Continuous recording as parking mode

Ezreal

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Hi I am new to dash cams. I know dash cams offers parking mode. But I want to know if it's alright to run a dash cam in continuous recording when the car is parked? What are the pros and cons?
 
Hi I am new to dash cams. I know dash cams offers parking mode. But I want to know if it's alright to run a dash cam in continuous recording when the car is parked? What are the pros and cons?

It’ll drain your battery pack or your car battery fast and you’ll have to scour through hours of footage on the entire memory card if something does happen, like an incident of vandalism etc.


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wear and tear, battery drain, overheating, a proper parking mode function is always a preferred option
 
Some now offer continuous recording in parking mode, BUT ! using a lower bitrate that generate less heat and less memory used.
This might not be of any use if you intent to capture a fast event, but someone walking up to your car and vandalize it should be no problem.
I am hoping G sensor can be made to work alongside this mode to generate POI in the footage by taking a pic if triggered, that way you don't have to browse thru hours of footage if you had a event.
 
Welcome to DCT @Ezreal :)

I guess this is my bailiwick since I've been doing continuous recording on several different cams for about 5 years now. In short, yes it can be done very successfully with no additional equipment even in most summer heats, but it has it's drawbacks and issues. Probably the biggest cam issue is that you're over-stressing things and voiding warranties so expect a shortened cam life, and possibly some heat-related focus shift (which may be somewhast permanent in cheaper cams). You're also going to wear out the sd card more quickly. As to the car, it's battery can probably run a lower-bitrate cam for 12 hours without a huge loss of service life, but there will be an impact, perhaps as much as 20%. If you've got an expensive battery that can matter a lot. And you'll need to drive the car 20-30 minutes every day without fail to keep the battery charged. Also, if you receive damage while parked for a long time, it may take hours of video review to find the incident if it wasn't detected by the g-sensor and the file locked from that. Plus in that case you have to discover the damage yourself before the needed file gets overwritten. And many newer cars have computer-controlled power schemes which can make powering the cam problematic as well as sometimes setting a trouble code in the car computer related to the unexpected power draw. The upside is that you will always have complete video of everything the cam sees.

Not all cams do this equally well. Only a few do it really well, one of which is the old original Mobius with supercaps (small, discreet in many installations, accepts some really large cards). Another possibility is the B1W (expect slight non-permanent focus shift in the summer, can use some 128GB cards). The B1W also does low-bitrate recording, which is similar to constant recording but far easier on the cam, the SD card, and the car battery. You still get continuous coverage, only at a slightly lower video quality overall. I think this is going to be your best approach based on your stated wishes. I would also highly recommend a top-quality hardwire kit for whatever cam you go with which has an adjustable low-voltage cut-off setting. This will save your battery from indiscretions on your part such as it not getting charged enough by driving. With a 128GB card you'll get over 14 hours recording time and since it's done with factory firmware you still have your full cam warranty in effect. Mobius doesn't have low-bitrate recording per se, but you can set time-lapse recording up which comes pretty close in effect and you can select lower vid rates and quality to lessen the stress on it. IMHO low-bitrate while parked with a good g-sensor set-up is the ideal parking mode.

Note that many cams have built-in overheat shutdown protection which is probably a good idea for cam manufacturers and sellers, but that can also leave you unprotected when the cam decides to shut down on a hot summer day. Personally I think that this is an unnecessary 'feature' except on high-bitrate cams which run hotter than those using less processing power. For me anyway, I'd rather have the cam die a year early without warranty than to miss a recording as the way my luck goes I'd get damage 2 minutes after the cam quit (or just after the card overwrote the needed file with smaller cards). My B1W and Mobius both have given me 2+ years use and still work fine, and with their relatively cheap cost it's not much to just buy a new one every few years if need be. No promises but I think these will give you at least 4-5 years service or more in this kind of usage. There are a few other cams you might like which I think are OK for this kind of usage, but look at these two first, and if you don't like them we can discuss more options later.

Phil
 
Very informative!

I was thinking of getting a 4K dash cam and to run it continuously. I am thinking about getting a large sd card 256GB. And a DIY temperature resistance battery pack, similar to a post I found in this forums talking about DIY battery pack like the cellink neo.

I only park maximum 6 hours before I have to go home. I park inside the garage, I don't need recording when I'm parked at home. My commute is about 20-30 mins one way.

The 4K dash cams I am considering are the Blackvue DR900S, Viofo A129 Pro, and Thinkware U1000. Both front and rear cam.

If my set up fails, I could do the hardwire parking mode as a second option with these dash cams.

Do you think it's a reasonable set up? What other 4K dash cams are worth taking into consideration?

Has anyone experienced any issue leaving a 4K dash cam running approximately 8 hour straight on continuous recording? Will a 256GB sd card hold 9 hours before it overwrites (1 extra hour just in case)?

I'm okay going through footage if an accident happen but the dash cam did not trigger to lock the file.
 
I don't think it will work, if you look at 4K action cameras, most of them can only do like 20 minutes of constant recording before they overheat,,,,, but granted they do also use a substantial higher bitrate which mean more heat are generated.
Several have done it with 1080p cameras over the years, but even those fold if its in the summer time and the car are parked outside.
Both the blackvue and thinkware cameras seem to have some heat related issues, and thats just while driving with i assume some kind of fan going in the car at least in the summer time, some have resorted to strap heatsinks meant for RC car motors to their blackvue 900S cameras, and some have even put a fan on too.
And the A120 pro also generate its fair share of heat, so i also doubt that can pull it off.

Also if you plan to do that while parked, you better go around your car and inspect it for dents so you know you have to spend hours going over your footage, and if it is just a little door ding, you have to do that at 1:1 speed and probably wear a headset so you can hear the event as i doubt it can be seen, so you have to spend 6 hours in front of the computer if that's how long you have been parked.

Mind you the sensors ( G sensor ) can also miss things like that, so either way it is still a roll of the dice, and we dahcam owners just have to hope it don't come up snake eyes for us.
 
None of today's 4K action or dash cams can handle this kind of usage. Especially the 2-channel ones which by their nature have to work the processor hard as they have more data to deal with. I've had success with the B2W and K2S 2-channel cams recording continuously in high heats, but both just saw a couple months of this so the camera longevity is still unknown. The N2Pro 2-channel I tried similarly did sometimes 'lock up' in the heat. I have no other experience with 2-channel; cams used like this in high heats nor have I seen any to share with you. These aren't cheap cams and few owners will abuse them this way for that reason.

I still think the B1W or Mobius is best for your needs even if you will need 2 of them to add rear coverage. 1080P/30FPS/~15 to 18MBs is about as far as things can be pushed reliably in high heat continuous recording using dash or action cams. Exceed that and things begin failing :cry:

Phil
 
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