24/7 Dashcam

Smurf 40611

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Any recommendations of any front + rear dash cams that stay on all the time and you are able to maybe view it live on your phone and go back on recordings ?
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sLing

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Blackvue with battery banks. If you don't drive often you're gonna need extra battery banks.
 

GermanCivic

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How much money do you want to spend on such a system?

First you should know that dashcams in general have problems with low light situations. So when your car is parked in a dark spot at night and someonen is braking in, the footage could be not good enough to recognize a face or even a licence plate, even the better high end dashcams are having these kind of problems.

Here are two examples with good street lighting:


On the second video it would be pretty hard to identify someone:


A dashcam without external battery banks plugged directly to your car will probably drain your battery within two to four days. If temperatures are lower and the battery isn't the best anymore, it can drain faster.

Even with these battery banks you have to drive a lot to get these things properly recharged. So it's not a good option when you're only doing short trips and commutes.

Then there is another problem, the parking modes on Thinkware, Blackvue and Viofo dashcams have pretty sensitive sensors. Even though you can adjust them there will l still be a lot of recordings. And with that I mean everytime someone drives or walks by your car or even when there is a tree in the frame which is getting blown by the wind. So it's frustrating to go through all of that and it will also overwrite old videos.

I'm having not experience with systems that give a notification on your phone.
 
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Smurf 40611

Smurf 40611

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@GermanCivic i ended up purchasing a VIOFO A129 Pro Duo with the hardwiring kit, but still haven’t set it up. I’m still unsure on using it bc my daily commute is typically only 15 mins to work and back so idk how smart of an idea it is to drain my battery to the hardwired cutoff point just to charge it for 10-15 mins before it’s in parking mode again
 

GermanCivic

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The A129 pro duo is a great camera for the price. I have the previous A129 in my car and experimented a lot with the available parking modes before deactivating the parking mode.

I think your commuting time might be enough to keep the starter battery from draining while powering your dashcam during the day and the night.
The problem is as soon as the car parks for a few days and you forget to shut the camera completely off, then your battery could be drained easily.
Because my hardwire kit allowed too much draining. I think it shut the camera off when the starter battery was ar 11.3 Volt. Too me this felt too low to start the engine, especially during cold winter days.

As a short solution in between I used a casual powerbank which had a pass through function, meaning it can be used and charged at the same time. So this power bank was always being charged while driving and the dashcam was plugged into the powerbank, as soon as the engine was off the dashcam got powered by the powerbank. But that wasn't the best solution either because the Powerbank must be enourmous if you want to run the Dashcam several days. And I was sceptical on hot days in summer if that's a good idea to have the powerbank constantly running.
 
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Smurf 40611

Smurf 40611

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The A129 pro duo is a great camera for the price. I have the previous A129 in my car and experimented a lot with the available parking modes before deactivating the parking mode.

I think your commuting time might be enough to keep the starter battery from draining while powering your dashcam during the day and the night.
The problem is as soon as the car parks for a few days and you forget to shut the camera completely off, then your battery could be drained easily.
Because my hardwire kit allowed too much draining. I think it shut the camera off when the starter battery was ar 11.3 Volt. Too me this felt too low to start the engine, especially during cold winter days.

As a short solution in between I used a casual powerbank which had a pass through function, meaning it can be used and charged at the same time. So this power bank was always being charged while driving and the dashcam was plugged into the powerbank, as soon as the engine was off the dashcam got powered by the powerbank. But that wasn't the best solution either because the Powerbank must be enourmous if you want to run the Dashcam several days. And I was sceptical on hot days in summer if that's a good idea to have the powerbank constantly running.
If I left the kit to shut off at 12.2V it should be okay if I didn’t drive a day or 2 no? It just wouldn’t record anymore
 


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Any recommendations of any front + rear dash cams that stay on all the time and you are able to maybe view it live on your phone and go back on recordings ?
I have a 2020 BB type R. Had a hit and run on my car the first week i got it, then I just went 24/7 front, rear dashcam. I got the thinkware 800, along with a batter for it installed under the seat. Now it can last a day without driving in parking mode, and I don have to worry about it draining car battery. About $650 USD in total.
 

rileyj98

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I have a thinkware x550 in my 2018 coupe and is hardwired with parking mode. I haven't had it kill the battery yet in the year I've had it even with the car sitting for a week and no battery bank for it. I really like it as my car does not have honda sensing and the camera has lane departure warning frontal collision warning as well. Also announces when there are red light cameras too
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