First Smartphone Video from Autoboy Blackbox

[Playeroflife]

Hi all, I got this app called Autoboy Blackbox. I had a simple mount on the dashboard and the video was perfectly still. See what you think, i used my Galaxy S3.

 

[Gibson99]

i tried using Daily Roads Voyager on my old Droid4 a while back, and even sent the developer a few bug reports and tried beta versions for him - the dev was a very responsive person. that said, my main complaint was that the camera's viewing angle was very narrow compared to a real dashcam, and that's something no app can fix. also, at speeds anywhere above 10 mph, there was a very annoying rattling/buzzing in the video caused by the phone mount. and i was even using the official motorola car mount for my phone, not just a cheap generic. at highway speeds, the video started getting shaky and vibrated a lot, making it blurry. the camera would chase focus till the app added a setting to lock focus at infinity, but it was still shaky.

the other issue was that if i wanted to use my phone for playing music (whether streaming or from SD card), or navigating w/ google maps while it was also recording, the phone got VERY hot. and if a phone call came in while it was recording, it stopped recording and wouldn't resume on its own.

i guess if you had an old phone you could dedicate to being a dashcam, and had a way to mount it so it was hidden and unlikely to be stolen... and then had a way to make it automatically start and stop w/ the car (or even better, work in parking mode), it would be fine, but if it's the phone you use daily, it's finnicky. for me, it was worth the small investment in a real dashcam. plus, that's an awful big battery to keep in the heat of the car every day.

 

[Playeroflife]

Hi. Its s short term solution for me. I sm awaiting my new cam. But it is still s good clear video. But battery life is not to good.

 

[sludgeguts]

i tried using Daily Roads Voyager on my old Droid4 a while back, and even sent the developer a few bug reports and tried beta versions for him - the dev was a very responsive person. that said, my main complaint was that the camera's viewing angle was very narrow compared to a real dashcam, and that's something no app can fix. also, at speeds anywhere above 10 mph, there was a very annoying rattling/buzzing in the video caused by the phone mount. and i was even using the official motorola car mount for my phone, not just a cheap generic. at highway speeds, the video started getting shaky and vibrated a lot, making it blurry. the camera would chase focus till the app added a setting to lock focus at infinity, but it was still shaky.

the other issue was that if i wanted to use my phone for playing music (whether streaming or from SD card), or navigating w/ google maps while it was also recording, the phone got VERY hot. and if a phone call came in while it was recording, it stopped recording and wouldn't resume on its own.

i guess if you had an old phone you could dedicate to being a dashcam, and had a way to mount it so it was hidden and unlikely to be stolen... and then had a way to make it automatically start and stop w/ the car (or even better, work in parking mode), it would be fine, but if it's the phone you use daily, it's finnicky. for me, it was worth the small investment in a real dashcam. plus, that's an awful big battery to keep in the heat of the car every day.

^^^^^ Yeah, that.
I tried using the autoboy on my S3 & noticed the phone got VERY hot. Also, the phone HAD to be dedicated to video otherwise the footage was crappy in some way. I also found that even using the double power battery didn't help as it would be drained in a few hours - and that was using a bigger ampage through the charger.

 

[sludgeguts]

i tried using Daily Roads Voyager on my old Droid4 a while back, and even sent the developer a few bug reports and tried beta versions for him - the dev was a very responsive person. that said, my main complaint was that the camera's viewing angle was very narrow compared to a real dashcam, and that's something no app can fix. also, at speeds anywhere above 10 mph, there was a very annoying rattling/buzzing in the video caused by the phone mount. and i was even using the official motorola car mount for my phone, not just a cheap generic. at highway speeds, the video started getting shaky and vibrated a lot, making it blurry. the camera would chase focus till the app added a setting to lock focus at infinity, but it was still shaky.

the other issue was that if i wanted to use my phone for playing music (whether streaming or from SD card), or navigating w/ google maps while it was also recording, the phone got VERY hot. and if a phone call came in while it was recording, it stopped recording and wouldn't resume on its own.

i guess if you had an old phone you could dedicate to being a dashcam, and had a way to mount it so it was hidden and unlikely to be stolen... and then had a way to make it automatically start and stop w/ the car (or even better, work in parking mode), it would be fine, but if it's the phone you use daily, it's finnicky. for me, it was worth the small investment in a real dashcam. plus, that's an awful big battery to keep in the heat of the car every day.

^^^^^ Yeah, that.
I tried using the autoboy on my S3 & noticed the phone got VERY hot. Also, the phone HAD to be dedicated to video otherwise the footage was crappy in some way. I also found that even using the double power battery didn't help as it would be drained in a few hours - and that was using a bigger ampage through the charger.

 

[hanstj]

Your car was moving very slowly. Have you tested it at highway speed?