Best Camera with parking feature

[Duane]

Hi

I've been looking for a dash cam with the best possible quality picture, gps and a parking motion sensor. After doing some research, and trawling through this great site, it seems the most obvious choice is the ITB-100HD... if I can find one for a decent price.

Before I take the plunge though, I have a couple of questions. Firstly, is there another option to hardwiring if I want the parking sensor to work, like an external power source?

And secondly, have I over-looked some decent alternatives? I saw the Sameview S100 ticks all the boxes, but can find very little info about it. Or how about the JAEWONCNC IROAD IONE-3800FU? Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Any help much appreciated.

Duane

 

[DashCamMan]

There is a battery pack called T-Power C that could be used instead of hardwiring for parking mode. Not much real life info on it.

The ITB-100HD is a well known camera and I'm sure you can find it for under $200 if you look hard enough.

The Sameview S-100 is not that popular. 720p, doesn't look discrete and little information on it makes it a risky purchase.

The Jaewoncnc IROAD IONE-3800FU seems interesting. I'm sure you will start reading some feedback on the thread as people receive the camera. Something to consider.

 

[oddpoo]

There is a battery pack called T-Power C that could be used instead of hardwiring for parking mode. Not much real life info on it.

I saw that it takes 2 hours and 50 minutes to charge that T-Power C battery pack. I guess that very few people drive their cars that long every day. That means that you will have to charge the battery pack outside the car every day in order to have the full 20 hours parking capacity.

 

[Duane]

Thanks guys.

Do either of you know if the ITB-100HB causes battery drain issues if you hard wire it? I generally drive my car everyday to and from work, although it may sit for 24 hrs+ over a weekend, if I'm feeling particularly lazy...

 

[Duane]

Okay, the more I read on here the less I think I need a camera with GPS. But my interest has been piqued by wifi...

 

[oddpoo]

Thanks guys.

Do either of you know if the ITB-100HB causes battery drain issues if you hard wire it? I generally drive my car everyday to and from work, although it may sit for 24 hrs+ over a weekend, if I'm feeling particularly lazy...

Yes, the ITB-100HD will drain your battery if you hardwire it to your car. I would guess that the camera will draw around 0,5A. This means that if the camera is connected for 24 hours it will draw 6Ah from your battery. So if your car has a 60Ah battery you will lose 10% battery capacity every day. This might not be a problem if you have a fresh battery and you do this once in a while but if you do this all the time you will eventually kill your battery.

 

[tofu]

Thanks guys.

Do either of you know if the ITB-100HB causes battery drain issues if you hard wire it? I generally drive my car everyday to and from work, although it may sit for 24 hrs+ over a weekend, if I'm feeling particularly lazy...

Yes, the ITB-100HD will drain your battery if you hardwire it to your car. I would guess that the camera will draw around 0,5A. This means that if the camera is connected for 24 hours it will draw 6Ah from your battery. So if your car has a 60Ah battery you will lose 10% battery capacity every day. This might not be a problem if you have a fresh battery and you do this once in a while but if you do this all the time you will eventually kill your battery.

i'm not quite sure about these recent battery killing theory discussions i've seen.

people have been running dash cams in parking mode for years now. do they really draw 0.5A in passive motion detect/Gsensor mode? why haven't people been complaining about dead batteries sooner? If you're actually losing 10% battery capacity every day, your battery would be as good as dead in under a month

 

[Mtz]

You are right. That 10% is not true. Your battery can go empty in about a week if not starting the engine at all.

Okay, the more I read on here the less I think I need a camera with GPS. But my interest has been piqued by wifi...

GPS is good only for marketing. I have Wi-Fi and I will never change it for a useless (for me) GPS and also not buying a dashcam without Wi-Fi. Is something like starting from tomorrow my smartphone or laptop will need a wire to have internet connection.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[oddpoo]

i'm not quite sure about these recent battery killing theory discussions i've seen.

people have been running dash cams in parking mode for years now. do they really draw 0.5A in passive motion detect/Gsensor mode? why haven't people been complaining about dead batteries sooner? If you're actually losing 10% battery capacity every day, your battery would be as good as dead in under a month

I’m guessing that my camera draw 0,5A based on the heat from the camera (ITB-100HD). I would say that the heat is roughly the same as from a 5W light bulb. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes, as long as the camera uses the same resolution and frame rate the power consumption is the same in parked mode. It is incorrect to say “passive” mode since the camera is still operational. The only difference is that the camera does not record anything on the memory card until something triggers the recording. But since the camera will record what happened before the trigger the camera must loop record everything in memory all the time.

I theory the power consumption might actually increase slightly during parked mode since this is often done during the night. In order to record with less available light the camera must simulate a higher ISO value. This is done by increasing the current thought the image sensor. This will also increase the temperature on the sensor. This is one of the reasons why night pictures have higher noise levels. A higher temperature on the image sensor creates more noise.

It was wrong of me in my example to say that you would lose 10% battery capacity. The correct way would be to say that you would lose 10% charge level. But I see now that my math is wrong. 0,5A for 24 hours must be 12Ah (not 6Ah as I wrote). So 0,5A for 24 hours means that you would lose 20% charge lever on a 60Ah battery. But as long as you drive your car every day for sufficient time (so the battery has a chance to reach a full state of charge) then there might not be any problems. You might even leave the car for two days (and lose 40%) and you would still not notice anything the next time you start your car.

Battery theory: We measure battery capacity in Ah (ampere hours). A battery with 60Ah can in theory deliver 60A for one hour, or 1A for 60 hours… or 0,5A for 120 hours. But 60Ah is a small battery. I would say that the average car battery might be a little more powerful battery than that. If you drive a big American truck with a V8 Cummings Diesel you will most certainly have a bigger battery.

The battery death I mention is a slow process. This is nothing that will happen overnight. There are also numerous of variables that will influence the lifetime of the battery.

A good quality battery might under normal circumstances have an average lifetime of five years. If you constantly expose this battery to a charge level of 80% for extended periods of time (hours/days) then you might shorten the battery lifetime with two ears. If you constantly expose your battery to a charge level down to 50% then you might have shortens the battery lifetime with another two ears.

 

[oddpoo]

You are right. That 10% is not true. Your battery can go empty in about a week if not starting the engine at all.

So you say that you can leave your camera on for up to seven days and then still be able to start your car. Have you actually tried this?
But this might work if your camera draws very little current and/or if you have a more powerful battery.

GPS is good only for marketing. I have Wi-Fi and I will never change it for a useless (for me) GPS and also not buying a dashcam without Wi-Fi. Is something like starting from tomorrow my smartphone or laptop will need a wire to have internet connection.

enjoy,
Mtz

For me it is the other way around. I would never exchange GPS for WiFi. I have been using dash cameras for nearly six years now. I just leave the camera there to record everything and I basically never touch it – why would I need WiFi? With a GPS I can prove my actual speed in case I would be involved in an accident.

 

[Mtz]

Have you actually tried this?

Tried just 5 days because that was the situation in a weekend. No problem with starting the engine.

With a GPS I can prove my actual speed in case I would be involved in an accident.

You can prove that to your friends, to you, to your family, or show it on youtube just for fun.

To be accepted in a court, by a judge, your camera must to be officially approved by your government or what is the institution in your country which is giving approvals for devices which are recording speed. For example the police radars are approved by some institution and almost every year that radars are checked again by the same institution to be sure the measurements are accurate. If a radar is catching you and it does not have the official approval to operate in that year, the police will lose the case if you will go on court.
So if the things are so serious with police radars in which almost of us we believe in their accuracy what to expect from some "strange box" which is recording a number which is supposed to be a speed? Even if someday it will be approved will you go every year to pay an institution to check it again and have the certification for maybe one more year?
A judge can accept a video to find the truth, but that number will not help you for your defense. And even is not officially accepted, if for example you have 200km/h in a place were max is 70km/h even the value is not officially accepted, the judge will be mad on you even he can not say officially the reason.

So remember, when the speed is much bigger than the limit of that area, it will give you troubles even if not used as official evidence.
If the speed is smaller, this will be not accepted as an evidence in the case and will not help you to escape from some accusation.

So, again, for what is good a GPS?

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[jokiin]

the speed shown is not admissible as evidence in Australia as it's not a certified calibrated measuring device (quite by chance it seems only the police have those), they may offer some sort of witness to your testimony but no greater influence than a passenger, another motorist, pedestrian etc, if they have you on radar, speed camera etc which is an approve device it's worth nothing in the scheme of things

to me the GPS is handy for retracing a route taken, being able to record location information of an incident, accurate updating of time and date etc, it's more about convenience features than anything else

 

[oddpoo]

Tried just 5 days because that was the situation in a weekend. No problem with starting the engine.

There are a lot of factors in this equation. If your camera draws less power than the camera in my example, or if you have a battery with lager capacity, it might work just like you say. But you have to do the math with your own camera and your own battery capacity (and battery health). Also take into consideration the totally different values with cold crank (CCA) and warm crank amperes (HCA).

A car that starts fine during the warm season will not start that easy during the cold season. Also an older car with less sophisticated engine management might be much easier to start with lower battery voltage. The instrument cluster in my previous car looked more like a pinball machine display if I tried to start that car with low battery voltage. The starter worked just fine but the motor would not start due to failing electronics.

You can prove that to your friends, to you, to your family, or show it on youtube just for fun.

To be accepted in a court, by a judge, your camera must to be officially approved by your government or what is the institution in your country which is giving approvals for devices which are recording speed. For example the police radars are approved by some institution and almost every year that radars are checked again by the same institution to be sure the measurements are accurate. If a radar is catching you and it does not have the official approval to operate in that year, the police will lose the case if you will go on court.
So if the things are so serious with police radars in which almost of us we believe in their accuracy what to expect from some "strange box" which is recording a number which is supposed to be a speed? Even if someday it will be approved will you go every year to pay an institution to check it again and have the certification for maybe one more year?
A judge can accept a video to find the truth, but that number will not help you for your defense. And even is not officially accepted, if for example you have 200km/h in a place were max is 70km/h even the value is not officially accepted, the judge will be mad on you even he can not say officially the reason.

So remember, when the speed is much bigger than the limit of that area, it will give you troubles even if not used as official evidence.
If the speed is smaller, this will be not accepted as an evidence in the case and will not help you to escape from some accusation.

So, again, for what is good a GPS?

enjoy,
Mtz

That is problem true in many countries, and officially maybe even in my own country (Sweden). But then again, if it comes to a situation with word against word. The other persons version against mine… but where I can provide a movie with time and speed to back up my version I’m convinced that a Swedish court will take my information into consideration. It is as simple as that...

But it might not even be a situation that ends up in court. It is probably more likely that this is something that the involved insurance company will be interested in. Most traffic accidents never ends up in court. It is most likely up to the involved insurance companies to sort out the blame.

Real life is often very different from the typical American movie where some judge dismisses obvious evidence due to some obscure technicality.

 

[Answer]

The ITB-100HD drains 0.12 Amps according to the specs, far from being 0.5 amps...

 

[oddpoo]

The ITB-100HD drains 0.12 Amps according to the specs, far from being 0.5 amps...

I just measured the current consumption of my ITB-100 HD. In the beginning the value varies a lot but after a while the current stabilized somewhere between 0,32A and 0,42A...

I also measured the current of the Smallest HD 720P (H264) and this camera was fairly steady at 0,15A.

And finally I measured the current of my six years old X-driven DRS 1100 Pro (GPS) and this camera measured 0,17A.

 

[Mtz]

Yes, you are right about battery and temperature. Mine is 70A and car is starting very quickly, also here is not so cold as in Sweden.

I don't want to discuss more about the GPS speed but if I am coming to the court with the same video but mine containing for example 10KM/h compared to your 60KM/H, your video will not help you for sure. To add a speed value over a video is very easy to do and it the judge will understand that are more changes to refuse your evidence.

I consider the 0,32A a more realistic value and just 0,12 for sure is not even with GPS disabled.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[Answer]

Was the cam in parking mode at 0.3 amps? Anyways, you are mostly right as the 0.12 must be with everything disabled. But still, at 0.3 amps, a car battery can go for more than a day.

 

[tofu]

the battery can go for more than a day, but how does this tie in with the lead-acid issue discussed in the battery discharge thread?

supposedly if we let the batteries drop to a certain level, and leave it there for a while, it rapidly degrades the battery.

 

[Ipaq]

Gps is good for tracking where your rebellious kids or scandalous wife took the car to without you knowing. No, i have neither, but just a thought.

 

[tofu]

Gps is good for tracking where your rebellious kids or scandalous wife took the car to without you knowing. No, i have neither, but just a thought.

couldn't you just play back the video? :?