script to donwload the videos

robj

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Hi all,

I have sins 2 weeks the DR650s-1ch.

Now i am looking for a script that i can start (of automatic even better) to download the video files from the cam to my notebook or nas when i come home. The dashcam is directly connected to my home wifi when i come home, os thats nog the problem.

I saw somewhere some scripts but it dousnt work or i did change the settings wrong, i dont know.

Regards
Rob
 
Did you look at https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/blackvue-network-file-downloader-updated-17-07.29728/ ?

I was using an early version of that with some success (after a bit of tweaking), and it's been updated since then. I eventually switched to creating my own Windows app (because that's what I do), so I haven't used the script for a while.

There are "caveats" with the approach you're taking, which I found out the hard way. First, configure your router to supply a constant IP address associated with the Mac. If your router can't do that, you may have a problem (I use DD-WRT, which does allow this). So when you look at your LAN, you'll see the camera has a constant IP, and you can connect to it via the Cloud Viewer (which you don't need for the script, just for testing).

Next, when you drive away, the camera will lose connection to your WiFi (obviously) and the Cloud. It'll retry a few times, and then give up. So when you arrive back home, it won't just magically reconnect. If you get in the habit of tapping the WiFi button on the camera (WiFi Off) as you approach home, and then again (WiFi On) just as you arrive, then it'll reconnect right away. Or, it appears that the camera will retry every 12 hours. I don't have hard data, but I find that in the morning it suddenly reconnects to the router & Cloud.

And finally, WiFi signal strength is critical. I ended up setting up a separate access point in a front room as physically close to my parking spot as possible without being outdoors. The lower the signal strength, the slower file transfers. And there's no way the camera is Wireless-N (or if it is, the file transfer is throttled). Absolute fastest I can get (with the access point sitting on the hook of my Jeep) is download of a 3-minute video (front & rear) in about a minute and a half.

Eventually I hope to release my app for public consumption, but I'm still struggling with some quirks and "creeping featuritus". :)

Brad.
 
650S does have 802.11n-support, not enabled by default, has to be added in config.ini by the user. There's no option to enable this thru the GUI.

Found a tip on the russian modding site, that allowed for 802.11n, however, it does not fully support this as it often transfers with about 2MB/s and that's waaaaaay below the 802.11g-standard, even with the wifi 1 meter away.
 
My experience is that the cameras are extremely unlikely to connect to the AP even at 30ft with a direct line of sight, while my phone will reliably connect from inside the car.
When they do connect, the transfer speeds are sufficiently bad that I am not convinced it is possible to pull the files off much faster than they are being written at 10+5Mbit/s.
Unfortunately, the only conclusion I have been able to reach is that the radio chip and antenna used in the Blackvue dashcams are, well, crap.
 
Crontab ?

If only you could get that level of access to the Blackvue camera. Unfortunately, being rampant GPL violators, they don't provide the source code and build tools to make modding easy.
 
crontab on the NAS, check if the cam is connected, then copy the stuff you haven't copied yet.
 
I already did that, but see what I said above - WiFi struggles to connect even when there is a clear line off sight, and when it does connect, it's very slow, sufficiently so that it has only a very slim chance of downloading all of the previous day's recordings overnight. Skip a day, and you will never catch up.
I have a MiFi with all you can eat data SIM in it, with the idea that it can be uploading all the time (except when it loses 4G/3G signal), but without access to the firmware, you can't make it run a task that handles the continuous uploading as soon as the files and connection become available.
You _could_ put something like a DreamPlug or a Raspberry Pi in the car to sit on the same WiFi AP, poll the dashcams and take care of the uploading, but that's an extra 5-7W of power drain flattening the auxiliary battery, and it's extra hardware that shouldn't be needed in the first place.
 
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