I'm about to install a Next Base 312GW dashcam in Management's car and am not sure on whether I should connect it to a permanently-on source or one which is live only when the ignition is turned on.
The car is parked on the drive overnight, so it would be useful to have a recording of anyone messing with it, and the local supermarket seems to collect drivers who think they're auditioning for some kind of demolition derby.
If I was to wire it permanently-on, what would the downsides, other than an eventually flat battery, be?
I should add that it does have a 'parking mode' that responds to movement, but that needs to be set manually each time the car is parked, something I'm not sure might happen...
Funnily enough I've just installed a 512 in my van. When I installed one in Hil's car it obviously sensed the supply voltage and switched on when the alternator started, then switched off a minute after the engine was turned off. That's ideal for our purposes, but the one I just installed seems to run all the time there's a nominal 12V supply. I haven't read the instructions yet or downloaded new firmware, so I'll probably know more tomorrow. If you had one running all night you'd over-write previous recordings very quick. And it might make cold weather starting a bit problematic if you didn't use the car for a few days.
Parking mode needs the always on supply, the internal battery only lasts a few minutes. The battery is only there to allow it to finish writing to the card when the power goes and to let you use it as a digicam to take a few snaps of the damage.
Stationary recordings are usually triggered by a (configurable) G-shock. You get to see the offenders driving off.
From personal experience with Nextbase, make 100% sure the micro-USB power connector into the actual dashcam is properly secure. Mine had a nasty habit of cutting in and out every 10 minutes.
I'm sure Oscar Wilde would have phrased it better, but a dashcam you can't rely on, is worse than no dashcam.
I had this conversation with nextbase yesterday and the parking mode takes a 30sec video running on it's internal battery, it has a g sensor so respon ds to impact and saves the clip in the protected folder. Leaving this set o n all the time would fill the SD card fairly quickly as the sensor is rathe r sensitive, closing doors starts a 30sec clip.
I'll repeat some things I posted recently about my main dashcam (ddPai) which has a vaguely similar spec. Both these cams, I believe, use internal batteries rather than big capacitors to allow them to close down cleanly. Mine ran off a permanently powered cigar lighter socket, rather than being fully plumbed in. The supplied 12v to 5v adapter went very intermittent, so I replaced it with one that shows the 2 voltages and the current, as I had doubts about the cam internal battery. The normal current taken by the cam was 0.5A, but I started noticing it had risen to 0.8A. Taking the cam to bits, I found that the battery was bulging. I removed it, and the amps went back down to 0.5. My ddPai is now running without internal battery and the consumption is usually 0.5A, dropping to 0.2A - 0.3A in the automatic 1 frame per sec parking mode. I think the current drop is possibly because the GPS goes into standby mode, but may be totally wrong.
There are pics online of internal battery dashcams that have exploded after being in the sun in a parked car.
My dashcam was in parking mode outside the house and recorded foot and road traffic during 2 burglaries. I got pictures of recognisable people off the internal card, but in both cases the car was facing the wrong way to prove anything.
I now use the cams in both vehicles via permanently on 12v sockets, but remove the plug if the car is going to be left for some time.
I'm very enthusiastic about the 12v adapters with the current display.
Maybe some enterprising company makes an in line battery pack that charges from the car and is only used when the car is parked with a motion detection system. Most people I know find the motion sensing is either too good or does not work though. Brian
Dunno about that model but mine comes with an accelerometer which means that it takes a 10s burst if anything nudges the car. Mine is on the cigarette lighter and although it would stay live I unplug when not in use. I prefer not to add the base load on the battery unnecessarily.
Your fault if the wiring you have added ever goes wrong.
Are you sure about that?
Mine has a sticky setting that allows it to take 10-30s snatches if there are high g forces or undue vibration even when it is notionally off. The instructions are invariably in Chinglish and make no sense at all so you have to explore the menus to find out what is possible.
One thing I would advise after an incident yesterday with a deer forcing a hard emergency stop is too make sure you clamp the camera *very* firmly as otherwise you will get a picture of the sky when you have to brake really hard rather than of the road ahead.
I missed the deer by inches and was hoping for good footage but once I began to brake the camera shows the tip of its ears and a lot of sky.
I have a 512GW, and the parking mode is a one-time setting - I'd be surprised if yours is different.
I wired mine in 'always on' as I couldn't in any case get the fuse adaptor to fit in a switched fuseway (the plastic moulded edge of the box fouled it it the available positions).
It powers down, pretty well, after a set time (I think I have it at 3 minutes). I've left the car a week with no obvious battery problems (car is 30 months old, so that's the age of the battery). The only thing I notice is that I think the 'auto stop' feature on the car itself doesn't kick in as often, presumably because the battery is a little bit discharged.
The parking mode is fine, except that it will trigger every time you get in the car. Every time it's triggered, it locks the current segment of recording (default, 3 minutes) so that it isn't overwritten in the normal round robin segment re-use. Eventually all of the segments get locked, there's nothing to record on, and it starts making audible complaints. This is easy to fix - just reformat the SD card - I usually do it about every 3 weeks, but it obviously depends on usage, and the capacity of the SD card.
To be honest, it sounded like a good feature at the time, but in reality, how often is it any use. The fact there was a news item (with footage) showing an Audi being keyed a while back suggests it's more rare than not.
The one feature I am pleased I went for is a rear-facing dashcam (integral to the unit). Because a while the front facing does capture an awful lot of s**te driving, it's nowhere near as risky to me as the morons behind.
Or you know that something has happened at the sides or rear but that's all.
Bit blooming daft for the things to record 30 sec and lock that recording when you open a door. Simple enough to detect the short supply interuption(*) when the engine is turned over, say within 30 seconds of the trigger. It then unlocks that recording and carries on as normal.
(*) Almost everything "auxillary" is switched off when the starter is engaged.
Then instruction manual isn't too clear: I thought it had to be turned off to go back to video mode. Hopefully, reality on the 312 is the same as on yours.
I've yet to get that far...
Not sure what you mean by 'auto stop'.
The recommendation is to reformat regularly so that should be taken care of.
If the car is stopped in neutral, the engine stops. Press the clutch and it restarts. A fairly common feature these days.
Yes, although it needs to be fairly frequent if you are in and out of the car a lot, and the SD card isn't all that big. I got the biggest I could. They don't teally indicate what 'regularly' means, and they certainly don't recommend 'frequent' should you have parking mode enabled.
Last thing; my Nextbase wiring kit included adaptors for standard and mini fuses, but not micro fuses. easy enough to get, but NextBase sent me one FOC.
We're getting a lot of car break ins at the moment, right up my road. I wonder if mine is left alone because the little LED is shining from it out the windscreen?
Had some berk nearly cause an accident the other month - got it on dashcam. Would have been invaluable if he had.
make sure you get an SD card capable of handling the bandwidth. Use a reputable seller in case you get a dud/fake (I used Amazon). Apparently there are a lot of class-10s out there which aren't.
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