F750 install

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Dippy

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I have completed the first phase of the installation of an F750 in my Audi S5, that is without the rear camera yet. I have only been out and about with it a few times since, but overall I am impressed with it. Most importantly for me the parking mode works well. I had considered a Blackvue 650 but read a lot of comments that the motion detection is too sensitive so it's almost always recording. I don't know if this is true but the F750 seems good. I have the sensitivity on the lowest setting and so far it seems to have only genuinely recorded when a car or person passed in front of my car.

I wasn't so sure about the fact that even with the impact sensitivity on minimum, an event is recorded when doors are closed. But I guess that if something happened to cause the same level of shock as when a door closes then I would want it recorded so I guess that's fine.

Also I wasn't too keen that the maximum timer is 48 hours. However overnight I saw that the battery voltage dropped about 0.1V, so if it typically equates to 0.2V per day then the idea of having it run in parking mode at an airport car park for 1 week is not feasible, let alone 2 weeks. Still it would be nice to be able to set the timer for longer and rely on the voltage detection alone to decide when to turn it off.
 
I guess so, but my point is that I can avoid a flat battery with the battery monitor function, but if mine could last 72 hours before reaching that threshold then I couldn't take advantage of it because of the 48 hour limit timer.
 
Hi Phil, yes I have some but will take more. I should have finished the install today but I discovered that the rear camera needs to be mounted completely differently from what I expected (the image was upside down - amazing that I didn't notice during bench testing). So the 90 degree cable adapter I bought for it is useless and I need to get a new one! I'll update after I get it hopefully in a few days. I went out for a quick drive and have just gone through the front & rear images which are good, although in dark down country lanes the rear doesn't capture much. But I noticed that the GPS did not activate during the whole 15 min or so drive. It has done before so I hope its not due to the rear camera cable. At least there is no DAB interference so on that account I made the right decision getting the F750 over a Blackvue.
 
I'm still having problems. I want a very neat installation and need to get the right micro USB adaptors and/or extension cables. I have discovered that the GPS connects (and very quickly) as long as the cable for the rear camera is not placed over the top or near the top of the front camera. So I need to play around with a few more options until I get it to my satisfaction.

Thanks go to Niko at Hiniko Dashcams for excellent service, and also to Mark at Thinkware for excellent support. Mark has sent me a 71 page pdf "Dash Cam Installation Guide" which contains lots of useful advice.
 
Dippy said:
I'm still having problems. I want a very neat installation and need to get the right micro USB adaptors and/or extension cables. I have discovered that the GPS connects (and very quickly) as long as the cable for the rear camera is not placed over the top or near the top of the front camera. So I need to play around with a few more options until I get it to my satisfaction.

Thanks go to Niko at Hiniko Dashcams for excellent service, and also to Mark at Thinkware for excellent support. Mark has sent me a 71 page pdf "Dash Cam Installation Guide" which contains lots of useful advice.
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@Dippy
I'm interested in what the front mount looks like from the outside. I want it to look part of the windscreen.

When you find the correct cable for the rear camera send me a link, I was just about to order one this evening, glad I saw your update[emoji106]

I will put some photos up of my installation after the 25th when I can officially install it [emoji6]

Phil
 
Phil, I have some more connectors and adaptors on order so maybe next week I can finalise my installations and publish some photos. I'm not sure what your expectations are in wanting it to look 'part of the windscreen'. To me mine is fairly obvious, but my car already has two integrated cameras and the rain sensor in the rear view mirror module so it already looks 'cluttered'. I'm not too bothered what it looks like from the outside, only the inside (and that's not too great either!). I imagine the thing you won't like, assuming your camera mount is the same as mine (and I have no reason to think it is different) is that the sticky pad is white, making it very obvious. There is that spare pad in the box and if that has a darker colour then it might be better. I never bothered to look. If you find out let me know and I might consider changing mine, although as I stated, I'm not too bothered.

I have looked a LOT and the 25LEFT cable from Hinko is the only one I have found to work with the rear camera, even though 1 core is missing. In fact it is only the second 'left angle' cable I have found at all, and the first one was incompatible (probably just 2-wire for charging). Thinkware support was not able to explain why it works at the rear camera end but not the front camera end, so I'll have to stick with my theory that as long as there is a long enough 5th wire connected to the front camera it allows the sensing circuit to recognise that a camera is connected.

Completely removing the tailgate trim from my Audi S5 sportback was too much of a PITA that I only levered up the edge enough to squeeze the cable in. Unfortunately the 25LEFT extension cable is such that the in-line connector won't squeeze in, so I have ordered the 50LEFT cable such that it should squeeze in further along the trim. I am expecting/hoping that the rear camera will still be recognised with the 50LEFT cable but only time will tell...
 
Ive ready the same about the front mount not being the same colour. I want a black mount and have been looking at some M5 double sided tape. I have the sensor on the windscreen and wanted it to look OEM.

I found the rear trim came off very easily but I have the A3.

Let me know how you get on with the right angle lead.

Phil
 
What's this 48hr timer? I set mine to record 24/7 (I connected both the ACC and BATTERY wires to constant 12V) and it's been working for months non-stop. No timers that I can see.
 
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The 48 hour timer only applies to parking mode (activated when ACC is removed from 12V supply).

If yours records 24/7 how long have you had it running without starting the engine or otherwise recharging the battery?
 
Dippy said:
The 48 hour timer only applies to parking mode (activated when ACC is removed from 12V supply).
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I see. I never really looked at the parking mode settings since I didn't hook up the cables correctly anyway.

If yours records 24/7 how long have you had it running without starting the engine or otherwise recharging the battery?
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My car is pure electric so I'm not too worried about depleting the battery. The F750's power draw is negligible compared to the car's own onboard systems.
 
I keep forgetting about electric cars - they are still relatively rare over here in Eurolandofdieseldeath. I guess your only downside is that you are limited by the size of your SD card so you risk missing events because the files got overwritten.
 
Dippy said:
I keep forgetting about electric cars - they are still relatively rare over here in Eurolandofdieseldeath. I guess your only downside is that you are limited by the size of your SD card so you risk missing events because the files got overwritten.
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Yeah, that's exactly my problem. I'm using a 128GB Samsung EVO+ microSDXC and it holds about 6 hours of continuous recording I think (haven't checked for a while). I wish I could manually configure the space allocation ratio between continuous vs incident recording so I can assign more space to continuous.
 
cynix said:
Yeah, that's exactly my problem. I'm using a 128GB Samsung EVO+ microSDXC and it holds about 6 hours of continuous recording I think (haven't checked for a while). I wish I could manually configure the space allocation ratio between continuous vs incident recording so I can assign more space to continuous.
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6 hours, is it really that little for 128gb?
 
jokiin said:
6 hours, is it really that little for 128gb?
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It only uses about 60~70% of the available space for continuous recording. The rest is reserved for incident or manual recording.
 
cynix said:
Yeah, that's exactly my problem. I'm using a 128GB Samsung EVO+ microSDXC and it holds about 6 hours of continuous recording I think (haven't checked for a while). I wish I could manually configure the space allocation ratio between continuous vs incident recording so I can assign more space to continuous.
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A contact at Thinkware told me that (without guarantees) a firmware update is planned to change the 48 hour limit in parking mode. I asked if the timer could be disabled altogether. That would be a better solution for both of us. You could then wire for parking mode and have it switch to motion detection so that it doesn't use up the whole memory card and I could then rely on the voltage monitor to decide when to switch off, so maybe parking mode would last more than 2 days.

jokiin said:
6 hours, is it really that little for 128gb?
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It is capable of 16 hours, however cynix is quoting the time for continuous recording in dual camera mode where the card is partitioned to separate continuous and incident videos.
 
Installed my new F750 today and first impressions is that it's a well made camera.

One thing is I don't like the grey sticky pads, I think it draws more attention to the camera. Will need to change it to a black pad ASAP.

I will post some footage and photos when I've finished playing with the settings.
 
I finally got around to writing up my installation. Since my method of installation is most useful to owners of an Audi A5 or S5 sportback, I have posted it over on the A5 owners club forum here.
 
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