Newbie questions

[Civvy]

Hi, I've had my cameras installed for two weeks and still trying to get my head around a few things as it's my first ever dashcam, so i have a few questions if you don't mind...
I fitted the 64gb card thinking maybe this will hold a few days/ weeks worth of footage and I was surprised this evening when I pulled the card and put it in my PC to learn it's full and has about 4 hours footage on it. I've noticed in cloud mode that other users are using parking mode and broadcasting full time and thought i'd do the same (except for broadcasting). So i assume parking mode is eating all my storage? How're people getting around this? - If somebody hits my car in the morning, the footage will be erased by the time I find the damage.
I'm finding a lot of the time I can't connect to the camera. It's offline. Incorrect password. Both Wifi and cloud even at home on the house wifi within 5 meters of the router.
When I did switch it off an on this evening it connected to the house wifi but trying to watch a video would take upto 5 mins, hence I bought the card in the house to use in my PC.
When I first installed the cameras and the app I was getting a flood of notifications about crash detections while just driving down the road so I turned the sensitivity to minimal and found I was still getting them which made me disable notifications altogether.
What I really need the cameras for is: when i'm driving and if somebody hits the car. If I switch parking mode off I guess that will help with the storage issue. Can I then set it up to auto switch on if somebody hits the car?
Finally what's the orange 'M' switch for? (what does the 'M' stand for?) in the app.
Many thanks. I'm on the basic plan, if that makes a difference.
Really happy on the whole, i'm just not sure how to set it up best for me.

 

[bpsmicro]

There's a table floating around (hopefully somebody will post a link) that shows how much footage you can expect to record on various card sizes at the various resolutions. But you're right that the parking recordings will fill your card. Set the sensitivity way down (like 1).
I run a 650S myself, but I believe the 750S introduced a feature that Event recordings will be kept until you manually delete and not be lost by parking mode recordings. That should be in the docs.
Yes, the WiFi isn't particularly strong, and connecting from outside can be a problem.
The Orange 'M' is for manual recordings. You can set the proximity switch to do a manual recording, which shows up as an 'M' file. It's not a particularly common-used feature to my knowledge.

Brad.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

There's a table floating around (hopefully somebody will post a link) that shows how much footage you can expect to record on various card sizes at the various resolutions.

At the top click Articles, Recording Time Calculator

https://dashcamtalk.com/recording-time-calculator/

 

[Civvy]

I’ve looked at my settings again and realised the lock event files option is an answer to one of my concerns. I’m considering buying the 128GB card and I’m contemplating a hotspot. My problem with the hotspot is how do I know how much data I need - HD video files are pretty big? Also, will it significantly improve cloud connection?

In the meantime, let me get this right: If I don’t have a hotspot and I continue with my current settings with 64GB = 4hrs recording. If someone reverses into my car in the morning, [triggers event recording] drives off, 7 hours later I find the damage, I’ll hopefully be able to view the event recording on the card on my PC that evening?
Event recording is on the card as well as auto uploaded to the cloud right?
Thanks again.

 

[DashOto]

Here's a page that tells you what to expect in terms of data usage.
Just scroll towards the bottom and it will give you some estimates.
BlackVue Over the Cloud Data Consumption

The cam will record over the oldest files first (ignoring any files that have been locked).
So for example, you drive your car on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday but run out of memory Wednesday night.. You start driving Thursday morning, your cam will overwrite Monday files.

If you opt for Over the Cloud service, you can have impacts in both normal mode and parking mode upload automatically to the cloud.
As well as having manually triggered events upload, and yes it's saved to both the SD card and the cloud for you.

 

[Civvy]

On the cloud map, I can see people who are streaming 24/7. That’s the around 7GB of data per day then - I wonder if they have issues with it dropping out.
My home broadband is unlimited data and my iPhone is unlimited data.
But it seems there’s no option of an unlimited data hotspot device available in the UK. I wonder if they’re all taxis and have it for their customers anyway.

 

[DashOto]

I mean, they might be streamable but I don't know if they would be constantly streaming while no one is connected, eating all their data.
Something to look into a little closer, I suppose.

You could always try it out with your iPhone, using it's mobile hotspot.
See if it's worth it for you to get an additional device, maybe at least see how much data you're using so you'd know what plan would work the best.

 

[Taqi]

You can either turn off the motion detection recording if you are only concerned about the impact recordings in parking mode or enable "Lock Event files" from the firmware settings to protect event recordings from being overwritten.
I would suggest to enable Live Auto-upload feature which will automatically upload the live stream of events in Normal and parking mode to Cloud if dashcam is connected to internet at the time of impact. Note that this live stream doesn't include 5 seconds buffer recording leading to the impact.

FYI: https://helpcenter.blackvue.com/hc/...hat-is-live-Auto-upload-and-how-to-set-it-up-

 

[Civvy]

You could always try it out with your iPhone, using it's mobile hotspot.

That’s my current setup. Home WiFi, iphone and Wifeys iphone.

I think I might try, turning off cloud and parking mode. Instead just try parking event and normal - see if I can get a full days footage on the 64gb.

The cloud use is looking expensive, what with subscriptions and hotspot contracts etc. I'm concerned that I might pursue that avenue and discover it's still offline too much. Is there someway we can adjust the frequency it attempts to connect to WiFi? - for example: I've parked the car an hour ago and it's still offline. But I know if I go and press the WiFi button in the car, it will connect and come online.

We’ll see. Thanks all.

 

[Civvy]

Note that this live stream doesn't include 5 seconds buffer recording leading to the impact.

Just to clarify: does that mean; it won't record for 5 seconds post impact? - as that's ample time for the offending registration to pass by.

 

[Taqi]

That’s my current setup. Home WiFi, iphone and Wifeys iphone.

I think I might try, turning off cloud and parking mode. Instead just try parking event and normal - see if I can get a full days footage on the 64gb.

The cloud use is looking expensive, what with subscriptions and hotspot contracts etc. I'm concerned that I might pursue that avenue and discover it's still offline too much. Is there someway we can adjust the frequency it attempts to connect to WiFi? - for example: I've parked the car an hour ago and it's still offline. But I know if I go and press the WiFi button in the car, it will connect and come online.

We’ll see. Thanks all.

If you have older version FW than 1.005, try upgrading the FW as there were some Wi-Fi connectivity related bug fixes in ver.1.005 FW.

 

[Taqi]

Just to clarify: does that mean; it won't record for 5 seconds post impact? - as that's ample time for the offending registration to pass by.

Yes, unfortunately, it is not technically possible at the moment to insert buffered video to Live View streams.

That stream is saved in real time to the Cloud.
The main point is to be able to get some footage saved in the Cloud even if the dashcam is interrupted in the middle of streaming.
The most useful case would be with an interior-facing camera, in order to catch a potential dashcam thief, which, depending on the area you live in, might be a bigger concern than getting your car hit.

We are working on an Event File Auto-Upload feature that will automatically upload Event files (which include 5 seconds post impact recording as well) saved on the SD card, when dashcam is connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Thank you.

 

[Civvy]

Yes, unfortunately, it is not technically possible at the moment to insert buffered video to Live View streams.

That stream is saved in real time to the Cloud.
The main point is to be able to get some footage saved in the Cloud even if the dashcam is interrupted in the middle of streaming.
The most useful case would be with an interior-facing camera, in order to catch a potential dashcam thief, which, depending on the area you live in, might be a bigger concern than getting your car hit.

We are working on an Event File Auto-Upload feature that will automatically upload Event files (which include 5 seconds post impact recording as well) saved on the SD card, when dashcam is connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Thank you.

I'm afraid I don't understand the term 'buffered video'. Is it the same as a 'time delay' in streaming and by that you're saying we miss the first 5 seconds using the Event File Auto-Upload feature?
Will the card capture the 5 seconds post impact recording?
If I understand you correctly, you're saying, the card does capture the post impact 5 seconds and that you're working on sending the 5 seconds to the cloud from the card at a later time? - which I can imagine would be great.

I have the 1.005 FW and it's still not broadcasting. I assume it will after it auto-restarts at 3am, unless I go out and press the button. Maybe I should press the button before leaving the car. - It seems clear I need to resolve this issue before I sign a contract for a hotspot device.

Thanks

 

[DashOto]

The cloud use is looking expensive, what with subscriptions and hotspot contracts etc. I'm concerned that I might pursue that avenue and discover it's still offline too much. Is there someway we can adjust the frequency it attempts to connect to WiFi? - for example: I've parked the car an hour ago and it's still offline. But I know if I go and press the WiFi button in the car, it will connect and come online.

Yeah, between the subscription on blackvues side and a hotspot on top of it... I'm not sold on the service.
Not when cams are coming out that have built in LTE included in their subscription fee.

It sounds like you can only fiddle with the auto wi-fi settings if you turn off cloud services
Auto On/Off Wi-Fi settings

 

[Civvy]

The grass is always going to be greener. Reasonable points but I’m still tweeking and there’s many reasons I chose these cams. They’re pretty discreet in my car, love em!

 

[Civvy]

More time playing with it over the weekend...
Strange problem over the last 24hrs: I can view live but the camera seems to have stopped recording parking mode yet I still get a notification 'entered parking mode' all the files on my card are blue (normal mode) and green.
In Normal mode I have the G sensor set to 1 and i'm getting multiple ER's.
Is there a way to stop the notification 'connected' and 'disconnected' but keep the others?
I still can't get the parking mode right. I've been out kicking my tyres hard and i'm failing to get a notification.
Any tips? Thanks

 

[Civvy]

I worked a couple of things out and thought I’d report here for others if they find themselves in the same boat.

It turns out my Virgin Media home broadband router in factory setup state seems to randomly choose between 2.4g & 5g - the camera handbook says it won’t work with 5g - that could explain it not connecting to WiFi as it should.

If motion detection in parking mode is set to off (because you get sick of the False notifications like me) it doesn’t record parking mode.

 

[SR45]

How did you do a workaround with the 2.4 G and 5G Wi-Fi issue if I may ask?

 

[jokiin]

How did you do a workaround with the 2.4 G and 5G Wi-Fi issue if I may ask?

That would be something that needs to be set on the router

 

[Civvy]

I went into my router settings and noticed 2.4g & 5g were sharing the same SSID and password. I then gave them their own SSID and passwords.
I then set the camera up for the 2.4g only, so far, significant improvement!