Tell us your experience ( duration ) with parking guard on sunny days

kamkar

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10 years, many dashcams
What kind of parking guard are you getting - what kind of parking mode do you use, i am fishing for endurance in sunny weather,,,, ´Do not have to be the hottest day ever, i have a feeling many cameras dont last long sitting on the windscreen in the sun.

I have tested the Viofo A139 and my SG9663DR in parking mode today with sunny weather with some clouds so not yet as good as it can get, the outside temperature was just 22 deg C cabin temperature was probably around 45 deg C ( headliner behind the cabin light in the roof measured with temp gun )

On the A139 using low bitrate recording i dident even get 1 hour of parking guard recording, on the SG9663DR at the same time using the same kind of parking guard it was still recording when i got to my car + 4 hours later.


Clearly the dual remote setupo of the SG9663DR is a advantage as the main unit do not have to sit on the windscreen, mine is just draped in its wires over my center console in front of the gear stick
 
Used both Garmin 55 and 56, no problems (57 on the way) When at the office, both cameras recorded videos on and off for 8+ hours (SanDisk 256G)
Disclaimer: I am always trying to avoid the sunniest parking spot when possible and shut down camera when parking at home in the garage.
 
I suspect there is a wide range of how different brands / models cope, so i figured i would set up this thread as more and more seem to get into parking guard.
And parking guard are also just fine, just have to be aware of the few trapdoors there are.
The A139 do not look to be a good contender at this event judging by my own tests and experiences of others.

Looking forward to see your report on the new model / well one of them. (y)
 
The A139 do not look to be a good contender at this event judging by my own tests and experiences of others.
2k + 2 x 1080P all being processed by a single CPU in a camera mounted on the window, I think that's a big ask for parking mode
 
Preface:
Other than the 'g-sensor' parking mode with the B1W and all parking modes with the A139 I have not found parking modes in these cams reliable or useable, so I've ran cams continuously in regular recording mode for parking. You get maximum cam/card stress and heat doing this so if a heat-related failure is going to happen this will bring on such an event. Please note I do NOT recommend doing this!

Testing:
Hottest days at or over 100F/38C
Cams tested without problems on hottest days: original Mobius,, G1W/S, G1W/HC, B1W
Note that on the very hottest days I did occasionally see some various failures with every cam listed as no cam is made to work in this kind of heat. I have 2x G1W/S cams and one has been less reliable overall and here too. B1W was tried in continuous recording and with it's excellent-for-me 'g-sensor' parking mode

Hot days up to 93F/34C
Cams tested without problems on hot days: A139, K2S, N2Pro, B2K, B4K, W4K, B2W
Note that the N2Pro uses a LiPo battery and the battery capacity dropped about 50% in daily use over about 2 months at these temps. It did occasionally freeze up as did the K2S once or twice. B2W can do better if fully in the shade away from the glass. The A139, B2K, and B4K haven't seen my hottest weather yet so may actually move to the above category; time will tell.

Failures:
G1W/C and a G1W clone with a GP chipset were unreliable at these temps in a parked car but worked as long as the car was moving and had air flow through the cabin.

Synopsis:
In the worst heats the original Mobius is by far the best, but it's old AR0330 sensor is poor at night and the only "parking mode" available with it is time-lapse which must be set manually. B1W isn't as good daytime but is much better at night, and for me at least the g-sensor worked excellently. Still hoping for good resilts with one of the more modern cams!


Phil
 
If you are desperate add forced cooling. I probably got a touch carried away but I was sick of transformers over heating in the back of a very hot cupboard.

Noctua make a brilliant 40mm fan 10mm thick, very low wattage.

Make up a bracket & a seperate switch for extremely hot days.

Forced cooling makes a hugh difference. The first Philips LED 12v down lights incorporated a tiny fan, we still have a few of them.

IMG_20200803_162844081~3_1618546414585.jpg
 
If you are desperate add forced cooling. I probably got a touch carried away but I was sick of transformers over heating in the back of a very hot cupboard.

Noctua make a brilliant 40mm fan 10mm thick, very low wattage.

Make up a bracket & a seperate switch for extremely hot days.

Forced cooling makes a hugh difference. The first Philips LED 12v down lights incorporated a tiny fan, we still have a few of them.

View attachment 56978

There are a number of older threads on the forum where members have experimented with small fans in an attempt to cool dash cams. They work to a certain degree but the drawback is that unless you turn off the audio you'll end up with an ear splitting noise in your videos that sounds like a jet fighter engine at take-off. As I recall, most experimenters gave up on the endeavor.

You can get 5 volt low wattage fans as small as 20mm x 20mm or 30mm x 30mm which are a bit quieter. Even though they move less air they too were pretty loud when mounted on a small dash cam.

I've always thought it might be interesting to experiment with small thermal cooling Peltier chips mounted with heat sinks to dissipate the heat but I haven't tried it yet.

20mm_fan.jpg
 
Most of the small fans are noisy. I have some 25mm one & they are dreadful. But the one I mentioned is quiet & even quieter at reduced speed with supplied resistor.

The fan in the original Philips LED downlight, I only ever had one which made a bit of noisy, the rest we still have in use today are still effectively silent even with your ear next to it.

Some manufacturers are able to make quiet products but it does boil down to a price point.
 
I think part of the problem if you try mounting fans to the camera is the mic is a lot more sensitive than your hearing, even something that you would struggle to hear can be overwhelming in the audio track
 
Most of the small fans are noisy. I have some 25mm one & they are dreadful. But the one I mentioned is quiet & even quieter at reduced speed with supplied resistor.

The fan in the original Philips LED downlight, I only ever had one which made a bit of noisy, the rest we still have in use today are still effectively silent even with your ear next to it.

Some manufacturers are able to make quiet products but it does boil down to a price point.

Despite how quiet your fan may sound to you in normal surroundings I think you'd find it to be far more noisy mounted on a dash cam than you might expect. That was the finding of everyone who tried it. Proximity to a microphone with AGC makes a huge difference in a recording.
 
I had my hearing tested a couple of years ago. One of those cold calls trying to flog off hearing aids. My hearing detected the quietest noise on their setup. It was a seriously quiet noise. Basically calibrating their test!

Even creating some small amount of air movement will make a substantial improvement on cooling.
 
I had my hearing tested a couple of years ago. One of those cold calls trying to flog off hearing aids. My hearing detected the quietest noise on their setup. It was a seriously quiet noise. Basically calibrating their test!

Even creating some small amount of air movement will make a substantial improvement on cooling.

Well, you could try a fan on your dash cam and report back with the results.
 
Will do, have to sort out a rodent issue first which has been eating electrical cables.
 
I don't know what it is with rodent's strange attraction to chewing on electrical wiring but I posted about the same problem recently.
yeah this was reported just a few days ago, still a bit perplexed as to how the rat managed to get up inside the car to begin with

 
I can imagine the farmers living in a sea of rodents, poor bastards.
 
Wow, reading around it looks like NSW has a huge problem :( Haven't seen anything of it on my usual US news sources.

Phil
 
Old news here, or at least a few weeks, and i also got wise to that situation from the mainstream media

TBH it is a little WTF i think, so the Aussies have a lot of mice running around again, which we have never seen here, but at least the poor bastards are not dying left and right from it, though many people are probably taking a severe hit to the wallet, so they probably just shoved it in there to kill time.
Still glad i am not there cuz i am sure it would do no good for my sleep problem, and if a Aussie M8 had a problem all i would get out of that is getting annoyed as i am in no position to do something about it.
 
I can imagine the farmers living in a sea of rodents, poor bastards.

yeah that's a particular problem here right now, hopefully the colder weather and some rain takes the edge off the problem for them

What's the deal? With all the snake infestation problems we keep hearing about in Australia, how could you have a rodent problem too! Snakes love to eat rodents!

Something doesn't add up! :smuggrin:
 
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