Thinkware F770 Review by Sir Loin

Sir Loin

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I wrote this up in the other thread. I thought it may be good to post it separately.

I ordered mine from blackboxmycar.com. I was in town so I picked it up in person at blackboxmycar's office in Richmond, BC, Canada. The customer service has been top notch. Justin was always quick to answer all my questions (and I had a lot of questions). I ordered the F770/Cellink B pre-order bundle. It comes with a 64GB SD card, hard-wire kit, a circuit tester, and installation accessories, and a couple add-a-fuses. I also ordered with the rear camera.

At their office, I was able to see F750 andF770 side by side. The F770 is noticeably smaller than the old model. The new model is slimmer and more streamlined. Gone is the stuck-out silver cylinder-shaped lens housing. The lens on the F770 is part of the unit's body. There is also a compartment on the side of the body for better cable management. The windshield attachment is now a thin solid piece of plastic. So the dashcam will be much closer to the windshield and appears even smaller than the old F750.

I installed it yesterday with the rear camera. On my BMW M3, fuse 155 was recommended on Blackboxmycar's YouTube video for F82 M4, for some reason, fuse 155 has no power for me. I didn't test it before so I don't know if it was like that or I did something wrong to the car. I ended up using fuse 159 for ACC. The add-a-fuse also came loose, so I had to repair it. But all is working after a couple hours of trial and error. Also thanks to Justin @ Blackboxmycar for extending my hard-wire cable so it is long enough for my car (fuse box in the trunk).

Some random notes:
  • I am glad I bought my camera from BlackBoxMyCar. They are good people and take good care of their customers. I picked up my order in-person while I was in town. Justin knew my car needs an extra long hardwire cable and he extended it for my without me asking. :D
  • I installed the F770 with a Cellink B battery. My car has a Lithium Ion battery that I heard is expensive. I like that the camera won't drain power off my car's battery.
  • My hard-wire cable has a 90-degree power connector, which is perfect. But it also is very difficult to disconnect it from the main unit. I used a tin tie from one of the cables to make a loop for better leverage to pull out the connector when I needed to during installation.
  • The USB cable that comes with the rear camera has a straight USB cable connector so with the rear camera installed you can't close the flap on the F770 connector compartment. BlackboxMyCar will be sending customers the right-angle cables later.
  • I disabled all driving assistance features as my car already has them all built-in
  • I disabled the LED on the F770 camera. But the blue LED on the rear camera can't be disabled. I will need to find a black electrical tape to tape over it
  • The boot up time is fast, maybe about 5 to 8 seconds. Unlike what others have complained about the F750's boot time
  • The buttons are decently sized, but they are not back-lit so it is hard to find which one is the right button to press in the dark.
  • Downloading clips from F770 to your phone over WiFi is fast, or at least it doesn't feel slow to me.
  • Streaming clips over WiFi is also fast, it takes a second to buffer and then it plays like normal
  • Video quality is good for front and back. My last dash cam is a mini 0803. So take that with a grain of salt.
  • It audio recording is of good quality. In-car conversation is loud and clear, even with my loud car. In contrast, it is very difficult to hear the recording with my mini 0803.
  • I thought F770 would support 128GB SD card, but the manual only says up 64GB as the largest.
  • I was able to disable all the voice prompts (e.g. "starting continuous recording") except it still speaks and tells you how many motion detection was recorded in parking mode when you switch on your car (i.e. ACC has power again)
  • Time-lapse is an option for parking mode. It records one frame per second. The video is strung together in 30-minute files. It is a non-stop recording mode. No audio is recorded in this mode. It is useful if you want continuous recording while you are away from your car and don't want the recording to take up all your storage space. It is kinda cool but it isn't very useful to me. I tested it once and switched back to motion detection mode.
  • I have not tried the red light camera alert feature. I need to download the data file first.
  • F770 user manual can be found here: https://fccid.io/pdf.php?id=3027630
  • http://www.thinkware.com/Support/Download doesn't have F770 listed yet.
  • Internal pictures from fccid.io: https://fccid.io/document.php?id=3027628
I like the F770 so far. Will test it out some more.

[EDIT: Added pictures.]

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blackboxmycar.com will be sending me new right-angle cables to replace the straight ones I have. My hard-wire power cable already has a right-angle connector. New orders from blackboxmycar.com will include right-angle cables (power and USB cable if you order with the rear camera) so the flap can be closed.

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Great info there Sir Loin. I have a few comments:

The USB cable that comes with the rear camera has a straight USB cable connector so with the rear camera installed you can't close the flap on the F770 connector compartment. BlackboxMyCar will be sending customers the right-angle cables later.
I had a lot of trouble getting right angled connectors to work with my F750 rear camera so there is a chance that the F770 might be the same. On the F750 all 5 cores must be connected at the main unit, and possibly the rear too but I managed to get some 4 wire adaptors working at the rear. In my case I ended up making my own adapter for the front.

I thought F770 would support 128GB SD card, but the manual only says up 64GB as the largest.
Thinkware only show a maximum 64GB for the F750 but 128GB works. We only found out by trying it - maybe you will have to too (if you need that size).

I was able to disable all the voice prompts (e.g. "starting continuous recording") except it still speaks and tells you how many motion detection was recorded in parking mode when you switch on your car (i.e. ACC has power again)
Oh dear. Well at least that's some sort of improvement?

Time-lapse is an option for parking mode. It records one frame per second. The video is strung together in 30-minute files. It is a non-stop recording mode. No audio is recorded in this mode. It is useful if you want continuous recording while you are away from your car and don't want the recording to take up all your storage space. It is kinda cool but it isn't very useful to me. I tested it once and switched back to motion detection mode.
Not that I plan to upgrade to a F770 but that is interesting and I think I'd feel the same about it as you. I find that 128GB is plenty for me with the parking mode motion detection on medium sensitivity.

I have not tried the red light camera alert feature. I need to download the data file first.
I bought my F750 purely as a dashcam so the speed/red light camera warning feature was just a bonus. However I admit that I like having it and would be loathe to be without it.
 
Added pictures to OP.


Edit: Also youtube video of F770 footage in day time and night time.
 
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So still no possibility to stamp the speed on the images?
Apart from the time-laps , it seems there's not much difference between the 750 & 770?

btw what's this "red light alert" feature?
does the camera alerts you when the ligh is red, or is this the same feature as on the 750,
IE it alerts when there's a camera present?
 
I hadn't realised that the cables come out of the left hand side of the F770. I see in the photos that the cover can't be replaced because of the straight micro-USB connector. Do you think there is space to close it with a right-angled connector?
 
So still no possibility to stamp the speed on the images?
Apart from the time-laps , it seems there's not much difference between the 750 & 770?

btw what's this "red light alert" feature?
does the camera alerts you when the ligh is red, or is this the same feature as on the 750,
IE it alerts when there's a camera present?

Yes, you can enable speed info on the video with F770. The red light alert feature is to alert you when you approach a stop light with red light cameras. To enable it you can go to thinkware's support site to download the latest data file and put it onto the SD card.

I hadn't realised that the cables come out of the left hand side of the F770. I see in the photos that the cover can't be replaced because of the straight micro-USB connector. Do you think there is space to close it with a right-angled connector?

There should be enough room to close the door with a right angle USB connector. I will find out when blackboxmycar.com sends me a new USB cable.
 
From the looks of it this will need a different USB cable that the F750 as it will need to be a right corner. Dose anyone know where I can find such a cable?
 
I was able to disable all the voice prompts (e.g. "starting continuous recording") except it still speaks and tells you how many motion detection was recorded in parking mode when you switch on your car (i.e. ACC has power again)
Thank you for sharing its manual as well. I am still waiting on this one available in US.
I checked the picture of F770 and its manual you posted but didn't find any part explaining about disabling the voice prompt. Were you able to do it through the app or in other way?
 
Thank you for sharing its manual as well. I am still waiting on this one available in US.
I checked the picture of F770 and its manual you posted but didn't find any part explaining about disabling the voice prompt. Were you able to do it through the app or in other way?

For the Voice Prompt, I just set the volume to zero.

You can buy F770 from blackboxmycar.com. They ship to US for free for orders over $200. I am in the US. They were going to ship to me. I just happened to be in town so I picked it up myself.
 
Awesome install pics, I don't remember if I clarified this but one of my pet peeves with the Thinkware rear camera is that the sticker on the back is upside down when you have the camera in the correct orientation
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Haha! Yes, I read able the rear camera issue and used the live view to make sure I got the right side up before i stuck it to the glass.
 
Just received by F770 and I can confirm the come with a angled usb cable already. :)

Will keep you posted how I get on with it.

Big Thanks to thinkwaredashcam.uk and Ben from Chameleon for there grate service.
 
I am sooo interested in this. It has everything I want...prebuffered, shows speed, parking mode, etc. The only things only me back are the size and pickiness of the sd card.
 
There is a reason for good dash cams be picky for SD cards, especially with 2 channels. For good image quality, you want 10+ mbps bit rate. with 2 cameras, the dash cam needs to be writing 20mbps or more to the SD card. Not all SD cards are created equal, especially when there are so many fake ones out there. Bad or cheap cards just can't support that kind of write speed.
 
I am sooo interested in this. It has everything I want...prebuffered, shows speed, parking mode, etc. The only things only me back are the size and pickiness of the sd card.
The size concerns me too, although I think it would look good if the front camera body is centered on the windshield, and mounted as high as possible so that the lens just peeks out from below the dotted area. On a camaro, it would fit almost right up to the headliner because there's no mirror mount attached to the windshield.
 
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Now firmware (first release), user manual, speedcam and viewer for F770 available in thinkware.com.
 
@Sir Loin does that black portion of your windshield interfere with your 770's view? I was going to install mine in a similar way, but I had to move it WAY over to the passenger side to not catch that on video. So I ended up installing it under the "Sensors" behind the rear view. Now if I could only find a right angle extension that worked with the rear view...

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@Sir Loin does that black portion of your windshield interfere with your 770's view? I was going to install mine in a similar way, but I had to move it WAY over to the passenger side to not catch that on video. So I ended up installing it under the "Sensors" behind the rear view. Now if I could only find a right angle extension that worked with the rear view...

yes, it does block a little bit. I trade a little bit of blockage for a more discrete setup.

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yes, it does block a little bit. I trade a little bit of blockage for a more discrete setup.
Yeah, mine was worse than that. Oh well, it doesn't bother me that much where I mounted it actually. Thanks for the quick reply!
 
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