A Blueskysea B1W Review

SawMaster

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Here's my initial review of the new Blueskysea B1W dashcam which was supplied by Estore009 at no cost to me. I always do my best to give honest and accurate information regardless. Rather than duplicating unboxing pics I'll link to those already posted here below.

My first impression was its size- about the diameter of my thumb and the length of my longest finger- this thing is small and discreet. The owners manual is very well written in English and easily understood. Initial testing was done here at my Desk using a 2A Belkin PS to supply the 5VDC this cam uses through the usual Micro-USB port. A used Transcend 400X 64GB card formatted FAT32 functioned perfectly from the start. Later I'll try an old Samsung EVO 32GB for compatibility testing. In powering up it booted correctly with the default settings and it appeared to be recording based on the blinking red LED, which is bright and easy to see. I powered it down and checked the vid and all looked good so I went outside to the minivan for the install, which I'll cover more thoroughly in another post. Needless to say, installation of a cam this small was a breeze and should be equally easy for anyone to do. One thing I did notice is that the cam slides on and off the mount rather easily; I'd feel a lot better were that a little more secure.

After I got it mounted I went to the Menu on the Android app for doing the settings. I'm a newbie to Andriod and to my new tablet. but the App layout and design made it easy. This is a good app design which is important since it is the sole interface with this cam. After playing with the settings I put them all to default except audio which I turned off. I'll test that later when I try pit the Parking Mode. It was getting dark so I concluded things for the day there after unplugging the cam. This morning I plugged it in and headed off to work. The blinking red LED seen in my mirror was nice and steady. On getting back home earlier than expected I pulled the card and came in to view it on my laptop as it has a bigger screen. The MPEG4 files played fine in Windows app and in VLC player. One oddity I noticed was that between each vid file there is a pic file- not sure what is going on there. Several random files played well and one is here for your viewing below. Since I had the G-sensor on by default, there were several files in that folder. I was surprised the crappy roads here only activated it once while driving (and that included several rough railroad crossings), yet every time I opened a door it caught that and recorded the event. This is far better performance than i had expected and IMHO exactly how a G-sensor should behave. Perfect.

The vid quality in daytime is good for this Sony IMX323 sensor and for a budget-level cam. It's better than my G1W-S does but not as good as my WR-1 which use the same sensor. Nighttime is where this secsor excels but this cam's vids won't disappoint you. So far I'm really liking this cam and I think BlueSkySea has done well in creating a simple, easy-to-use economy dashcam for the masses. I'll update this thread below later.

Phil

Unboxing pics and review by Paul Liddon: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...1080p-wi-fi-dashcam-review.31743/#post-376739
My vid from this morning's drive:
 
Reserved for updates

I've had my B1W recording constantly for over 72 hours without a glitch on 2 separate occasions. This overwrites the entire card several times so the cam and firmware is positively stable. When I formatted the card in my laptop last time around (FAT32 via Mini-Aide) the cam wouldn't record so I formatted it again in my Mobius and all was well after that. Mini-Aide has a file size selection which I think defaulted to the wrong size. This is NOT a problem with the cam but I mention it as part of my experience. I've been sent some new firmware which should refine the vids and I'll post more clips once I get that installed. The more I see the LED blinking in my RVM the more I'm convinced that this is the perfect rear cam and not a bad choice for the front either.

Added 12/22/17:

I got the updated firmware uploaded, a smooth and easy process but a first for me. And I've loaded a few more vids trying to make an even comparison between the old and new firmware though the weather hasn't cooperated well for that. I do have one complaint about the new firmware- the relocation of the white timestamp text to the top makes it unreadable against a bright sky. I still have the G-sensor on with the default settings and it saves the clips when I'm opening the rear hatch of the minivan unless I'm very gentle with that. I feel that the sensitivity level is perfect with this as it's not often triggered by road bumps but will capture someone pulling on a door or bumping into my car. My affection for this little cam grows daily anyway- it's been totally reliable running several days at a time and it has always started correctly when powered up. It's low-light capabilities are good and its daytime vids are better. The B1W has now surpassed the G1W-S as my recommendation for a good budget-level cam and it will appeal to far more people with it's tiny form-factor.

Added 1/21/18
You'll find tear-down pics along with some notes in a post below.
 
Last edited:
Reserved for vids (Note that it takes me about 15+ minutes to load a 1 minute clip so there won't be many to be seen here)

A couple clips from my drive home today after work. The first one is a quick pass by me. I'd been behind that guy for about 7 miles. He drove as much as 15 MPH under the speed limit never holding a constant speed which you can see some of in this clip between start and end. When we'd reach one of the very few passing zones he'd speed up to as much as 10 MPH over the limit until the passing zone ended when he'd slow to a crawl again. I'd had enough of that so when I could, I overtook him. My minivan can be quite peppy when you need that :cool:

The 2nd one was a close shave but at that turn I regularly have even closer calls than this :eek:

12/22/17 Another vid in cloudy daylight with the new firmware. No action but see the front plate on the semi behind me at the red light. SC doesn't use front plates but this was a truck from elsewhere:
QM11u6_WvtM
 
Last edited:
Reserved for updates

I've had my B1W recording constantly for over 72 hours without a glitch on 2 separate occasions. This overwrites the entire card several times so the cam and firmware is positively stable. When I formatted the card in my laptop last time around (FAT32 via Mini-Aide) the cam wouldn't record so I formatted it again in my Mobius and all was well after that. Mini-Aide has a file size selection which I think defaulted to the wrong size. This is NOT a problem with the cam but I mention it as part of my experience. I've been sent some new firmware which should refine the vids and I'll post more clips once I get that installed. The more I see the LED blinking in my RVM the more I'm convinced that this is the perfect rear cam and not a bad choice for the front either.

Added 12/22/17:

I got the updated firmware uploaded, a smooth and easy process but a first for me. And I've loaded a few more vids trying to make an even comparison between the old and new firmware though the weather hasn't cooperated well for that. I do have one complaint about the new firmware- the relocation of the white timestamp text to the top makes it unreadable against a bright sky. I still have the G-sensor on with the default settings and it saves the clips when I'm opening the rear hatch of the minivan unless I'm very gentle with that. I feel that the sensitivity level is perfect with this as it's not often triggered by road bumps but will capture someone pulling on a door or bumping into my car. My affection for this little cam grows daily anyway- it's been totally reliable running several days at a time and it has always started correctly when powered up. It's low-light capabilities are good and its daytime vids are better. The B1W has now surpassed the G1W-S as my recommendation for a good budget-level cam and it will appeal to far more people with it's tiny form-factor.
I too quite like the B1W for a rear facing camera. I like its discreet shape & size, and the simple flashing LED to say it's working. I had mine mounted on the tailgate of a hire car, and like you found that the g-sensor triggered each time I closed the hatch. I suppose that could start to fill up the card over time with hatch-closing clips, but at 1min duration they're not large files.
 
Most G-sensors are too much or too little- very few reliably activate at this level without being over-sensitive to road bumps. I do get an occasional file from that but we've got crappy roads here so it's not unexpected. And the small file sizes are definitely an asset :)

This cam has made me re-think a few of my beliefs, such as high bitrate being needed for good vids, optimum file sizes, and the use of G-sensor. Blueskysea got it right with this cam :D

Phil
 
I'm curious how you have this mounted. It doesn't look like you used the adhesive mount, or at least, not directly on the window. I have tinted windows and would prefer not to put a strong adhesive directly on the tint.

Edit: Just gave my car a look (have only had it two days), it looks like the hard plastic deck under the window would work. Now to figure out the wiring.

Thanks
 
Though I normally don't record audio, there have been problems noted with it so I joined with others here on DCT to test this. Inside my car it's relatively quiet, but in this vid you will hear you will the low frequency road noise which is being complained of. At the end when I stop at the red light this noise dissipates, but in the car it sounded almost as quiet as when driving. I will be changing the mic later to one pulled from a dead G1W-C and retesting on the same road.

Phil
 
I will be changing the mic later to one pulled from a dead G1W-C and retesting on the same road.
It would be nice, if you could record a sound during the test, also on any other device, that records the sound without distortion. Two of these records can help during the analysis of the spectrum and the causes of the distortion of sound.
 
Heres a pictorial teardown of the B1W. As usual any opening of your cam will void the warranty. As there could be changes in later production I cannot be responsible for any damage you do to your cam by following my pics. You're on your own so be careful!

Special Notes:
1- The screw on top at the mounting slot does not need to be removed. It only the part it goes into
2- The endcap which holds the mounting sleeve on are slightly shorter than the rest- DO NOT MIX SCREWS.
3- The mounting sleeve may offer a slight resistance to initial movement. If it takes more than a little force look again to be sure you removed the sleeve retainer endcap!
4-There are 4 screws holding the case halves together. It also snaps together so don't pry till those 4 longer screws are removed. In the final step of splitting the case halves, the PCB will remain with one half while the speaker and mic are glued to the other half and connected by short wires. Be careful to not pull these wires loose!
5- In reassembly, I found it helpful to insert the SD card before installing the endcaps on that end of the camera to aid in parts alignment.
I stopped before removing the PC board but I presume it is simply held by screws (and possible snaps into place) same as most other cams. If you go that far be careful with the CMOS cable
P1210046.JPG
P1210047.JPGP1210048.JPGP1210049.JPGP1210050.JPGP1210051.JPGP1210052.JPGP1210053.JPGP1210054.JPG
 
I will be changing the mic later to one pulled from a dead G1W-C and retesting on the same road.

Phil
Any news on the mic swap "front"? :)
 
Not yet- the last 3-4 weeks have been rather bad here. I'll catch back up when I can.

Phil
 
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