GuardTrak GT2S model details and info

jokiin said:
The power button realistically is not something you'd need to use too often but it just wasn't good enough so I changed it.
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I am curious as to why you have gone with such a large, prominent power button when in the normal usage scenario you would never need to turn the unit on or off manually ???


As an idea, could it be made a configurable switch so that if someone wanted to use that button for another purpose/function they could configure it that way ?

Actually the more I think about, making all of the buttons below the screen configurable might be an even better idea as that power button may be difficult to access easily if the unit is mounted very high.

Eg, If you do a normal press of the menu button, it brings up the menu system, but if you do a long press of the menu button it performs a different function, eg save the most recent footage into a special folder. That way if an incident occurs in front of you (ie other cars colliding) you just have to quickly do a long press on the menu button to save the footage of the incident into a separate folder so you can easily find it later and not accidently record over it.

I am not quite sure what the "MODE" button is used for ? I am guessing it is for switching between driving mode (loop recording) and parking mode (g-sensor activated recording) ?
Maybe a long press on MODE could be configured to activate/deactivate Valet mode

Long press on OK might be configured to turn the LCD on or off or switch from camera feed to a speedo readout.

Long press on the UP ARROW might be configured to adjust the Video Quality (if this is possible on the fly - presumably each time you change the bit rate, the unit would have to save the current recording and start a new recording at the new bit rate?)

Long press on the DOWN ARROW button might activate/deactivate the microphone recording (eg if I take a phone call while driving, I might not want that phone call recorded on the audio of the dashcam video so a button to quickly cut the microphone could be handy).



I am sure other people on here can think of other functions they might like to be able to access via a "shortcut" on these buttons (eg adjust EV or White Balance - I guess any of the menu settings could be made into a shortcut).

The key is making the long press of each button user configurable so each user can set the unit up for their own particular requirements/preferences.

Apologies if the unit already does something like the above, but your list of menu options didn't suggest user configurable buttons.

In any case, I look forward to this unit being available soon. Great work jokiin.
 
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for perspective the camera width and height is slightly bigger than a credit card, while the power button may look large and prominent in the pictures, it's actually not that big, previously it was recessed slightly and it may have made it inconvenient to use

we do have some long and short press shortcut menu options already, that's not detailed in the text but I'll elaborate on that once it's all done, not exactly as you've described but similar
 
@ jokiin could the night mode not be a simple on/off in the wintertime it can be dark at 16.30 in the evening and still dark at 08.30 in the morning In the summer it can still be light at 23.00 ....Just a thought Ipol
 
Ipol said:
@ jokiin could the night mode not be a simple on/off in the wintertime it can be dark at 16.30 in the evening and still dark at 08.30 in the morning In the summer it can still be light at 23.00 ....Just a thought Ipol
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we are looking at a few different options for night mode and a timed schedule is one that we are investigating already, there are positives and negatives to this approach
 
jokiin said:
we do have some long and short press shortcut menu options already, that's not detailed in the text but I'll elaborate on that once it's all done, not exactly as you've described but similar
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That's great. Hope the mic on/off is one of the shortcuts as I can see that as something I would definitely use.

I can just see how making the long presses user configurable would really take the user experience of the unit to the next level.

Plenty of different people will have different use cases / preferred shortcuts and offering user configurability allows you to meet the needs of more users from the same design. Perhaps we could get user configurable long presses in an updated firmware after release ?
 
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Zelig said:
I can just see how making the long presses user configurable would really take the user experience of the unit to the next level.
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interesting idea, not sure it's possible but I'll mention it to our engineer and see what he thinks

what kinds of things would you like to see as options?
 
@ jokiin Just realised my garmin gps automatically goes to night mode when the light falls to a certain level but this of course may well be a costly option............Ipol
 
jokiin said:
interesting idea, not sure it's possible but I'll mention it to our engineer and see what he thinks

what kinds of things would you like to see as options?
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  • Manual Save
  • Mic on/off
  • Valet Mode on/off
  • Motion Detect on/off
  • LCD on/off
  • Switch LCD display between camera feed and a GPS speedo readout (assuming you do that functionality).
  • Switch between a suite of Day mode and Night mode settings with one button (might be easier than having a timer function).
  • Change Bit Rate
  • Change EV
  • Change White Balance
  • Extend recording of current file - eg say you have the unit set to split files every 3 minutes. If you press the button for this option the current recording will instead run for 6 minutes before saving the file and starting a new one. If you have pressed it once to extend to 6 mins and press again (before the 6 mins are up) it will extend the file to 9 minutes, press again, 12 mins etc etc. That way if you want to capture something in one long file, rather than having to stitch them together later, you can use this option on the fly.

There is 11 options right there, no doubt other users will chime in with some others.

If the long press for each button is user configurable, each user can pick the 5 options most important to them.

User configurability also allows people to put the option they want on the button they want. Rather than you choosing that the mic on/off is on say the MENU button, a user might prefer it to be on the DOWN ARROW, being the closest button to the driver (for us here in Australia). Being user configurable gives the end user this flexibility, which as I said before, just enhances the user experience of the unit.
 
Ipol said:
@ jokiin Just realised my garmin gps automatically goes to night mode when the light falls to a certain level but this of course may well be a costly option............Ipol
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as does mine, which originally inspired me to look into making it a scheduled setting
 
Zelig said:
There is 11 options right there, no doubt other users will chime in with some others.
.
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first 4 are on the list already, remapping buttons I'd expect would be reasonably complex so not sure how practical that would be, could also add support issues, things like changing bitrate while recording won't happen, that would play havoc with recycling and a bunch of other things so I'm sure that would be out, from experience I can tell you that the greater majority of our customers run the cameras at the highest bitrate and leave them like that, day/night I want to automate as much as possible anyway, we're looking at some user configurable parameters for this though, things like changing EV and white balance I think are probably counter productive as you could unknowingly adjust things for the worse, those are settings you generally need to set, use, check and compare to decide what's best

keep going though, you never know what's achievable if you don't ask ;)
 
Wouldent it be possibel to use the cmos as i kind of light sensor ?

Trigger somthing when the ISO goes over a certain value.
 
kamkar1 said:
Wouldent it be possibel to use the cmos as i kind of light sensor ?

Trigger somthing when the ISO goes over a certain value.
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that's probably an over simplification but it does work something like this, another method we're looking at
 
One thing I noticed: the form factor of the camera will not allow most of the users to play too much with buttons and with LCD (while mounted). When mounted on a regular ("regular" = quite a small angle that most of the cars have) windshield, the LCD will be directed lower than driver's eyes. Of course, if you mount it in a truck or a van, the angle of the windshield is much bigger, hence no issues with this.
Also, most likely, the camera will have to be mounted in the middle of the windshield because of the windshield curve. If you try to mount it for example closer to driver's seat, camera will not point to middle of road anymore. In the beginning I thought that windshield curve is insignificant for mounting, but I was wrong -> I had issues with mounting my Mini0801.
 
What's the difference between Parking and Valet modes?
 
jwc said:
What's the difference between Parking and Valet modes?
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Valet mode is just continue to do normal recording like when you are driving, only without any lights and LCD off. Basically no indication that the unit is working (so the valet driver does not know his driving is being recorded).

Parking mode is the usual, only record/save the footage after a g-sensor activation.
 
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jokiin said:
for perspective the camera width and height is slightly bigger than a credit card, while the power button may look large and prominent in the pictures, it's actually not that big, previously it was recessed slightly and it may have made it inconvenient to use
Click to expand...

There is something about the proportions of this camera that makes your brain think it's bigger than it actually is. You should try to make it clear at first glance just how small & compact it actually is.

You might want to add dimensions to your photos (even your profile avatar photo), hold up digital calipers, or add another common object like a credit card behind it for reference to instantly trigger everyone's brain in on to it's real size.

digital_calipers_ec16.jpg
 
Zelig said:
Valet mode is just continue to do normal recording like when you are driving, only without any lights and LCD off. Basically no indication that the unit is working (so the valet driver does not know his driving is being recorded).

Parking mode is the usual, only record/save the footage after a g-sensor activation.
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Thanks
 
jokiin said:
first 4 are on the list already, remapping buttons I'd expect would be reasonably complex so not sure how practical that would be
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I can't see it would be that hard. The firmware already has to have code to say, if long press MENU, do mic on/off. If long press MODE, do manual save.

If you allow button re-mapping, it would be if long press MENU, check button mapping, do whatever is mapped to MENU. If long press MODE, check button mapping, do whatever is mapped to MODE. etc. I think that part will be quick and easy. The more time consuming bit will be adding the menu system functionality to facilitate the button mapping, but even that shouldn't be too hard.


things like changing bitrate while recording won't happen ...... things like changing EV and white balance I think are probably counter productive as you could unknowingly adjust things for the worse, those are settings you generally need to set, use, check and compare to decide what's best

keep going though, you never know what's achievable if you don't ask ;)
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Fair enough they are not options people might use on the fly, I was just trying to come up with as many options as I could to exceed the 5 buttons!!

So you have the first 4, that leaves one button, and I still had a few other options that I think were worthwhile, eg LCD on/off, LCD show camera feed/GPS speedo, Extend Recording.
 
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