U1000 Radar availability: Help please.

David Markham

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Joined
Aug 28, 2017
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Location
Blue Mountains, NSW
Country
Australia
Dash Cam
Thinkware Q800-Pro
Since installing my U1000 and living with its overly sensitive accelerometer for a week now, I have determined that the optional radar module may well be a worthwhile proposition. In terms of minimising power usage, as well as minimising the likelihood of false impact recordings when parked, I would be happy to invest in the radar, just for my own sanity and peace of mind.
The problem, however, is that no one Thinkware retailer I have enquired through in Australia stocks it, or is likely to stock it any time soon. All online stockists that list it are either in the UK or North America, and postage to Australia is either off-the-planet expensive, or not available. Moreover, I am loathe to use a 3rd party carrier, for the same reason.
If any of you kind folks can point me in the right direction, or perhaps have a word in the shell-like ears of Blackboxmycar, I would really appreciate it – as, I am sure many other members will.
Many thanks in advance.
 
Does it actually help with your problem? My understanding was that writing the recordings to memory card is still triggered by by the accelerometer, the radar's task is to wake the camera up out of sleep mode and start buffering some video in case the accelerometer gets triggered, if the accelerometer isn't triggered then the camera goes back to sleep without writing the buffered video to card...
 
Does it actually help with your problem?...

That's a good question, and the answer is, I don't honestly know. Hence, my initial post.
Maybe Maddog1974 might know, as his bio suggests the radar module is installed in his own vehicle.
 
Radar only works for the front cam only. No detection for the rear cam if not mistaken.

What if something happens at the rear?

Should read the cons of radar too.
* Radar motion detection requires optional radar module, and only enabled in energy saving mode.
* Sedan or greater sized vehicle can be detected.
* Due to nature of Ultra-high Frequency radiation, the distance and degree of detection can be different.
* Not every object is guaranteed to be detected.
* Metal object can cause malfunction of the radar detection.
* Read user manual before using radar module
 
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Radar only works for the front cam only. No detection for the rear cam if not mistaken.

What if something happens at the rear?

Should read the cons of radar too.
* Radar motion detection requires optional radar module, and only enabled in energy saving mode.
* Sedan or greater sized vehicle can be detected.
* Due to nature of Ultra-high Frequency radiation, the distance and degree of detection can be different.
* Not every object is guaranteed to be detected.
* Metal object can cause malfunction of the radar detection.
* Read user manual before using radar module

That sounds somewhat disappointing especially:

Not every object is guaranteed to be detected.

So what they are saying is don't rely on the specialised $90USD motion detection radar. Isn’t this the point of the radar? (I understand there will be limitations with any product.)

Metal object can cause malfunction of the radar detection.
So other metal objects such as cars may cause malfunction of the motion detection radar?
 
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That sounds somewhat disappointing especially:



So what they are saying is don't rely on the specialised $90USD motion detection radar. Isn’t this the point of the radar? (I understand there will be limitations with any product.)


So other metal objects such as cars may cause malfunction of the motion detection radar?

I think Thinkware have to state it just in case like medications with its side effects:unsure:
 
* Sedan or greater sized vehicle can be detected.
I've not tried the Thinkware radar, but the Vantrue T2 radar I tried would pick up people, shopping trolleys, and any sort of vehicle at about 10 meters, the range given for the Thinkware is the same so it is probably the same technology, not actually radar but a microwave transmitter/sensor operating in the lower frequency radar bands, good for detecting people and normally used for supermarket automatic door openers. The T2 "radar" was very good for detecting people walking passed, but a bit slow for vehicles, although that was partly down to the rather slow wake up time after detection. For a very low power parking mode it was very good, but it was never going to catch 100% of incidents, especially the faster ones, and as has been pointed out, it is going to miss 50% of the remaining incidents since it can only see forward.
 
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Radar only works for the front cam only. No detection for the rear cam if not mistaken.

What if something happens at the rear?....

I agree that there ought to be a rear-facing radar as well; it’s certainly a steep price to pay for only one module.

Actually, my overriding interest is not so much in its power saving benefits – as I have a backup battery installed – but rather out of my desire to minimise the occurrence of false impact events whenever I shut the door or tailgate. I really shouldn’t have to turn the ignition key before I even so much as sit in the driver’s seat.
On that note, Thinkware really does need to work on its accelerometer settings and release a firmware update accordingly. Otherwise, rather like ‘the boy who cried wolf’, people are going to start ignoring it, or switch it off altogether.
I half jokingly remarked to my family during the weekend that I only need to fart in its direction to set it off. As it was quite windy a few days ago, I wasn’t far from the truth.
 
The above descriptions of the Radar are perfect regarding only covering the front of the vehicle so where possible it would pay to reverse up towards a barrier or wall etc and how it operates (needing an impact to actually save the footage). When i fitted and tested mine i was walking past the front of my car and it was recording no problem, i got about 6m range on my Smart For Two (2016).

I know what you mean about when you return to the vehicle and as soon as i open the door 'beep beep' and i've spent sometime trying to think of a way around that and i can't really think of one, in my head now i just know that 90% of the time i will have 1 incident however if i hadn't been in my boot first and i heard 2 incidents i would have a look at the footage. I might put the idea forward for future if some form of RFID Tag could be used on your car keys so when you get within say 10m of the car the camera picks up that being in range so doesn't trigger the Alert as you get in however i reckon the extra cost of that would be to much just for stopping an alert. Perhaps if it connected to an Indicator supply too that could work so as you unlock the car it sensed the couple of pulses to the indicators again to disable alerts but then i suppose the vehicle alarm triggering would also stop alerts.
 
So yesterday I received and installed the radar module for my U1000, after ordering it from Blackboxmycar.

It’s about the size of a D-Cell battery with a six-inch power cord, which plugs into the side of the dash cam with a 3.5mm auxiliary jack.

I mounted the radar unit almost flush with the roof lining at the top of my windscreen, about an inch to the left of centre. That way, I could tuck the majority of the cord into the headlining, with the remainder zip-tied together with the power and rear camera cables. It’s not as aesthetically pleasing as the F770 was, but that’s just how it is.

it’s still too early for me to perceive any benefits, but from initial impressions, it appears to be quite effective at picking up movement in front of the car – even a breeze moving a plant is enough to wake it up. It seems here that Thinkware has a particular strength in engineering extreme sensitivity into their products, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

On that note, I would probably be better off just setting the dash-cam to time-lapse footage – unless I actually reverse-parked my car up against a wall. The radar-unit has done absolutely nothing to minimise the false-alerts that I get from the overly sensitive accelerometer, which I have currently given up on and switched off.

All-in-all, the experience that I have so far with the U1000 has left a very bad taste in my mouth.

David.
 
So yesterday I received and installed the radar module for my U1000, after ordering it from Blackboxmycar.

It’s about the size of a D-Cell battery with a six-inch power cord, which plugs into the side of the dash cam with a 3.5mm auxiliary jack.

I mounted the radar unit almost flush with the roof lining at the top of my windscreen, about an inch to the left of centre. That way, I could tuck the majority of the cord into the headlining, with the remainder zip-tied together with the power and and rear camera cables. It’s not as aesthetically pleasing as the F770 was, but that’s just how it is.

it’s still too early for me to perceive any benefits, but from initial impressions, it appears to be quite effective at picking up movement in front of the car – even a breeze moving a plant is enough to wake it up. It seems here that Thinkware has a particular strength in engineering extreme sensitivity into their products, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

On that note, I would probably be better off just setting the dash-cam to time-lapse footage – unless I actually reverse-parked my car up against a wall. The radar-unit has done absolutely nothing to minimise the false-alerts that I get from the overly sensitive accelerometer, which I have currently given up on and switched off.



David.
Interesting to hear your thoughts about the radar. I kind of expected it to be a gimmick to be honest. It was however a feature that interested me.

All-in-all, the experience that I have so far with the U1000 has left a very bad taste in my mouth.

I had the same experience and that’s why I didn't bother with the U1000 in the end. Wasn't that good for the price they want. Contenders for me were the Thinkware U1000, Blackvue DR900S or the Viofo A129 Pro Duo. In the end I went with the Viofo A129 Pro Duo which is a very nice unit with exceptional video quality (better than the U1000 I think) for a much lower price. In the end price wasn’t a concern to me, I wanted top notch video quality and a decent camera with good core features.
 
even a breeze moving a plant is enough to wake it up.
Are you sure that is the radar waking it? Radar is not designed to detect leaves moving, should at least need a cat. Maybe there was a cat behind the plants, radar is good at seeing through things, it can see people moving the other side of a concrete wall so your idea of parking the car against a wall may not work!
 
Are you sure that is the radar waking it? Radar is not designed to detect leaves moving, should at least need a cat...
Good question Nigel. It's of course entirely possible there may have been a person behind the foliage that I didn't see.
I've been living out of a suitcase for the past two days, because of the Bushfire situation here in Australia, so I wasn't altogether familiar with the surroundings. Maybe one of the chamber maids cleaning out the Motel rooms woke it up.
Again, only time and observation will give me a better appraisal of the radar unit. I'll post an update in due course.
 
Got the radar and mounted it , looks nice though it can detect also people when approaching 2-3 from the véhicule it trigger impact recording
 
will the radar work if my camera is contected to cellink neo batterys via the
Cigarette power cable going into the cellink neo battery, :unsure: :unsure: :unsure:
 
No as there is no ignition wire going in the Cigarette Lighter cable so the camera won't go into parking mode so the Radar wouldn't activate.

If you used a HW cable and connected the Permanent to the Cellink Output and the Ignition wire straight to a vehicle ignition it will be fine.
 
would this cable work from the cellink neo to the u1000 with the radar pluged in, :unsure: :unsure: :unsure:
 

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Again i don't think so as that only has 2 wires in the plug. The camera ultimately needs 3 wires. Permanent / Ignition & Earth.
 
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