jeff_h Posted September 12, 2014 at 04:53 PM Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 at 04:53 PM I use mine almost every day. So far, nothing exciting other than the deer standing in the middle of the street, a fox crossing the road in Arlington and a school bus hitting a goose. Of course, I have lots of idiots cutting me off, running straight in the right turn only lane, and other assorted acts of bad behavior. I finally got one last week, got a Garmin 20 -- on the first day of using it I taped a driver passing a stopping school bus with the lights flashing... then 100 yards later at another stop the next driver blew through the flashing lights too.... the camera defaults to HD so the 4-minute clip is 260MB in size, otherwise I would post it. For http, that was just off of Rt 7 near Wolftrap - and at 6:30am was still mostly dark. I'm still sampling with various locations on the windshield where I like it best, but now instead of coming home and telling my wife "you shoulda seen the idiot on the road today" I popup the camera off the mount and plug it into the USB on the PC and show her exactly what I watched. Hopefully that's the only thing I'll ever need it for! Hybridbear and lonzo71 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
http Posted September 18, 2014 at 01:15 AM Report Share Posted September 18, 2014 at 01:15 AM Those idiots passing the stopped busses had better watch out. They are putting the cameras on the bus now, so the cops will see the same thing you do. That Garmin looks like a really nice unit. Does it have a viewer that allows playback with a Google map overlay? The player that I downloaded from the manufacturer's site has a viewer with an optional pop up window on the side that shows my postion on a Google map. I can also playback with Quicktime or VLC, but I don't get the map, just the lat/long readout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug0716 Posted September 18, 2014 at 05:49 AM Report Share Posted September 18, 2014 at 05:49 AM So I have a Mini 0801 that I got a couple months ago but decided to wait to install it until I get my FFE... now I wish I hadn't. Got into a minor fender bender this evening and when the cops arrived (she insisted), she lied to them about several different points that if I had video I would be able to disprove. Maybe I'll order a second one for the rear window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HotLap Posted September 22, 2014 at 05:20 PM Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 at 05:20 PM Anyone consider the Go Pro or Sony Action CAMs? I'm about to pull the trigger on the new gen Sony Action Cam bundle and would imagine it would work well as a dash cam and with my other pursuits (mt. bike, Triumph Speed Triple, etc)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexracer Posted September 22, 2014 at 07:40 PM Report Share Posted September 22, 2014 at 07:40 PM I think the main appeal of the dash cameras (over GoPro, not sure how Action cam is setup) is don't have to worry about battery power, and automatic recording over at end of memory. Go-pro you can cut a hole in the side of the case and run power from the cigarette adapter, but at the end of the memory card, you still have to either pop in a new one, erase all data, or something like that. AND you have your expensive action camera in your window all the time (more theft worthy then just a dash camera). Totally do-able, just more work is all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_h Posted September 23, 2014 at 12:20 AM Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 at 12:20 AM Here are some pics from this past weekend where I ran the wire for the Garmin 20 that I got a couple weeks ago. When I got the Garmin ($249 on Amazon so there are definitely cheaper options) I also got a 32GB memory card, so the camera records clips of 4 minutes each and after about 3 days of my long commute it then records over top of the earliest files. I'd tried it positioned on top right corner near passenger, top left corner near driver, and then settled on top center just to the left of my EZ Pass and the shroud for the lane keeping camera. That shroud made it impossible to hide the camera behind the rear-view mirror (the optimal spot), and also the textured surface on windshield that provides the glare reduction also takes up from prime area where I would have also tried - so instead of scraping off that textured surface where I would want the camera to mount (where if it doesn't work out, then that surface is now crap), I got a different mount on Amazon that allow the mount to stick over to the top left and the camera to go a bit lower and to the right, next to the EZ Pass. I also wanted a place where the cord would be mostly hidden and out of the way, and also where the camera was still accessible so I could remove it and stow it when parking in places where someone is more likely to bust the window and snatch it (meaning places except for home in the garage, and work where armed guards are 100 feet from where my car parks). I also didn't want the cord to be hanging straight down from the rear-view mirror down to the center stack to plug it in, that was OK as a temp measure while testing mount locations but I didn't want it there all of the time. The cord that came with the camera was only 6' long, so I got a 'mini-B extension cord' for another 6' (from angledcables.com) and that was plenty to reach to where I wanted, the connector at the 6' pointi is not in the best spot but it still works. The only real destructive thing that I had to do was cut a small 1/2" notch out of the plastic trim piece to feed the coard up into the A-pillar, however that part is under the rubber door trim so it should not cause any issues. The only tool needed was the one used to cut the small notch in the plastic piece, otherwise the rest was done by hand in about 15 minutes. So here are the pics, I was already used to having a peripheral view of the clustering of the rear-view mirror and EZ Pass and lane keeper shroud, so it wasn't a big change - and if I get sick of it being there, can change locations without too much trouble. Hybridbear and FusionNAZ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russael Posted September 23, 2014 at 02:14 AM Report Share Posted September 23, 2014 at 02:14 AM I think I would try to place the suction cup mount on the passenger side of the car and see if you could position the camera in a similar spot. The Fuzz could argue that you have an object within your field of view... that is quite a ways past center in to your side of the windshield. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregKet1 Posted November 4, 2014 at 12:27 AM Report Share Posted November 4, 2014 at 12:27 AM (edited) I recently mounted the Panorama-G camera. Here you can "see" it just in front of the mirror. These were taken with a Polarizing lens on the camera so you can actually see the dashcam... Close-up view: Here is one without the Polarizer so you can get an idea of "real world" visibility: Here is the driver's view: I ran the wires up the mirror-wire bundle to the headliner, behind the headliner (held in place with bits of foam since the gap is too loose to hold the wire on its own), down the passenger side A-pillar behind the rubber door-seal, under the dash (held in a few places with zip-ties) and then plugged it in to the 12v port. Edited November 4, 2014 at 12:33 AM by GregKet1 jeff_h 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FusionNAZ Posted September 23, 2015 at 02:34 AM Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 at 02:34 AM A few quick question on the cam's that y'all have. Do you have to keep pulling the devices out to sync? Is it just the one device or a multiple of devices? Getting a dash cam is kinda a new idea for me. Does it matter if it faces just towards the front or both? I know that there is an app for cellphones to turn them into dash cams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_h Posted September 23, 2015 at 11:09 AM Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 at 11:09 AM A few quick question on the cam's that y'all have. Do you have to keep pulling the devices out to sync? Is it just the one device or a multiple of devices? Getting a dash cam is kinda a new idea for me. Does it matter if it faces just towards the front or both? I know that there is an app for cellphones to turn them into dash cams. For mine, if I want to download the videos somewhere then yes I remove the unit and plug into the PC in the house and copy off any video clips I want - but I don't do that much, only if I've seen something worth saving or uploading for show-n-tell to show the latest idiot encountered on the road. In most cases, mine stays put and newest video files just overwrite the oldest files, and I think about 7 days worth of clips stay on there before new files overwrite them. I only have the single unit that faces forward, though I think there are other units that are more capable, but I never looked into that further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonzo71 Posted September 23, 2015 at 06:37 PM Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 at 06:37 PM I just take out the card itself out when I want to get the videos. Sometimes I take the cam out but mostly, I just leave the cam inside the car Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seadiel Posted October 6, 2015 at 10:01 PM Report Share Posted October 6, 2015 at 10:01 PM A few quick question on the cam's that y'all have. Do you have to keep pulling the devices out to sync? Is it just the one device or a multiple of devices? Getting a dash cam is kinda a new idea for me. Does it matter if it faces just towards the front or both? I know that there is an app for cellphones to turn them into dash cams. I think all of them you still have to pull the memory card out and plug it into the computer to view the files. There are wifi enabled sd cards that you can use. I have mine setup using a wifi sd card and just use my phone to download the files and send it to dropbox for viewing later on the computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevedebi Posted October 7, 2015 at 12:01 AM Report Share Posted October 7, 2015 at 12:01 AM For those here in CA, this is illegal positioning. Can't speak for Virginia! Of course, the cops might not stop you ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_h Posted October 7, 2015 at 01:00 AM Report Share Posted October 7, 2015 at 01:00 AM For those here in CA, this is illegal positioning. Can't speak for Virginia! Of course, the cops might not stop you ... I've since changed to a different mount that is right under the rear view mirror, that one above was a bit in the way and also started to wobble when hitting any bump after only a week or two, so I found a different one that works much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonzo71 Posted October 7, 2015 at 01:39 PM Report Share Posted October 7, 2015 at 01:39 PM (edited) I use the mount that came with and its to the right/below of the mirror....I'm going to have to make a utube channel of all the crazy drivers.. Edited October 7, 2015 at 01:44 PM by lonzo71 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevedebi Posted October 7, 2015 at 04:05 PM Report Share Posted October 7, 2015 at 04:05 PM Just for those here in CA, the only allowed places to place things on the windshield are the lower left or lower right corners. All the way down and all the way left or right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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