900S connects to all three wifi sources with ease

TexasSpartan

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Location
Texas
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Dash Cam
BlackVue DR900S - 2CH
I installed my 900S I got from BBMC along with my CellLink B battery and I have to say, this thing does exactly what I want. I have it connected to my home wifi, my car wifi, and a hot spot. It disconnects/connects seamlessly from each of those three sources with ease. I can remote view, get the pushed notifications I want. I did disable motion notifications as this cam is very sensitive.
 
What is the model of the Hotspot that you are using?
 
...connected to my home wifi, my car wifi, and a hot spot.
Could you please elaborate on these usage scenarios? For example:
-- by "car wifi", do you mean wifi that's built into the car from the auto maker?
-- by "home wifi", do you simply mean switching a wifi reception device (like a laptop) to the SSID hosted by the dashcam?
-- by "hot spot", do you mean you're using the Verizon device to connect to the BlackVue.com Cloud?
Two (of many) things which are unclear to me are,
(1) in which of these scenarios is the Cloud involved?; and,
(2) I'm under the impression that any wifi end-point (like a smart-TV, or a desktop system inside your house) can be connected to only one broadcasting SSID at a time.
If there's a way to access the dashcam's internal wifi -- either for playback or for real-time Live View -- from *outside* the car, especially at great distance, without using BlackVue's Cloud, that would be of great interest to me.
Thanks in advance for your time in replying.
 
Could you please elaborate on these usage scenarios? For example:
-- by "car wifi", do you mean wifi that's built into the car from the auto maker?
-- by "home wifi", do you simply mean switching a wifi reception device (like a laptop) to the SSID hosted by the dashcam?
-- by "hot spot", do you mean you're using the Verizon device to connect to the BlackVue.com Cloud?
Two (of many) things which are unclear to me are,
(1) in which of these scenarios is the Cloud involved?; and,
(2) I'm under the impression that any wifi end-point (like a smart-TV, or a desktop system inside your house) can be connected to only one broadcasting SSID at a time.
If there's a way to access the dashcam's internal wifi -- either for playback or for real-time Live View -- from *outside* the car, especially at great distance, without using BlackVue's Cloud, that would be of great interest to me.
Thanks in advance for your time in replying.

1. Yes
2. No, my home wifi is the wifi in my house. It switches from my car's built in wifi to the wifi in my house when parked in the garage.
3. Yes, I'm using Verizon's AC791L 4G hotspot to connect when the car is parked elsewhere.
The cloud feature is when I'm away from the car and want to view the car remotely, I use the cloud feature. This can be at work, restaurant, you name it.
Yes, you can only connect to one wifi source at a time. I'm unclear of your comment here.
You have to use Blackvue's cloud to access the dashcam when outside the car. That's its intent.
 
1. Yes
2. No, my home wifi is the wifi in my house. It switches from my car's built in wifi to the wifi in my house when parked in the garage.
3. Yes, I'm using Verizon's AC791L 4G hotspot to connect when the car is parked elsewhere.
The cloud feature is when I'm away from the car and want to view the car remotely, I use the cloud feature. This can be at work, restaurant, you name it.
Yes, you can only connect to one wifi source at a time. I'm unclear of your comment here.
You have to use Blackvue's cloud to access the dashcam when outside the car. That's its intent.

I'm waiting for delivery, and have never installed one before. So I downloaded the PDF manual and searched for all occurrences of the word SSID. Now I get it (I think) -- page 86, "Cloud service hotspot settings": at install, you enter up to 3 SSIDs to which the dashcam will alternately connect when it's trying to reach BlackVue's Cloud.

So, it sounds like, if the end-point you're using (e.g. phone or tablet) to access the dashcam is out of range of the dashcam's resident Wi-Fi antenna, then all communication between you and the dashcam must first go "up" to the Cloud and back "down" again, in both directions -- even though it's going through (for example) your home network. It sounds like nothing can pass directly between you and the dashcam over your network without passing through the Cloud. If your broadband connection goes down, the user is S.O.L.
 
I'm waiting for delivery, and have never installed one before. So I downloaded the PDF manual and searched for all occurrences of the word SSID. Now I get it (I think) -- page 86, "Cloud service hotspot settings": at install, you enter up to 3 SSIDs to which the dashcam will alternately connect when it's trying to reach BlackVue's Cloud.

So, it sounds like, if the end-point you're using (e.g. phone or tablet) to access the dashcam is out of range of the dashcam's resident Wi-Fi antenna, then all communication between you and the dashcam must first go "up" to the Cloud and back "down" again, in both directions -- even though it's going through (for example) your home network. It sounds like nothing can pass directly between you and the dashcam over your network without passing through the Cloud. If your broadband connection goes down, the user is S.O.L.

Correct, but that's true for any Cloud based equipment.
 
It sounds like nothing can pass directly between you and the dashcam over your network without passing through the Cloud.
Correct, but that's true for any Cloud based equipment.

I am pretty sure it does not have to be that way. Blackvue could.. make it simple to allow a direct connection to ones home WiFi. Those clever with coding skill seem to have managed to create scripts that will do it. Doing what the "people" want / need is not in the Blackvue business model, they want dibs ($$) on your usage... never mind the outrageous price of the equipment in the first place. :(
 
I am pretty sure it does not have to be that way. Blackvue could.. make it simple to allow a direct connection to ones home WiFi. Those clever with coding skill seem to have managed to create scripts that will do it. Doing what the "people" want / need is not in the Blackvue business model, they want dibs ($$) on your usage... never mind the outrageous price of the equipment in the first place. :(

Actually I get by with their free cloud service.
 
But "why" should you (anyone) be happy with just their free cloud service.. That.. is nice when away from home but it has to be slower than a direct WiFi connection at home.
 
I am pretty sure it does not have to be that way. Blackvue could.. make it simple to allow a direct connection to ones home WiFi.
I'm more than "pretty sure". I've spent decades in I.T. as both a systems administrator and a close-to-the-metal guts-of-the-OS software developer, including networking packages for vendors. There's no fundamental technical reason that the dashcam can't as easily communicate with your phone etc. through your home network (assuming adequate signal coverage), or through your cellular data to the public network etc. In fact, it would actually be easier for Blackvue to code it that way than the way they've done it.
Those clever with coding skill seem to have managed to create scripts that will do it.
Can you say more? Any particular examples? I've already been thinking about ways to do it, but I'd rather not waste time "re-inventing the wheel".

At first I thought about spoofing a DNS server so that the dashcam would think that it was talking to the Blackvue Cloud, but would actually be talking to me. But it would be too easy for them to put in counter-measures to that (if they haven't already).
The one place they can't use such counter-measures -- at least, not without making the product seriously less capable -- is in the networking which takes place between the dashcam and the app which is running on a phone which is supposedly within 30 feet of the dashcam. So it's a matter of determining the best way, at an acceptable cost, to insert oneself into that networking session, capture those exchanges, and relay them to a distant end-point of one's choosing.
...the outrageous price of the equipment...
Actually, I don't think the core product -- the dashcams -- are outrageously priced, when you consider their capabilities, the market, etc. It's a little bit of a different story with the accessories. Now, if you want to see something *reeeeeeally* outrageous, take a look at this: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/alternative-to-factory-home-power-adaptor-sic.34678/
 
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But "why" should you (anyone) be happy with just their free cloud service.. That.. is nice when away from home but it has to be slower than a direct WiFi connection at home.

Well sure but if all I need to do is to check on my vehicle, who cares. I'm not watching a movie.
 
I'd rather that BlackVue focus their engineering efforts on the dashcam recording functionality. Remember, it's a camera, not a media server. People can already connect via wi-fi directly to the camera if they want to view or transfer videos without going through the cloud. Adding further complexity for the subset of customers powering the dashcam in their garage, and who are too far away from the garage to directly connect, and who don't want their video going through the cloud is... marginal. There are also new security concerns, customer support issues due to the home router config, etc. Sure, it's technically possible but does it make business sense (vs. other opportunities)?
 
I'd rather that BlackVue focus their engineering efforts on the dashcam recording functionality.
I agree. But I don't think anyone in this thread is expressly asking that *Blackvue* take on the job of implementing Cloud-free distant access. At least, I know *I* wasn't. And I don't even particularly care about remotely accessing recordings, since I can just swap cards when I leave the car. There has to be *some* limit on the broadcasting range of their Wi-Fi hardware, so there would always be *someone* who wanted even more, so that's not a solution.

I don't deny the usefulness of their Cloud; it's just that I don't want to be thinking about free/pay considerations when I'm doing remote access. All I expect from them is that they do nothing to get in the way, such as having the camera-resident code doing packet inspection to determine how many "hops" away is the app client. And at the moment I have no reason to believe that's an issue -- as I said, I'm waiting for delivery, and have never installed one before. I just need to determine some way to relay the dashcam-to-app TCP session over a distance, e.g. using cellular data, without involving their Cloud.
 
I tested the Verizon Jetpack AC791L when I installed the Blackvue S900.

When the Jetpack was plugged into the car and got power (charging), the Blackvue camera stayed connected. However, when the Jetpack was unplugged, a few minutes later, the Blackvue got disconnected from the WIFI, and did not connection again until I plugged in the Jetpack again.

Maybe there is a way to change the way it works?
 
When the Jetpack was plugged into the car and got power (charging), the Blackvue camera stayed connected.
Yakuzahi, I apologize for being repetitious, but I want to make sure I'm completely clear about what you said. When you say the camera "stayed connected", you mean connected to the Blackvue Cloud, correct? You don't mean that you're able to connect the Blackvue app (or Windows viewer) through the Jetpack to the camera without using the Cloud, right?
 
Yes, to the cloud. Even when the Jetpack is not charging and with 71% battery, I couldn't connect to it with a phone.
 
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