Myquicj overall view ofnextbase 522gw

[raywray]

I've had the nextbase 522gw with rear camera for about two months now. The best thing I can say about it is that the hardware, i.e, the physical camera seems to be well made. It feels and looks like a high-quality product. The camera connects to a magnetic mount that would be really awesome if you did not have to plug in additional cables to make the camera work after the magnetic mount locks onto the camera. I have to plug in the power connector, through the USB port on top of the camera and the rear camera connector to the side of the camera in order for it to work. Doing this while sitting in the diver's seat is rather difficult for me. I at least have to get out of the car ad walk around to the passenger seat and then plug in the rear camera to the connector on the right side of the camera. If all of those signals and power could be transmitted through the mount, then the magnetic mount would really be worth something. I've found the video quality to be quite good, even at night. I have to use the "access files" option on the camera and download the files to my pc hard drive to view them. Even the nighttime vid looks pretty good. I have found the following cons:

the next base app is not ready for prime time. It is slow and usually just refuses to connect with the camera I have yet to get a single video to download to my iPhone. am willing to grant you that this may be due to user error and impatience. I predict that if the company continues to work on developing that in 2 to 5 years' time this may be the best dashcam out there, but right now I think it is a little on the rare side of cooked. it does work better than a "bag of squirrels." (true racing fans will get the quotations..

The resolution and color on the touch screen is excellent. Sometimes when I need to press the ok button in the corner, it can take many attempts to get the screen to recognize that I touched it there.

The internal battery voltage monitor that is supposed to cut off the camera when the car battery voltage gets "too low: does not work for me, rendering a long-term session of the parking mode, like overnight, a bad idea because my car won't start in the morning. It will drain it so low that not even the door locks or trunk release will work. my b NOCObattery booster won't even detect the battery then, meaning it's probably below 2 volts.I plan to buy an external dashcam battery because I don't trust it to not run my car batt down if its hardwired to the car battery, but those things are insanely expensive.

I recently discovered, quite by accident that the screen will stop showing you the camera's view and will turn into a speedometer with large blue numbers on a black background after driving for some unknown amount of time. I never saw anything in the docs about that.. I think it is a useful feature, not only because it may give you an easier way to read your speed with precision than staring at the car's s[eedometer. At night the black background dims the light output, making it less of a distraction.
if you want to read the speedometer on the screen, then you need to make SURE THE CAMERA SCREEN IS VISIBLE TO youAND NOT HIDDEN BY THE REAR VIEW MIRROR WHEN YOU MOUNT THE UNIT. -ops-caps lock again..

My cables are run and both front and rear cameras are mounted so I'm going to give it, even more, time and effort, but not much more. I have real work to get done too.

Overall, If I knew in the beginning what I know no, I would have bought something else that was hopefully less of a pain. Even after I seem to get things to work for several days in a row, I will plug everything in and it simply does not come on. What??? Uggh. if a dashcam is not reliable it is worse than useless. it will keep you from getting the vid you need of that accident you were just in. and
that is my greatest concern.


This might be too picky, but the housing for the camera is smooth and shiny jet black. Of course, it is directly in the sun in most applications. If I leave the car to go into a store for an hour on a hot day, when I get back, it is not possible to touch the casing without burning my fingers. That means that unless you use a towel or something to insulate your fingers, you can't adjust the angle of the camera if you need to. I don't know if the environment has exceeded the rated operating temperature of the device in that situation, but I fear it may have.


In summary, I can't say to not buy it, but be prepared to spend a lot of time tinkering ad getting to know the tech support folks.
if everything worked exactly like they say it will and on the first try, it would be a great product.

If there is a way to watch vids directly on the camera's screen that will help to simplify some problems for me. I want it to work, I really do.

 

[Decking]

Why are you not using the power cable plugged into the Magnetic Mount?, that’s what it’s designed to do. Like you, I feel it’s a pity that rear cams have to be plugged in the side of the main camera but there is no alternative I’m afraid, we’ll there is. You use the add on camera, then when you remove the camera the add on is removed too, without the need to unplug a cable.

(I recently discovered, quite by accident that the screen will stop showing you the camera's view and will turn into a speedometer with large blue numbers on a black background after driving for some unknown amount of time. I never saw anything in the docs about that.. I think it is a useful feature, not only because it may give you an easier way to read your speed with precision than staring at the car's s[eedometer.)
All covered by the manual.

 

[Nextbase Support]

Hello,

I've added some notes below to your comments.
Please find the manual here that I reference: https://cdn.nextbase.co.uk/manuals/...pPPUfM79xHd1hcd6NC3JxSfvZkFhRq9RoC9CEQAvD_BwE

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support

I've had the nextbase 522gw with rear camera for about two months now. The best thing I can say about it is that the hardware, i.e, the physical camera seems to be well made. It feels and looks like a high-quality product. The camera connects to a magnetic mount that would be really awesome if you did not have to plug in additional cables to make the camera work after the magnetic mount locks onto the camera. I have to plug in the power connector, through the USB port on top of the camera and the rear camera connector to the side of the camera in order for it to work.

The power cable is designed to be plugged into the magnetic mount, please see page 12, paragraph 4 for a diagram.

Doing this while sitting in the diver's seat is rather difficult for me. I at least have to get out of the car ad walk around to the passenger seat and then plug in the rear camera to the connector on the right side of the camera. If all of those signals and power could be transmitted through the mount, then the magnetic mount would really be worth something. I've found the video quality to be quite good, even at night. I have to use the "access files" option on the camera and download the files to my pc hard drive to view them. Even the nighttime vid looks pretty good. I have found the following cons:

the next base app is not ready for prime time. It is slow and usually just refuses to connect with the camera I have yet to get a single video to download to my iPhone. am willing to grant you that this may be due to user error and impatience. I predict that if the company continues to work on developing that in 2 to 5 years' time this may be the best dashcam out there, but right now I think it is a little on the rare side of cooked. it does work better than a "bag of squirrels." (true racing fans will get the quotations..

I'd recommend giving our Support Team a call on 1-806-3419406 and we can talk you through how to get setup and connected.

The resolution and color on the touch screen is excellent. Sometimes when I need to press the ok button in the corner, it can take many attempts to get the screen to recognize that I touched it there.

The internal battery voltage monitor that is supposed to cut off the camera when the car battery voltage gets "too low: does not work for me, rendering a long-term session of the parking mode, like overnight, a bad idea because my car won't start in the morning. It will drain it so low that not even the door locks or trunk release will work. my b NOCObattery booster won't even detect the battery then, meaning it's probably below 2 volts.I plan to buy an external dashcam battery because I don't trust it to not run my car batt down if its hardwired to the car battery, but those things are insanely expensive.

The cigarette lighter cables and Hard Wire Kit have an in-built voltage cut off which protects the car's battery from being drained below 11.2V. If your battery is draining below this there's an issue occurring and I would recommend calling us for troubleshooting.

I recently discovered, quite by accident that the screen will stop showing you the camera's view and will turn into a speedometer with large blue numbers on a black background after driving for some unknown amount of time. I never saw anything in the docs about that.. I think it is a useful feature, not only because it may give you an easier way to read your speed with precision than staring at the car's s[eedometer. At night the black background dims the light output, making it less of a distraction.
if you want to read the speedometer on the screen, then you need to make SURE THE CAMERA SCREEN IS VISIBLE TO youAND NOT HIDDEN BY THE REAR VIEW MIRROR WHEN YOU MOUNT THE UNIT. -ops-caps lock again..

This feature is called Speed Display and further details can be found on page 22, paragraph 13.

My cables are run and both front and rear cameras are mounted so I'm going to give it, even more, time and effort, but not much more. I have real work to get done too.

Overall, If I knew in the beginning what I know no, I would have bought something else that was hopefully less of a pain. Even after I seem to get things to work for several days in a row, I will plug everything in and it simply does not come on. What??? Uggh. if a dashcam is not reliable it is worse than useless. it will keep you from getting the vid you need of that accident you were just in. and
that is my greatest concern.

If the dashcam is not turning on, this is either a power source issue or an SD card issue. As you previously mentioned you were having an issue with the cabling, this is likely to be the issue. But please also check that your SD card is compatible and regularly formatted. If you need help with this, please give us a call.

This might be too picky, but the housing for the camera is smooth and shiny jet black. Of course, it is directly in the sun in most applications. If I leave the car to go into a store for an hour on a hot day, when I get back, it is not possible to touch the casing without burning my fingers. That means that unless you use a towel or something to insulate your fingers, you can't adjust the angle of the camera if you need to. I don't know if the environment has exceeded the rated operating temperature of the device in that situation, but I fear it may have.

All of our cameras are tested between -20'C (-4F) to +45'C (113'F), although if the car temperature exceeds this you could potentially experience issues. We'd recommend removing the Dash Cam and placing in the glove compartment when the Dash Cam is not in use to prevent it being unnecessarily heated on the windscreen. When storing the Dash Cam for an extended time period, store within the following temperature range: from 0° to 25°C (from 32° to 77°F).
Under the mount is a heat sync, so this is the part of the camera that will get warmest. It's nothing to worry about, they're designed to cope with the heat they produce.

In summary, I can't say to not buy it, but be prepared to spend a lot of time tinkering ad getting to know the tech support folks.
if everything worked exactly like they say it will and on the first try, it would be a great product.

If there is a way to watch vids directly on the camera's screen that will help to simplify some problems for me. I want it to work, I really do.

You can watch all footage directly on the camera using Playback mode easily from the main screen. Please see pages 29-32 for further information and diagrams.