Dashmellow
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2013
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- Dash Cam
- Umpteen
The M.2 2230 and 2242 would be excellent for smaller dash cam devices, the M.2 2280 for 'box' style units, and even the 2.5 SSD if VIOFO had the engineering chops (I don't think they do) to incorporate the bodies of the 2.5 into the chassis as an external structure that would be removable for access to the inside of the unit. There are a lot of engineering opportunities to get a world class design, but I am more inclined to think it will come from Korea or Japan. The Germans could do it, but that would require about 70 screws for the assembly.
STARVIS II and customer demands for high quality images have doomed the MicroSDXC memory cards. Any shop not making a camera with STARVIS II and M.2 memory by this time next year will be a shop that is serving the bottom feeders in the market.
I think @viofo likely has more than enough "engineering chops" to implement the kind of solutions you are talking about. However, I believe the costs involved in engineering, tooling and manufacturing such a product would make a camera like that unprofitable in today's dash cam market.
Even with their increased popularity dash cams are still a niche market that does not sell in volumes that could support the kind of investment this would require or the ability to offer the camera at a price point that would meet product demand. Anyone who has any background or familiarity with manufacturing or who has chatted at length with any of the developers/manufacturers on this forum is familiar with these business challenges.
In my 11 years on this forum I've seen all kinds of suggestions for camera concepts like yours but most of them are impractical or impossible for a variety of reasons including and especially those cited above.
That is not to say it can't happen eventually. For example, we've had many discussions going back a decade now about the desire for the ability to use some kind of SSD implementation in dash cams but it just wasn't possible, primarily because there was no practical connectivity interface available with the SoC processors used in dash cam manufacture which are not made by dash cam manufacturers. ALL dash cams can only be built with the components available to the manufacturers. But now we finally seem to be on the cusp SSD drives becoming compatible for dash cams and other types of small consumer electronics products. Nevertheless, the more advanced options like fiber optics, etc, you are advocating for are still quite a ways off and I believe you may be getting ahead of yourself a bit here.
BTW, not long ago, I too even suggested something similar to your suggestion for a camera with removable SSD with an access door at one time actually, but it isn't there yet and may be prove better as an external storage device but in any event we will have to wait for something like this. For now, just havinge SSD connectivity in a dash cam will be groundbreaking and as usual, Viofo will probably be first to market.
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