G-sensor doesn't notice all four tyres being changed

CharlieGirl

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So I left the car in parking mode and a mobile tyre fitting company came and changed all four tyres. The device did come out of parking mode because I got audio, so I guess it thought it was moving, that's fine. Car was jacked up, bloke took the wheels off with a pneumatic wrench, changed the tyres, put the new ones back on and tightened with the wrench again and lowered the car. Then used a hand wrench to get the right torque on the bolts. To my surprise, the G-sensor didn't record an event once. It was set to maximum sensitivity.
 
Torque and pneumatic wrenches doesn't cause any G-Forces, only moments which aren't measured.
So as long as they jacked the car up gently then it shouldn't of triggered.
Nice to know that they were gentle with your car :)

To get G-Force to trigger the G Sensor, the car needs to accelerate reasonably sharply as though it has been hit or pushed.
 
so if a thief is gentle (which is very likely if they're trying to be quiet while stealing wheels/tires) then you won't get any footage unless you have a very big memory card and see the theft and remove the card before it cycles over the video. :/

nothing's perfect of course... and if it's already set to max sensitivity, well, that's all it can do.

makes me wonder if it will trigger/lock for a gentle parking lot shunt. the last few times our car was hit (& run of course) in a parking lot (before i had a dashcam that could do parking mode), it probably didn't jostle the car much, but because the corner of the bumper has no structure behind it, it caved in completely, which looked horrible. of course, after i BOUGHT a dashcam with parking mode (ye olde cf-100), people stopped hitting the car. go figure.
 
so if a thief is gentle (which is very likely if they're trying to be quiet while stealing wheels/tires) then you won't get any footage unless you have a very big memory card and see the theft and remove the card before it cycles over the video. :/

nothing's perfect of course... and if it's already set to max sensitivity, well, that's all it can do.

makes me wonder if it will trigger/lock for a gentle parking lot shunt. the last few times our car was hit (& run of course) in a parking lot (before i had a dashcam that could do parking mode), it probably didn't jostle the car much, but because the corner of the bumper has no structure behind it, it caved in completely, which looked horrible. of course, after i BOUGHT a dashcam with parking mode (ye olde cf-100), people stopped hitting the car. go figure.

Yes, not ideal. As Nigel points out it isn't a fault with the G-shock functionality because it's not designed to pick this sort of event up. Handy to know. But like you I wonder if it would register gentle bumps, or say the wing mirror being hit off, or whether these would be missed.

Maybe Viofo or someone else will innovate another solution to this problem alongside G-shock. I hope so as the purpose of my cam is both to record an event while I'm driving and to protect me in case someone damages my car while I'm not around, regardless of whether it's a major or minor accident. Fact is a small accident can cost a fortune to put right nowadays with newer cars.
 
A wing mirror hit will trigger it if the hit is hard enough to damage the mirror. It may not move the car much but unlike a torque wrench it does send a good shock wave through the car which the G-Sensor can measure.

My B1W triggered last week when a road chipping hit the windscreen, not much of a hit but a very sharp one.

If you want to catch someone steeling your wheels then you know they will be gentle to avoid setting off the car alarm, so you need a time-lapse type parking mode like the mini 0906.
 
Like the other settings, G-sensor needs will vary by situation. My B1W senses me opening the rear hatch door on my minivan but is not set off by wind gusts- this is perfect for parking where someone opening a door into your car could chip the paint :) That sensitivity level would be no good for driving though. If someone can remove your wheels without activating the g-sensor it's probably not sensitive enough and I wouldn't be relying on it for parking protection :(

Same as with motion detect almost no cams have a G-sensor setting which gets you what you want, and often they have no setting that comes close to working correctly at all :rolleyes: I can understand the problem with motion detect but not with G-sensor. If one company can make the chipset do G-sensor correctly then everyone else using that chipset should be able to do the same. And if you can't risk missing any footage the forget the 'features' and record constantly instead.

Phil
 
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