Looking for dashcam for semitruck, need three cameras.

[Hush]

Hello, I just found and joined this forum, I am looking for a three camera setup to record the front and the sides of my truck.

I have spent a long time researching various DVR solutions, but they are expensive, thousands of dollars, and they are not HD.

My solution is to use three separate dash-cams, one inside the truck, looking forward, and this seems to be the easy part. While, two more dash-cams outside looking back at the tractor and trailer. The problem is, I drive through rain, sleet, snow and black-ice all the time, and during summer the heat can reach 120F. So I need something sturdy that can take beating.

I found this, but it is pretty spendy.

http://tachyoninc.com/bikercam.php

I could absorb the costs, my main concern is that the biker-cam wont be up to the task. The rain cover looks rather flimsy. Is there something more heavy-duty like the biker cam, similar size and mounting. I plan on putting the camera under the mirror.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Hi welcome to the forum.
We are beta testing a couple dual channel DashCam products that have waterproof housings for the rear compact camera connected via wire. (no ETA release yet though, still testing)
There is a real need for them as you described above.

 

[jokiin]

For this situation I'd look at Panorama G with a big memory card up front and a pair of Innovv C3 cams for the sides, good bang for buck

 

[Street Guardian USA]

For this situation I'd look at Panorama G with a big memory card up front and a pair of Innovv C3 cams for the sides, good bang for buck

There we go! This = Good to go

 

[Hush]

Thanks for the response. Of to read about the Innovv C3 cams.

 

[Hush]

Okay this is confusing. lol

What is the difference between these two?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00JFUU5OM

https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00LXRR7L4
Which one is newer? Which one is better, and most importantly, which one doesn't have the purple haze, I hate the purple haze. My cellphone has purple haze and it is driving me crazy.

 

[reverend]

The Panorama G is the newer of those two and is basically the S with the GPS built in and a better touchscreen technology, although currently the S has more firmware options available where you can change the bitrate etc to your liking between a few options (12, 15 & 18Mbps)

I think with the latest S firmware or the G firmware you don't get the purple haze anyway, although a lot of people do prefer that mode.

The developer of these cameras is just literally releasing the new dual channel version (the X2) and once that's on general availability you'll start to see new firmware for the G.

If you can wait the X2 will be better than both of these two and from reading between the lines you could just buy the front unit I'm guessing for what you want - otherwise there is more than likely to be a refresh of the G / S with the new IMX322 sensor.

 

[Hush]

Thanks for your help.

Now if only I could figure out these low res DVR cameras. I decided to go with one HD dash-cam in the front. And two low res (D1)? cameras connected to a DVR.

I realized I don't need high resolution cameras on the sides, just the front. I need a DVR, maybe a monitor, and two cameras. I have spent all day long today reading about all this stuff with out much success.

 

[jokiin]

If these are all connected to the same DVR you'll find that they drop down to D1 res or less on all channels if more than one camera is connected, need to read between the lines of the marketing spiel they use on those

 

[Hush]

If these are all connected to the same DVR you'll find that they drop down to D1 res or less on all channels if more than one camera is connected, need to read between the lines of the marketing spiel they use on those

So what would be a good DVR for two cameras? I don't need anything fancy, just reliability, I drive 120,000 miles per year.

 

[Pariah Zero]

Just because I'm a curious guy and know nothing about driving semis: you said three cameras. I assume one is the center of the windscreen, but where do the other two go? Rear window is obviously out, so are the other two basically left & right rear view mirrors?

 

[Dionic90]

Per OPs first post:

My solution is to use three separate dash-cams, one inside the truck, looking forward, and this seems to be the easy part. While, two more dash-cams outside looking back at the tractor and trailer.

The op's concern is also to look for weather-proof solutions.

 

[Pariah Zero]

I guess I won today's inattention award. Thanks.

 

[Dashmellow]

Per OPs first post:



The op's concern is also to look for weather-proof solutions.

The most viable solution for weatherproof cameras outside the vehicle, perhaps mounted on the rear view mirror brackets or hood of a semi-tractor trailer would be small CCTV cameras designed for outdoor use in severe conditions and temperature extremes. There are a wide variety of cameras available including analogue devices and 1080p network cameras. Many of these types of cameras have integral IR illumination which, depending on how they are deployed might present a problem if facing a windshield from the outside but the IR can be disabled or masked if necessary. If the cameras are on the rear view mirror brackets facing back towards the trailer sides the IR shouldn't be a problem though as long as they're not interfering with an internal windshield mounted dash-cam. The cams would need to be attached to a DVR or NVR inside the vehicle's cab, of course. There are a number of small mobile DVR and NVR solutions available suitable for this purpose, however since pretty much all CCTV DVRs and NVRs operate on 12V even a modest sized NVR or DVR could be vehicle mounted, say under a seat. There is even some new technology coming onto the market that offers as many as 8 channels of HD video on an NVR about the size and shape of a sandwich although I don't know enough about these yet to recommend them.

 

[Hush]

I guess I won today's inattention award. Thanks.

Sorry, I was out installing a new seat in my truck, it was supposed to have been a quick job, which turned in to a all day deal.

But back to your original question, yes the two side cameras would be mounted on the mirrors, looking down the length of the trailer. The reason is a lot of drivers started crossing over into my travel lane, forcing me to grab the shoulder to avoid a sideswipe. Most all of these drivers are on their phones. I need proof that it wasn't me who crossed into their lane.

 

[kamkar]

Well wont the 1 camera in the front window cover that too, i mean if you start to drift a Little to 1 side or the other that should be captured by the front camera.

Not that i dont undestand the need to capture those dumbasses on ther damm phones, beside if you want to capture footage of them on the phone, they will have to be pretty far up the side to do that, and then the reflections in ther windscreen might still render the footage useless.

If the cams are mounted on the mirror tree,even down low on it you will still be filming in a hard angle when you take the slope of windscreens and the reflections of the heaven in them into account.
Sadly cameras dont cope with reflections as good as human eyes do.

Myself i have a mobius 1080p camera flush up against my vertical window in my Little hatchback, and ppl have to be right up my ass and at best the sun have to be blocked before i get good footage of them on ther phone.
And the mobius i have is a pretty decent Little camera.

If i where you i would just start out with a good dashcam for the windscreen, it should provide good proof as to where in your lane you are, especially if its mounted smack in the mittle of the windscreen and up hight on it.
With a Little more then normal tilt Down ( dashcams are best set to capture 2/3 below the horizont and 1/3 above the horizond ) so tilted a Little extra Down should capture the road from ( gusstimated ) 15 -20 feet in front of your truck and out to the horizont.

Should be good enuff proof even for the most biased jury.

Example.
If you FF to 0:20 in my video here you will see a guy in a White beemer on the phone right behind me, but its hard to see due to the wide angle lens on my and most dashcams, and the reflections in his windscreen.
Later at 6:40 its easy to see the 2 women in the car behind me, but thats becuz the sun is low and streaming in thru the windscreen and illuminate them.

 

[Hush]

Well wont the 1 camera in the front window cover that too, i mean if you start to drift a Little to 1 side or the other that should be captured by the front camera.

Not that i dont undestand the need to capture those dumbasses on ther damm phones, beside if you want to capture footage of them on the phone, they will have to be pretty far up the side to do that, and then the reflections in ther windscreen might still render the footage useless.

If the cams are mounted on the mirror tree,even down low on it you will still be filming in a hard angle when you take the slope of windscreens and the reflections of the heaven in them into account.
Sadly cameras dont cope with reflections as good as human eyes do.

Myself i have a mobius 1080p camera flush up against my vertical window in my Little hatchback, and ppl have to be right up my ass and at best the sun have to be blocked before i get good footage of them on ther phone.
And the mobius i have is a pretty decent Little camera.

If i where you i would just start out with a good dashcam for the windscreen, it should provide good proof as to where in your lane you are, especially if its mounted smack in the mittle of the windscreen and up hight on it.
With a Little more then normal tilt Down ( dashcams are best set to capture 2/3 below the horizont and 1/3 above the horizond ) so tilted a Little extra Down should capture the road from ( gusstimated ) 15 -20 feet in front of your truck and out to the horizont.

Should be good enuff proof even for the most biased jury.

Example.
If you FF to 0:20 in my video here you will see a guy in a White beemer on the phone right behind me, but its hard to see due to the wide angle lens on my and most dashcams, and the reflections in his windscreen.
Later at 6:40 its easy to see the 2 women in the car behind me, but thats becuz the sun is low and streaming in thru the windscreen and illuminate them.

Well I understand what you are saying, but mostly I just want to capture the cars around me, in case they run into my truck. Like I was saying I had a few calls due to the other drivers inattentive driving.

 

[Hush]

"This small 4-channel mobile digital video recorder features 4 video channels with 720 x 480 recording resolution at 30 frames per second (fps) on all four channels, to deliver high quality surveillance video. The mobile DVR records video onto two SD cards* with a 2 x 32GB maximum recording capacity. The MDVR also enables the SD cards to be locked for security purposes to prevent tampering with recorded video on the memory cards"

http://www.supercircuits.com/digital-video-recorders/mobile-dvrs/4-channel-mobile-dvr-gps-mdvr50

So does this mean if connect only two cameras it will record at 60 fps?

 

[Dashmellow]

"This small 4-channel mobile digital video recorder features 4 video channels with 720 x 480 recording resolution at 30 frames per second (fps) on all four channels, to deliver high quality surveillance video. The mobile DVR records video onto two SD cards* with a 2 x 32GB maximum recording capacity. The MDVR also enables the SD cards to be locked for security purposes to prevent tampering with recorded video on the memory cards"

http://www.supercircuits.com/digital-video-recorders/mobile-dvrs/4-channel-mobile-dvr-gps-mdvr50

So does this mean if connect only two cameras it will record at 60 fps?

No.

This is an analogue standard (low resolution) device despite the claims of "DVD" quality video. It is digital only in that it records to SD cards.

As mentioned in post #14 you can use true digital 1080P full HD cameras and an NVR for far superior results at much lower cost than this product.

 

[kamkar]

This is the standart of analog CCTV setups, using the "large" D1 resolution, the cameras i used in my car was 700 TVL sony effio-e and effio-s.

I can not recomend using a setup like this for Automotive use, even for regular stationary CCTV use these days i would recomend a system based on 1080p IP cameras as Dashmellow mention.
But prizes for that kind of gear is still a bit higher than for the old style analog CCTV gear.

Pleast note in this clip i make room for my Fellow gearjammer not that i am a trucker myself, but i have the papers to do so should i want to.

Its this one i used in my car for a short while.
http://www.supercircuits.com/digita...dvrs/advanced-solid-state-mobile-dvr-mdvr21sd

I still undestand you feel the need to capture those ppl redhanded, and close calls is why most of us now have 1 or 2 dashcams in our cars.
But i dont think you have to film when they hit your truck, the footage from the dashcam in your windscreen proof you drive in acordance with the law, so if any one hit you the fault must lie on the other part, along with proof of why they hit you.

Perhaps you should try to contact your Insurance Company and ask them if they would feel the footage of a windscreen mounted dashcam alone would be enuff to document your innocence in cases like that.
And now that you talk to them ask if you can get a Little cheaper Insurance for using a dashcamera.