Need Help! - Looking for ideas for a 4 camera setup that records continuously (360 coverage)

djimaster

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Greetings Everyone!

This is my first post here, and am hoping someone can help me out.


Background: I have been using dashcams since 2010 - I've had the VicoVation WF1 1080p can, the Zedge Z3 2k cam, and some others.

Why am I looking for a 4 camera setup?: So last October (2019), I purchased a new 4 door sedan. This is the first new car I have ever purchased, and have plans to keep it for many years down the road. Ever since I purchased it, I have had a single front facing dashcam. I have already had to use it for insurance purposes due to an incident that occurred in January. Someone lost their side window on the highway and caused over $6,000 in damage to my car when it shattered in front of me. Luckily, I had footage of this, and was able to get their insurance to cover my deductible.

SO, here I am with a new car that just had a bunch of paint work. I thought my bad luck would be over. It wasn't. Two months later someone clipped the back of my car while it was parked in a Hospital parking lot. Unfortunately my camera did not catch this, but got lucky since I have broad coverage, so my insurance didn't require me to pay the deductible, and repaired the damages.

Okay, so two incidents within 4 months. I'm sure at this point my awful luck with my new car has come to an end, and I can enjoy my shiny new (repaired) car. Well, it didn't last long.

Today after running some errands, I notice a softball sized dent over my rear fender. Absolutely no idea how it happened, and whats even stranger, there weren't any scuff marks on the paint. Just a clean dent, as if someone punched my car with their fist. Again, my camera did not capture this.

What I would like to do, if it is possible: So after this long string of bad luck with my new car, I have become extremely frustrated! What I would like to do, is basically wire my whole car with cameras (most likely 4) so that I can capture anything and everything that happens around my car! I want this system to run 24/7, and overwrite the files from each camera once storage has run out of space. Essentially, I want to create a full out Auto Video Car Security System. Basically, what I am thinking, is having an "in-car" DVR recording at all times in my trunk, and having a separate battery that I will place somewhere in the trunk so that it always has power, and can record 24/7. I am really tired of these mystery damages that keep happening to my car, and I want to capture what is going on (whatever it might be). I know that it is easy to find a front and rear combo kit that can record while parked. But even with 170 degree wide angle lens, it does not capture what is happening on the sides of the car. I was wondering if there is someway to setup a front/rear camera, as well as two camera that I can hide under each side-mirror.

Has anyone ever done anything like this? If so, how would you suggest I set this up? What side mirror cameras could I purchase and setup with 24/7 loop recording? I know this is way overkill, but honestly, if I have one more thing happen to my car while I am not in it, I am going to lose my mind. I want the people responsible for these damages to be held accountable. So out of the 3 accidents I've had over the last 8 months, none were my fault, and two occurred while I wasn't even in my car.

Please help! Thank you all for taking the time to read this, and I appreciate your advice!
 
Greetings Everyone!

This is my first post here, and am hoping someone can help me out.
Welcome to the site. You're certainly not the first to want to record on all sides of your car. We already have a discussion thread dedicated to that topic which you can find here:
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...a-side-view-dashcam-for-your-car-doors.12675/

The simplest way towards your goal is to run a dual-camera setup front & back, and another dual camera left & right. Or you can wire them front & left then rear & right if you only want to use the smaller 'rear' cameras on the sides. If you have enough cameras and power supply points, you can consider 4No separate cameras and choose the size & shape that suits you.

Others here have more experience and can guide you on how to provide power to a 4-channel setup. The thread I linked above has some discussion about hardwiring, batteries etc.
 
Cams aren't the issue, powering them is. Read the side cam thread Tony mentioned and jump in there or here- we'll get you through.

Phil
 
Welcome to the party.

You will not find a 4 channel camera ready to go just yet, but the first ones will probably start emerging in a year or so.
Meanwhile us addicts make do with several single cameras or dual channel cameras, but as it you will still have some "holes" in your coverage, not least very close to your car.
My car coverage using 2 dual channel systems.
 
Totally feel for you...

All my previous cars have been oldish cars and after my last car was written off In Apr 2019, I bought a fairly new car, the car is perfect for what I needed, and I bought with the intention to keep it forever as it would probably be my last car with a petrol engine.

I knew damage was going to be a possible issue so I got a dual camera with parking mode, I had countless issues with it though (you can probably read all my issues on here) so when someone dinged my door quite badly, I didn't catch the culprit.

Within the first few months I picked up 3 dents and one keying scratch, one dent probably requires a respray. Then in march I parked on the road to fix some of the power wiring and 2 mins later I child on a bike rode into the front bumper! So my cameras were not on! 2 Weeks ago a delivery driver crashed his trolley into my wheel, that now requires repairing as well!

I just find it mad how so much damage has been caused to the car in a year but everytime the cameras didn't capture it.

So just to let you know you are not the only one that has bad luck! What makes it worse is that unless you catch the culprit and have good evidence, you will likely have to pay out of your own pocket.

Take a look at the side camera thread as TonyM suggested, I also have 2 dual camera setups, it's quite a popular solution.

For Power take a look at the Batteries sub-forum, if you want 24/7 you may have to consider having 2 batteries and then charging one while the other is powering the cams and then swapping them over periodically.
I have a cellink B which I got a good deal on, and a couple of usb power banks, I only use parking mode when at the shops and work though as I have CCTV covering the car at home.
 
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