Dash cams, what to get and where to get it (Q&A only)

by8auj6csd3ioq

What does "only connect to a negative ground DC supply circuit" and "not for installation to positive" mean re hardwiring dashcam with nextbase kit?

qhe0i9zvfgdou8

Greysen Abundant Terrapin wrote: »

What does "only connect to a negative ground DC supply circuit" and "not for installation to positive" mean re hardwiring dashcam with nextbase kit?

All cars in Ireland are negative earth so fire away

TheBody

A few days ago, I posted about an issue with my Nextbase 402G. The file containing the end of every journey would not open. To make matters worse, the same problem is happening with my wife's camera.

To make a long story short, the problem is the batteries in the cameras are dead.

The camera itself is just over two years old and out of warranty. However, I would expect to get longer out of a camera.

Got on to Nextbase and they admit the camera should last longer but they can't post me a replacement battery due the restrictions on posting batteries internationally.

In summary, I'm goosed. Even though I thought the 402G created excellent footage, I don't think I will get another one based on this experience.

I recommend if you are Nextbase 402G owner check your camera and see if the last file of each journey is corrupted.

TheBody

LIGHTNING wrote: »

What type of battery is in it? Can you bodge a fix?

The battery looks like this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-7V-250mAh-402035-Polymer-Li-Po-Rechargeable-Battery-For-Mp3-Bluetooth-GPS-PSP-/121826361964#shpCntId

but I don't know the exact spec of it.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

AndyBoBandy

TheBody wrote: »

Got on to Nextbase and they admit the camera should last longer but they can't post me a replacement battery due the restrictions on posting batteries internationally.

Tell them you'll post the camera to them, and they can replace the battery and send it back to you.

It's gas that people won't ship batteries internationally, yet will happily ship you a dash cam with a battery inside it!!

TheBody

I know officially batteries are not allowed in the international postal system.
Is this enforced?

Is there somewhere in Ireland I can get them?

TheBody

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Tell them you'll post the camera to them, and they can replace the battery and send it back to you.

It's gas that people won't ship batteries internationally, yet will happily ship you a dash cam with a battery inside it!!

They said I can do that but it will cost me £31.20 per camera for repair. :eek:

billbond4

How about using ParcelWizard, would nextbase send a replacement battery to the North?

TheBody

billbond4 wrote: »

How about using ParcelWizard, would nextbase send a replacement battery to the North?

I tried that too. They said they will only post to mainland uk.

Extremely disappointed with Nextbase.

by8auj6csd3ioq

@TheBody

An Post address pal will give you a uk address

TheBody

Greysen Abundant Terrapin wrote: »

@TheBody

An Post address pal will give you a uk address

Thanks for that suggestion. I called address pal and they said they problem is with the airline, not them. They said the post would be scanned at Heathrow Airport and if it was seen to be a battery, it would be returned to sender.

I've e-mailed a local electronics store to see if they can source one for me.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

TheBody

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Thanks for the suggestion. It turns out they have a live chat on their website.

Sadly they do not have a battery to suit.

I'm going to send Maplin's an e-mail now.

Riva10

I got a pair of replacement batteries from China fir a SMH10 Senna . No problem posted .

TheBody

Riva10 wrote: »

I got a pair of replacement batteries from China fir a SMH10 Senna . No problem posted .

I'm beginning to think it might be worth a punt to try that.

I hate the thought of throwing out a perfectly good camera over a battery I can get for £5 in China!

rocoma

http://www.adverts.ie/13413520

AutoMan79

Finally my Mobius cought careless neighbor ding my car with his door. Love that little thing

blade1

AutoMan79 wrote: »

Finally my Mobius cought careless neighbor ding my car with his door. Love that little thing

Hey, you can't just finish the story there!:pac:

copacetic

Hebegeebee wrote: »

I got a Thinkware F100 camera for the wife's car. My first foray into dash cams and it's fine for what it is. They're a Korean brand and supposed to be good from what I've read.

I fitted it myself and it came with the connection kit that allows for recording while parked. It's capacitor based so no battery to blow up in our searing temperature summers. There's the option to connect a rear camera too, I haven't done that yet as I wanted to see what it was like first. I didn't bother with the GPS option on it.
Will probably look at their F800 for my own car.

I have the f800, seems decent enough.

DaveyDave

AddressPal ships via boat, so they can ship batteries. At least that's how I got my Anker power bank from Amazon. Parcel Motel use airfreight so no go. Ridiculous that you literally cannot get LiPo batteries into the country. Perfectly safe to be carried onto the plane for travel across the world. I highly doubt all the airsoft, RC car and drone batteries are ferried into Ireland.

On that subject, my 402G also doesn't hold a charge and it's only a year old. On top of the recent "insert SD card error". My GoPro 4 has been charged twice a day for a year and still does me over an hour. Have 3 spare batteries though, wish that had some sort of dashcam setup!

My mam's new 212G also isn't recording over old files, it just says SD card full. A quick Google suggest a problem with the firmware and that it doesn't play nice with Class 10 cards?

Jesus NextBase are absolutely crap. Shame most dashcams are generic Chinese crap but rebranded.

grogi

DaveyDave wrote: »

AddressPal ships via boat, so they can ship batteries. At least that's how I got my Anker power bank from Amazon. Parcel Motel use airfreight so no go.

Parcel Motel uses vans - they don't cross any water...

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

grogi

Patww79 wrote: »

Has to cross water to get to them though.

Not your problem.

Riva10

TheBody wrote: »

Thanks for that suggestion. I called address pal and they said they problem is with the airline, not them. They said the post would be scanned at Heathrow Airport and if it was seen to be a battery, it would be returned to sender.

I've e-mailed a local electronics store to see if they can source one for me.

Just a thought (Oh the pain) Might be worth a try in an electronic repair shop for an mp3 battery. These would be same voltage and you do not need a very ah .

AutoMan79

blade1 wrote: »

Hey, you can't just finish the story there!:pac:

Left a note and hope he wont do it again

RootX

Our beloved RAV is for sale

https://www.adverts.ie/14572657

v240gltse

my beautiful Volvo C70. sorry to see her go
https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/my-beautiful-volvo-c70/17722486

Hasmunch

2010 Ford Mondeo
https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/ford-mondeo-2-0-tdci-140bhp/17727758

karltimber

Howdy,

have a front facing gps blackvue - works great.
But had a clown try undertake me on a roundabout last week - so time for a rear facing.

Will go with either (non-gps) F100 or the DR450.

question - what switched live fuse is there at the back of a car (octavia) to plug the cam into with a piggyback fuse ?
Or do folks route the cable to the front fuse box ?

Thx

cormie

Same situation, have iTronic ITB100HD and looking for a rear recorder now too. What made you decide between the F100 or the DR450?

karltimber

The BV because it's the same as my other - good brand & no issues.

The F100 because it was mentioned here - good recommendations and cheap (e140 odd).
I'd prefer the two single items than a dual mode one.

F100 is e135 on donedeal (new).

Question above - have you thought about connections for the rear ?

Has anyone got the F100 -what lenght cable did you get ?

AndyBoBandy

I just took delivery today of a Yi Dashcam (for my cousin), and have to say it's a lovely little dash cam, picture is spot on, and the mount is very small (sticky pad type).
Its down to £30 from £75

I think I've found a successor to the G1W I've been using for the last few years as my travel dash cam (The mount holder recess on the Yi fits the G1W suction mount perfectly (They all seem to be a standard style/size), so no worries regarding using the sticky pad in rental cars).

I was thinking about another Nextbase 112 (I got one about 3 weeks ago for the mothers car), but the picture just isn't good enough for the price, which is a pity as it's a lovely little camera and seems well built.
The Yi is £15 cheaper, and so so much better.

The DDPai mini2 is also holding up well, good picture and seems reliable so far.

Hogzy

Hey folks, I am planning on buying a Thinkware F770 Dashcam with Front and Rear cameras. I have been quoted €100 for fitting a front & rear camera and €50 for a front only camera by the official stockists of Thinkware in Ireland.

I am useless with this sort of thing and dont fancy playing around with the fusebox myself.

Is this a good price? The car is a VW CC.

blade1

Hogzy wrote: »

Hey folks, I am planning on buying a Thinkware F770 Dashcam with Front and Rear cameras. I have been quoted €100 for fitting a front & rear camera and €50 for a front only camera by the official stockists of Thinkware in Ireland.

I am useless with this sort of thing and dont fancy playing around with the fusebox myself.

Is this a good price? The car is a VW CC.

Crazy price in my opinion.
€100 is a days wages for a lot of people.
I wasn't much longer than a half an hour fitting front and back together.
Is there anyone you know who would do it for you?

Hogzy

blade1 wrote: »

Crazy price in my opinion.
€100 is a days wages for a lot of people.
I wasn't much longer than a half an hour fitting front and back together.
Is there anyone you know who would do it for you?

Dont really know anyone I would trust to do it tbh. I might just buy the thing and try install it myself. Ye folks might help me out with any fuse related questions if I do run into trouble!

blade1

Hogzy wrote: »

Dont really know anyone I would trust to do it tbh. I might just buy the thing and try install it myself. Ye folks might help me out with any fuse related questions if I do run into trouble!

It's simple.
Two wires, one you'll earth and the other you should get a suitable fuse tap to match your cars fuses and you'll connect that to either a switched live or a permanent live(whether you want the cam to come on when you turn the ignition on or always have it on).

Fuse tap here ( this may or may not be the type one to match your car) https://m.lightinthebox.com/add-a-circuit-fuse-tap-piggy-back-mini-blade-fuse-holder-apr-atc_p4498022.html?currency=EUR&litb_from=paid_adwords_shopping&country_code=ie&utm_source=google_shopping&utm_medium=cpc&adword_mt=&adword_ct=232046288833&adword_kw=&adword_pos=1o1&adword_pl=&adword_net=g&adword_tar=&adw_src_id=1463064549_854889002_47483095574_pla-324709286370&gclid=CjwKCAiAy4bTBRAvEiwAFtatHFCRFMYKVOxV8gLEAc3zXAERbWJ38t-2OVEnYDfm08YlzZLj18ajaRoCWdIQAvD_BwE

Also one of these to connect cam to fusebox and earth.
(Again you need to choose the correct type usb for your car)
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F142618222341

The only other things involved are mounting the cams and tidying the wires.

Easy Peasy!:D

JMR

2011 Insignia Estate

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/2011-vauxhall-insignia-tourer-2-0l-ctdi/17791168

moby2101

Hi,
I plan on buying a dash cam in the next few days. I don't due huge mileage but I would end up parking in hotel car parks for meetings and that's where I used to see a it of damage to the paint work and body of my previous cars, so a unit with a rear camera and parking mode are top of the list. I'm looking at Thinkware F800 Pro, it has exactly the functionality I'm looking for but the price is nuts? Any recommendations you guys might have on another model or experience of this brand would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

IrishGrimReaper

moby2101 wrote: »

Hi,
I plan on buying a dash cam in the next few days. I don't due huge mileage but I would end up parking in hotel car parks for meetings and that's where I used to see a it of damage to the paint work and body of my previous cars, so a unit with a rear camera and parking mode are top of the list. I'm looking at Thinkware F800 Pro, it has exactly the functionality I'm looking for but the price is nuts? Any recommendations you guys might have on another model or experience of this brand would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

Mad money!

Would you not consider getting 2 camera's and hardwiring them in?

I use 2 Vantrue X1's for front and rear, but only hardwired the front one. (2 cameras, 1 hardwire kit, 2 Samsung sd cards cost about £180 delivered).

moby2101

IrishGrimReaper wrote: »

Mad money!

Would you not consider getting 2 camera's and hardwiring them in?

I use 2 Vantrue X1's for front and rear, but only hardwired the front one. (2 cameras, 1 hardwire kit, 2 Samsung sd cards cost about £180 delivered).

Hi,
That's a good option, would(do you have) it be possible to have the parking mode active which I'm particularly interested in?

Apologies if it's a stupid question, just started researching dash cam technology

IrishGrimReaper

Yes there's a parking mode, and a sensitivity feature on the X1 Model anyway, I use medium sensitivity as the highest will record rain drops on the window(which meant it was recording 24/7 in Galway due to bad whether).

To use the parking mode it will need to have a continuous power source, so it'll need to be hardwired or connected to a battery source. If it's just connected by cigarette socket parking mode won't work while the car ignition is off.

Sam Quentin

Here I am a disgruntled Windows Phone owner...
Love my phone btw, but certain app seem to be totally ignored by the powers that be!?
Anyway can anyone suggest an app for my new WiFi 📶 dash cam. The app in particular that the cam suggests is WCVR-PWD.
I just don't seem to be able to find such a download for my Windows Phone.
Has anyone had any success.
Or is there a similar app that will do the job, and were can I download it safely and securely to my phone.
Thank You all.

Pique

YI 2.7" Screen Full HD 1080P60 165 Wide Angle Dashboard Camera, Car DVR Vehicle Dash Cam with G-Sensor, WDR, Loop Recording, Grey. £30 (needs PM/PW/Addresspal)

Use the Promotion button to knock $7.99 off and brings it down to £29.99 with free delivery to NI.
Techmoan gave it a good review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifPhMULpiWI

Amazon Link

joujoujou

Ordered, thanks.

AndyBoBandy

Had my 2nd YI delivered on Saturday,

1st was for my cousin and I was so impressed, I got one for myself as a back up

Great Dashcam for the money

joujoujou

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

[...]

Great Dashcam for the money

True.

If it had GPS, I'd be delighted though.

Alanstrainor

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Had my 2nd YI delivered on Saturday,

1st was for my cousin and I was so impressed, I got one for myself as a back up

Great Dashcam for the money

Just installed this on my GFs car last night. Very impressive piece of kit for the money. Almost can't believe how cheap it was. I'll get one for my car when I have money again :P

givyjoe

Do any of these exist with an internal battery? I have a crappy one with a monster long cord that looks ugly/untidy and bugs me.

Alternatively anyone good solutions for minimising the above?!

joujoujou

Route a cable under A-pillar and roof linings. Mirror would hide the rest.