Hit and Run on a Brand New 2019 Mazda 3

[HonestReview]

No one was talking about proving damage to the insurance company. With comprehensive insurance in force, they're on the hook for paying the damage in nearly all cases except those specifically carved out in the contract. The point was to hold a specific individual accountable for his actions, even if he insists upon denying any or all responsibility. Certain video angles can only provide circumstantial evidence. One or more video angles capturing the undamaged car, the responsible individual, and then the damaged car without any gaps or supposition become indisputable hard evidence. And no one is going to pay for the use of a mass spectrometer and a professional to analyze and compare paint samples in the case of a parking lot incident.

It's called paint transfer. If I have a red car and you a white car, then there should be no red paint on the vehicle. If your bumper is damaged and there is red paint in the area of damage, the insurance company assumes that where the vehicle hit caused the damage....You're overthinking things bud

Overreliance upon a lead-acid car battery to provide power a dashcam in parking mode will have some affect upon the lifetime of that battery. The lower the voltage cutoff that is set for the dashcam power supply, the greater that negative effect will be. While there are many other variables associated, one should consider the sooner cost of a new car battery if they are employed in this manner. And in RavenManiac's specific case, "quite a while" is simply not enough.

Ok, we all know the battery suffers a level of drain by running a dash camera. Maybe it's 10 or 20 %? I'm willing to live with that to capture accidents. Hell, my car just got hit a few days ago and the video proved fault immediately. Had that happen on a minor accident a few yrs ago, where video also proved fault.

A battery is around $100-200.......Damage or injuries can run in the 1000s or 10s of thousands or more. ...Seems you look at the little picture instead of the big one.

 

[RavenManiac]

Unfortunately I believe most auxiliary battery devices designed specifically with dashcams in mind are not well suited for the engine bay.

Yes, I agree. I did some additional research and I believe you are right.

As you already know, they cost more than the dashcam, and you should probably consider whether it's even worth trying at all as your son can leave the car parked for days at a time, and even that auxiliary battery device without an expansion battery pack may not power the dashcam for a time long enough for your needs.

That's a good point. Plus, I noticed that even with a 256 GB memory card the A129 can't handle much more than one day of low bit rate recording before it starts to overwrite existing files. I really wish I could get v1.7 firmware event detection working properly.

 

[HonestReview]

Unfortunately I believe most auxiliary battery devices designed specifically with dashcams in mind are not well suited for the engine bay. (Engine heat, precipitation, etc.) You will likely have to wire one inside the cabin. As you already know, they cost more than the dashcam, and you should probably consider whether it's even worth trying at all as your son can leave the car parked for days at a time, and even that auxiliary battery device without an expansion battery pack may not power the dashcam for a time long enough for your needs.

You either hardwire the camera through the vehicle fusebox or on some models the ODBII. No one is going to go through the added trouble you outlined.

 

[RavenManiac]

You either hardwire the camera through the vehicle fusebox or on some models the ODBII. No one is going to go through the added trouble you outlined.

I had to go through the Mazda 3 firewall because there are no switched ACC circuits in the cabin fusebox. Since that was the case I chose to wire everything in the engine bay, which also makes it much easier to service.

 

[SawMaster]

I run a 2-channel cam 24/7 in the workvan, and previously did the same with a single cam. It's driven on average a half-hour twice daily so the battery gets a healthy (but not total) charge regularly. Once or twice a year I get bored and give it a full overnight at-home charge. My experience is that running a single cam this way hardly affected battery life, at worst 10% and probably less. The 2-channel cam however does have a noticeable effect which I estimate to be around 20%-25%. When I crunch the numbers of battery life, battery cost, and the shorter lifespan percentage I come up with about $0.25 per day, which IMHO is a mere pittance for the peace of mind I get from my cams. I do use a common size and rather large battery; most car batteries will be smaller and more affected.

As to selecting an auxiliary battery to be mounted underhood, the only two types I'd feel safe with are wet-cell lead-acid or AGM. Even with the evidence I've seen which shows that LiIon is probably safe at such temperatures, such regular overheating would greatly affect the cell/battery life and could possibly cause enough cell degradation to cause an unsafe condition, especially when it's charging. Given how catastrophic a Li cell/battery failure can be, I have a healthy respect for them in that regard and am very careful in my use of them. Owning no powerbanks I won't recommend any, but several have been mentioned as being good by well-respected members here on DCT and that info isn't hard to find.

In this case I'd recommend having a large powerbank charged and ready to go in the car, then swapping the USB power cables around manually for long-term parking which exceeds the time I feel safe using the car battery. One could forget to do the swapping, but in time a habit will develop making that unlikely. Same as with motion detection not always working, the more complex something is the more failure points you create, and best reliability usually comes with the fewest failure points in the system.

Phil

 

[jdct]

I run a 2-channel cam 24/7 in the workvan, and previously did the same with a single cam. It's driven on average a half-hour twice daily so the battery gets a healthy (but not total) charge regularly. Once or twice a year I get bored and give it a full overnight at-home charge. My experience is that running a single cam this way hardly affected battery life, at worst 10% and probably less. The 2-channel cam however does have a noticeable effect which I estimate to be around 20%-25%. When I crunch the numbers of battery life, battery cost, and the shorter lifespan percentage I come up with about $0.25 per day, which IMHO is a mere pittance for the peace of mind I get from my cams. I do use a common size and rather large battery; most car batteries will be smaller and more affected.

As to selecting an auxiliary battery to be mounted underhood, the only two types I'd feel safe with are wet-cell lead-acid or AGM. Even with the evidence I've seen which shows that LiIon is probably safe at such temperatures, such regular overheating would greatly affect the cell/battery life and could possibly cause enough cell degradation to cause an unsafe condition, especially when it's charging. Given how catastrophic a Li cell/battery failure can be, I have a healthy respect for them in that regard and am very careful in my use of them. Owning no powerbanks I won't recommend any, but several have been mentioned as being good by well-respected members here on DCT and that info isn't hard to find.

In this case I'd recommend having a large powerbank charged and ready to go in the car, then swapping the USB power cables around manually for long-term parking which exceeds the time I feel safe using the car battery. One could forget to do the swapping, but in time a habit will develop making that unlikely. Same as with motion detection not always working, the more complex something is the more failure points you create, and best reliability usually comes with the fewest failure points in the system.

Phil

SawMaster hits all the right points on the tech itself and the various options -- and his estimate of about 25 cents a day is probably very close, and clearly worth spending or we would not already be here discussing dashcams which are only useful if you have them in place (and recording) before you need them. But even just 25 cents a day adds up to more than $90 a year, so perhaps you could rationalize the expense of a Cellink Neo type device with a Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery (that's not a typo - the FE in LiFePO4 is the periodic symbol for Iron, and PO4 represents phosphoric acid). The stated recharge rates are faster than alternative battery chemistries, they're reportedly much safer operating in temperature extremes, and you probably won't need to buy a new car battery prematurely. (I recently had a battery last seven years in one of my cars.)

Or if your son will be graduating from school soon, perhaps two well made USB power banks is the preferred option to catch the perp, each swapped in and out every day, one being charged at home while the other is powering the camera in the car -- as long as he isn't attending summer classes with the hot sun pounding down on the car all day! Though my experience in life has made it very clear to me that you will only need the dashcam recordings when you forget to change the battery pack one day.

I don't have enough experience with any of the LiFePO4 battery options to make any recommendations one way or the other, and my mention of the Cellink Neo above was only because it's often mentioned by others and it look appealing to me. I think maybe I'll probably get one at some point -- and with any luck that won't be after I needed it. Any one of us who tries to make parking mode fully useful needs to consider our specific situations and all these points to find what works best for us. (Personally, I'd be very happy if Viofo added the external trigger I suggested in another thread, so I could use a proximity sensor to turn my dashcam on when someone gets close to it. And I'd probably have it set towards the greatest range!)

I won't even bother responding to HonestReview's comments. Wow

 

[Nigel]

Or if your son will be graduating from school soon, perhaps two well made USB power banks is the preferred option to catch the perp, each swapped in and out every day, one being charged at home while the other is powering the camera in the car -- as long as he isn't attending summer classes with the hot sun pounding down on the car all day! Though my experience in life has made it very clear to me that you will only need the dashcam recordings when you forget to change the battery pack one day.

If the car isn't driven daily then USB powerbanks are the only way, even the very expensive Cellink Neo needs a 40 minute charge every day.

 

[HonestReview]

I had to go through the Mazda 3 firewall because there are no switched ACC circuits in the cabin fusebox. Since that was the case I chose to wire everything in the engine bay, which also makes it much easier to service.

That's absolutely impossible that there's no acc circuit in the cabin fusebox. ACC = When the car starts. I piggy backed my heated seats.

Basically any system that turns on once the ignition is in the On position is ACC

I.E. Car Radio = Only on when car starts, Heated Seats, etc.

 

[HonestReview]

SawMaster hits all the right points on the tech itself and the various options -- and his estimate of about 25 cents a day is probably very close, and clearly worth spending or we would not already be here discussing dashcams which are only useful if you have them in place (and recording) before you need them. But even just 25 cents a day adds up to more than $90 a year, so perhaps you could rationalize the expense of a Cellink Neo type device with a Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery (that's not a typo - the FE in LiFePO4 is the periodic symbol for Iron, and PO4 represents phosphoric acid). The stated recharge rates are faster than alternative battery chemistries, they're reportedly much safer operating in temperature extremes, and you probably won't need to buy a new car battery prematurely. (I recently had a battery last seven years in one of my cars.)

Or if your son will be graduating from school soon, perhaps two well made USB power banks is the preferred option to catch the perp, each swapped in and out every day, one being charged at home while the other is powering the camera in the car -- as long as he isn't attending summer classes with the hot sun pounding down on the car all day! Though my experience in life has made it very clear to me that you will only need the dashcam recordings when you forget to change the battery pack one day.

I don't have enough experience with any of the LiFePO4 battery options to make any recommendations one way or the other, and my mention of the Cellink Neo above was only because it's often mentioned by others and it look appealing to me. I think maybe I'll probably get one at some point -- and with any luck that won't be after I needed it. Any one of us who tries to make parking mode fully useful needs to consider our specific situations and all these points to find what works best for us. (Personally, I'd be very happy if Viofo added the external trigger I suggested in another thread, so I could use a proximity sensor to turn my dashcam on when someone gets close to it. And I'd probably have it set towards the greatest range!)

I won't even bother responding to HonestReview's comments. Wow

What's wrong with my comments? You pretty much gave the ultimate reason why Battery Packs are flawed. Human Error. If you have to switch things on and off everytime you're hopping into the vehicle, chances are you'll forget on one occasion or another. Which by the way life works, will be the one instance You NEEDED the camera.

I'm more than willing to eat the "$90/yr" for the added piece of mind the camera automatically turns on when the car is started. And is running off the battery when it is not. So if I'm in a rush, distracted, etc, I don't have to think about manually flicking on the Viofo. It's there and running with human intervention.

 

[kamkar]

Daum i will have to agree with the police on this one, seem like your son are the target of some persons anger, and judging by this #2 attack not a strong person, probably a very emotional person ( a girl maybe )
So by that data you are probably going to see more attacks, which are only nice in the sense that it will give you more chances to catch the person doing it.

Event #1 seem like a vehicular attack, probably gave attacker dents too, so it will not be repeated i think. ( still inclined to think its a 4x4 or SUV style taller vehicle )
Event #2 seem like a emotional attack, i am thinking maybe the attacker no longer drive his / her car to school, so marks could be from a bicycle lock swung in anger.
If you change to constant low bitrate ( which i would also recommend ) you don't have to worry about not having days of storage on the memory card, all you need are 1 school day, at least if you have your kid do a visual inspection every day when he get back to his car.

I don't think this can / will escalate to a level where your kid will be in danger, the perp are most likely not the kind of person with that kind of "balls"

 

[slicendice]

Which motion detection on the A129 doesn't currently have a buffer mode (I believe) to capture the event prior to the impact.

I've asked this specific question of Viofo themselves and they have confirmed that there is a firmware update coming for the A129 that will enable buffered parking mode.

 

[jdct]

If the car isn't driven daily then USB powerbanks are the only way, even the very expensive Cellink Neo needs a 40 minute charge every day.

Another excellent point. Though while it might be going overboard a bit, cars with remote start systems can often easily be configured to start themselves up on a schedule -- but then you will have to worry about keeping the gas tank full!! (There are various options, and certainly each with its own down sides.)

I still hope Viofo considers my idea for an external sensor input trigger that would trigger an event recording in buffered parking mode or wake up the camera from power off even with battery voltage below the cut-off threshold. I would immediately connect a proximity sensor to mine. They can run for weeks on the car battery alone with little negative effect. If the camera only stayed on for as long as the radius of proximity zone was being violated (i.e. turns back off after some time after the external event triggers stop), then it would greatly extend the time period during which you could capture an event, even though there would be a few seconds before recording begins if starting from camera being fully off.

 

[RavenManiac]

Event #1 seem like a vehicular attack, probably gave attacker dents too, so it will not be repeated i think. ( still inclined to think its a 4x4 or SUV style taller vehicle )

State Farm Insurance believes the first incident was a trailer hitch, which makes sense to me.

Event #2 seem like a emotional attack, i am thinking maybe the attacker no longer drive his / her car to school, so marks could be from a bicycle lock swung in anger.

I would tend to agree. Whoever did this is definitely unhinged.

If you change to constant low bitrate ( which i would also recommend ) you don't have to worry about not having days of storage on the memory card, all you need are 1 school day, at least if you have your kid do a visual inspection every day when he get back to his car.

Yes, that's how it's setup now. Unfortunately, he doesn't drive the car enough to fully recharge the battery so I'll probably need to install a Cellink Neo. Plus, the way we have low bitrate setup, he's only getting about one day worth of video before the 256GB Micro SD Card files are overwritten, so I need to make some adjustments there too. I would really like to dial in the new buffered parking/event detection mode, which I'm currently beta testing (v1.7).

I don't think this can / will escalate to a level where your kid will be in danger, the perp are most likely not the kind of person with that kind of "balls"

I came and got the car. It's currently sitting in my garage awaiting a revised body shop estimate and repair. Unfortunately, their next available is early July, so by the time everything gets fixed he will be in a new, more secure apartment complex with better security and hopefully new A129 firmware. But, all this does suck for my son. The only thing I can hope is that karma catches up with the perp.

 

[RavenManiac]

I still hope Viofo considers my idea for an external sensor input trigger that would trigger an event recording in buffered parking mode or wake up the camera from power off even with battery voltage below the cut-off threshold. I would immediately connect a proximity sensor to mine. They can run for weeks on the car battery alone with little negative effect. If the camera only stayed on for as long as the radius of proximity zone was being violated (i.e. turns back off after some time after the external event triggers stop), then it would greatly extend the time period during which you could capture an event, even though there would be a few seconds before recording begins if starting from camera being fully off.

I really like this idea.

I will tell you that the Viofo motion detection seems pretty good, so I was even considering replacing the rear camera with another A129.

 

[kamkar]

Lucky son getting an nice car like that, only the very richest can give their kids a car, hell i myself was given permission to spend some of my own money in my savings account on a race bicycle when i was 11.
Okay kids even in Denmark are much more pampered now than in the 70ties when i was a kid, and you can also get a new mini car like my Suzuki for under 100,000 DKkr now ( 15,000 USD ) but i doubt any self respecting American would even see his worst enemy drive a little car like mine, but i have to as i am on a pension now and here it is buy 1 car pay at least for 2 due to the high taxes ASO here.

My first car was a 1967 Volvo 121 i got when i was 17, one year younger than myself, but that was paid for by a bank loan ( in my name ) mom drove it for a while until i got my license at 18 as thats the standard here.
Maybe its my commie father, though i don't feel that, i was actually pretty spoiled as a kid, not least from my father.
your kids school should also be bothered they have a vandal running around.

We will get this punk !

 

[RavenManiac]

Tomorrow the 2019 Mazda 3 gets repaired. The car will be in the shop for 3-5 days. I haven't installed the Neo yet. I thought it would be kinda cool to record the work.

How should I setup the A129 to do this?

 

[an1uk]

In fact, he thinks he knows who did it and was going to confront the guy, but I recommended that he didn't. The last thing we need is for this thing to escalate. Besides, we don't have any proof.

And even if you saw them actually do it, you're in a position where it's one person's word against another. Faced with video evidence they can't deny it. Having been in this position I decided to install a dash cam.

 

[RavenManiac]

Having been in this position I decided to install a dash cam.

Good for you. The A129 is an excellent dashcam. I actually have two.

 

[HonestReview]

I learned from the get go....Video = No He Said / She Said... No Video = Up for interpretation or you can't prove anything. Either way, video solidifies what happens and offers irrefutable proof.

 

[HonestReview]

Good for you. The A129 is an excellent dashcam. I actually have two.

Ditto. I own two as well. Tried to get another family member to install one, even offered to do it for him, and he refused... Got rear ended. My accident was on video. His was not...Guess which of the two of us will be able to show exactly what took place!