Mangoal MGA-010RBA OEM-Style Dashcam for VW

[Karagandinez]

Some time ago, Amber, a representative of the dashcam manufacturer Mangoal, contacted me.
After looking at their products on the official website, I requested two models featuring
Sony STARVIS 2 sensors— one for my primary vehicle and another for the car we use for vacation trips.
They don't have a model for my primary car, but they did send me one for my vacation car.
Since my son has gone on vacation in his VW T5.2, there’s no telling when I’ll manage to mount this model on the windshield.
But at least I’ll have time to play around with this dash cam on my desk...

https://mangoal.com/products/front-4k-rear-2k-hdr-dash-cam-dual-starvis-2-for-volkswagen-without-sensor-cover-model-a?_pos=18&_sid=9fee387f9&_ss=r

 

[Karagandinez]

 

[Karagandinez]

 

[EricSan]

Interesting clamshell design for the camera. I suspect you have an actual 4K native sensor camera - I'm noting the difference in camera model. Yous is specified as "MGA-0xxX" whereas mine is specified as "MG-0xxX" (no "A" designation).

I'm curious to see the resulting video quality.

 

[Karagandinez]

The Wi-Fi name for this model is E529 Pro.

The dash cam features an external GPS module. It picks up a signal even indoors.

The dash cam creates separate folders for each camera and for each activity.
2 folders for driving mode.
2 folders for parking mode.
I’m not sure about the folders for protected files yet. There are probably two of those as well.


Mediainfo from front and rear camera video files in driving and parking modes.

 

[Karagandinez]

Memory Card

 

[Karagandinez]

Some of you might be interested in checking out the manual for this model...
I wanted to upload the PDF file, but it's very large, so I decided to post it as images instead. There are 52 images in total, which will take up 6 posts...

Spoiler: 1-9

 

[Karagandinez]

Spoiler: 10-18

 

[Karagandinez]

Spoiler: 19-27

 

[Karagandinez]

Spoiler: 28-36

 

[Karagandinez]

Spoiler: 37-45

 

[Karagandinez]

Spoiler: 46-52

 

[TonyM]

It's interesting to see separate toggles for both HDR and WDR. I see there is no timer option though, so they are always-on or always-off.

 

[Karagandinez]

It's interesting to see separate toggles for both HDR and WDR. I see there is no timer option though, so they are always-on or always-off.

I didn't see any timer options for HDR in the menu.

 

[EricSan]

Curious that your software is reporting "Writing library : h264"

VLC player told me H.265 for the version with the 2.5K front camera.

 

[Karagandinez]

Perhaps that's how the manufacturer intended it... 🤔

 

[Mangoal Dash Cam]

Interesting clamshell design for the camera. I suspect you have an actual 4K native sensor camera - I'm noting the difference in camera model. Yous is specified as "MGA-0xxX" whereas mine is specified as "MG-0xxX" (no "A" designation).

I'm curious to see the resulting video quality.

Hi Eric, thanks for your careful observation on the model naming difference!
To clarify our model codes for everyone here:
MG is our standard dash cam model, equipped with 4K front camera + 1080P rear camera.
MGA stands for our upgraded STARVIS 2 version, featuring 4K front + 2K rear camera for improved night & detail performance.
Unfortunately, we haven’t released the MGA STARVIS 2 variant compatible with your vehicle yet, so we sent you the standard MG model for now.
Once the upgraded MGA version is available for your car model in the future, we’d be happy to send you one for a full experience!🚕

 

[EricSan]

we haven’t released the MGA STARVIS 2 variant compatible with your vehicle yet, so we sent you the standard MG model for now.
Once the upgraded MGA version is available for your car model in the future, we’d be happy to send you one for a full experience!🚕

That would be excellent! I would be happy to review an upgraded MGA Starvis2 when it becomes available for my car.

 

[NotThatGuyThatOtherGuy]

Thank you for posting the manual. That answered a whole bunch of questions for me.

 

[kamkar]

I think these kind of systems are cool, though i can also see them putting some limitations on yourself as the maker / seller.

A plus is of course they blend in so well, i would like that as a fan of stealth, even if i have never had stealth as i most times had several systems on my windscreen.
But as a plain dashcam user stealth is very much what i would like to have.

A minus would be as they are so brand / model dependant in relation to your car, well you can not sell them to just everyone, for instance my French made Citroen C3 is not supported.

I am not sure it is possible, but i was thinking for cars like mine with a fairly small sensor island on the windscreen, maybe it would be possible to have a slightly larger generic " shell " that sould host a system you could fit on top of the existing sensor housing.
But i am not quite sure if differences in windscreens in general would make this a no go.
Such a system would of course also need to have some aids in it to determine what cut out to make in the generic shell so it would still fit seamless with the existing sensor island, at least when viewed from the outside looking at the windscreen.

Also ventilation of system and not forgetting things already there in the original sensor island.