Complete Review BlackSys CF-100. 2Ch 1080p Sony Exmor CMOS + 720p, GPS, 24/7 Parking.

[jaro]

Both cameras will still record, but only the front will trigger on scene motion. I never tried parking mode on the previous firmware, so I don't know if it works any differently. Shocks detected by the G sensor will still trigger an exit to parking mode and record from both cameras. I don't recall all the differences between the firmware, but I recall noticing the rear channel became brighter though with a slower screen update frame rate, through my tinted rear window.

KuoH

this is somewhat put a dent on my plan on placing the main unit at the back and the rear unit at the front .
Can anyone confirm that is the default behaviour from the start? (come to think of it , are all dual ch dash cam can detect motion on both camera)

 

[Gibson99]

When parked in the driveway with the front of the car facing the garage door, I still get videos in the park folder so the rear camera must be triggering it.

 

[jokiin]

When parked in the driveway with the front of the car facing the garage door, I still get videos in the park folder so the rear camera must be triggering it.

Are the videos of the rear or front? A change in lighting can set motion detect off without there appearing to be anything else happening

 

[kuoh]

Probably brightness change like Jokiin said. When I park in the garage at work, the only times I have parking footage is when shadows, birds or large insects move past the front camera. This is a large multi-story garage with one way in and out and there would be dozens if not over a hundred cars passing by the rear camera in a typical workday.

KuoH

When parked in the driveway with the front of the car facing the garage door, I still get videos in the park folder so the rear camera must be triggering it.

 

[Gibson99]

Are the videos of the rear or front? A change in lighting can set motion detect off without there appearing to be anything else happening

It's all 2channel video. It doesn't just save one channel while in parking mode. Only way to truly test would be to cover the front lens and then see if it still records anything .

 

[kuoh]

Or wait for it to enter parking mode in your driveway, then walk around behind the car a few times making sure shadows aren't cast toward the front. Wait at least 10 seconds before walking around to the front, as that's about the length of the pre-trigger. I'm both disappointed and appreciative of the fact the rear channel doesn't motion trigger. If it did, my parking folder would be full of events when at work.

KuoH

Only way to truly test would be to cover the front lens and then see if it still records anything .

 

[mrdashcamguy]

Hi,
I've bought a Blacksys CF-100 too and it works great except for one thing..
There is some kind of disturbance (rasping noise) that comes and goes. Sometimes it is very frequent and goes on for a long time, othertimes there is practically no disturbance noise what so ever for a long period of time. I've attached a zip-file containing an mp3 file converted from a 1 min clip of my Blacksys CF-100. If anyone knows what causes this noise, please let me know!
Thanks!

 

[sockr1]

Yep, I keep nitrile gloves in my toolbox to help keep my hands a little less greasy when working on the cars. when our cf-100 got loose and we couldn't tighten the ball mount any tighter without breaking it, i tried the glove fingertip thing. works great so far!

looks like the glove worked to a point, but the camera still gets a little loose (not as much as before) and when it gets loose the camera tilts so that the lens points upwards (the camera tilts up when loose).

my next step is to fill the ball/tightener interface with polyurethane adhesive (very strong...used it to mount my radar detector suction cup and roof spoiler) and let that sit overnight to avoid the mount slipping again.

i think part of my problem is that the tilt of both my car's windshields are extreme so that i have to have the mount interface at the far extreme of the angles for the camera (camera almost hangs vertical from the mount if that makes sense)

 

[SawMaster]

Instead of an adhesive, a tiny dab of silicone will work just as well and should you ever want to change things it will pull apart allowing that. A dab of "blu-tack" in the mount might work just as well.

Phil

 

[jaro]

possible mount replacement

We are still dealing with ball joints...but it seems small enough to be close the the window.

 

[sockr1]

possible mount replacement

We are still dealing with ball joints...but it seems small enough to be close the the window.

how is this different than from what comes with the camera? this looks exactly the same.

a better solution is to have the "ball stem" come at an angle from the bracket and then change direction to run parallel to the ground... so that when it's used on my "flatter" windshield the tightening clasp won't hit the ball stem but rather just the ball. i think because my mount is almost directly above the camera, the tightening clasp doesn't fully grasp the ball but rather hits part of the stem. so when it gets just a little loose, the stem makes the camera tilt at an angle

like this, but not as long of course:

https://www.ridersdiscount.com/garmin-suction-auto-dash-camera-mount-for-virb-cameras-208017

 

[jaro]

possible mount replacement

We are still dealing with ball joints...but it seems small enough to be close the the window.

how is this different than from what comes with the camera? this looks exactly the same.

a better solution is to have the "ball stem" come at an angle from the bracket and then change direction to run parallel to the ground... so that when it's used on my "flatter" windshield the tightening clasp won't hit the ball stem but rather just the ball. i think because my mount is almost directly above the camera, the tightening clasp doesn't fully grasp the ball but rather hits part of the stem. so when it gets just a little loose, the stem makes the camera tilt at an angle

like this, but not as long of course:

https://www.ridersdiscount.com/garmin-suction-auto-dash-camera-mount-for-virb-cameras-208017

The default mount only have one ball socket at the end. Similar to what you've posted (only smaller, I think).
This one have two ball socket, I was looking for something that could place the camera a lot closer to the window without loosing the ability to adjust its position.
however, the mount I have suggested might be a tad too short to make any adjustment viable.

 

[sockr1]

so i have a question. i've been running this dash cam system in me and my wife's car for a few weeks now and it's been pretty nice. today we talked to a neighbor that parks nose to nose with our cars, and he got his motorcycle stolen two nights ago. so we tell him we can pull up videos for him. but when i went to pull videos, we only have parking videos up to yesterday morning (morning after his motorcycle got stolen). BUT we have normal driving videos up to 4 days ago. we were bummed we couldn't help him out but i'm clueless as to why normal videos go back a few days while the parking videos are only a day.

i have the 64 gb lexar memory card, and thought this would give a week or so of videos. i know there are "blank files" that take up the memory, but why do parking videos get overwritten out of order??

in my mind, i would think that the videos would be overwritten starting with the oldest one first, regardless if it's a normal one or a parking one (event is not overwritten). it really sucks we couldn't help out our neighbor and kind of makes the camera less useful than i thought unless i set something up wrong.

any thoughts on this?

on another note, my wife's camera caught a minor rear end fender bender yesterday (she wasn't involved) which i'll try to upload this weekend.

 

[SawMaster]

That's sad to hear. Your 64GB card should hold a day+, but it's not likely to do a week. Look here https://dashcamtalk.com/recording-time-calculator/ to see what you can expect in terms of total time. I can't explain why the vids were overwritten that way, it does seem odd.

Phil

 

[jaro]

so i have a question. i've been running this dash cam system in me and my wife's car for a few weeks now and it's been pretty nice. today we talked to a neighbor that parks nose to nose with our cars, and he got his motorcycle stolen two nights ago. so we tell him we can pull up videos for him. but when i went to pull videos, we only have parking videos up to yesterday morning (morning after his motorcycle got stolen). BUT we have normal driving videos up to 4 days ago. we were bummed we couldn't help him out but i'm clueless as to why normal videos go back a few days while the parking videos are only a day.

i have the 64 gb lexar memory card, and thought this would give a week or so of videos. i know there are "blank files" that take up the memory, but why do parking videos get overwritten out of order??

in my mind, i would think that the videos would be overwritten starting with the oldest one first, regardless if it's a normal one or a parking one (event is not overwritten). it really sucks we couldn't help out our neighbor and kind of makes the camera less useful than i thought unless i set something up wrong.

any thoughts on this?

on another note, my wife's camera caught a minor rear end fender bender yesterday (she wasn't involved) which i'll try to upload this weekend.

not 100% sure , since I don't have the camera yet, but it might have something to do with parking area. I assume that the motion detection would have trouble triggering on less lit area.

 

[sockr1]

not 100% sure , since I don't have the camera yet, but it might have something to do with parking area. I assume that the motion detection would have trouble triggering on less lit area.

It has nothing to do with the triggering. It is a very well lit area and the camera records every time the motorcycle guy comes home. It s a matter of overwriting data, I don't know why it would erase all parking videos except the last day yet have normal driving videos for up to four days.

Super disappointing that we couldn't help out this college kid or at least give him so closure. I may contact the manufacturer does anyone know specific contact info?

 

[jaro]

It has nothing to do with the triggering. It is a very well lit area and the camera records every time the motorcycle guy comes home. It s a matter of overwriting data, I don't know why it would erase all parking videos except the last day yet have normal driving videos for up to four days.

Super disappointing that we couldn't help out this college kid or at least give him so closure. I may contact the manufacturer does anyone know specific contact info?

That crosses out the triggering and it seems that the 20% space allocation can be also crossed out.

Have you contacted blacksys?

 

[sockr1]

That crosses out the triggering and it seems that the 20% space allocation can be also crossed out.

Have you contacted blacksys?

not yet but i am going to email them right now

edit: just sent them an email. is that the best way to contact them?

 

[kuoh]

I don't think it has anything to do with the order of when the files are recorded. Although there are reserved files / space for the events folder, this is not the case for the normal and park folders. I haven't studied it extensively, but I would guess when additional space is needed, files generated by the current recording mode have priority. Meaning if you're in normal mode, the oldest parking mode files get erased first when more space is needed. I would guess the opposite occurs when in parking mode, but that probably happens much less frequently.

Also, I tend to think in number of hours rather than days of recording space on a card. I know that even with a 64GB card, there is not enough room to save 8 hours of continuous driving with my CF-100. I think it starts to delete old files at around 5 or 6 hours. So if there is something recorded that I want to keep, I either need to download it or swap cards before that point.

KuoH

i have the 64 gb lexar memory card, and thought this would give a week or so of videos. i know there are "blank files" that take up the memory, but why do parking videos get overwritten out of order??

 

[sockr1]

I don't think it has anything to do with the order of when the files are recorded. Although there are reserved files / space for the events folder, this is not the case for the normal and park folders. I haven't studied it extensively, but I would guess when additional space is needed, files generated by the current recording mode have priority. Meaning if you're in normal mode, the oldest parking mode files get erased first when more space is needed. I would guess the opposite occurs when in parking mode, but that probably happens much less frequently.
KuoH

ah this makes sense. that would explain why the normal videos were there longer, because we did more driving than we had parking videos. i know it's not something i can change but i just couldn't figure out why they deleted in that order, but this makes sense now.

I agree the memory should be considered in hours and not days, i was just trying to simplify it.

thanks for your input!