Vantrue Pilot 2 Thermal Camera unboxing and review

[jsmith]

@Hack_man

How come you cant slice the adhesive pad to the size of the metal frame if too large, and simply mount the camera on the metal frame itself? I tshould work just fine?

 

[kamkar]

I have at times had cameras glued in places, where just a fraction of the sticky pad was in engagement.
Most memorable the Innovv C3 camera i at a time had mounted to the back side of the R side B pillar in the red car, it even got dinged a few times so it was out of alignment but it never came off even if it was glued to the rounded plastic trim on the B pillar.
That freaked me a bit CUZ otherwise mounting off interior plastic trim is often doomed to fail and another type of sticky pad needed that work better with plastic.

 

[Hack_man]

@Hack_man

How come you cant slice the adhesive pad to the size of the metal frame if too large, and simply mount the camera on the metal frame itself? I tshould work just fine?

View attachment 92939

The rear camera lens and adhesive pad line up, even when the lens is adjusted downwards. I would have to do as you and @kamkar suggested and mount using only a fraction of the pad, and even then I'm not sure the angle would work. I could install a simple large extension plate onto the camera's adhesive pad and mount the upper half of the plate to the window's metal frame. This would drop the lens down low enough beneath the metal frame. I suppose that's worth a try but I do use that window sometimes where the camera would get in the way.

The cleanest and easiest install would be an externally mounted camera on the rear bumper. I wonder if there is a compatible exterior camera? Vantrue has the (RC07) meant for camera Models: E3 | N4 Pro | S1 Pro. I doubt it's compatible.

 

[kamkar]

I dont care much for external cameras but appreciate some have them to offer.
The reason being at least in the one 4 X 4 Truck i owned ( Mitsubishi L200 EXT cab with hardtop on the bed ) a lot of crud build up back there.
But also my little Suzuki SUV had quite a bit of crud building up back there.

Okay these days not much of a problem as i have flat rate car wash, but i also think a camera lens would not be good with very frequent brush treatments in the car wash.
At times i can wash my car 2 times a day, though i must admit mostly as i can, and it is only 8 minutes for the premium wash i subscribe to.

On the down side the camera in the rear cab window, well it will have a lot of bed in the frame, which is not bad especially if you have stuff there and is parked, but then cars sufficient far out behind you can actually see their front plate is there is one, well so far away it might not be possible.
But of course plate capture is not everything in dashcams.

There is always a corner to cut in dashcams, i have waited over a decade for the perfect one, and i am still waiting.

 

[Hack_man]

I decided to mount the rear camera directly on the slider window and it worked out pretty well. There is sufficient service loop when the slider window is opened and this way the camera is always protected in case the window is open from rain or snow.

Rear camera view.
I am a firm believer in the need for a rear camera. I recently captured video of an accident behind me which was used to support a police investigation. The more data the better!

Cabin camera at the same exact instant. The outside view is over exposed but inside the cabin looks good. Notice where the rear camera was mounted.
I'm glad I have the rear camera since it does a much better job outside the truck under these lighting conditions. The cabin camera does provide some nice passenger side footage.

Front Camera

 

[jsmith]

I decided to mount the rear camera directly on the slider window and it worked out pretty well. There is sufficient service loop when the slider window is opened and this way the camera is always protected in case the window is open from rain or snow.

Rear camera view.
I am a firm believer in the need for a rear camera. I recently captured video of an accident behind me which was used to support a police investigation. The more data the better!
View attachment 92951


Cabin camera at the same exact instant. The outside view is over exposed but inside the cabin looks good. Notice where the rear camera was mounted.
I'm glad I have the rear camera since it does a much better job outside the truck under these lighting conditions. The cabin camera does provide some nice passenger side footage.
View attachment 92952


Front Camera
View attachment 92953

Very easy solution which I do to my Vantrue Rear Cameras:

Purchase a VIOFO CPL-300. Take 2 small pieces of 3M VHB and apply it to the rear Vantrue Cameras. I do this to their cameras and it works perfectly. It helps a lot given I have tinted windows.

 

[Hack_man]

Very easy solution which I do to my Vantrue Rear Cameras:

Purchase a VIOFO CPL-300. Take 2 small pieces of 3M VHB and apply it to the rear Vantrue Cameras. I do this to their cameras and it works perfectly. It helps a lot given I have tinted windows.

Good tip, I actually did that for my rear camera on the Viofo A229 Pro and it helped a lot. The rear window in the ES350 where the Viofo is mounted is slanted at a crazy 45 degree angle which does not help.

I'm not seeing any reflections on my rear camera view in the truck in the above post. It helps that the glass is perfectly vertical and not tinted. Tinting wasn't much of a thing in the early 80's.
The front camera view does look like it could use a CPL filter, there seems to be a lot of glare.

 

[jsmith]

Good tip, I actually did that for my rear camera on the Viofo A229 Pro and it helped a lot. The rear window in the ES350 where the Viofo is mounted is slanted at a crazy 45 degree angle which does not help.

I'm not seeing any reflections on my rear camera view in the truck in the above post. It helps that the glass is perfectly vertical and not tinted. Tinting wasn't much of a thing in the early 80's.
The front camera view does look like it could use a CPL filter, there seems to be a lot of glare.

The image still has a sun glare, which the CPL would help sort.

 

[kamkar]

Almost got a heart attack last night, suddenly my Danish postal APP on the phone said a parcel from amazon was heading my way.
And me having not ordered anything there.
So i thought maybe vantrue sent a Pilot 2 my way. 😎
But as it turned out something i ordered in China they just choose to fulfill Via their amazon store in Germany.
So i have another kind of car electronics heading my way, even if amazon orders do not say anything about it, but probably due to me paying to China and then Amazon not getting their cut.

BTW made new DC wire harness for the 70mai power pack, so charging that right now in the kitchen so i can soon install the vantrue 4G hard wire kit in the new car too.
I do miss the option to be able to remote in to the dashcam.

 

[kamkar]

As some have forgotten, well in the old days at least, a CPL was not just a slap on / wham - bam thank you mam,deal, it had to be adjusted to optimal performance by turning it.

 

[Hack_man]

I was curious to measure the current draw for the P2 in a hot vehicle since heat can be a worse case environment.
I measured the current using a USB-C Tester with the P2 setup with all four channels (front, rear, cabin, thermal). The SD card is 128 MB, normal driving mode with highest resolution settings.

According to the P2 User manual, it's Power Supply (CLA, Cig. lighter adapter) specification is 5V 3A but I was supplied with a 5V 2.5A VP05 (II) Hardwire Kit rather than the newer VP05 (II) rated for 2800 mA.
The Hardwire kit is used when the user wants to implement parking mode, whereas the CLA does not support parking mode.

P2 User Manual for the CLA adapter:

I found a reference on Vantrue's website that indicated the operating current for the P2 is up to 2850 mA which is greater than the VP05 (II) is specified to provide:
Looks like a typo in the website where it says 2850mA/h

The inside vehicle temperature was 101.5 °F (38.6 °C)

I measured a peak current of 2.25 A
The current fluctuated but the average was closer to 2.0 A

Based on these measurements it appears the VP05 (II) should work but the operating requirements of the P2 (for current) do not line up with the output specification of the VP05 (II).

I've been waiting for some poor visibility conditions to test the thermal camera but the weather in the North East has been more like sunny CA.

 

[Omega-TI]

Oh wow! Nice, nice, nice. I like it!