mesohungry
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2015
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 2
- Country
- United States
I've never had a dashcam before, but this past year has been pretty bad for me.
One night a teenage kid I didn't know knocked on my door saying he missed the last bus and asked if I can drive him home. On my way back home while driving down an empty road a dark 4 door car pulled alongside of me. I thought they were just going to pass me, but instead I heard a very loud noise. For a second there I thought they had shot at me, but as they drove passed me, I noticed a guy with his head out the passenger window holding a baseball bat. I was fortunate it wasn't a gun. Also was fortunate my glass didn't shatter. The bat left permanent damage on the window about ear level so if the glass had shattered, I would definitely have been injured.
I called police as I was following the guys, but they were only worried about getting my name, number, and home address so they can send someone to my home to file a police report (at their convenience).
A couple months later some jerk rear-ended my car. I pulled over to the side of the road and the guy hauled ass. I followed and called the police. I was telling them every turn he was making, but again they just wanted to know where I would be later that day so they can send someone to get a report from me.
2 weeks ago, I saw a car speed by me. I told my son "that guy is going to cause a wreck." Seconds later, that's exactly what happened. I bought a dashcam. I just wanted something decent that can possibly catch license plate numbers and based on some reviews of the Z7, this was a good budget cam for the job.
The cam arrived and made no sound. Because of a video review I had seen, I knew something was wrong. I factory reset it, but still nothing. I cracked it open and found the very thin wires to the speaker were not attached. I soldered them on and I was back in business. I also didn't like the chrome ring, nor the lettering above the camera and the high gloss of the plastic so I removed the ring and used some 3000 grit sandpaper to remove the lettering to knock off the gloss. I like it better this way, but still might put some black tape over the IR LED's since I've read they won't help much at night and I won't be using the motion sensing functions.
Anyway, here are pics of the cam as well as how it looks installed behind my rear view mirror.
One night a teenage kid I didn't know knocked on my door saying he missed the last bus and asked if I can drive him home. On my way back home while driving down an empty road a dark 4 door car pulled alongside of me. I thought they were just going to pass me, but instead I heard a very loud noise. For a second there I thought they had shot at me, but as they drove passed me, I noticed a guy with his head out the passenger window holding a baseball bat. I was fortunate it wasn't a gun. Also was fortunate my glass didn't shatter. The bat left permanent damage on the window about ear level so if the glass had shattered, I would definitely have been injured.
I called police as I was following the guys, but they were only worried about getting my name, number, and home address so they can send someone to my home to file a police report (at their convenience).
A couple months later some jerk rear-ended my car. I pulled over to the side of the road and the guy hauled ass. I followed and called the police. I was telling them every turn he was making, but again they just wanted to know where I would be later that day so they can send someone to get a report from me.
2 weeks ago, I saw a car speed by me. I told my son "that guy is going to cause a wreck." Seconds later, that's exactly what happened. I bought a dashcam. I just wanted something decent that can possibly catch license plate numbers and based on some reviews of the Z7, this was a good budget cam for the job.
The cam arrived and made no sound. Because of a video review I had seen, I knew something was wrong. I factory reset it, but still nothing. I cracked it open and found the very thin wires to the speaker were not attached. I soldered them on and I was back in business. I also didn't like the chrome ring, nor the lettering above the camera and the high gloss of the plastic so I removed the ring and used some 3000 grit sandpaper to remove the lettering to knock off the gloss. I like it better this way, but still might put some black tape over the IR LED's since I've read they won't help much at night and I won't be using the motion sensing functions.
Anyway, here are pics of the cam as well as how it looks installed behind my rear view mirror.