Dashcam for the Emira

[LIQUIX]

Yea, I also have a VIOFO. Looks like cheap Chinese street market junk but it actually works really well.

For those with the VIOFO, how is the app to download videos? App store reviews on all of these dashcam brands are horrendous so it's hard to know which has a decent app.

 

[Nova]

For those with the VIOFO, how is the app to download videos? App store reviews on all of these dashcam brands are horrendous so it's hard to know which has a decent app.

Oh, I just pop the card and play the videos on a PC. I have not tried the VIOFO downloader or video player.

 

[VL3X]

Yeah, the apps all suck honestly. I mean, the BlackVue one is getting better, but you gotta connect to the cameras via wifi, which means losing your regular connection. It works, but I'd just pop the card out and into my laptop if I wanted to batch save video files if ever needed.

 

[Nova]

Oh, one thing people should remember to do, which is to buy a high endurance SD card. Normal SD cards will fail in a few months of constant writing.

 

[DF_Toronto]

TLDR - for those who don’t want to hard wire and have a simple install in the mirror USB port what are the top options to consider? Any reasons against the Garmin 47/57/67? I bought the 67 but it’s unopened and I’m within my return window. Thx!

 

[ADC]

One thing that is interesting on the Viofo cams is that you can set it up to join your home WiFi network (once in range obviously), and view videos with a regular computer , rather than having to direct connect via the app. It's called "station mode" if you look in the settings, IIRC. I'm intending to tinker with it to see if I can script something on my home server that automatically grabs new footage onto network storage as I arrive home 🤓

That said, while their app isn't going to win user experience awards, it does the job 🤷‍♂️

 

[Emirahouston]

I’m sure I’ll be installing a dual channel camera with a supplemental battery for parked recording.

Which battery are you planing on installing and where are you storing it ?

 

[trackday14]

I’m pleased so far with the Garmin Dash Cam Mini 2…and the Garmin app is surprisingly good. I also note that it stays on while the car is turned off - so I unplug it so as to not drain the battery.

 

[silent cilantro]

It should turn off, but it takes several seconds. At least that’s the case with the connection I tapped for my radar detector.

 

[trackday14]

It should turn off, but it takes several seconds. At least that’s the case with the connection I tapped for my radar detector.

I let it go for over a minute…then I got annoyed and unplugged it.

 

[silent cilantro]

try turning the car off and locking it, it should turn off

 

[trackday14]

try turning the car off and locking it, it should turn off

I’ll give that a try when I next take out the car…though the manual states that it may drain the battery even when off…

 

[silent cilantro]

Ah interesting, I could be wrong then. I can't try it because the car is away getting ppf

 

[Porter]

I found this video very useful.

 

[_w_]

I’ll give that a try when I next take out the car…though the manual states that it may drain the battery even when off…
View attachment 39264

That’s a different socket to the one by the mirror, mine definitely turns off

 

[virtualmacho]

I’ll give that a try when I next take out the car…though the manual states that it may drain the battery even when off…

See comment to the left about locking the car.

 

[squish]

I have BlackVue cams in a couple of my cars. Today, my wife was in an accident (while driving my M3 ). 100% not her fault - guy (without a license or proof of insurance) pulled out of a gas station, crossed 3 lanes, and drove right into the side of her as she was heading straight down the road.

But when I got the camera home and pulled the footage, the only two files on the entire SD card that were corrupt were the front and rear 'event' recordings of the accident. The footage before and after the accident are all fine.

We shouldn't need the footage - it's pretty obvious what happened. But I am so pissed at BlackVue right now. What is the !@$%$ point of a dashcam when the footage you actually need isn't there but everything else is .

I wanted to expand on my previous post about this. I apologize for the rant, but maybe this will save others here of the same headache I have gone through.

TLDR; Based on my experience with the accident noted in my previous post, and my interaction with BlackVue support, I will no longer purchase, use, or advocate anyone use a BlackVue camera. I'll try my luck with their competitors instead. If you do have a BlackVue camera, I would suggest turning the sensitivity for the G-sensor in Normal mode to Off to avoid generating event files in an accident.

To add some color, I have a background of 30+ years in low-level software development across a variety of hardware platforms and operating systems.

The primary purpose (at least for me) of putting dashcams in my cars is the extra assurance I have that if an accident occurs, I have footage to better understand what happened and be able to provide that footage to law enforcement and/or my insurance provider to support my case.

Like I am sure many dashcams do, BlackVue cameras record continuously as you drive saving every 1 minute of footage as its own video file on the SD card. I presume saving the footage in small chunks like this is done to reduce the loss of data when corruption occurs on the SD card. In theory, a single bad block on the card can at most corrupt 1 file/1 minute of footage, leaving the rest of the footage intact.

When the cameras G-sensor detects an impact to your car, the system writes out a special 'event' video file containing 30 seconds of footage beginning at the time stamp 5 seconds prior to when the impact was detected. It then goes back to recording and saving normal video files in 1-minute increments. It does this for every camera attached to the system.

So, generally speaking, the only files that truly matter are the files that contain the event footage. Without those files, there is no point to having a dashcam (in my use case).

After my accident, the SD card contained 1042 video files. I have front and rear cameras, so this represents about 521 minutes or approximately 8.5 hours of footage from each camera view. Out of the 1042 video files on the SD card, only the 2 files saved as the front and rear 'event' files of my accident were corrupt and unusable. Every other file on the card plays just fine, including all the files immediately before and after the event.

BlackVue initially tried to blame this on bad sectors on the SD card. I tested the card, and it is fine. There are no bad sectors. I am also able to copy the corrupt files (and all other files) off the card with no problems.

BlackVue then asked me to upload the corrupt files so they could have their "technical team" analyze them. This turned out to be just the same CS rep trying to open and play the files himself and then confirming with me that they wouldn't play and were corrupt. Again, he suggested it was a bad SD card.

I used a high-quality SD card, as recommended. I periodically formatted the card and updated the firmware, as recommended. The SD card itself has no errors on it, and all the files on it can be copied easily. Every single video on that card is not corrupt, except the two event files pertaining to the accident. I have examined the two event files with a hex editor and compared them to the mp4 spec and to good recordings from the SD card, and it is clear that data was written to the files where it doesn’t belong, ahead of the header data. The header data itself exists, in the wrong location, and contains errors in certain fields yet some fields are valid.

It appears that something went wrong during the saving of the 2 event files, or a memory buffer that data is cached to before being written to file got corrupted. I suspect this is a bug or failure in their hardware or software. 2 out of 1042 files being corrupted, with those 2 files being unique in how they are handled by their system is highly suspect. BlackVue doesn't care. They basically said, 'shit happens, not our problem'. So, the product didn't work for the exact case it was advertised and I purchased it for.

While investigating all of this, I did notice that you can turn the sensitivity for the G-sensor in Normal mode to 'Off'. Presumably this means it won't detect an impact and record separate event files. Normal recordings should continue to be made during an accident. As long as you retrieve them before the system overwrites them with new files you should have the footage you need. I am changing this setting in the remaining cameras I have until I get around to replacing them.

 

[CHEESE]

View attachment 30889View attachment 30891Nextbase 622 mounted behind mirror. Can’t see it from drivers seat. Also have the rear camera installed

Are the slots in the mirror housing by the charger actually for holding cord excess the you have it, or is it just convenient use of ventilation?

 

[Joshbr32]

TLDR - for those who don’t want to hard wire and have a simple install in the mirror USB port what are the top options to consider? Any reasons against the Garmin 47/57/67? I bought the 67 but it’s unopened and I’m within my return window. Thx!

I like Nexar dashcams, they work very well, has app and software. It automatically uploads the videos to my phone too which is really nice. https://www.getnexar.com/the-dash-cams/

 

[KAR120C]

I bought this one. I had heard it might not work on the Escort 360c because of the amperage loss during conversion. But I got one and plugged it into a usb on another vehicle and it works just fine.

5V USB Type A to 12V RJ11 Escort / Valentine / Uniden Radar Detector Power Cord - Universal

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I'm replying to my own message with an update. I picked up the car today and connected my Escort 360c with the above mentioned step up cord. It worked just fine with no intermittent issues. I'll keep an eye on it but it's very practical.