using dash cam in parking mode as home security camera?

J

Jaranson

Guest
I have used two webcams connected to my PC as home security cameras. They record videos when movement is detected. The only downside is that I have to keep the PC on 24/7.

It just occurred to me that my dash cam's parking mode can do the same thing. In fact, the 1920x1080 resolution is better than my 1280x720 webcams.

I'm just wondering if anyone else uses dash cams as home security cams?
 
I tried it when testing my CarCam P9000 camera when I first got it. I had it powered by a cell phone charger with mini usb cable. But on that camera it took a lot of motion to trigger recording. Pointing out the window, cars passing by and me walking in front of the window didn't trigger the recording, only when I walked really close and filled the view did the recording start. In my testing, by the time the recording started I had already moved out of the scene already so no "evidence" was collected just a video of the empty room.

I think for the price of a dash cam, a more functional setup is to use one of the D-Link netcams. These record stills and video with motion detection and store to PC or upload to an FTP site. Instructional video here, see at about 3:22 where they talk about the video recording/upload feature after motion detection. The trade-off then is in resolution. It seems the dash cams have higher resolution than the consumer grade netcams. But at night in pitch black, the D-Link netcams with IR lighting will capture images when there is no light whereas the dash cam will give you a black video. In this case, unlike dash cams, the IR lights work.

I also have PC based webcams with motion detection software (check out TinCam, its great, now free and creates its own webpage on your webspace to display the motion detected images). For low power I've also used HP thin clients from eBay that have no moving parts, no harddrive, wifi and run an embedded version of Windows XP. But my latest cameras have been the D-Link netcams, they draw little power and can be placed anywhere there is AC power and setup of the functions is straight forward and can be adjusted by logging into the camera from anywhere in the world. There is a smartphone app that lets you see and hear in realtime what's going on back home.
 
I have been using cheap IP cams for some time, they need some place to unload ther footage, either on a build in sd Card og a pc or NAS /FTP site.

Me not beeing a wiss kid when it come to Networks i have allways found it problematic to set up, so now i would use a dash cam or action cam witch have motion detect that Work.
i have a bullet cam witch have motion detection but take a lot to trigger it and get it recording, if i set it up in my window on 2 floor and point it Down to the street below, passing by cars dont even trigger recording.

As long as you do not have a need for covering the Whole house / Apartment i think a small cam with motion detect should be enuff.

I think most dash cams and action cams block IR light if you want to record in pitch Black condition + IR light source, but that should be possible to change by using another lens witch let IR pass thru or removing a IR filter above cmos as i have done on a video camera.

As i undestand it my lukas LK7500 are very sensetive in motion detect

There is allso stuff like dropcam to consider https://www.dropcam.com/
 
i tried it with my g1w while playing around and testing for reliability
well in parking mode they dont always work reliable as securety cams, it highly depends on the cam, especially cheap ones fail
in many cases they dont react fast enough to fast movements and the recordings dont contain everything that happend... especially if vehicles move in the camera field...
 
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