Has anyone tried building their own dash cam?

[impulsivetravelerguy]

Has anyone tried building their own dash cam? I'm finding the few dash cams that I've been playing with (Garmin VIRB & Garmin DriveAssist) don't do everything I want it to do. I'm tempted to start my own project with web cams and a Raspberry Pi. If I do do this project, I'll aim to make it fully open source so anyone else can implement it else. Before I replicate any work, has anyone else ever build a dash cam system from scratch? Would any of you be interested in collaborating on an open source dash cam project?

 

[jokiin]

there are a few Pi based setups out there already, don't know how well they work but might be a starting point for you to look at what others have already done with it

 

[RLS]

I recommend playing with other dashcams, since you’ve only experienced a few Garmin devices (I use the Virb XE and Virb Ultra for vehicle telemetry). Maybe you should make a list of requirements/use cases, post it here, and we can help you see if there’s an existing dashcam that fits your needs

Take a look at some premium dashcams, such as:
- Blackvue DR750S
- Street Guardian SG9663DC
- Thinkware F800 Pro (Linux backend easily accessible)
- ... etc


As for a DIY dashcam, I would recommend starting with a raspberry pi, looking into motioneyeOS, grabbing a picamera, adding a usb camera, etc.


Lastly, if you do go the DIY route, I would first do an honest self-evaluation of your existing requisite skillsets in hardware (embedded) and software. Also, some understanding of thermals would greatly help, capacitor vs battery, battery types (lithium, SLA, AGM, LiFePO4, etc if you care about parking mode), storage, image quality, exposure/contrast/etc for night vs day, understanding of lenses/FOV, etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[impulsivetravelerguy]

Thanks for the replies guys! MotioneyeOS looks interesting. I think I'm going to do the DYI route. I am a Sys Admin by trade and also go to a meetup or two that revolves around Raspberry Pi stuff. I'm learning a decent amount about embedded stuff and Linux in general.

I guess the reason I want to go the DYI route is I'm a travel blogger. I do cross-country road trips and drive into Canada all the time. I record my full drives. In early 2016, I posted a video on this forum of how I was rudimentary able to get a map of my approximate location overlaid in the video:

I remember people asking me how I did it. I took the Garmin VIRB's data file and then converted it with GPS Babel to a KML file. Then I wrote a Java program to read that file and give me the coordinates. I then took those coordinates and generated a picture of the location with a marker with Google static maps API. I then stitched those pictures together and did an overlay on the video.

As you can see, it's a lot of work and clunky. It's also approximate. I want to make something that is more accurate and also some sort of map where you can click on the map and it'll take you to the exact spot in the video I'm actually driving. I also want to hopefully do all my processing in the car so things are ready to upload the minute I pull into the driveway.

With that, current dash cams don't meet my needs. You first have to swap SD cards into another computer for processing. This is a pain in itself. Also, the processing isn't done until you're actually back at a computer. It's also a hodge podge mess of converting the data files over, etc. A lot of other dash cams don't even create data files. Instead of working around all these limitations, I figured it would be easier to create my own system.

I was thinking:
-Raspberry Pi running Raspbian with large storage
-Commodity webcam for the dash cam itself
-ffmpeg for the video processing
-OpenStreetMaps for the maps

I might have to have the Raspberry Pi send the actual video it is taking to a more powerful computer for processing, but I want to try to do it all in vehicle and do it all with pretty much little or no interaction on my part.

 

[impulsivetravelerguy]

This was the original thread back almost 3 years ago (dang time flies!): https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/overlaying-google-maps-to-drive-videos.17123/

 

[jokiin]

that's quite a wish list, please keep us updated on your progress

 

[Matt_V939]

Just brainstorming, dunno if it works:
Plugging in a micro sd-to sd card adapter on a std dashcam, using a WIFI SD card (like Toshiba FlashAir or similar others) on a std dash cam? You don't have to plug anything to a computer (wifi hard disk?)

 

[impulsivetravelerguy]

that's quite a wish list, please keep us updated on your progress

Definitely will do. This is a project I've been looking to do for a while. I've finally stopped traveling as much so I can do it. I also attend the North Austin Gadget Hackers and Austin Internet of Things Meetups where we work on Rapsberry Pi projects. When I do write programs for this, I'll open source it all so anyone can grab the code and join in. I'm looking for move fully to open source for my blog and all the behind the scenes stuff. The privacy issues are one thing, but one thing I hate is the lack of control. A software maker can just make changes and break things and you don't have any say. Also, I'm finding a lot of software makers ignore you or don't improve defects in their products. Right now both Garmin GPSes and Google Maps think it's appropriate to take you down dirt paths that aren't even named anything other than "road" on the GPS and treats it like you're going down a highway.

Just brainstorming, dunno if it works:
Plugging in a micro sd-to sd card adapter on a std dashcam, using a WIFI SD card (like Toshiba FlashAir or similar others) on a std dash cam? You don't have to plug anything to a computer (wifi hard disk?)

That could be an option. The one reservation I have on that is there's no Linux program for it. It looks like I'd have to get a Mac Mini or small Windows computer to do my video processing. I'm sure I could hack something together and make it work on Linux, but that kind of goes against my use of free\open source software. It's definitely something I'll keep an eye on, but I'm guessing if I use a regular webcam and have it hooked up via USB that would probably probably be easiest.