An Alternative Use?

AlwaysBlue

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Good morning, I’m after some general advice and feedback on the use of a Dash Cam.

I live in a rural area and we are blighted with fly tipping.

My wondering is whether we could place da cams strategically on various cars in and around the village in the hope of catching those responsible.

Would this work? Also, what sort of drainage would this do to a car battery? Given they would probably only be on overnight, but maybe 8-10hrs at a time.

The costs of purchasing the equipment would need to be relatively inexpensive as I will be looking for the Parish Council to fund the same.

Any general feedback would be welcome.

Thanks
 
Welcome to the forum.

We have the same problem here in Denmark, though there are a great number of ways to get rid of your garbage at no cost and little effort. :mad:
I can only assume it is the influx of people from other cultures, cuz back in the day we dident have such problems and visitors here always said " that's the cleanest country i have ever seen"

Since it most often go on in a rural area here i would use trail cameras, they are also meant for outdoor use and carry their pwn power source.

Hope you catch those filthy animals.
 
This could work but trail cams might be better. Regular security cams might be another option to consider. The average car battery can run one average cam for 3-6 hours with little adverse effect on the car battery. Mostly this depends on the battery size and it's age. With a large battery 8-10 hours may be feasible. Cams with a good motion detect mode will use somewhat less power and will make finding the needed video easier but few cams have a good motion detect mode; almost none of the cheaper cams do this well. Also a consideration is lighting. No cams will be effective in total darkness but with some lighting there are relatively inexpensive cams which should do well enough. Which brings us to costs. There are some cams in the $60US range which should do the job but all will need an SD card too, and only good cards will work- cheap cards fail. For 8+ hours recording time a 64GB card will be necessary- the ones recommended will be another $30US+ per cam. Spending less will likely be a total waste of your money.

If this is an isolated incident then you could recoup some of your costs by selling the equipment once the culprits are caught. You might also re purpose it for normal dashcam use or make use of it in other situations. Not knowing the details of lighting and the distances between cam and scene it's hard to recommend anything specific. Give us those details and maybe we can help you nip the rascals ;) We will certainly try!

Phil
 
trail cameras (i have a couple) are a bit bulky compared to, say, a Mobius...not that stealthy.
 
Yeah they dont conceal well as is, but you can conceal them with or in something if the place dont lend itself for normal use.
But using dashcams you sort of have to do the same if you cant have a parked car sitting there.
 
I'm really pulling this answer out of my rear end here but, what about buying a really large portable USB charger (like this one) and plugging the dash cam into it? You could conceal the USB charger in a glovebox once turned on, and then string the wire to the camera, and let it record overnight. I'd assume if it can charge an iPhone seven times, it could run a tiny camera for quite a while.

Was just thinking. Maybe I could be wrong, but I'd try it once. :unsure:
 
Yes using large USB power banks for parking are not uncommon, it is more easy if you dont need parking guard all the time.
So i would do the same if i ever feel a need for using parking guard, but i have not gotten that feeling yet.
At home i have cctv on my parked car, its also the case when i park at my friends house, and it is rare i park out on town and though i have paid far too much for my little car i dont care if it get a little dinged up by car doors.
 
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