U1000 RADAR Placement

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Compromise

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Hey guys,

I am wondering where I should place the radar add-on? Instructions say to place it as high as possible on the windshield while centered, but I am not sure if I should just stick it on the frit in the center of my windshield. Do I need to have it poke out a bit like the U1000 in my picture? Will the frit interfere with the radar or does it not matter? I would like to stick it on the left side of the rear view mirror, pretty much mirroring where my U1000 is right now.
 

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Frit will be transparent to radar, as will plastic, and it doesn't need to be centred, just pointing roughly in the direction you want to detect things.
Might be worth pointing it down slightly, no point in it looking for aeroplanes in the sky.
And don't fire it through any electronics such as autonomous braking cameras/lidar!
 
Thanks!
One question:
Since I have the RADAR module, I can only use it with Energy Saving mode for parking. Does this mean I won't have timelapse or motion sense?
 
Energy saving mode means that the main camera is powered off, the image sensor is not working, so time lapse and visual motion detection are impossible.

The radar sensor, which uses surprisingly little power, will be on and will wake the camera up when something approaches and the camera will then start filling the video buffer just in case there is an event for the pre-buffered recording to be used.

I assume it can wake up on a g-sensor event too, for when something sneaks up under the radar (or behind the radar!), but I don't have one so have not tested this, it would be very disappointing if it didn't ?
 
Nigel said:
Energy saving mode means that the main camera is powered off, the image sensor is not working, so time lapse and visual motion detection are impossible.

The radar sensor, which uses surprisingly little power, will be on and will wake the camera up when something approaches and the camera will then start filling the video buffer just in case there is an event for the pre-buffered recording to be used.

I assume it can wake up on a g-sensor event too, for when something sneaks up under the radar (or behind the radar!), but I don't have one so have not tested this, it would be very disappointing if it didn't ?
Click to expand...

Yep, you're bang on. If no motion is detected and there is an impact it will still trigger an impact recording. However, because there was no motion it will not be pre-buffered.
 
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Thinkware Dash Cam said:
Yep, you're bang on. If no motion is detected and there is an impact it will still trigger an impact recording. However, because there was no-motion it will not be pre-buffered.
Click to expand...
What is the wake up time to start recording if there is no pre-buffering because your car was hit from behind?
 
Thinkware Dash Cam said:
With no pre-buffered recording the wake up time is approximately less than 1 second.
Click to expand...

That's better than a lot of cams. This 'wake-up delay' has always been one of my main complaints with motion-sensor and g-sensor parking modes. A cam is of little use if the person you need to see is gone before the cam begins recording ;) Some other cams I have take 2.5+ seconds to start and by then the bad guy could be long out of the view of the cam :( I've never been a big fan of Thinkware cams but I am very impressed with this approach, which should solve many of the problems which have long been inherent in longer-term parking protection :cool:

Phil
 
jokiin said:
Even one second is quick it's still after the actual event, so you'll know who it was, but still can't prove it
Click to expand...

Yes, but that's what pre-buffered parking mode is for. "Proof" can be slippery to define, and only before-during-and after video offers solid proof, but it's usually enough to have something as most impacts will also damage the perpetrators car which can be discovered and verified as long as someone acts quickly enough about it. Identification of the bad guy is always the key to any success to be found here ;)

Lots of folks come here to DCT wanting long-term parking protection which so far has meant using some sort of powerbank system since the car battery can't sustain a cam for long. When they want to up that game from maybe a couple days to a week or more (such as airport parking or weekend-use only cars) only the 'radar' systems can give that functionality without needing something else. Not the best protection to be sure, it beats having nothing at all. At this timke it's simply impossible to have buffered parking modes with this little current draw- perhaps in the future that will come along :)

The bottom line is always that your real protection is your car insurance, and a dashcam used for parking security is more to assist them and the Police after-the-fact than it is for us to directly benefit from. Our direct benefits from dashcams are as recorders of our own driving and that of others driving near to us :cool:

Phil
 
SawMaster said:
Some other cams I have take 2.5+ seconds to start
Click to expand...
Not unusual to take 6 seconds, which is often useless since they can easily be out of sight by the time recording starts. With sub-1 second and dual cameras there is a decent chance of seeing who it is, and while it may not give proof of the collision, if it is in the works car park, or outside your house then there is a fair chance of getting them to admit it when confronted and asked how their car came to have a paint scratch on their bumper with paint matching the colour of your car and then pointing out you have video, especially if you send the police around to ask rather than doing it yourself.

Of course buffered is better, and low bitrate better still, but you can't run those on any dual dashcam for 2 days, whereas you can run the U1000 in this low power mode for 2 weeks.

Seems the radar module needs a redesign to cover front and back, cars and people. The Vantrue T2 radar would run for three weeks and detect anything bigger than a cat, and sometimes even the monster cat from down the road, but that takes 6 seconds to start recording, and quite often even the cat was gone.
 
So far I'm pretty happy with the radar. It can detect people (noticed the LED turns on if I walk in front), but like mentioned, it won't turn on if I walk behind my car. I noticed that there was a timelapse video in my parked recordings of cars when I parked next to a big intersection. Didn't know they combined buffered with the radar, so it was a nice surprise!
 
So does all this mean that the U1000 with radar unit actually DOES show the 10sec footage prior the accident happening?
 
Kicker0927 said:
So does all this mean that the U1000 with radar unit actually DOES show the 10sec footage prior the accident happening?
Click to expand...
Only if the other vehicle is doing less than 1 m/s.
(That is 2.2 mph)

At 22mph you would only get about 1 second, minus the wake up time of 1 second, 1-1 = :unsure:.
 
Nigel said:
Only if the other vehicle is doing less than 1 m/s.
(That is 2.2 mph)

At 22mph you would only get about 1 second, minus the wake up time of 1 second, 1-1 = :unsure:.
Click to expand...
See, here’s what confuses me. I was under the impression you needed the radar module to be able to capture the 10sec before the incident. This is from Thinkware’s website...DA150A4D-845D-4A14-A175-11F21D55FBBC.jpeg
 
Kicker0927 said:
See, here’s what confuses me. I was under the impression you needed the radar module to be able to capture the 10sec before the incident.
Click to expand...
The radar module will wake the camera up and start buffered recording, then when the g-sensor detects the impact it will record the contents of the 10 second buffer, however it can only get 10 seconds out of the buffer if there is 10 seconds in the buffer. Since the radar module can only see 10 meters, if the car that hits your car is traveling at 10 meters per second, and you subtract the 1 second wake up time, there will be nothing in the buffer when the g-sensor detects the impact. If the car is traveling at 5 meters per second then there will be 4 seconds in the buffer to be recorded to card.
 
Yes, I had to look closer at the timing of when the sensor kicks on. I get it now. I would like to run my cam on buffered to catch that “pre” footage, but I’m not running my cam through an extra battery or anything which is why I opted for the radar
 
Kicker0927 said:
I wonder...does the radar pick up or sense door dings?
Click to expand...
No, that is the job of the g-sensor, but hopefully the radar will have seen the car approaching into the car parking space alongside you and started recording into the 10 second pre-buffer ready for when the g-sensor detects the impact. Since the radar only sees forward it is a good idea to reverse into parking places so that it can see approaching vehicles.
 
Compromise said:
So far I'm pretty happy with the radar. It can detect people (noticed the LED turns on if I walk in front), but like mentioned, it won't turn on if I walk behind my car. I noticed that there was a timelapse video in my parked recordings of cars when I parked next to a big intersection. Didn't know they combined buffered with the radar, so it was a nice surprise!
Click to expand...
What parking mode setting are you using that you were able to pick up buffered and TimeLapse video??? My understanding is with the radar unit you have to either choose energy savings mode (using the radar) or another mode (not using the radar)
 
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