Carcam III

bwilson4web

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Huntsville, AL
Hi,

I bought a pair of "Carcam III" on Ebay on sale, $99/each and started testing today:
  1. Out of box - it comes with a GPS mouse, 12V plug using a mini-USB port, and a suction plug mount.
  2. Requires a miniSD card, type 10, up to 32 GB so I bought a pair at Costco, $24/each.
  3. Borrowing an USB cable with mini-USB port, I powered it at work to get a feel for the operation and controls
  4. Formatted the miniSD card using the 'built-in' menu
  5. Set the local date and time
  6. Using a mini-tripod with an iPhone holder, mounted the unit on the passenger side, sun visor
  7. GPS mouse laid on the dash and the 12V supply plugged into an ignition/aux enabled plug
  8. Adjusted front camera on the right-most, passenger side, rear camera pointing between the seats
  9. Drove to favorite market, about 5 miles away
  10. Parked and left everything alone to do shopping
  11. Drive about 10 mils home

When I got home and unloaded the groceries, I removed the Carcam III from the tripod holder and brought it the house. My first test was just to use a USB to mini-USB cable to see if it possibly acted like a disk . . . no luck. The camera powered up and started recording so I unplugged it. The OS did not 'see' the unit so apparently only power is used.

I put the mini-SD card in a full size, SD card carrier and installed in a generic SD-to-USB adapter and the computer, a MacOS. It mounted a drive but reported a format problem. So I dismounted it and launched Windows XP and plugged it in again. This time I connected it to Windows which mounted cleanly.

Using "My Computer", I found:
  • DR_DISK - the name in both operating systems
  • E: - drive
  • 832 KB - used
  • 119 MB - free
  • FAT file system
  • ~31 GB - not found . . . this suggests a private file system is used for the data. For performance, this approach makes sense.
  • F:, G:, and H: drives with no space

Running "X2Player" with an icon "ADR Player" brings up software that displays the recorded data:
  • Recorded data names - appear to be "G<trip>-<segment>" each powered on session is a numbered "<trip>"
  • "<segments>" - appear to be ~1:34 long
  • Clicking on the "ID" line for each "<trip>" treats all segments as a single, unified 'file' with the "Resolution" 2CH for both cameras, "StartTime and date" from the earlier setting, run length "hh:mm:ss", and estimated size.
  • Playback was seamless, again suggesting a 'private' file system in the 31 GB of missing space.
  • Because of cable interference, the unit was mounted upside down but a control rotates the image 180 degrees including the image associated frame date and time stamp.
  • Playback can vary from 1/5th true speed to 5x true speed.
  • The GPS mouse initially took ~1 mile, ~5 minutes to sync up and report location and speed but not altitude.
  • The GPS software connects via the internet to Google for a map. No internet, no map.
  • As each segment plays, there is a slider to change the position within the current segment.
  • Evening, near sunset, both camera handle the changing shadow and lighting conditions OK. Driving into the sun makes everything else too dark in that camera but no more or less than expected with any other camera. But once in the shade, everything returns to normal.
  • CPU running ~60% on a Virtual PC running on a MacBook, Intel processor 1.8 GHz
  • There appears to be three-axis, G-force, recording with three digits displayed and sensitive enough to identify potholes
  • The camera was able to catch snippets of the car, electronic display. As it got darker, the slower scan rate eventually reached a point where the instrumentation was 'readable.'
  • I was able to save and drag an "*.avi" file but it only showed the video, not the GPS and other ephemeris data.
One "lesson learned," I've become a sloppy driver: (1) not coming to a complete stop at all stop signs, and (2) coasting through 'yellow' that turned to 'red' in the intersection.

I have not found a way to 'playback' recent video with the Carcam III but this is not a problem. Pop the mini-SD into a holder and it is easy enough to watch. Sad to say, X2Player appears to be Windows only, not a Java application.

There is a "settings" that includes a "FW Upload", apparently firmware upload to the mini-SD card. Also, this is apparently the way to put a password on the files.

The X2Player is Version 2.21, copyright 2011/12/20.

Bob Wilson
 
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