Details about parking mode(s)

tomintx

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Hi guys, I've been lurking here for a little while looking for the ideal dash cam and the SGs are most interesting to me at present, for the video quality. I also like the EMERGENCY button on the Panorama and also its wide angle views.

I will use a dashcam for cross-country trips of 25 hours in duration, and since no dashcam will save that much video I like the EMERGENCY button to at least save interesting sights or on-road incidents along the way.

It seems all the SGs have some "parking mode" ability to capture events while stopped, but I wonder if anyone can elaborate on this for me. I might like for example to leave the cam ON when I stop for gas or food or whatever--can the supercapacitor accommodate a ten minute rest stop? Or does it go into a Standby mode of some sort where--what--the G sensor is active? Does it also WATCH to see motion in its view? Just G sensor?

I have looked at the user guides but the super capacitor/power-off operation still puzzles me so if anyone can explain I'd appreciate it, thanks.
 
Emergency button is to lock video files. When you driving / recording in normal mode and press emergency button, it will lock present file and place it into other folder called "RO". Files in that folder can not be overwritten.

G-sensor recording acts similar way like if you would press emergency button. When you driving / recording in normal mode and driving for example trough pot-hole, g-sensor activates and locks ongoing recording file into "RO" folder, which can not be overwritten.

For parking mode you need a constant power supply. Most cars dont have constant cigarette lighter 12V, so you going to need to hardwire to fuse box and use BDP ( battery discharge prevention device ) so your car battery will not got flat. When unit is in parking stand-by mode ( motion detection ), it starts recording within 1-1.5 sec after motion detected and continues recording for 1 min, then it goes into standby if no any motion is around.

In your case, where you want to use only for few hours "parking recording", it's OK to buy external portable battery pack ( 5 volt ) and use it as a power source while parked. You can even use normal recording mode, if dont want to use a motion detection. 64Gb memory card holds around 9 hours of recording.
 
Files in the "RO" folder you have made by pressing the emergency button can be deleted on a computer, but the camera can not owerwrite them to make room for more footage,

Super capasitors is just there to make sure the camera have enuff power to finalize the last / current file in case of a carsh, if capasitors or a battery was not there and you crash the last/current most important file will be corrupted as the camera have no power to finalize that file.
Capasitors is prefered in extreme weater ( hot - cold ) and they are allso better in a allways on setup, where charging on a battery might not be so good, not least if you are parked in the sun.

You can power the dashcam off a USB power bank when stopped in case you dont have a allways on socket or dont wish to do hardwiring, and then charge that USB power bank up when you continue your drive.
If you use the power bank setup you just take out the normal USB plug, that shut off the camera, then plug in the USB power bank which will power up the camera again for continued recording or event recordings triggered by G-sensor or motion detect.
And then put the USB power bank above the sun visor while you are avay from the car.

I have not used this feature myself, but the way i think its working is the G-sensor detect your car is not moving, and then put the camera in motion detect mode if thats enabled, and it then start recording if somthing move in front of the lens.
If you allso have G-sensor enabled the camera will allso record if some one bump your car, but i think it will be hard for some one in front of your car bumping it and not move in front of lens to trigger motion recording.
And if you rear is bumped then its no good anyway as your camera face forward.

There is a G-sensor enable/disable in the menu, this i belive is just to make that active to create event recordings in case some one bump your car while driving or parked.
I dont think it need to be enabled for the camera to go into motion detect mode, the G-sensor is running in the background.

The panoramas do the best prebuffering, which mean if G-sensor or motion is triggered to make a recording, it will have footage from 10 seconds before the triggering event.

With a USB power bank you can allso use any dashcam as a make shift camcorder, offcourse one with a screen will be to prefer in that case. And you will have to make do with the USB wire comming off the camera and down to your pocket when recording that way outside the car.

I do kinda the same some times with a modified dashcam strapped to the scope of my airrifle, to capture my awsome shooting in glorious HD :D

BUT i would assume most would use ther smartphone to make recordings and take pictures while stopped, fully acknowledging some ppl dont have a smartphone that can do reasonable video and pictures.

As niko said a 64Gb card will hold around 9 houres of driving, you could offload that to a laptop when stopped so you will not miss a second of your 25 hour drive.
But for that you need to bring your own a laptop or borrow one from some one.

Using G-sensor do need tome care to be taken, if set too sensitive potholes and what not might trigger false recordings, so i personally dropped using that when i had my Lukas dashcam.
I am allways recording so i get it all anyway.

PS. i think i will give motion recording and hardwireing a try with the next dashcam, not least if i get the job i have just applied for :cool:
 
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Thanks guys but I remain confused, a normal state for me these days it seems:

When unit is in parking stand-by mode ( motion detection ), it starts recording within 1-1.5 sec after motion detected and continues recording for 1 min, then it goes into standby if no any motion is around.
But I do not see niko how the unit gets into the "parking stand-by mode", particularly if I have it connected to a continuous power supply i.e. power is NOT shut-down. What would cause it to go into Standby, thus Parking mode? Lack of progress re GPS coordinates? After what period of stillness?

So what triggers "parking stand-by mode"?

I do understand the EMERGENCY button. At least, I don't care if only the last 8 hours or so of a 25-hour trip is on the SD card so long as the button-saved video segments from the earlier portion of the trip are still on there.
 
Thanks guys but I remain confused, a normal state for me these days it seems:


But I do not see niko how the unit gets into the "parking stand-by mode", particularly if I have it connected to a continuous power supply i.e. power is NOT shut-down. What would cause it to go into Standby, thus Parking mode? Lack of progress re GPS coordinates? After what period of stillness?

So what triggers "parking stand-by mode"?

I do understand the EMERGENCY button. At least, I don't care if only the last 8 hours or so of a 25-hour trip is on the SD card so long as the button-saved video segments from the earlier portion of the trip are still on there.

As you pointed out, it has some so called "parking mode", but its has to be activated manually by selecting a "motion detection" from the menu.

Does your car cigarette lighter socket has constant or switchable 12V ?
 
Since i am such a nice guy, and had my camera beside me, i desided to do a experiment for you.

I enabled motion detection - set motion detection sensitivity to high and then i put motion time out to 3 minutes.

What happened was the camera keep recording in normal mode for 3 minutes, then enter standby mode, then when i wave my hand in front of lens it wake up and start to record for 3 minutes before it enter standby again. ( i run 3 minute file size on regular recording )

For this experiment G-sensor remained OFF, i am pretty sure if i enable that and disable motion detect the camera will start to record if i push it, and i assume that otherwise work as with motion.
 
Just did the same motion detect experiment, just with motion time out set to 1 minute.

Camera record normal for 3 minutes then enter standby, and when i wave my hand in front of the lens the camera record a 1 minute motion detect event file.

These motion detect recordings dont go into the Read Only "RO" folder which mean the camera is able to delete them when the card fill up and it start to delete the oldest files on the SD card.
 
If you want me to perform the same experiment with G-sensor enabled + / - motion detect too just let me know. but i am fairly sure it will perform just like with my motion detect experiment, only difference beeing if its a 1.3 G G-sensor event that trigger the recording, or me waving my hand in front of lens to trigger motion detect recording.

Only thing i still assume is that G-sensor triggered events dont go in the "RO" folder and therefor can be owerwritten by camera too ??? maybe some one else can confirm this before i wake up

2:30 AM here now, and i am heading for my padded REM inducer :p
 
A gt680w set on 5fps and left recording will give 25 hours of hd footage on a 32g card ...
 
I think everyone summed it up nicely
I guess I am not asking my question properly--please explain how this works EXACTLY. OK so "parking mode has to be activated manually from the menu". Just once, or each & every time you want this if you stop, you have to remember to select a menu item before leaving the vehicle?

IMO it would be far preferable to tell the unit you always wants parking mode ON until you explicitly turn it OFF.

My question now assumes constant power is available to the unit at all times--not switched with ignition i.e. I have to manually turn it on and off.
 
motion detect is a menu option, it's either on or off, in the new firmware we've also added user selectable sensitivity (low, medium, high) and user selectable timeout (1, 2, 3 minutes), when it times out if no movement the video will pause and resume rather than stop start that most use

power needs to be there for it to work, ignition switched or permanent it will still remain in the mode you set if powered off and back on
 
parking mode is just enabled the 1 time in the menu, after that the G-sensor and lack of movement determine if motion detection is enabled by the camera.

Same if you have G-sensor enabled too, after 3 minutes camera will go into stand by mode, and then trigger event recording if ( some one bump your car ) ( some one move in front of the lens )

EDIT: If you use a USB power bank for your stops, when you plug that into the camera it will start to record just like normal, but only for 3 minutes and then it will go into the stand by mode waiting for movement or G-sensor to trigger a event recording.

If you want to use the dashcam as a make do camcorder, it might be a good idea to disable motion and G.sensor while you use the camera in the hand to record somthing.

The camera will save all settings on shutdown and use the same on next boot, so if you enable motion detect and / or G-sensor, you just have to do that 1 time.

Update of firmware will reset camera to default settings, so then you have to eanble all the things you use and set time/date & time zone you are in.
But otherwise the camera dont foeget anything, unless it is broken.
 
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Thanks a lot guys for your replies and your patience, now I'm ALMOST there! :eek:;)

So when I've stopped the vehicle and been in parking mode, when I re-enter the vehicle and e.g. close the door or engage from Park and drive away, the unit's G-sensor is so sensitive (let's say I've set it to High) that it will automagically start-up the normal recording mode again, until next time I stop for the "user selectable timeout" period?

If this is right then the only two things I need to remember to do (very easy) will be to turn the cam On and then when my trip is over I must remember to pull the plug on it (from its constant power source).
 
Not sure I understand your thinking with powering on, unplugging etc

Also you wouldn't want the G-Sensor on high as you'd get too many false positives

If you're based in the USA maybe better to message @Pier28 a contact number and get Jon to give you a call, I've no doubt he could answer this pretty quickly over the phone
 
Yeah when you get back to your car and enter it the G-sensor will feel that and stop what ever event recording its doing at the time, and then engage normal recording.
if you use USB power bank to power the camera while stopped it will power off when you yank the USB plug out of the camera, and it will boot up and record when you plug in the PSU that come with the camera.

But if you have G-sensor enablet too it will still trigger a event recording if you get bumped while driving and recording normally, personally i dont use G-sensor.
On my Lukas where i tried to use it even on low setting it was far too sensetive, so i had to figure out the MAX values my driving around create and then enter custom values.
But i think the SG9665GC is smarter, i have not heard about any one getting too many false G-sensor triggered events.
Anyway i see no reason to use that G-sensor as i am allways recording anyway and will capture any event anyway, but i can see the use for motion recording while parked avay from home.

BUT ! i allso live up north in Denmark, and a good chunk of the year there is ample chance for dew-rain-snow - frost and what not to opscure the windscreen making motion detection or for that matter G-sensor recording invane too as windscreen is more or less blocked

PS. using motion detection will create a lot of "false" recordings is you are parked at a busy parking lot, or maybe facing a street where many cars pass by.
But hell rather too many recordings then none at all :D

Camera will turn on as soon as it get power, either via the included PSU in the socket of your car ( when you turn the key ), or as soon as you plug in a USB power bank.
Dashcams are supposed to just be there and should not need for the driver to do anything but set it up the 1 time he install it, after that it just sit there and record evidence should you need it one day.

The Sg9665GC have 3 LEDs on the front, a white power indicator, a red recording indicator, and a red microfone ON indicator ( red - white - red )
Screen allso come on when you power up by turning key in car or plug in USB power bank, it will remain on for up to 3 minutes and during that time tou can see indicators on the screen indicating different things like recording and GPS icon turning from red to green indicating camera have GPS fix.

Calling or in some other way talking to pier28 / Jon in Nevada might be a good idea, he is a extremely helpfull guy.


PPS. items in menus might change as the firmware mature.
 
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Summary:

Give camera 24/7 power via unswitched constant source (preferably with a battery discharge prevention device)

Turn motion detection on in the settings. Once on it will stay on

I'd set G-Sensor to Low avoid too many false triggers. G sensor has nothing to do with helping the camera start recording once you drive though it's all about the motion detection. (In the current firmware at least).
 
G sensor has nothing to do with helping the camera start recording once you drive though it's all about the motion detection.
Oh, of course, the cam compares the images in front of it and a difference is considered "motion". So that is what returns the cam from Parked mode to Continuous recording mode again? See this is what I have wanted to understand.

Yeah when you get back to your car and enter it the G-sensor will feel that and stop what ever event recording its doing at the time, and then engage normal recording.
What Pier28 said contradicts this! Seems to be Motion Detect that engages "normal" again.

if you use USB power bank to power the camera while stopped it will power off when you yank the USB plug out of the camera, and it will boot up and record when you plug in the PSU that come with the camera.
I am never going to do it this way. My preferred way to control the cam is with its On/Off pushbutton, not unplug any wires. On one vehicle I have, there is a constant On jack, on another I would want to install one.

PS. using motion detection will create a lot of "false" recordings is you are parked at a busy parking lot, or maybe facing a street where many cars pass by.
But hell rather too many recordings then none at all :D
I see, sure, that will be a problem. My preferred MO is actually just to let the cam continue to record everything, which it seems is doable given what I've learned here that the thing needs constant power anyway (where I started, asking about how the parking mode worked).

But the alternative seems to be to set Parking mode On, and Motion detect and G-sensor, in which case if I stop my vehicle for X minutes (kamkar1 tested 3 minutes) it will go into Standby when all's quiet, and re-awaken when I move the vehicle i.e. leave the gas pump or parking spot or rest area (!) as the case may be. This is Good, and may be Preferred as then my video doesn't have longish boring "nothing happening" periods when I nap or eat in a restaurant.

I looked at some video and SG is darn good. It seems to me that 720 at 60p would be best for a dashcam, but I don't think anyone makes one of those. So I will have to decide between the Panorama or the SG9665GC. If my assumption is correct, that the video quality is about the same, then my big decision will be the compact form-factor of the 9665 or the wide-angle view of the Panorama.

Thanks for all the help fellas.
 
G-sensor is meant to permanently save "impacts" so you don't want to have too many events forcibly saved, hence the suggestion not to set g-sensor sensitivity to high.
 
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