Set-Up Recommendation

[wangster]

Hello everyone,

I found this site while watching YouTube videos as I have finally decided to bite the bullet and install a dash cam on my wife's vehicle. I would really appreciate set-up recommendations as there is way too much information out there and some conflict with each other.

Vehicle: 2020 Mercedes Benz GLE350
Daily Commute: 5 minutes each way
Wish List: Dual Channel (front and rear), parking mode, $400 budget

I really want the parking mode enabled as we have been victims of several hit-and-run incidents. My initial plan was to buy the Viofo A129 Pro Duo with the hard-wiring kit and CPL filter for both front and rear cameras, then have it professionally installed. After reading some of the reviews of these professional installers in my area, I decided I need to go in there with a plan and not let them make decisions on how to install the hardware.

As I stated above, my wife's daily commute is about 5 minutes each way. From what I understand, this might be an issue as the battery in her car may not have enough charge to either start the vehicle or use the parking mode at all making the hard-wiring effort and extra cost useless. I wouldn't mind a battery pack but I find it a little hard to digest paying $350 for a Cellink. If there is a cheaper alternative, I'd definitely be interested.

What would you guys recommend as a potential set-up?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Nigel]

A battery pack won't charge in 5 minutes either, so parking mode is not feasible, with any camera. Consider mains powered security cameras at both ends of the commute.
Hardwiring is still good, just to get all the cables out of sight, and then parking mode will be available if you make longer journeys.
I don't think the rear CPL is required, or going to work on your vehicle due to the angle of the glass.

 

[wangster]

Thank you for your input. I'm reading mixed reviews on the CPL filter.
Since my wife parks inside the garage most nights, I was thinking I can take out the battery pack, charge it overnight, and plug it in next morning. So basically, I'm hoping to find a way to have the dash cam operate solely on the battery pack and to last 16 hours or so.

 

[Nigel]

Front CPL is well worth while in many, probably most cars, but the rear glass on your car is the wrong angle for it to work well.

Charging the battery pack indoors is certainly possible, and there are a few threads that talk about that, seems a lot of effort to drive just 10 minutes a day though, at least it does to me, but then for a 5 minute drive, I would save the effort by walking, and keep myself fit in the process!

 

[wangster]

seems a lot of effort to drive just 10 minutes a day though, at least it does to me, but then for a 5 minute drive, I would save the effort by walking, and keep myself fit in the process!

My wife was involved in an accident 2.5 years ago which still has not settled. She got t-boned by a driver that ran a red traffic light and now has permanent injuries. The driver that hit her is still disputing that she ran a red light. This was on her 5 minute commute so while it may seem a lot of effort to some, I definitely wish I had a dash cam back then to cover her 5 minute commute. Also, I'm not only trying to cover her commute but also possible hit-and-runs while the car is parked at her work or elsewhere.

Walking is a great idea but most people in Southern California aren't built that way and although it is a 5 minute drive, due to our house being high on a hill, it is quite a walk and she'd be drenched with sweat. I will make the suggestion though.

I'm a total stranger to dash cams and although I tried to read up on some of the threads, I found them to be very complicated and saw too many conflicting comments. If I can use a battery pack, what kind do I need? What capacity do I need? There are way too many questions to ask so I was hoping there might a proven solution that one can recommend. If possible, I would prefer not to tap into the car battery at all.

 

[Nigel]

You can use a standard USB powerbank, but most cameras will about empty a 20,000 mAh powerbank in 24 hours, so it is really a daily job to recharge it. If you are expecting damage then fine. I guess if you are only doing 5 minute drives there is no reason to switch to car power while driving, so just plug the camera into a powerbank when setting off in the morning, and unplug it when you get home, then plug the powerbank in to recharge. I don't see any reason to use something like the Cellink in that situation, its advantage is that it can recharge quickly from the car, quickly is still 40 minutes for 24 hour coverage, and with many cameras it will not do the full 24 hours.

The A129 Pro is not the best camera for running parking mode off a powerbank, it is a bit thirsty on power, needs the powerbank to maintain good voltage, which not all of them do, and can overheat around midday in a parked car with no ventilation, at which point it will shut down to cool down, which may happen a lot in your summers. I suggest going for the new A129 Plus instead, even though that is a bit new and unproven yet, the image quality should still be fine for your use.

 

[wangster]

Thank you for the great feedback. If I opted for the A129 Plus, is there a specific power bank I should look for? I believe I read in one of the threads that it should have 12v output?

 

[SawMaster]

It's not hard to develop a habit of bringing in a used powerbank when you come home, then charging it and replacing it on the way out the next day. Either have the charger set up by the house door you use, or at wherever you put your keys at home (the latter works better for the forgetful )

Many people use two powerbanks for this, and do the swap-and-charge thing as one operation daily instead of two. That also has the advantage of cutting the wear on each powerbank in half. Plus you'll never discover that you forgot the powerbank if you rush out of the house running late, the charged one will be in the car already.

Ditto on the habit of plugging the powerbank into the cam when you park; in fact with just a 5 minute drive I'd simply use the powerbank only to run the cam. Powerbanks are rated in mA's. A good figure to go with is that a cam will use 100mA per hour of recording (they usually use less but this allows for battery wear). So for 10 hours of recording you would use a 10,000mA powerbank etc. Cheap powerbanks aren't worth the price- they use inferior cells inside which wear out quickly and may not even be safe. All powerbanks need to be kept out of direct sunlight and other extremely hot areas; most folks tuck them into the armrest console, under a seat, or in the glovebox.

As to the cam, well few 2-channel cams are reliable in parking mode, and none of the highest-resolution cams handle heat well, so my recommendation would be the A129 Duo (not Plus or Pro). You lose some resolution but you gain reliability; a cam which has shut itself down from overheating is useless IMHO. And for parking, I like using a "low bitrate" approach instead of motion detect or g-sensor. Far more reliable doing it that way

Phil

 

[Nigel]

Thank you for the great feedback. If I opted for the A129 Plus, is there a specific power bank I should look for? I believe I read in one of the threads that it should have 12v output?

The A129 series only require very basic USB powerbank functionality, and for long life you are better off with a slow overnight charge than the latest high tech powerbank that will charge at very high speed, lifespan of lithium batteries is directly linked to charge speed. There are a vast range of basic powerbanks available, impossible to keep up with what is best, but given that it is going to be used/handled daily it is worth going for one of the better brands with decent build quality, you want it to bounce when you drop it on occasion!

Agree with Sawmaster's comments except that the Plus model does have twice the detail on the front camera, which if your part of the USA has small license plates like other parts do, then it could be very useful. I would take the risk of the Plus model being new and somewhat unproven in return for the extra resolution. The basic Duo is a good choice and used by many though.

 

[wangster]

Thank you SawMaster and Nigel for your inputs. If I use a power bank to constantly power the dash cam, and the dash cam isn't connected to my car whatsoever, how does it know to enter parking mode? Lack of movement?

Many people use two powerbanks for this, and do the swap-and-charge thing as one operation daily instead of two. That also has the advantage of cutting the wear on each powerbank in half. Plus you'll never discover that you forgot the powerbank if you rush out of the house running late, the charged one will be in the car already.

This is a great suggestion. I'll definitely get two power banks.

Agree with Sawmaster's comments except that the Plus model does have twice the detail on the front camera, which if your part of the USA has small license plates like other parts do, then it could be very useful. I would take the risk of the Plus model being new and somewhat unproven in return for the extra resolution. The basic Duo is a good choice and used by many though.

I do want to be able to capture the license plate number in case of an accident so I think I'll try the Plus model.

 

[Nigel]

If I use a power bank to constantly power the dash cam, and the dash cam isn't connected to my car whatsoever, how does it know to enter parking mode? Lack of movement?

I haven't tested the A129 Plus yet, and the Duo depends on which firmware and I'm not sure which it is being supplied with, but it will be something like:

Enter parking mode after 3 minutes of no movement, leave parking mode after reaching 6MPH,

And note, this is for the Viofo cameras, some other brands require a hardwire kit plugged into the car fusebox to do parking mode, so choose carefully.

 

[SawMaster]

The GPS-sensed parking mode switching of the A129 makes powerbank use emulate hardwiring with no extra effort, which is a big reason I recommend it. With most other cams, you'll have to switch between driving and parking manually every time Other 'triggers' like using motion detection instead of GPS can function erratically based on how well tuned the firmware is- that method is never perfect. The one downside of GPS triggering is that when you enter a concrete or underground parking garage, the GPS signal drops, so the cam will enter parking mode and stay there until it 'sees' sky again, then gets a satellite lock which can take up to a minute or so. But if the parking mode used is 'low bitrate' you're still recording so you've still got videos, just at a lower resolution until the cam gets the satellite lock..

To me that seems to be the ideal solution I do not own a Duo so I can't use that method. I am one of a very few who simply records normally 24/7 so that no matter what I have the best video possible, but my way has several issues inherent in it and it's not one I recommend. Another reason I recommend the Duo is that it's very fully developed now, while the 'plus' and 'pro' versions still have some issues which could be a long time in getting them worked out. Or that could happen today- nobody knows really. I'd simply rather you have a cam that is known to work correctly than one which has somewhat sharper details but may not have the recording you need when you need it
And in reality, you're not going to get "2X" the details from the other cams versus the Duo- that's a theoretical number based on the math involved. Yes, there is more detail in the better images- do you really need that? Good to have but the answer is usually 'no'; the Duo has great images for it's specs and there are plenty of other things involved so that with details such as license plates, what one gets the others likely will too. Maybe a 15% improvement in real-world use at best regards the more distant plates. Up close you'll get the details you need with the Duo, and if you don't then neither of the other cams are likely to do any better- most of what you need will be up close

Other than possible issues, Viofo does build some very good cams with better vids than the others using the same hardware and with the same specs, so in that there's no bad choices here. Just be sure to read what others are experiencing with each in the forums when their cams are being used as you want to use yours. You can overlook the powering in that, but do study what they think of the parking modes, how they're switched, and where any issues are. That goes for any cam really, and your satisfaction will be coupled to how well you've researched

Phil

 

[Nigel]

The one downside of GPS triggering is that when you enter a concrete or underground parking garage,...

The Viofo cameras have a backup system of switching to using the g-sensor when there is no GPS, although again there seems to be a bit of variation depending on firmware used.

 

[SawMaster]

Being that there's a timed delay involved, you'll be parked when the cam switches to 'parking' so really there's nothing going to be lost except perhaps a short time of lower resolution when you start driving again if the g-sensor doesn't activate. IMHO it's the best possible design for switching modes anyway you look at it. Viofo has always been innovative like that

Phil

 

[jokiin]

Being that there's a timed delay involved, you'll be parked when the cam switches to 'parking' so really there's nothing going to be lost except perhaps a short time of lower resolution when you start driving again if the g-sensor doesn't activate. IMHO it's the best possible design for switching modes anyway you look at it.

it loses a couple of seconds of video when changing modes, less of a problem when you park, having it change back out of parking mode once you reach 6mph though means those few seconds are going to be lost at some random point while driving, that's the trade off of relying on a software solution rather than using 3 wire and having it switch modes at a known point of time

 

[Nigel]

it loses a couple of seconds of video when changing modes,

Low bitrate to high bitrate shouldn't require a pause, you can do that mid-video file, I have a Blueskysea B1W that does.

Unfortunately the current Viofo firmware does seem to have pauses, although it's not a big issue since it only does it once at the beginning of your journey, you are not often stopped for over 3 minutes mid-journey.

 

[jokiin]

the few seconds it loses while it changes modes is not a big deal, the randomness of when that happens if using 2 wire is something that needs to be taken into consideration, better to add their HK3 and do it properly

 

[Nigel]

the few seconds it loses while it changes modes is not a big deal, the randomness of when that happens if using 2 wire is something that needs to be taken into consideration, better to add their HK3 and do it properly

If you are powering from the car then yes, HK3 is definitely recommended. But in this case we are powering from a power bank, which in the morning has just been replaced so parking mode has not yet been entered when you set off, it is only on the return 5 minute commute that it will switch out of parking mode at 6MPH, which it tends to do in a very consistent location, not randomly.

 

[jokiin]

for powerbank use it's a workable option, I guess if the powerbank is in a convenient location you could just unplug it and plug back in before setting off to avoid the random switchover whenever a situation where switching out of parking mode would otherwise be random, exiting an underground carpark etc

 

[wangster]

Finally got the A129 Plus Duo installed over the weekend. The main camera kept losing connection to the rear camera and system continued to hang while browsing the menu. Updated to the newest firmware uploaded on Viofo site yesterday and everything seems to be working good. I haven't figured out what I want to do with the parking mode yet so as of now, it's continuously recording. Thanks for the suggestions on using parking mode with power bank.