Thinkware 750 Development

[Dee_82]

That's a good question, I honestly don't know from an electronic perspective Motion works like this

Camera constantly buffers video, if it detects motion it dumps 10 seconds before the event / motion and 10 seconds after, so the camera is constantly recording, just not to the SD card. and only dumps to the card when something happens

In time lapse the camera constantly records BUT at a much slow rate, it constantly dumps the video at the same time but is only doing it half as much as before
ive just tried to work it out and the maths suggest that timelapes should be using more power in almost every situation, even tho it draws half as much, its dumping data all the time where as motion might only dump a small amount of data. Both cameras will be on 100% of the time only the timelapse camera will draw less. its the writing to the card that is important. that is the bit that costs the most energy, its about 100mA max....

I dunno, I might rig up a meter to it one day and see the energy costs, I'm actually going to be poking about with the wiring soon so I might do the test at the same time.

 

[Rac Man]

Its really straight forward here is a picture.....

Hi Dee_82 Just a quick question when updating the firm firmware is it important to carry out the format sd card 1st ? The reason i ask is that would appear that i can only do this when the camera asks me to . Have tried to format myself but it dosen't do this . Do i have to wait for it to ask or is this not important ...... Probably another silly question for you lol

 

[Calorgas]

Dee_82, thanks for FW info which made the upgrade painless

 

[egonvdv]

Thanks, upgrade works like a charm.

Looking forward to the time-laps and super night vision results!

Unfortunately on the F770 they also did not make it possible to switch off all the leds on the cameras
(especially when in park mode) one of the only few downsides of this camera.

And I really would like the camara to be able to record without the 48hrs limit in park mode.
(unless the power falls under a certain voltage of course)

I am extremely happy with the F750 which has never let me down so far.
even during the hot summer it kept on going all the time.

Unlike the blackvue, this really is a camera to switch on and forget about.

 

[Charleslsc]

Hi,

I have one question about the region of firmware.. Do we need to select same region such as F750 US region to F770 US region for firmware upgrade?

 

[Dee_82]

i don't think it would matter, but I would suggest you keep things simple on the initial conversion, get the camera to the F770 firmware using the matching region, then change it if you require a different region.

The LEDs are a bit of a pain, the rear camera is hardwired on, if there is power to the camera, the LED will be lit up. the front ones should be programmable but don't count on them making any changes. The Koreans like their LED bling! personally,

id suggest some something like https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331972762765

 

[egonvdv]

I've used tape on both cameras (also to make the front camera less visible)
it does the trick, but perfect it is not.

I was tempted to buy the F770, but to fork out 300 eur just for a new/better design....

 

[egonvdv]

Super night vision really makes a difference.
My car is parked in an underground garage and the images really are much brighter.

Not so sure whether time laps is very useful though;

It's more difficult to find the footage that you need as it records non-stop and
you can not speed up play in order to go through the footage faster (or at least not with the thinkware software)

Also, it's not easy to select just the right frame/photo (again; not with the TW software)

So far can't really think of an advantage other than that you are sure the camera misses nothing...?

 

[Dee_82]

I'm in two minds about the timelaps for the reasons you mentioned, I'm spending some time using both to see what I like the most, unless you park in a really busy street at night then I don't see a need for timelaps. two things I like the most about the f770 firmware on the 750, is super night vision and it displays the speed on the actual video, plus they will hopefully continue to support the device a bit longer!

as for playback of timelaps, use dashcam viewer from this forum, its much better at video playback at various speeds

https://dashcamviewer.com/

 

[egonvdv]

yes indeed: speed on video is great too.
thanks for the dashcamviewer tip!

 

[Rac Man]

yes indeed: speed on video is great too.
thanks for the dashcamviewer tip!

Dose the dash cam viewer only work with windows ? Just looked up compatibility and its states f750/f770 windows only . I,m on mac ?

 

[egonvdv]

I think both dascam viewer and TW viewer have compatible software for Mac. and the dashcam viewer is compatible with any video format (ie, ahs nothing to do with the type of camera)

 

[Maddog1974]

All the current units are MAC compatible with the PC Viewer

 

[Dee_82]

The chap who makes dashcam viewer actually makes it for a Mac, your features are a little more complete than the pc version which he has to port it too. I believe the mac version of the thinkware viewer is slightly better as well

 

[Maddog1974]

i don't think it would matter, but I would suggest you keep things simple on the initial conversion, get the camera to the F770 firmware using the matching region, then change it if you require a different region.

The LEDs are a bit of a pain, the rear camera is hardwired on, if there is power to the camera, the LED will be lit up. the front ones should be programmable but don't count on them making any changes. The Koreans like their LED bling! personally,

id suggest some something like https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331972762765

The front white strip LED is programmable under Security LED setting? Can be on in a few different flash patterns or turned off. Agree about the rear one the LED is a power light so is on all the time.

 

[Dee_82]

that's correct, you can turn the knight rider light off, but the two LEDs facing inside the car cant be turned off, one blue one green, and the blue one on the rear camera.

I reckon all the lights on the front are programmable but unfortunately that doesn't really help us.

 

[TurBIce]

I have just updated the speed cam data on the F750.

If i was to flash it to the F770 firmware. do i need to do the speed cam update again?

 

[Dee_82]

yeah

 

[WA3PNT]

Please READ post #1.
@Dee82 explains it in great detail.

RodeoGeorge

 

[TurBIce]

I just upgraded the F750 to the F770. all worked perfectly.
thanks for your help guys.
great write up and find!

Im testing out time lapse now. but i can see the point where you might not get the whole picture. i wonder if the insurance will mind much about it being in time lapse mode instead of continuous recording.