Front, Rear, & Side cams for Campervan with parking mode?

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g43578764

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Hi, looking for some guidance. We're getting a VW T6 sized campervan. It will have a leisure battery and we will get a solar panel will give us plenty of power.

I'd like front and rear cams, and I think I want side cams as well. I want to record continuously at low rate when parked, switching to pre-buffered high rate if an event is detected.

I don't need to record continuously when parked at home-the pre-buffered event recording would be good enough. Is there way via geofencing to set this up?

If I have multiple cameras, in this vehicle, and possibly in our other car and connect via wifi and an app, do the apps allow you to select the correct camera? Can you play back footage and see all cameras on the same screen?

It seems the Thinkware F800 Pro is a good fit for front/back, Any others I should consider? What about sides?

Cheers
 
Welcome to DC T @g43578764 :)

There are now a few cams which do wifi, low bitrate, and buffered parking mode and there will be more in the future I'm sure. I'm not a Thinkware fan as their video quality tends to lag far behind their feature sets, but if you're happy with that they are a good quality cam. I'm not certain if you can get all the cams onto one screen with any cam- I'd think that would be more in the app than in the cam. It can be done on a PC with IP cams, but I don't know how you'd interface an Android or Apple app with Windows.

So far geofencing isn't in the works with any cam, but it gets some discussion at user-level so in the future I expect we may see it happen. But like cams and wifi, what you get will likely be either a slimmed-down version, slow data transfer, or both. Dashcams all tend to run a few steps behind the cutting edge of current technology.

On side-cams they are nice and I like having mine, but for driving purposes they're not often going to show anything which front and rear cams won't have captured at some point. They are at their best when used for parking lot protection because damage there is often from the sides with front and rear cams maybe not getting a view of the offenders plates until they're too far away to discern them clearly.

Liking your power set-up ideas and only wish I could do something very similar with my workvan but finances aren't there for that.

Phil
 
Thank you for the reply.

re: wifi and apps.

I have been considering having 4 IP bullet camera at each location powered via POE and a central DVR running on a Pi or an oDroid. I already have an odroid ready to use as an in-van Plex server for the kids! That way, if someone disables the camera, then the video is located elsewhere, and should be a smaller visible solution. Havent really found any suitable cameras or software geared towards dashcam use in this way though.

The side cams are for use when parked at campsite or on the road/carpark when the van is unattended.

Back to proper dashcams. Any other cams I should look at?
 
The Viofo A129 Duo might interest you. It's got great video quality, very good factory support and firmware updates, and a newer better version is about to be released.

For discretion the B1W is tiny but lacks something in video quality due to it's IMX323 sensor: OK daytime and good at night. Economical and makes for good side cams.

The new Garmin 66W looks sweet but uses a LiPo battery. Their cams have a low threshold for overheat shutdown too. Good vids and everything else too.

No wifi and not yet released, the K2S dual-channel might interest you. Discreet with remote 'head' unit which can be hidden. I like my beta unit a lot.

Sure to be some others but I believe these are the better cams being made right now which you might like that meet your criteria. I feel Thinkware and Blackvue are way overpriced but you might like what they offer. IP cams might prove a usable option for you since you can power them and use a DVR unit for storage but I'm not knowledgeable on them.

It's good to remember that dashcam wifi will be slow speed- it's meant to download a file or two, not to transfer a whole days recording although that might be done overnight. And it's also not meant to be used when the cam is recording as it generates extra heat- the nemesis of dashcams- and in some cases using it during recording limits bitrate which will lower the vid quality. Perhaps in 2-3 years something closer to what you want will be available in a dashcam but for now there will be some not-so-small compromises in using them they way you want. I find dashcams suitable for me to cover my workvan and driving but I'm mostly about vid quality and not much else- I need no other features really. As always YMMV ;)

Phil
 
Ah, the A129 Duo looks good, much lower cost than the others. It doesn't have pre-buffered parking mode though. I could work around that by controlling the ACC line manually. If we're in a "high risk" park I could keep the ACC line high with a separate switch so the camera keeps recording full time.

When you say a newer better version, do you mean a new model, or a new firmware update? Is there any chance of the pre-buffered parking mode being added?

Off to read some more reviews.

Cheers.
 
The A129 does now have a buffered parking mode. There are still a few bugs to fix, but it does work. However to pick up on your initial post, constant low bitrate recording when parked is preferred by some users as it records everything that happens.

I currently run an A129 front / back, and another A129 records left / right. Both are set to low bitrate parking mode.
 
Thanks Tony. Reading through the threads now. Will it / could it do both modes? IE low bitrate recording switching to full rate prebuffered on an event?
 
with a camper i also think you will be better off using constant 1080P/30 recording but with the low bitrate ( 4 mbit or so )
None of my IP cameras in my apartment go to 4 mbit, they simply dont see enough action to throttle way up there.
You have to remember that the cameras are not waterproof so you need to have them behind glass ( cant say i recall seeing a camper, van or otherwise that have windows on all 4 sides )
BUT ! many of the new cameras will have a option to upgrade the rear camera to one that do have a waterproof housing.
 
As i understand it triggering ( some way ) and jumping up to full fledged recording can be done, but there will be a gap, pre buffer or not.
This also sadden me as i would like that, but since the low bitrate also have the sound i was most concerned about i am good, but of course the low bitrate might be a problem if you are hit and run fast.
So this is one of the first things i will test when i get the chance, and then relax in the fact that the only place where i will need parking guard is when i shop, and generally those places see people drive fairly slow.
 
g43578764 said:
Thanks Tony. Reading through the threads now. Will it / could it do both modes? IE low bitrate recording switching to full rate prebuffered on an event?
Click to expand...
As @kamkar1 said, there is a brief pause when switching to full bitrate. Better to keep recording in low bitrate than miss a few valuable seconds.
 
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