So I have commitment issues. I don't like making permanent changes to my cars. I don't like doing something which, if I change my mind later, would take a lot of effort to change back or would leave behind permanent potentially negative traces of what I did.

So it's a big deal for me to stick even a 3M tape pad to the part of the windshield where the little dots are around the rearview mirror area. I worry that if I have to remove what I've stuck on there, it will take some of the little dotted stuff with it. What if in a year I want to put in a different bracket? LOL! Silliness, I know. Consequently, I tend to use suction cup mounts for items that would be less obtrusive with a permanent mount.

But anyway, over the weekend I got out my plastic tools and ran the USB power cord for my dashcam in the Accent. I tucked the cable into the headliner, ran it down the A pillar, inside the edge of the door molding, then under the dash across the driver's side, along the side of the center console tunnel, across the tunnel just aft of the gear shift knob to the passenger side, out that side of the plastic and then into the little accessories area on the dash where the 12 volt power socket is. I did all of this without having to remove any panels and only by fishing or tucking the wire. It did require a little bit of contortionism though when it came to securing a zip tie under the driver's side dash. Anyway, I'm reasonably happy with the results and no holes were drilled or anything.

With that done, now I knew I needed to finally make that last bit of commitment and adhere the permanent mount to the windshield. I know for a fact it won't come off easily, so now that it's in... . Body shop guy really had to go after it on the Yaris to get my other mount (same 3M tape too) off of it after the Yaris was totaled. Anyway, there it is... done now. And I'm happy with the results.

From inside the car in the driver's seat, you can't even see the camera so you can't be distracted by it and a cop can't ticket me for having a "driver facing" video device since it isn't physically viewable (plus it's within the specified area where you can mount stuff on the windshield). From the outside, all you can see is the silver areas on the camera which I think I'll be taking a Sharpie to this evening.













Next installment... you say I don't have Torque? Well, I say I DO! The Torque app, that is. On my phone... and paired up to the bluetooth OBD2 reader which can tell me all sorts of stuff about my car and log it too. Very cool sh!t. Can't wait to hook that up to the S2000 or the Lotus (particularly the Lotus, actually) and see what it tells me.

 

What brand of camera is that?

btw, nice install.

 

^^ It's a generic camera. I got that one on Amazon in Nov 2012. You can find it on ebay and other sources, but beware that many manufacturers make this generic camera so the quality and pricing vary a great deal. And it isn't what I would get if I were purchasing now anyway. If I were purchasing now, I would probably get the Mobius or the Mini 0801 with GPS. And in 6 months, I will probably have a new favorite. The industry changes quickly. I have two units like the one in the pics and I have a Blackvue dr500gw-hd. I have a permanent mount for the blackvue in my S2000 complete with the Power Magic Pro unit, and I rigged up a suction cup mount for the blackvue for occasional use in the Lotus too. However, most of the time I only have the second of the generic units in the Lotus. I just do multiple cameras when we do canyon runs.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

What I like most about the generic one is that I didn't spend gobs on it so I'm not heartbroken as the technology changes. Additionally, I can position it easily because of the video display on it (blackvue has no display so you have to use the wifi feed to a cell phone to get it positioned initially). I liked it so much that not only did I get the second one, but I got one as a birthday present for my field tech too.

I spend a little time reviewing the dashcam forums and I really do love this guy who does video reviews at www.techmoan.com. His reviews are great, very detailed, and he's really quite funny at times too. Love his accent... the vocal one, not the car.

 

Dumb question, but what is the point of the camera? You didn't intend this to be a track car, right?

 

As an eye witness. It's a dashcam, not a GoPro. In the event there is an altercation on the road, it is helpful sometimes to have video to show fault. With video, no one can make false claims. And I admit I do not always trust law enforcement to behave properly either. It's probably safe to say that most cops are not shady, but it would be my luck to get pulled over by one who is, so this is cheap protection/insurance.

And, actually, we have so many interesting cars driving around LA on any given day that it's fun to just have the camera always running to capture shots for which there is no opportunity to pull out a camera. Today, for instance, there was a Ferrari 458 parked in front of the place where I went to lunch.

P.S. I ran a dashcam full time in the Yaris too (this same cam, actually), and I never tracked that car either.

 

Does it write over itself? How much time does it capture before it runs out of memory?

 

I agree with your reasoning for having a camera mounted in your car. There are several things that I like about your camera selection and mounting choices:


· The camera is nonintrusive and doesn’t block your vision.

· The way you’ve mounted it is undetectable from the outside and will prevent theft attempts.

· It documents traffic situations and may act as qualified court evidence.

· Its lower cost won’t cause aggravation when it superseded by enhanced models.

· You can share your driving prowess with your S2K buddies. (thanks Roseanne)

I’m anal about preserving the originality and condition of my S2K and the mounting of your camera appeals to me – FYI a simple hair drier works wonders when removing adhesive attached components.


Enjoy.


gary

 

It records in user-configurable sized segments. I have opted for 2 minute long segments. As the microSD card fills up, the oldest segments are over-written. So technically you never really run out of memory. I will have to see exactly how many segments are on the camera right now, but of course the larger the card, the more footage you can keep. I can tell you I've had easily a weeks worth of my daily commute to the office and short trips to client sites on the cards though.

Some have asked why I chose such seemingly short segments. Two reasons: 1) on older cameras (and mine is definitely considered older now) the camera runs more smoothly and it eliminates a chance of a gap between segments if you keep segments short (even a 1/4 second gap is too much in my opinion), and 2) it's way easier to find a particular incident based on the time stamp on the file on the microSD card instead of having to load some huge 30 minute long video and fast forward to somewhere in the file. And, less importantly, it's easy to grab an unedited 2 minute clip and toss it on YouTube than to have to edit a long file in software to extract 30 seconds of an incident or footage of some car driving down the road.

I'll pull the card later and tell you total footage time I have on it.


EDIT: OK, it's later now... I pulled the card and plugged it in my PC. This happens to be an 8GB card which I repurposed from a retired cell phone and reformatted for use in the camera, but one can certainly get 16GB and 32GB cards no problem. I have a 32GB in my other generic camera (which frequently goes on the canyon drives with me in either the Lotus or the S) and a 16GB in the blackvue that lives in the S full time. Anyway, 8GB card in the daily hauler has about 3.25 hours of footage on it and it's not quite full. That equates to about a week of to/from office, a couple of client trips and short errands. That's enough for what I need, but if I start running the second feed that it supports (a separate lens that is just a camera on a wire which I could run to the back window for a rear view) I will probably want to get a larger capacity card.

 

Unobtrusive to the driver so I'm not distracted and relatively stealth to others are important factors to me. If I'm parking outside overnight or for awhile in a sketchy area, I slide it off the mount and pop it in a cubby in the car. It's about the size of a pack of cigarettes, which is great (smaller ones exist now though). And mounting stealthily means, if no one else knows I have it, I can choose when I want to share what it gathers.

And about the driving prowess... Heh heh heh. Well, let's just say my cameras capture a lot of footage of me commenting on my own sloppiness or just generally making disparaging remarks about others drivers who can't be bothered with turn signals or looking before changing lanes which are quickly followed by comments reminding myself that their lane changes wouldn't be a problem if I drove more defensively. I have found I talk to myself a LOT. LOL!

 

I've often thought about a combo set up which would record forward and side looking views.
So when when I pass a guy reading a book I will have captured both his plate and the image of him reading.