Blueskysea B1W dashcam

[Karlak]

Received mine and tried for the first time yesterday, so far, so good. Connected to the App with no issues and first footage seems very good, especially given the price. My only issue is with my Car and any Dashcam. Has a huge piece of plastic surround behind the mirror for sensors etc, which tends to get in the shot on wide angle cams.

 

[Mark S-H]

I received the BlueskySea B1W dashcam towards the end of November 2017.
This I purchased through eBay from here:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192351454135YouTube sample video:

Delivery time was about 2 weeks. The packaging was good and the box came wrapped in bubble wrap in a sealed plastic bag.
This is a lovely camera with good quality video, sound and very discrete and compact.
It has voice notifications of what the camera is doing. Eg. ‘SD card detected’, ’Recording start’, ‘system going down’….
Opening the box revealed the contents:
1. BlueSkySea B1W camera with a 3M self-adhesive pad
2. Power adapter with micro-B USB cable and connector and with a USB Type A female outlet.
3. USB type-A plug to USB micro-B plug cable
4. 2x spare 3M self-adhesive pads
5. User manual (English)
6. Lens cleaning cloth


Reading through the user manual was quick and painless with very easy to understand instructions.




Initial steps:
Format a micro SD memory card on your computer using FAT32. I used a 32Gb Samsung class 10 card which worked very well.
Download and install the B1W-CARCVR application onto an Android device from the Google Play Store - this application is about 21Mb in size.


Remove the protective film from the B1W camera lens.
Insert the formatted micro SD memory card into the camera.
Find a good position on your windscreen to install the camera.

Note:
· If you wish the camera to record videos looking out through the windscreen (normal) the camera needs to be installed with the lock button on the left and the card and power connection on the right as below.
· If you wish the camera to record videos looking inside the vehicle, the camera needs to be installed with the lock button on the right and the card and power connection on the left.
The camera image (as far as I’ve discovered) cannot be inverted using the software. So if you have the lens pointing forwards through the front windscreen, it is not possible to rotate the lens pointing into the vehicle without the video image being inverted. – There does not appear to be any facility in the software to invert the image which is a downside of the software. You would need to unmount the camera and install it in the opposite direction.

UPDATE: Since this posting in December 2017 there have been firmware updates to accommodate the orientation of the camera.
Please refer to this posing - Blueskysea B1W Firmware



Rotate and orientate the lens by firmly holding the mount and twisting the other end until the lens is pointing correctly. The camera can also be detached from the mount very easily by sliding the camera towards the power connection/SD card slot.

Connect the USB charger to the camera and power outlet/cigarette lighter outlet.

The camera will automatically start recording when the ignition is turned on. A green LED light will appear on the camera housing and will blink at about 1 second intervals when it is operating.

Within the WiFi connections on your Android device you should see the B1W camera
Select the B1W camera and enter the default password of 1234567890 then select connect


The B1W-CARCVR application can then be started on the Android device.

Press the Connection button.
A video image of what the lens is seeing should appear on the Android device.
The B1W camera settings can be changed on the B1W-CARCVR application menu.
Eg. I noticed that Video segmentation was at 1 minute by default, I changed this to 3 minutes.
All the other settings were at the default setting.
Operation of the software was easy and simple.

Another useful feature of the camera is that it takes a still jpg image before each recording (see listing with the red asterisk * below). This feature is very useful for indexing and finding certain video segments.


The power connector uses a micro-B USB plug NOT a mini USB plug which most people are used to.

The camera could be set to operate in parking mode by installing a hard wired power adapter but it would be a good idea to wire in a switch to turn off power to the camera when you do not want the camera to operate.

The hard wired power connectors can be purchased quite reasonably from eBay, AliExpress or Amazon.



Bottom line:
Is the camera worth the purchase price – Well ‘Yes’ I think it is.

 

[TonyM]

I've posted a review of my test sample B1W here:
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/review-blueskysea-b1w.31857/

Summary of my review:

Highlights:
- 1080p 30fps (720p option)
- Sony IMX323 sensor / GM8135S processor
- 150degree F1.8 lens
- Dual supercapacitor
- WiFi
- Small, discreet
- Parking mode (untested - hardwire kit arriving soon)

Likes:
- Good day & night performance
- Capacitor design
- Small and discreet
- Sturdy mount
- Excellent APP

Dislikes:
- Low bitrate 12Mbps - some loss of fine detail
- Tends to over-expose highlights
- Voice messages (under review)
- Poor sound quality
- WiFi default is 'always-on' (this is being reviewed and may change)
- Date/time stamp often difficult to read

 

[estore009]

- WiFi default is 'always-on' (this is being reviewed and may change)
My engineer is talking with Novatek about this configuration,we plan to make it remember your last WiFi configuration when next reboot;

- Date/time stamp often difficult to read;
Which way is better for you? To bold it and with color,or to move its location to bottom?

 

[Nigel]

- Date/time stamp often difficult to read;
Which way is better for you? To bold it and with color,or to move its location to bottom?

Move it to the bottom is best, or give it more black outline would also work.

I quite like it where it is and it is always readable, just a bit difficult sometimes, more black outline would solve the problem.

 

[Nigel]

- Low bitrate 12Mbps - some loss of fine detail

It does surprisingly well with the low bitrate, and it has the advantage that it records for twice as long before looping as the more expensive cameras, means you can use a memory card half the size which makes it even cheaper.

- Tends to over-expose highlights

It needs HDR, but no camera at this price has HDR.

- Poor sound quality

The microphone has captured when you use, and fail to use, the indicators, which could be useful.
It seems OK in your car; my car is too noisy for it, the microphone gets overloaded a lot of the time.

 

[Leonauto]

- Date/time stamp often difficult to read;
Which way is better for you? To bold it and with color,or to move its location to bottom?

The main thing is to change the color to orange.
And may be to move its location to bottom

Spoiler: For example a stamp of orange color

Thanks!

Regards,

 

[estore009]

The main thing is to change the color to orange.
And may be to move its location to bottom

Spoiler: For example a stamp of orange color

View attachment 34838

Thanks!

Regards,

Is it better to color it with orange? How about the other's opinion?

 

[estore009]

Bought one off Amazon but could not get it to connect to the app using the default password 1234567890 stated in the manual. Turned Bluetooth and G4 data off in phone in case of interference but no joy. Left with nowhere to go returned it for a credit.

@Ricam My amazon CS staff told me that your order had been fully refunded already! And plus,we sent you a new dashcam,wish you can have a test it again when you receive it!
And i re-act this WiFi connection error when plug into laptop USB slot for power source,but it was solved after i changed a Samsung USB wall charger (5V,1.5A Output) to power it.
So it happens that you have a test it in your office also,just avoid my mistake to plug it into computer directly for power ,it should be better to test it in my car!

Thanks for your attention!
Regards,
Vicky

 

[Mark S-H]

Umm, not sure. which of these look better...?

 

[Nigel]

Is it better to color it with orange? How about the other's feeling?

Some people like orange a lot, especially the Dutch, but there are more people who hate orange!

I see the "black" outline is transparent, it is only black when it is over something dark.
If you made it full black (no transparent) then it would be much easier to read on a white sky, I think that is all that is needed.

 

[Mark S-H]

Or this with a black date/time stamp at the top.....

date/time stamp

 

[estore009]

More suggestion?

 

[Mark S-H]

Or a bright yellow at the bottom...

 

[Mtz]

My vote is for white with outline at the bottom right. Usually there is the dash which usually is black. At the top is the sky and many times it is overexposed which means too much white.
Is not nice to use yellow or orange compared to a white (even just a very little gray, like on TV ir DVD, Blu-Ray subtitles which are not pure white) and a correct outline, not too thin, not too thick. You can never go wrong with white.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[Mark S-H]

Looking at it closely, I think my vote would be yellow at the bottom..but it depends on the colour of the vehicle. As I have a black vehicle yellow shows up very well.
But may be one day it could be possible to make it user definable and place the date/time stamp on one of the corners and change the colour.

 

[TonyM]

My preference is white at the bottom which is usually a darker area of the car, than against a brighter part of the sky.

 

[Mark S-H]

This is white on the left and on the right at the bottom .....

 

[TonyM]

It does surprisingly well with the low bitrate, and it has the advantage that it records for twice as long before looping as the more expensive cameras, means you can use a memory card half the size which makes it even cheaper.

Yes it does do well with the bitrate it has. I'm sure that helps it to stay cool too. I did not notice any cooling holes in the camera.

It needs HDR, but no camera at this price has HDR.

I was thinking that the metering tends towards overexposure and preserves shadow detail. I prefer this than the Mobius 1 which tends towards exposing for highlights at times, which gives a dark road ahead. However if it had an EV control I would probably turn it down a bit.

The microphone has captured when you use, and fail to use, the indicators, which could be useful.
It seems OK in your car; my car is too noisy for it, the microphone gets overloaded a lot of the time.

Did I fail to indicate?
That must have been a deliberate mistake to test the camera microphone!

I have noticed on other clips that the sound amplitude drifts even if I'm just idling waiting at the lights.

 

[Mark S-H]

A good reason for relocating the date/time stamp....