Help Me Choose A Cam ($75 USD and under)

[o4komodo]

Hey there!

So I currently have two dash cams on my car. An Ausdom A261 and an Ausdom AD170. I wired them and tapped them both together into my interior fuse box. To make things simple and cleaner I had them share the same fuse. They're always on---and in such I set my cameras to run on parking mode.

However, I found out the AD170 doesn't have parking mode. So now if I don't drive my car daily then my battery will die. ****.

Now I could just tap into a new fuse and have my AD170 (which I set up for the rear) to only turn on when the car is on... but I'd rather opt to upgrade to a decent (and relatively inexpensive) cam that HAS parking mode.

So, what would you folks suggest that's inexpensive and has parking mode? I'm from Canada so the seller would have to sell internationally (if I cannot find one within the country).

I would love to get another AD261 but they've been discontinued---so has the AD260 it seems.

If it's on Amazon.ca with prime that's even better. So far cheapest I've seen is this "Autolover" one.

edit: quick search shows that it's also known as the GT300
edit: It's currently on flash sale on Gear best for $15 USD. Seems incredibly cheap and images seem just 'ok'. I purchased it anyways to see if I like it. In the mean time I'm still open to suggestions as one with better quality is always appreciated.

 

[jokiin]

parking mode or not if you're wiring your cams to run 24/7 and you have nothing to monitor battery voltage and shut things off then you're going to end up with a flat battery if you don't drive often enough

 

[o4komodo]

parking mode or not if you're wiring your cams to run 24/7 and you have nothing to monitor battery voltage and shut things off then you're going to end up with a flat battery if you don't drive often enough

Yes I am aware of that. But it's better to have it on parking mode if I'm going to let the car sit for 2-3 days to ensure I still have juice left in my battery. It's also a piece of mind that my battery wont go flat even after a day.

I generally drive my car daily. But every little bit helps.

 

[jokiin]

Yes I am aware of that. But it's better to have it on parking mode if I'm going to let the car sit for 2-3 days to ensure I still have juice left in my battery. It's also a piece of mind that my battery wont go flat even after a day.
.

cameras are on for parking mode to function, power draw is the same either way

 

[o4komodo]

cameras are on for parking mode to function, power draw is the same either way

Well, I noticed my A261 turns off a lot when in parking mode--thus not really drawing as much battery as if it were off (and thus actually recording 24/7). So it technically is drawing less battery.

Anyway, I also found a wiring kit from "blackboxmycar" for $55 that appears to stop giving power to dash cams when the battery runs to a certain draw. $55 seems a bit excessive for that so I'm now also looking for something of that nature.

edit: found it cheaper on amazon.ca. Seems the $45 is a good price for what it is compared to some of the cheaper ones (motopark multi-safer)

 

[jokiin]

Well, I noticed my A261 turns off a lot when in parking mode--thus not really drawing as much battery as if it were off (and thus actually recording 24/7). So it technically is drawing less battery.

the difference in power draw is too low to measure

Anyway, I also found a wiring kit from "blackboxmycar" for $55 that appears to stop giving power to dash cams when the battery runs to a certain draw. $55 seems a bit excessive for that so I'm now also looking for something of that nature.

edit: found it cheaper on amazon.ca. Seems the $45 is a good price for what it is compared to some of the cheaper ones (motopark multi-safer)

this is a good idea

 

[dash riposki]

AmazonUS still has the Ausdom AD282 for around $80, which is comparable to the 261, but no GPS.
They still show the A261 on the Amazon US site for $86.

 

[Nigel]

cameras are on for parking mode to function, power draw is the same either way

If parking mode records at 1 fps instead of 30 fps then it is only doing 1/30th of the work and should be able to run for 30x longer on the same amount of power.

Why are current dashcams wasting so much power, and how long before someone makes one that does do an efficient parking mode?

 

[jokiin]

If parking mode records at 1 fps instead of 30 fps then it is only doing 1/30th of the work and should be able to run for 30x longer on the same amount of power.

Why are current dashcams wasting so much power, and how long before someone makes one that does do an efficient parking mode?

you'll get 30x longer from your recordings so will use less memory space, won't make any measurable difference to power consumption though, perhaps it would be possible for a chipset to have a low power mode but haven't seen it happen as yet, there is a very efficient sleep mode which uses very little power but that's just for standby and is triggered to wake up from the G-Sensor and needs an internal battery to function, it's part of the way there but not really a great parking mode solution as it sits, perhaps that will get developed further at some stage, hard to say

 

[Nigel]

you'll get 30x longer from your recordings so will use less memory space, won't make any measurable difference to power consumption though, perhaps it would be possible for a chipset to have a low power mode but haven't seen it happen as yet, there is a very efficient sleep mode which uses very little power but that's just for standby and is triggered to wake up from the G-Sensor and needs an internal battery to function, it's part of the way there but not really a great parking mode solution as it sits, perhaps that will get developed further at some stage, hard to say

It might need some work from the chip makers, but there is no good reason that a processor can't sleep for 29/30ths of a second and then wake up and record a frame, then go back to sleep, as you say the 0806 can already efficiently sleep on camera battery power for days and then wake up and start recording when it feels a seagull land on the car. Since it would be using 1/30th of the power it would also be cool and have no problem running parking mode in a hot car in summer sunshine, also wouldn't drain the car battery much more than the car alarm does so wouldn't need a battery saver device. Just needs someone to get it done...

 

[jokiin]

Just needs someone to get it done...

can't see it happening anytime soon, not unless someone pays to get it developed

 

[kamkar]

The camera are still doing 30 FPS while sitting there, but its just 1 FPS that will be hitting your memory card.

 

[Nigel]

The camera are still doing 30 FPS while sitting there, but its just 1 FPS that will be hitting your memory card.

That is probably true, it needs to do 30fps so that it can update the video image on the LCD screen, even though the screen saver is on!

 

[kamkar]

Yeah, also i think even for true 1 FPS the image sensor still need to be on all the time, so any power savings might be minor, and i am not sure you can power on /off a image sensor that fast and that often.
And i am not even sure if the power draw of the sensor amount to much in the grand scheme of things.

 

[jokiin]

Yeah, also i think even for true 1 FPS the image sensor still need to be on all the time, so any power savings might be minor, and i am not sure you can power on /off a image sensor that fast and that often.
And i am not even sure if the power draw of the sensor amount to much in the grand scheme of things.

good luck even being able to measure the difference in power consumption