Trying to use cheap dashcam on bottom of my airplane..... couple problems.

[madur0]

I have mounted a cheap Biuone A20 dashcam under my airplane but have to manually switch to rear camera everytime I startup my plane. When the dashcam starts up it shows the front facing camera inside the airplane which is blocked by the instrument panel. I am only interested in the rear camera that is mounted externally under the airplane. I have to manually switch it to the rear camera but sometimes I forget to do so.......its annoying. The rear camera is mounted on the belly of my airplane and that's all I care about. It is to verify the proper position of the landing gears. Another problem is that the image is reversed......left is right and right is left in real life.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Welcome to the club.
I love you pilot guys.
The best rear / remote camera on the market right now it the Viofo A229 Pro & A229 Plus.
It has 2K resolution from a new STARVIS 2 image sensor.
Since you said you don’t care about the front camera the A229 Plus is $100 cheaper.
The standard length cable for the rear camera is 6 meters.
If that’s not long enough they offer 8 & 10 Meter length.
Here’s a 5% ($14) off promo code for the A229 Plus 3-CH (Exp. 1/7/24): PANZERPLUS
After the $70 coupon & $14 promo code the cost is $196.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B0CKX9NX3D


Oh yeah, it comes with an IR Interior camera you can use in another location.
The standard cable length is 1 Meter, and they offer an optional 6 Meter cable.
And all camera have mirroring, and rotation settings,(up, down & left, right).
The image quality of the rear camera for your landing gear will be better than this Viofo A119 Mini because of the new STARVIS 2 image sensor;

 

[LateralNW]

I have mounted a cheap Biuone A20 dashcam under my airplane but have to manually switch to rear camera everytime I startup my plane. When the dashcam starts up it shows the front facing camera inside the airplane which is blocked by the instrument panel. I am only interested in the rear camera that is mounted externally under the airplane. I have to manually switch it to the rear camera but sometimes I forget to do so.......its annoying. The rear camera is mounted on the belly of my airplane and that's all I care about. It is to verify the proper position of the landing gears. Another problem is that the image is reversed......left is right and right is left in real life.

how can we help?

The camera not working is mentioned in this review in dashcamtalk

Biuone A20 - DashCamTalk

The Biuone A20 video quality and build quality do not impress. Reliability is hit or miss making this a below average dash cam.

dashcamtalk.com

 

[Nigel]

The best rear / remote camera on the market right now it the Viofo A229 Pro & A229 Plus.

You forgot to say that once you have chosen which camera or cameras to display on the screen, it remembers it after shutdown and restart, or at least I assume it does? The other Viofos do. It also has wifi so that you can have a much better look at the video on your phone/tablet screen if there is a problem to be looked at.

 

[Panzer Platform]

You forgot to say

I forgot on purpose so you could correct me.
My ex-wife was never happy unless she had something to complain about.
Bazinga! lol

 

[madur0]

You forgot to say that once you have chosen which camera or cameras to display on the screen, it remembers it after shutdown and restart, or at least I assume it does? The other Viofos do. It also has wifi so that you can have a much better look at the video on your phone/tablet screen if there is a problem to be looked at.

No...the camera does not remember the previous setting. It does not remember that i set it to the rear view camera. The next time the camera is powered on, it shows the front camera again. Like I said.... i remember about half the time to set it to the rear camera.

The camera quality is the requirement in my use case. The use case is to see the landing to verify if they are up or down during flight.

 

[Dashmellow]

The camera quality is the requirement in my use case. The use case is to see the landing to verify if they are up or down during flight.

If you are only interested in seeing if your landing gears are up or down rather than to record footage you may be better off with a CCTV camera connected to a monitor inside your cabin than with a dash cam. (Of course, you could still record footage if you so desired.) For one thing this will provide you with a very durable fully waterproof camera and it would also allow you to use any length cable you need. Such cameras have IR emitters for use after dark if you happen to do any night flying. With today's CCTV cameras and say, a 7 inch monitor you would have excellent image quality and much easier viewing than with a dash cam. These days such a system with a single camera, small NVR and monitor could be put together at a very reasonable price. They usually run off 12V.

A dome style camera might be the way to go, mounted under the belly of your aircraft. Strong, stable, extremely waterproof and highly aerodynamic.