I've read the FAQ! Please Help this dumbass make a decision - 360 degree parking cam

_5had0w_

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Note: I've read your FAQ

Hi guys

THe only reason the previous owner sold this vehicle to me is because he was sick of stressing about it in car parks. This car is paritcularily special and it was vandalised once under his ownership and he thus decided to sell. Actual driving dash cam function is a lower priority.

I'm feeling this same anxiety myself and am looking to get value for money 360 degree camera security. One thing is for certain: My car likely has a battery drain and as such I often disconnect the battery on parking it for long periods.

I had really whittled down myself to two options:

4 x mobius cams connected to a 100,000mAH USB power pack with 64GB SD cards.
-The problem here is whether I can cut the FPS down when parking to store upto 40 hours of footage. I was wondering if the photo mode (where it takes a photo say every .5 seconds) would allow significantly more total footage and would also allow me to record audio>

If the blacksys cf100 was still available it'd be perfect as I could use the rear cameras as side cameras for parking and it has pre-buffer.

The other option i've got is 2 x dual camera systems, the one I was looking at being the Lukas LK 7950, similarily connected to a USB power pack.

What do you guys think? I do not want to spent $1k+ on this system and these are two great options I could come up with.
 
When parking you can make do with a lower bitrate but i would not go for a lower than 1080p resolution., at least if its "slow" moving things thats your problem.
The mobius should also be able to take larger than 64 Gb cards if need be.

You could go for a hardwired good dual camera with prebuffer for front and rear, it is highly likely this is the angles where a vandal would attack, and so he will be caught by motion detect + prebuffered so you should get all of the punk creeping up on you.
And then a couple of mobius for the sides of your vehicle.


I just have to ask, it shouldn't by any chance be a nice diesel 4x4 in question ?
I ask cuz here its pretty common that treehuggers key or puncture such cars, i got my own Suzuki SUV keyed a few days before i sold it :mad:
 
Hi Kamkar

Thanks for the response. I PMed you the details of the car.

What's the point in going mobius for sideview only? Wouldn't I be better off just going the full hog then and just getting 2 Lukas 7250 kits and using the front cams for front and rear and the rear cams set up on the side, or would this be unrealistic/unpragmatic. How long would the camera be able to record on the pre-buffer mode? I have no idea how to work such things out.

I could still power it with a massive USB battery pack by getting a 5V DC to USB convertor?

Here's my cost estimate in Austrlaian dollars for the 360 degree permanently on Mobius set up
4xmobius = $320 for 4 C lens Cameras.
4 x 64GB card = $120
USB power bank + $40
possble: USB cables ~$40
4 x super capacitator = $50

Maximum total cost = $570

The Lukas models will be about $100 more. The $100 isn't a huge deal to me, but i need a reliable pragmatic long-term set up that will capture any BS done to my car again.

What do you think?
 
G'day M8.

The Lukas cameras are also solid performers, my first proper dashcam was a lukas LK7500 and 3-4 years later it still go strong in my little sisters car.
But some Lukas cameras i think is 12 V ones, at least my LK-7500 was, not quite sure how it is with the newer models and dual channel cameras.

When you go for parking mode you really got to have the camera hardwired and then use a BDP ( Battery Discharge Preventer ) to make sure there is always enough juice on your car battery to crank the motor.
When a camera is in parking guard mode ( motion detect or G-sensor or even both ) then it is sort of recording all the time it just dont put anything on the memory card before a trigger goes off, and in that case with pre-buffered cameras you will get whats in the memory too and thats upward of 10 seconds before the triggering event.
And thats the cool thing and really what make parking guard usable, other cameras do the same but dont have the pre-buffer, so you might be unlucky and the car that nudged your car is already out of the picture, or if its a skumbag he might already have turned his back to the camera.
But with pre-buffer you get him walking up to your car face on.

You could also wait a little and get a Street Guardian dual channel camera ( Aussie product - top notch service and customer care )
Their first dual channel camera should launch around X-mas.
First model will be as the lukas cameras with the main unit on the windscreen and a remote camera on a wire, second model that should be ready around Aussie winter ( june / july ) will be with a hidden main unit and 2 little cameras on a wire.

And if you live around Sydney and have a failure its likely Rick the boss will be hand delivering it if he is in the country, he do travel a lot between AU and China where the cameras is made ( to Aussie specs )

Now i dont know the prizes for these new models, they will not be among the cheapest dual channel cameras for sure cuz they will be crammed with the latest stuff, front sensor will be IMX291 that should be a lot more light sensitive than current top performers, rear camera will be IMX 322 thats the current top performer in regard to low light performance.
But the price should still be at a place where the products are competitive to other dual channel systems with similar performance.

Powering cameras off a USB power bank is pretty common for people that cant bother with hardwire, its also what i would do myself if i was to park at a place where i feel the need for it.
But i will also have to hardwire a camera or 2 soon cuz i will soon get new models to test ( from street guardian ) and as a tester i have to be able to test all aspects of a camera, even the ones i dont use myself.

You might also consider the Thinkware F770 its also a popular camera, and qvia also have something interesting.

Only gripe i have with lukas is the form factor of their main front cameras, its not as stealthy as i personally would like them to be.

If you deside to hold back a little, then you could go for a camera like the SGZC12RC to tie you over ( one camera is still a lot better than no camera )
The ZC12RC is a main unit with a little remote camera, it dont have GPS but it do have a good pre-buffered parking mode, and it have a service USB port into witch you can plug a USB power bank as you turn off your car, then the power should be seamless transferred from car power to USB battery power and the camera should enter parking mode a minute or so after you left it.

You can not charge the USB power bank via that plug in the camera, some one just found out you can power the camera that way for parking guard.

Current dual channel cameras lag a little in the bitrate, whit the hardware they are made of you have a limit on how high bitrate you can run ( bitrate is related to image quality to a degree )
The new cameras like the SG ones will be on new hardware that do not have that limit, or rather they do but now the limit is much higher.
 
THanks Kamkar!!!

Power: DC 9V ~ 24V, Power Consumption: 360mA (13.4V). approx 4.8W

Which power pack can I buy to suit this^

Reading through the manual I can't figure out how to force the camera to go into parking mode when I'm using power pack. APparently it requires the power to be switch on and off???
 
The large Anker ones seem to be popular with guys in here, but thats for 5 Volt cameras.

What camera are those numbers from ?
 
Okay i think thats the SGZC12RC i dident even know it was 12 V for the regular day to day power, but as i understand it from the users it can also be powered by a 5 V USB power bank on the service port in the headunit, so i will assume the headunit have a 12 > 5 V converter build in.
 
Digged a little in the SGZC12RC sub forum as i am not able to remember who it was using the ZC with USB power for parking guard.

AS i understand it with that camera you just turn on parking guard, and it will then record regular 3 minute files when driving and powered by 12 V
And as you then change to 5 V on the service port via a power bank the camera will then just enter parking mode and then record if it see motion or get a Jolt that trigger the G-sensor.
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...rnal-battery-pack-and-12v-power-supply.19350/
 
Digged a little in the SGZC12RC sub forum as i am not able to remember who it was using the ZC with USB power for parking guard.

AS i understand it with that camera you just turn on parking guard, and it will then record regular 3 minute files when driving and powered by 12 V
And as you then change to 5 V on the service port via a power bank the camera will then just enter parking mode and then record if it see motion or get a Jolt that trigger the G-sensor.
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...rnal-battery-pack-and-12v-power-supply.19350/

Hey dude!

It's from the LUkas 7950 manual! This is all so complicated. For $800 I'm wondering if the simpler always-on Mobius set up for $150 less would be a better idea.

I don't even know how good the motion detection mode in the mobius really us
 
I am not sure which voltage power bank I should be getting for this purpose. 9V? Is there a dual voltage power bank that can drop voltage down to engage parking mode? Or can i just change to parking mode in the dashcam?
 
Motion detect on the mobius cameras are not that good, meaning it dont have any prebuffer.
But i have never played around with that part of the mobius 1 camera, i did try it on my mobius 2 camera not long ago, and it seemed to trigger alright.
But a old guy on one of those little electric scooters passing slowly ( walking speed ) 2 M in front of my car was almost in the middle of the footage before the recording started, so him comming from left to right travled 2 steps or sp from when he got within view and untill the recording started.
And this was optimal conditions as he was in front of a brick wall.

I guess thats a drawback of it being half action camera and half dashcam, and it is also made with pretty old hardware that dont really support such smart things as prebuffering of footage.

The lukas should be hardwired to your car battery/ fuse box, but i am not sure if it have a build in BDP or you will have to get one of those on the side.
Offcourse you could also power it from a battery os some sort, but then you will have to unplug one plug in the camera and the plug in the battery plug when you park, so it is smarter to have it hardwared cuz then you just have to turn off your car and leave it, the lukas should then go into parking guard mode after a minute or 2
 
The lukas cameras can not be powered by 5 volt on any service or other port as far as i know, they only have the one 3 or 5 mm barrel plug style connector for power.
 
According to this video the LK7950 come with a hardwire kit too.
 
O just saw that 2 video is off the newer 9750 ???? but i wonder if the older model is not more or less the same.
 
oh what!

That's dissapointing! I can't just force the camera to go into parking mode from the menu?
 
I know there are 9V battery packs avaialable. And also 12V
 
Sorry. I was reading LUkas 9750 manual! They are so similiar!

It says 10V~24V
 
Yeah some form of powerbank should not be a problem, but remembering to change the plug might be.
Thats one of the major things with dashcams they should take no effort to use once you have installed it, then it should power up when you start and go into parking mode when your stop.

I found that with my LK7500 camera it went into parking guard even if i dident turn off my engine, i assume it worked by not seeing any G-sensor action from regular driving for a while and then it went into parking guard if its turned on.
But i am not sure if its the same with the newer cameras, my old one was just powered with the provided cigarette plug adapter.

Not sure if there is a power bank that you can have allways plugged into the camera and then charge it when driving.

Lukas have their LK-530 power pack to sit in between camera and power source to provide power while parked.
https://www.lukasdashcam.com/accessories/lk-530-12v-battery-pack
 
There is allso the celllink B
 
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