable.
 
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Associate
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Stafford
Hi, i have a few questions.
Do most dashcams use the same power plug into the camera?. ie when i sell the car i could leave it hard wired up as a feature.
When you hardwire to the fusebox, is there a way to turn it off overnight or do you need to unplug the camera.
Would full HD at 60fps be better than 2560x1440 at 30fps, motion blur seems to be the main reason number plates aren't readable.

If hardwired it will either turn off with the ignition or the camera will go into parking mode as it senses the voltage drop. It will be fine over a few days in parking mode. The F770 and some others can be set to turn off at a certain voltage and/or after so many hours.

Even 60fps can be blurred under certain circumstances and lighting at speed. But low speeds when you need it 0fps will be all you need anything else is a bonus.
 
Associate
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Normally the reason number plates are unreadable is due to poor/low lighting and a higher frame rate is actually worse since you now have less time (light) per frame and less time for any image processing to try and help the dynamic range. 60fps will look nicer and be good in the day, but I'd always stick to 30fps myself for better low light performance.
 
Soldato
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Might get the Thinkware 770, will give cashgenerator etc a visit and make sure they dont have many of them in there, if they do that shows they're a target for thieves. Shame it doesn't seem to have dropped in price since it came out in 2016.
I wonder why the higher end cams dont have a hardcoded serial and locked on GPS, would make stealing it pointless.
 
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Soldato
Joined
19 Jun 2004
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On the Amiga500
Might get the Thinkware 770, will give cashgenerator etc a visit and make sure they dont have many of them in there, if they do that shows they're a target for thieves. Shame it doesn't seem to have dropped in price since it came out in 2016.
I'd be interested to know if that was the case. To me, a suction cup mounted unit clearly on show would be a more likely target. The F series are more discreet and a little more difficult to remove, particularly the wiring.
 
Soldato
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Hi,
I can see the hardwire cables etc for the thinkware 770 on amazon but i can't find the cable for the rear cam, anyone know where i can buy one of those? I want to wire it up while i wait to have the money for the actual cams.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jun 2004
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19,437
Location
On the Amiga500
Hi,
I can see the hardwire cables etc for the thinkware 770 on amazon but i can't find the cable for the rear cam, anyone know where i can buy one of those? I want to wire it up while i wait to have the money for the actual cams.
? When you purchase the cameras, the wiring kit is included. The rear cam is fed by a really long USB cable that plugs into the front facing camera. It gets its power from that.

To clarify: buy the 2ch camera kit and buy a fuse tap. That's all you will need. Do you want me to upload some photos of my install to put your mind at rest?
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jun 2004
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19,437
Location
On the Amiga500
@smilertoo here's mine.


0u2zDLV.jpg

Here is the front camera and from it come 2 black cables, they are both included in the box when you purchase it. One is the power lead that you will take to your fuse box, the other is the USB lead that you will take to the rear facing camera.

DWbMU8H.jpg

My fuse box is in the passenger footwell. This is where I take the first black lead from the front camera. You can see the black cable in my hand and this comes readily split for you. One is for constant power (yelllow, labelled with "battery". One is red, which will be powered when you switch the ignition and is labelled "ACC". Lastly, the black one is a ground cable.

ajQIh5h.jpg

Here you can see the red and yellow power cables crimped into 2x fuse taps. Simply refer to your car manual to identify a fuse that is constantly powered and one that come on with the ignition and use the tap in them.

M8QI9vg.jpg

Ig1K6x8.jpg

This is the rear camera, the cable is a little thick but it wasn't too difficult to feed along my car roof lining and into my boot lid where is meets the rear camera that is stuck on the rear windscreen.

Pvxq2rH.jpg

After seeing these pics, one thing's for sure, my car is filthy inside and out.
 
Soldato
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4 Aug 2005
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3,340
I'm in a honda jazz, no fancy mirror mount, just a mirror stuck to the windscreen. I'm a new driver so my yearly insurance is more than the car cost. :(
The F770 hardwire kit doesn't include the two fuse taps does it?
 
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