Any dash camera that records braking and blinker activity?

[DrZoo]

Are there any dash cameras that record braking and blinker activity? I've been wanting to get a dash camera for a while now. I've had the Garmin Dash Cam 55 on my Amazon wishlist for ages now, but I don't think that one indicates braking or blinker activity.

Unfortunately today, someone ran into the driver side of my car as I was entering a parking lot. The driver was at the stop sign, exiting the parking lot, but somehow failed to see me. I had my blinker on and a the lady behind me was kind enough to stop to give witness information. She also said my blinker was on. Go figure, the driver who hit me said "I didn't see your blinker, and thought you were going straight." Despite me going a snails pace and turning lol.

So it had me wondering about other cameras that might have this type of feature?

I know fleet vehicles like law enforcement cars do this, but I wasn't sure of anything consumer level that does.

 

[ShruteFarms]

If you get a 2-channel camera then you can position the "rear" camera at the base of your dash so it constantly records your speedometer (to infer braking/slowing down) and turn signal activity, in sync with what the main dashcam records. Or buy two single-channel dash cams and do the same thing. You would just have a harder time syncing up both single-channel video feeds.

Not trying to defend the other driver but I almost hit someone too because it was early morning and their blinker wasn't very bright in broad daylight. I was sure they didn't have their blinker on but when I went back to look at my dashcam video, sure enough their blinker was on. The blinker looked more noticeable in the video than it did in real life due to angle of sun and glare (my dashcam has a polarizer though).

 

[country_hick]

Any dashcam with a decent microphone should capture the sound of your blinker. Sound alone would not tell the difference between a right and left blinker.
Braking would be shown by slowing down in the video. Brake lights working could still be questioned.

 

[jokiin]

there has been some cameras with OBD connection that can record this detail, very limited makes of cars that they worked with though

 

[SawMaster]

I've been looking for a source of larger-sized fiber optic cable to create a display of my blinker/brake lights front and rear which would terminate in the view of my cam where I could also see it. An earlier attempt with "Toslink" cable showed it to be too small (0.5mm). This wouldn't be a practical approach for most people to run those from each corner of their vehicle to the cam area. I know that cars sold in the US have data such as speed, gear selection, braking and possibly signaling stored in the car's computer of the last several seconds driving. It gets overwritten though, so unless you shut the car off immediately and not restart it, you would still have nothing. I've tried using the audio recorder of several different cams to capture my blinker but none ever have,and that doesn't help with brakelights regardless. Plus many cars can have the blinker device and dash display functioning yet have a bulb out, so hearing the blinker sound in the recording is only partially effective as proof. If anyone knows where I can get 50ft of 1mm or larger fiber optic cable please let me know.

As much good as dashcams do I won't be without one, but they alone do not tell the whole story. It would probably have some cost involved but there should be more cams which connect to the OBD port which can do this. I think the feature would sell.

Phil

 

[Nigel]

If anyone knows where I can get 50ft of 1mm or larger fiber optic cable please let me know.

Fibre optic cable is difficult stuff to use, doesn't carry the light around sharp bends etc.

You would be much better off tapping into the electrical power to the bulbs and putting an LED in the camera's field of view.

However the brake lights being on does not mean that you are decelerating quickly, on a down hill you may even be accelerating with them on, so you would be better off with an accelerometer gauge in the camera field of view that shows the rate of deceleration.

And for the blinker lamps; in this country they only give advisory information on what someone intends to do, they do not affect the rights of way, so the fact that you had them on or not does not have any effect on who is legally at fault for an accident, knowing if they were on is not important.

 

[kamkar]

Some / many Lukas with OBD connection do, but it is very flaky what level of vehicle support you can expect as apparently OBD are not 100 % the same.
And besides Lukas also seem to do poor support and they also use half the bitrate of other cameras, which will affect image quality, so not a avenue i can recommend.
Not even sure Lukas bother with having their vehicle compatibility list any more.

Sadly !!!! cuz it is really neat and something i wish worked with all cars, so i have asked if it was possible to "teach" your camera to know all the OBD signals for things like indicators / brake / throttle / steering.

 

[country_hick]

I've been looking for a source of larger-sized fiber optic cable to create a display of my blinker/brake lights front and rear which would terminate in the view of my cam where I could also see it. I've tried using the audio recorder of several different cams to capture my blinker but none ever have,and that doesn't help with brakelights regardless.

Phil

In the 1960's and 1970's some cars had fender mounted signal lights. You could see your signal lights on your fenders. Perhaps adding a pair to your road machine would cover that issue if your dashcam can see them.

A third brake light glows red at night around the housing. You could add a red LED light wired into your brake lights that would be captured by your dashcam. Then you could easily demonstrate how this light comes on when your brakes come on.

EDIT: U-haul has 2-4 times more expensive than normal taillight bulbs with a built in wire harness. You could install a pair of those lights in your van and hook up brake lights and turn signal lights without hacking your wiring harness. They are made for trailer towers who do not have or can not get a wiring harness for their cars. Of course you would have to add the extra wiring to reach more than 6" from the taillight bulbs.

 

[SawMaster]

It would be easy to rig corresponding lights into a viewable repeater circuit but that is not my goal. Like with our cameras, what I want is to see what is actually happening at the bulb. Unlike newer cars, my old van doesn't have light monitoring- I have to check manually (which I do) but I won't know if a bulb dies while driving. A bulb-fed fiber optics system would fix that. Fiber optics will pass light through the bends I need, which includes some sharp ones. I discovered that via my previous experiments. My system is workable, it just needs larger fiber optic cable than I can source in less than 1000ft rolls. I had a vid from my earlier efforts but it died with my old laptop. My big old van has plenty of room to work, but running fiber optics in the average car would probably be tedious at best. For most people a repeater system would be easier and better- I just need something different.

 

[kamkar]

The back of another car, and store windows, that's how i check my lights, but in accordance with the law a should do a walk around on my car every time i use it.
But i am not crazy, that i leave to the people that come up with or allow ancient laws to exist.