Dashcams!

[-Ad-]

Hello
Long time lurker here
Does anyone have any experience of the advanced car eye 2.0 dash camera ?
Was thinking of having it fitted to an X3 that was recently purchased, did look at others makes etc but was tempted by this due to warranty issues etc?
Wanted some actual experience of the dash cam before we commit.
Thanks

https://g30.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1523311

To me it's essentially a £30 dashcam in a £300-400 BMW case.

Grab a Yi Dashcam for £40 and fit yourself. No warranty issues, run the cable around the windscreen (just push under the trim), down the A-piller and out under the glovebox into a 12V usb adapter. The X3 might have a hidden 12V socket down there, have a look.

I have 3 of these in a variety of cars and they haven't put a foot wrong (64gb Toshiba cards in each). Good quality, comes on with the ignition and has Wi-Fi to save videos to your phone. Only negative is the silver colour.

Fit and forget about it then hope you never have to use it.

 

[LiE]

Ive got the same cam, not sure if you've noticed but they draw a hec of a lot of power, if I leave it in my car on for more than 3 or 4 days it kills the battery and then im stuffed as I cant open the bonnet lol, which is fine if you use your car daily etc but as I use mine once a week if I forget to unplug it then I have to call the aa.... and no its not the battery as since fitting a nextbnase 312gw its been fine leaving it over a week (my car unfortunately has a constant live)

I use my car daily so wouldn’t have noticed it. Have you heard of this happening to others ?

 

[Bradmax57]

I use my car daily so wouldn’t have noticed it. Have you heard of this happening to others ?

I've also got the same cam in my vw caddy van which it also flattened, took a bit longer but still went flat, I only noticed how much when I tested them at work on a power bank, the Yi Dashcam drained the 21000mah pack in about 30 hours whereas the Nextbase only used 1 out of 6 of the light bars worth of power

 

[LiE]

I've also got the same cam in my vw caddy van which it also flattened, took a bit longer but still went flat, I only noticed how much when I tested them at work on a power bank, the Yi Dashcam drained the 21000mah pack in about 30 hours whereas the Nextbase only used 1 out of 6 of the light bars worth of power

Interesting, I'll have to look into this some more. I'm not sure if both my V12 sockets are always on.

Edit:

The manual for my car states that the V12 sockets are only powered when the ignition is on. I'll ask my brother to confirm as well since he is a VAG Mastertech.

 

[PlacidCasual]

Hi Peeps

I'm in the market for a dash cam and GPS navigator as I'm about to start doing a lot more Motorway and A road driving as part of my job. We have a Garmin Nuvi something or other which I'm quite happy with but it's my wife's but I would be happy to go with the same make but open to alternative.

I'd also like a dash cam front and rear. I'm worried about overkill in the window though with a GPS and dash cam.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[Bradmax57]

Interesting, I'll have to look into this some more. I'm not sure if both my V12 sockets are always on.

Edit:

The manual for my car states that the V12 sockets are only powered when the ignition is on. I'll ask my brother to confirm as well since he is a VAG Mastertech.

Both my 911 and caddy are always on which is a bot of a pain when it comes to this, i only use the car once a week at most normally so have to remember to unplug it, then 9/10 i forget to pug it back in

 

[sad099]

https://g30.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1523311

To me it's essentially a £30 dashcam in a £300-400 BMW case.

Grab a Yi Dashcam for £40 and fit yourself. No warranty issues, run the cable around the windscreen (just push under the trim), down the A-piller and out under the glovebox into a 12V usb adapter. The X3 might have a hidden 12V socket down there, have a look.

I have 3 of these in a variety of cars and they haven't put a foot wrong (64gb Toshiba cards in each). Good quality, comes on with the ignition and has Wi-Fi to save videos to your phone. Only negative is the silver colour.

Fit and forget about it then hope you never have to use it.

Ok - thanks for the info.
I've seen the YI cams and there are a few -which one would you recommend.
Looking for front and rear, also need it to record if we are not in the car i.e someone hits the car in a car park, or break in attempt etc - as have experienced both of these

 

[LiE]

Only negative is the silver colour.

A little spray paint does the trick

I've spray painted it black, the grey was a little too glaring.

 

[Quartz]

Ive got the same cam, not sure if you've noticed but they draw a hec of a lot of power, if I leave it in my car on for more than 3 or 4 days it kills the battery and then im stuffed as I cant open the bonnet lol, which is fine if you use your car daily etc but as I use mine once a week if I forget to unplug it then I have to call the aa.... and no its not the battery as since fitting a nextbnase 312gw its been fine leaving it over a week (my car unfortunately has a constant live)

Let me guess, you have a VW / Skoda / Audi. I had the same problem. The 12v supply is always on. I solved it - after having had to replace the car battery - by getting an OBD power cable like this one.

 

[LiE]

Let me guess, you have a VW / Skoda / Audi. I had the same problem. The 12v supply is always on. I solved it - after having had to replace the car battery - by getting an OBD power cable like this one.

I have an Audi and it's controlled by the ignition. When I turn off the ignition the cam turns off.

 

[Quartz]

I have an Audi and it's controlled by the ignition. When I turn off the ignition the cam turns off.

Is your dashcam plugged into the cigarette lighter?

 

[LiE]

Is your dashcam plugged into the cigarette lighter?

Yea.

 

[Finglonga]

Surely you want it to have power for parking mode? Either get a dashcam that turns off if the battery gets low or buy a Power Magic Pro unit to do it instead.

 

[Draeger]

Hi all,

I purchased two Yi Mini dashcams at Xmas from the rainforest place as they were on offer at a discounted price. Very basic camera with no frills but decent performance, good enough for my needs at least. However tonight one of them (the one in the wifes car) has started powering up and then immediately powering down and shutting off when you turn the ignition on. BUT......if I take the memory card out it powers up fine/as normal. Memory card back in and it shuts down.

Any ideas? I'm going to swap memory cards over (32Gb Samsung Evo Select type currently in there) to see if it is simply a card issue. Anything else to look for? Thanks.

 

[stoofa]

Surely you want it to have power for parking mode? Either get a dashcam that turns off if the battery gets low or buy a Power Magic Pro unit to do it instead.

Exactly, I was getting a little confused by people wanting to have some kind of camera activity when the vehicle was parked, but not going for a system that monitors battery voltage and makes sure it doesn't run it flat.
I have Thinkware cameras front & rear. Camera has proximity sensor, so when parked, if anything gets too close the camera switches on. Then, if it detects impact, it saves that clip to an area of memory that isn't overwritten on the usual oldest first basis.
If battery voltage drops below a certain threshold the camera completely shuts down.

 

[Draeger]

Hi all,

I purchased two Yi Mini dashcams at Xmas from the rainforest place as they were on offer at a discounted price. Very basic camera with no frills but decent performance, good enough for my needs at least. However tonight one of them (the one in the wifes car) has started powering up and then immediately powering down and shutting off when you turn the ignition on. BUT......if I take the memory card out it powers up fine/as normal. Memory card back in and it shuts down.

Any ideas? I'm going to swap memory cards over (32Gb Samsung Evo Select type currently in there) to see if it is simply a card issue. Anything else to look for? Thanks.

Sorted, appears to have been a dodgy SD card. Swapped it over to a different one and the dash cam is working fine now.

 

[Draeger]

Let me guess, you have a VW / Skoda / Audi. I had the same problem. The 12v supply is always on. I solved it - after having had to replace the car battery - by getting an OBD power cable like this one.

I've just ordered one of those to see if it is going to work ok in my car (Peugeot 4007 SUV). Having looked at the location of my OBD, I'm not sure if there will be enough clearance to close the plastic panel covering it, will depend on the dimensions of that large connector. Any idea what depth it is?

 

[Quartz]

Any idea what depth it is?

I'm too lazy to go out to my car but I think it's about an inch thick.

 

[Draeger]

Cheers dude, I'll wait until it arrives and try it out but I think I might have clearance issues if that's the case. Wouldn't be an issue as I can leave the panel off as it is behind the glovebox lid. Also, these things are just plug and play, yeah? Plug into the OBD port where it takes power and then run cable to dashcam - job done? Does it then come on and off with the ignition or is it permanently powered? Ta.

 

[Quartz]

Also, these things are just plug and play, yeah? Plug into the OBD port where it takes power and then run cable to dashcam - job done?

Correct.

Does it then come on and off with the ignition or is it permanently powered? Ta.

There's a rocker switch on top which determines the behaviour.