F550/F750

[cacherjoe]

Is it possible to connect a Windows Laptop to either of these to stream or record the video on the laptop. I'm looking at using one of these for our work vehicles and want to be able to avoid having to swap out cards in order to capture the video for a full day (24 hours). Any thoughts?

 

[Paul Mumby]

I'm unsure, in the suggested feature thread I started in this forum we're discussing that. I think it's currently not possible, though someone might be able to reverse engineer the API they use with the mobile app, and adjust it to work on PC with a custom app.

I'm in a similar boat, doing several weeks of driving (several road trips) this summer, and have literally DAYS of footage I'm recording, constantly swapping the card seems both a pain, but also likely to cause damage eventually.

 

[cacherjoe]

I was hoping one of the ports on the side was a video out and that would make it easier. I only take the card out when something happens and I want to pull the video off but I have the same concern. How many card ejections are there in the life of the carriage that holds the card. It would be awesome if I could connect my Surface Pro 3 to it and dump the footage to an external hard drive.

I'm just looking at the F550 page online. There is a data port and a V-out port. Could either of these be used to do that? Does the Data Port allow access to the Card while it is still inserted in the camera or could the V-out port be connected to a laptop to allow for input like an external web cam might?

 

[Paul Mumby]

I am not sure. I have the suspicion that the v-out port is a standard micro usb OTG port. (meaning the dashcam operates in "host" mode, allowing any peripheral device to be connected to it for which the host has a driver). It happens to have a driver for the rearview cam, so it likely just detects it like any other usb camera.

That said I'm not sure if they would include drivers for anything else, let alone how we would "talk" to whatever we plugged in (via the app we have limited options, no commandline or anything, unless someone has managed to ssh into one of these things).

I'm intrigued enough, once I get time (after august, as I'm on the road the whole month basically) I may try to reverse engineer the firmware and see what I can do for adding features/capabilities (depending on how Thinkware is for after purchase software support).

 

[Dee_82]

Telnet is wide open on the f750 and the two hidden ports appear to be mini HDMI thinkware must have a means to connect to the device without hassle so my guess is that it will support USB serial connections, the problem is which one, ill dump the ROM and see if I can see anything obivous

 

[cacherjoe]

For the fun of it, I sent an email to Thinkware Support. The reply I got was that they were working on a solution for what we are talking about but have no time line as to when it may come. Mine has 2 extra ports. The v-out, which is different than where the rear camera plugs into (v-in) and a Data port. I was hoping that at the least the data port could be used to "download" the card regularily or the v-out used to capture the video on a laptop. Support also said that these ports are "not supported in North America". Curious as to why ports on a device would be supported in another part of the world and not in North America?

 

[Dee_82]

They aren't supported here in the UK either which is a little disappointing, I knew it wasn't sold with it but I had planned to convert the HDMI to composite and use my head unit for playback

 

[cacherjoe]

They said it wasn't supported, but didn't way it wouldn't work. He did mention if there was damage it wouldn't be covered by the warranty. I'm wanting to try to find something that goes from a 2.5 to mini-hdmi and see if the v-out is sending video. Not sure if there is even such a cable out there.

 

[Dee_82]

I think you'll find that is probably a composite out, you can pick up one of those from anywhere, search for 2.5 jack to RCA, something like

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/361352821313
Should do it

If it is composite then conversion to HDMI will require some conversion box

 

[jokiin]

HDMI is digital, Composite is analog