Parking mode experience

[GJHS]

Hey, recently I have been trying out the Mobius motion detect feature when I leave my car parked. What I have noticed is, that if I'm parked front in, there isn't too much to film. Second, if I back in, I get a lot of videos of cars passing by. I also noticed that all of this takes a good amount of space on my card.

I'm wondering if parking mode is worth it. Here in the US, parking lot accidents cost you nothing. If the car was parked, there is no out of pocket cost. Break ins would most likely be behind the camera, unless youre lucky enough to have the thief walk past the camera and not take it. The only scenario I have seen that made it work, was the guy recording his repair at a dealership.

I'm wondering what your experience has been. Has parking mode payed off and worked for you?

 

[dpick1947]

Hi in US you are lucky in UK unless the person that bumps your car gives you details (very rare) then if small repair pay it yourself, otherwise insurance and mostly lose your no claims bonus.

dpick1947

 

[niko]

I'm wondering what your experience has been. Has parking mode payed off and worked for you?

I bought my first dashcam ONLY after I got " lesson". I bought and was driving only 2 weeks my pristine cond. BMW 525i ( only 54Kmiles on clock for 8y old car) and some _ ucker heavily dented side of the car when it was parked in public place. For true car enthusiast as you know: car is "his lover, his women" ( they say so in Russia ), so for me at that ime was same feeling like somebody "touched" my women, - I was full on anger .

For some reasons human brain is "programmed" to act in most cases only AFTER something happened, - not before.

In Russia they have a saying: ( direclty translated )
"Smart person learns from others people mistakes, - stupid person learns from his own mistakes", ...

- after that accident I knew into which category I was placing myself at that time , LOL

Since then I was using in some stage 4ch expensive iCaro B4 system ( over 1K ) in "hope" to catch some b_stard who whould "touch" my car, but thanks God no action yet, and I hope there will not be any similar ( or even worth ) situation.

I see dashcam as a compulsory car insurance. You pay every year big money for car insurance, but in majority of cases nothing happens. However if "it" happens, - at least you have a helping hand, if you bought an insurance, or dashcam in our case here if we discuss a parking lot scenario

 

[GJHS]

So the general idea is, no matter the extra space, it's as important and recording your trips? Maybe another SD card for parking mode would also work

 

[albertson]

Agree. My son has a very nice 1950 Pontiac. We spent several years working on it. Restored with many improvements (electrical, suspension, gauges, brakes, steering, power train, new upholstery, extensive custom body etc). He drove it for 6 years with no problem. During the last two years his car has been hit twice while parked. While at work, a fellow employee saw a truck back into his car, so copied down the trucks license plate. Due to the witness, the police served a ticket so that driver's insurance helped pay, but it was still a lot of work on our part for the restoration work. The second time someone in his apartment area hit the front of the car and damaged the custom grill and turn signal. Hit and Run. We were slow learners. For my family, parking mode is important, both front and back. Either damage would have paid for several very good cameras. Just get one with good parking sensitivity/control. I will upgrade to the GuardTrak and Panorama2. Thanks to all the veterans in this forum for their excellent forum support.

 

[GJHS]

Agree. My son has a very nice 1950 Pontiac. We spent several years working on it. Restored with many improvements (electrical, suspension, gauges, brakes, steering, power train, new upholstery, extensive custom body etc). He drove it for 6 years with no problem. During the last two years his car has been hit twice while parked. While at work, a fellow employee saw a truck back into his car, so copied down the trucks license plate. Due to the witness, the police served a ticket so that driver's insurance helped pay, but it was still a lot of work on our part for the restoration work. The second time someone in his apartment area hit the front of the car and damaged the custom grill and turn signal. Hit and Run. We were slow learners. For my family, parking mode is important, both front and back. Either damage would have paid for several very good cameras. Just get one with good parking sensitivity/control. I will upgrade to the GuardTrak and Panorama2. Thanks to all the veterans in this forum for their excellent forum support.
View attachment 3968

What are you using now? Is it hard wired?

 

[horaceCJ]

I also noticed that all of this takes a good amount of space on my card.

15 frames per second and low video data rate will reduce a lot the size of the recordings. Hopefully step 3 Mobius FW will have customizable fps and will be available soon.

 

[niko]

Hit-and-run on my car was from the angle that even having 2ch ( front + rear ) would not help me. Ideal would be to have 4ch, but high quality 4ch solution is not developed yet, so we need to wait.

 

[russ331]

My son has a very nice 1950 Pontiac.

Lovely car. If it were mine, I don't think I could relax while it's parked & unattended.

 

[dpick1947]

Daft thing is since I got my dashcam I now see a lot more ******* twerps on the road

dpick1947

 

[kamkar]

Nice ride ( Again need thumbs up smily )
I too would be riding stuff like that if a where a American.

 

[exxon93]

Here in the US, parking lot accidents cost you nothing.

not sure if this is true. No matter how an accident happened, you still have to pay your deductible.

 

[Jazzist]

Parking mode is just as important to me, your car is more likely to be damaged when someone is careless and assumes they don't have to be careful because no one's around. Which cameras have proper parking mode?
1) Lukas
2) Guardtrak should be very similar
3) ?

Who designs parking spaces? Door dents are a liability (unlikely if you are sat in the car, funny that?), people don't give a ****. Most cars do not have sliding doors? All spaces should be double the width with the extra 50% either side hatched to encourage people to park in the middle of the bigger spaces.

 

[Gabolinche]

Hey, recently I have been trying out the Mobius motion detect feature when I leave my car parked. What I have noticed is, that if I'm parked front in, there isn't too much to film. Second, if I back in, I get a lot of videos of cars passing by.

I agree with you. Parking mode seems to work only when you park backing in, leaving the front camera to film everything. I still have no rear camera, and since I plan to use an old DVR-207Gs for the rear it won't be of any help when parked.

When parked backing in (the front facing the parking lot) you have two benefits:

• If someone side-swipes you or hits your rear fender you still have a good chance of getting them in the video field of view at some point while they drive through the parking lot.
  
• Most accidents in parking lots happen when a car is backing out of a parking spot. Backing out of a parking spot is way riskier than backing INTO a parking spot. When you back out of a parking spot you have a limited view (if any view at all) of cars coming your way. When you back into a parking spot you have perfect view of all of your surroundings (Parking 101).

Given the two benefits, I ALWAYS park backing in, and I have my Panorama II always-on with motion detection. Still haven't caught any action, but I have previously suffered from two parking dings (hit and runs) before getting a dashcam.

 

[extraoneya]

hey albertson, that's one cool looking car...is that ur's off to the side?...if it is, post it in the car thread in OFF TOPIC.

 

[albertson]

Thanks to all for the compliments. The best value was the time spent with my son. Did a similar project with my daughter, 1958 pickup truck.

Back to the topic of parking mode.
To GJHS: I have a DOD LS300W. Nice camera for driving, but it is useless for parking mode. Would like a better night image too. I will replace it with a Panorama II for rear and a GuarTrak in the front. They will both wired to battery power. The Pontiac has a second (large deep cycle, 850 amp hr) battery for the sound system and car alarm. It is charged by the alternator, but isolated from general circuits so it can not weaken the main battery. This second battery is what will power the 2 cameras.

To Gabolinche: Agree. You are fortunate to have this way to defend your car. Unfortunately only about 1/3 of the time I have this back-in park option. Our local shopping or business lots use double car rows. They can hit you from either end. When possible we park away from the building to be alone. Often these lots are near full, so anywhere is a risk. A lot of people are nice and avoid hitting the car. I think they like old cars too.

For my car, I have been thinking of installing two cameras in the front. Each one aimed away from center, to give better side (peripheral) view. Overlap about 1/2 of each cameras view toward the front and the other 1/2 view out to the left or right side. Probably an experiment t0 learn if the combined front view is still acceptable. Maybe Niko has tried this?

To Extraoneya: Thanks. Yes, my car is off to the side in that photo. Still resembles a 1948 Chevy on the outside. Front view is in the avatar. I have driven this daily for 23 years (except during repairs). It is a lot of fun to take out to the local road course track (PIR) on days the local car clubs rent the track. http://portlandraceway.com/?/fan_guide/track_map

 

[horaceCJ]

Again I found the rear bumper hit on the left corner...
Again I'm mad on myself because I have not installed the 808 #16 with lens extension in motion detect mode...

 

[GJHS]

Again I found the rear bumper hit on the left corner...
Again I'm mad on myself because I have not installed the 808 #16 with lens extension in motion detect mode...

How do things work there if you capture the license plate and video of someone hitting your car?

 

[lamboboy732]

I'm really nervous about my car being parked anywhere public even though its not that expensive of a car, I still value it and keep it looking nice. I'm considering getting another Möbius wide angle and leaving it on all the time in motion detect mode. Ideally with a 128gb card for extra space. But this is only assuming the Möbius firmware improves this feature and I feel like spending $200 on a Möbius and a huge SD card. Thinking about that, it would be cheaper to have a sort of hard drive or ssd for the parking footage as it would be cheaper for an incredible amount of space. Only issue with that is I don't think there is a way to adapt the micro SD into a USB or standard hard drive connector.

 

[GJHS]

My only problem with parking mode is the extra space it takes on the card. I think my solution is to put motion timeout to 5 seconds and see if that helps make smaller files.

Battery wise, so far so good. The Mobius has a decent enough battery for Motion Detect. @Isoprop one question I have: If I connect an extra battery for longer recordings does my USB extra battery need to output 1 amp for Motion Detect? I was thinking it would recharge the battery on standby in between recordings not run the camera, so 1 amp wasn't necessary? I have one that I am not sure does and don't have the equipment to test.