Planning 4 ch with Parking mode

[cah027]

Hello all

I am completely new to the dash cam world. I have just started researching this. I have a 2016 Chevy Malibu and I live in Indiana. I would like to have quality front and rear system with Parking mode. I would also like to have 2 channels for the sides, but I am not sure if I would need or want parking mode for the sides. If I could get a less expensive solution for the side with parking mode I would probably do it.

The weather here ranges from very hot to very cold, so I would need something that could withstand the temps. I park in my garage at night so I wouldn't need parking mode then, just for the day while I am parked at work for 9 hours a day.

I would really like to get smaller less expensive cams for the side, but not sure what options I would have for them that are small and have parking mode.

So far for the front and rear (main camera system) I am considering the Blackview dr650gw, Black sys CH-100B, and the Thinkware F770. I can't make up my mind on those. Also without just buying another one of these for the sides, are there any options there?

Also, I was wondering if I will need to get one of the dedicated batteries for this?

Also, is GPS really needed?

Thanks in advance !

**Edit** Just looking at the Thinkware F50 x 2 for the sides and the F770 for the front and rear. What do you think?

 

[kamkar]

I agree, don't see a need for parking mode on the side cameras, what ever cause any grief there will have to pass by front or rear camera first.

Regarding GPS i am myself a big fan, but really it is not needed as your speed before a event can always be calculated from the time it take you to pass between 2 objects you can go and measure the distance between.
And if the right camera in other ways came up but did not have GPS that would not hold me back from buying it.

I would just wire the side cameras up to come on with the turn of the key.

The front & rear camera there is 2 ways to get around.

1. hardwire using a BDP so your car battery can not be depleted to a level where you cant start the car.
2. using a power splitter / insulator unit ( like used on campers and in some car audio setups too )
This will let you run 2 batteries totally insulated from each other, so your car battery will always be fine, and you have a whole other battery for the cameras, and when running your car will charge both batteries.

Myself i would prefer the #2 option as i drive one of those ultra small cars and so the car battery is also ultra small, so i could put another battery in the boot of my car, cuz the boot is already so small i cant put much back there anyway.

But allays remember with parking mode in use, you also have to drive in the car to recharge the battery / batteries fully, so if you use parking mode for 9 hours every day but only drive 1 hour then you might encounter problems, and this is compiled if your car battery or generator is not in top condition ( properly not a issue with your new Chevy )

Also using parking guard when the car is parked in the sun on really hot days is properly not the best thing to do, cameras and car interior will be pretty high on days like that and if cameras is on / idling they might go above max temperature.

 

[CheckYourLights]

I have and keep meaning to post about a SIV-M9/SH800 that I really like using. https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00XBM7Q6AI have this plugged into the OBDII port with a cable from a DOD camera that supports OBDII read out, and it runs all the time. I believe there is a parking mode, but I have never played with it.

I used to use two BlackSys CF100 but the rear channel is only 720P. I used to put the two rear cameras in the side windows. It saves in AVI though and it looks like the SIV is the same price as the CF100 currently

I tried doing SIV M9 front and rear and K1S for the sides, but the K1S cameras are not flush enough with my windows and point down too far to be of any use.

 

[violreta3101]

I highly recommend thinkware 770. i have had blackvue 650 before but thinkware is far better. I too leave my car parked outside for 12hrs at work. the parking mode is excellent. since where my car is parked during work it is in busy mall parking lot so motion detection is useless but time lapse mode works great. I would def go with thinkware 770 for your front and rear set up.

 

[cah027]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I think I will just get the Thinkware F770 at first. I will See how long my car's battery last before it shuts off parking mode. If it doesn't last my work day, I will consider getting the cam battery.

For now, I just need to decide on side cams and if I really want park mode for them. I think it would be nice to have footage if someone opens a door and dents my car. Also, I have had a few incidents on the road over the years where there things that happened in the next lain over that I would have like to captured. Those are a couple of reasons I would like to have them.

After I get the Thinkware, I may decide to by another if I like it. I've seen someone on youtube with 2, and they use their main cameras for the front and back and the rear cameras for the sides. I think this is a great idea. The rear cams are smaller and less bitrate, so good reason to use them for the side.

Thanks again

 

[violreta3101]

I have set mine to cutoff at 11.8v and it has not yet cutoff on its own while im at work car sitting there for 12hrs. i do have brand new car with brand new battery.

 

[cah027]

I have set mine to cutoff at 11.8v and it has not yet cutoff on its own while im at work car sitting there for 12hrs. i do have brand new car with brand new battery.

I have a brand new car as well. I just worry how long it will record when it's 10 below zero in the winter.

 

[kamkar]

well when you park in the garage at home every day you could always slip on a charger if need be.

In the dead of winter i would not go below 12 Volts for cutoff, in the warm part of the year you can get away with lower, but winter is a whole other ballgame.

I think your approach is sound cah027

 

[cah027]

well when you park in the garage at home every day you could always slip on a charger if need be.

In the dead of winter i would not go below 12 Volts for cutoff, in the warm part of the year you can get away with lower, but winter is a whole other ballgame.

I think your approach is sound cah027

Hi kamkar1

Thanks for the info. Good advice. I think I may want to get one of those small trickle chargers that hardwires to you battery with a quick disconnect, for the winter. Seems like for the last 10 years or so in Indiana, the winters are getting colder, but with less snow. My batteries don't seem to last as long as they use to.

I just have to start testing all of the empties on my fuse block. There seems to be a lot. Hopefully I can find a good power acc and constant 12v source.

 

[kamkar]

Thats properly not a bad idea, over here its the other way around we hardly had any snow the past couple of years and winter have been pretty hot. ( thats not me comlaining i just hate cold weather, anything below 20 deg C and i start to wear my thermal underwear to keep warm )
And if you look at a world map little Denmark is actually pretty far north, more than the US/Canada border, but we have that darn Gulf current heating us up.

Worst of all is summers seem to be getting colder here, last good one i remember was the summer 2014 where we did get 2 weeks in a row with the high temperatures i prefer.
That being said we also just had the warmest days in September in 46 years, and i think in April/May we also had some records

But also remember they ( the car designers ) have been cramming more and more electric stuff into the cars, and it wouldn't surprise me if they have forgotten to upgrade the generator and battery.

 

[russ331]

... I may want to get one of those small trickle chargers that hardwires to you battery with a quick disconnect, for the winter.

Also consider a car preheating system, which would make life a lot more comfortable on those icy winter mornings ...

http://www.kenlowe.com/Heating.php

 

[cah027]

Ok, so I've been looking into this more. I was told I would need 2 cellink batteries for 2 F770's. This is probably because I live in a place with very cold winters and my car has Start/stop.

My question is, what advantages does spending $400 on two cellinks have over just getting an isolation switch and a second battery. I would have to install the two cellinks in the trunk so the install difficulty would be about the same. I might be able to put them under the passenger seat I suppose.

Also, now I have watched a few more videos on the BlackSys CH-100B. It doesn't come with GPS and cost about $100 USD less than the F770. I don't really care about GPS so the the cost difference on 2 of them would help offset my battery cost. Also, the rear cam on the Blacksys looks smaller,which is important to me because I would like to mount them in the very small fixed side windows on my car. I am not sure if I can mount the side cams there and still get a good angle but that would be the perfect place for them if it works.

So now I am down to these two decisions:

2x F770 vs 2x BlackSys
2x Cellink vs 1x Deep Cycle car battery with battery isolator.

If I go with the Blacksys and the car battery setup, I could potentially save $400.

Thanks for all of the replies.

 

[cah027]

Thats properly not a bad idea, over here its the other way around we hardly had any snow the past couple of years and winter have been pretty hot. ( thats not me comlaining i just hate cold weather, anything below 20 deg C and i start to wear my thermal underwear to keep warm )
And if you look at a world map little Denmark is actually pretty far north, more than the US/Canada border, but we have that darn Gulf current heating us up.

Worst of all is summers seem to be getting colder here, last good one i remember was the summer 2014 where we did get 2 weeks in a row with the high temperatures i prefer.
That being said we also just had the warmest days in September in 46 years, and i think in April/May we also had some records

But also remember they ( the car designers ) have been cramming more and more electric stuff into the cars, and it wouldn't surprise me if they have forgotten to upgrade the generator and battery.

I think there could be many factors to all of the climate change, although I am no expert so I will leave that to the politicians to debate.

I still don't know my new car very well. I've only had it a month or less. I suspect it has at least a higher amperage battery than it normally would have because of the start/stop system. That being said, I use to install several high end car audio systems in my cars several years ago, and I understand the need for additional batteries for accessories. I have no experience with dash cams and dash cam batteries, so I am not sure about the specific advantages of the cellinks over regular high end deep cycle on an isolator.

 

[kamkar]

Well we Danes say the climate change is the others fault as we soon hit 80 % renewable energy here ( Smug treehuggin bastard )
I expect soon i will see feet shuffling under the cars here

In my shoebox sized car i would go for a MC battery placed under my dashbord and a isolator, i had enough of large batteries and subwoofers in the trunk in the 90ties.

To this day i don't quite understand why i am not deaf now or at least have that high pitched noise they call tinnitus.

 

[cah027]

I wonder if one could get a slight extension of record time by placing a solar panel on the back dash (throw out the stuffed animals). Probably not enough in a 9 hour work day.

I think the green power is awesome. I wish we were more green over here in the states.

I know what you mean about the 90's and subs in the trunks. I am worried more about gas mileage these days than a loud stereo. Getting old i guess

By MC battery, do you mean motorcycle battery? I haven't thought about doing that. I thought most of those were 6v? Maybe I could run 2 in series? That might work if they are the sealed kind. It just seems so expensive to spend $400 on 2 cellinks. I wouldn't mind running a big heavy hotwire to my trunk and mounting a fullsized deepcycle back there just for the nostalgia of it.

 

[kamkar]

Yeah a small motorcycle battery, my Suzuki Splash is so small that even a small car battery in the back will take up a lot of the space there. ( not that i need that space much, but it do happen from time to time i have stuff in the back and have to fold over the rear seat )
I think most motorcycle batteries are 12 V now days, at least on the Japanese bikes.

I got a almost complete power grid from my boom car, wires as thick as garden hose, and both regular fuses and automated circuit breakers.
But i would like to use something less beefy for a dashcam setup, and i think i will have to do that sooner or later as the firms i help test cameras also will expecting me to test that part of dashcams.

But otherwise here at home i have a IP camera on my 2 floor balcony door aimed at my car parked in the pitch black back yard.

 

[cah027]

I have finally gotten my dual F770's installed. I am not 100% happy with how straight I mounted a couple of them but good enough. Unfortunately I do have the dreaded rattle issue. I am not sure if it's on both of the main units or just one. I think it's just one. I will have to do the shake test or remove the suspected unit and drive. Other than that I did have to upgrade the firmware because of the wifi connect issue.

I am hoping they will replace the rattling unit or provide a solution.

On another note, on my way into work this morning I may have captured my first "Incident" on my very first trip to work with the newly installed cams. Someone in the right lane in front of me, flicked a lit cigarette out of their window and it bounce off my hood. It probably didn't do any damage but how rude. I could tell they were going for distance on the "Flick" as it shot out far and landed right in the middle of my hood. I could probably collect a lot of interesting content of people doing things like this as I have a 40 minute commute each way. Last week, if I had them installed, you would all see a video of the semi truck loaded with cookie dough that burnt in two. A few days before that, I was stuck in traffic on the way home (on Friday) and there was an at least 12 car pile up, involving a very mangled semi truck and several other vehicles. I have seen so many things over the years of driving. Now I will capture it all.

 

[peterharvey]

Cah027, where abouts on the inside of the side of the car, do you intend to mount the two rear F770 cameras?
On the rear side window glass?
Or just above adjacent to the ceiling mounted grab handles?

 

[cah027]

Cah027, where abouts on the inside of the side of the car, do you intend to mount the two rear F770 cameras?
On the rear side window glass?
Or just above adjacent to the ceiling mounted grab handles?

I mounted them on the small fixed windows in the back. I had to adhere to the glass to make the camera angle the most straight or level.