Viofo MT1 Dual Motorcycle dashcam on a Bicycle

[Dan Robinson]

Update: the jumper pack does not work. The output on these are switched on by a relay apparently controlled by circuitry that senses a heavy enough load like a car starter. Connecting a 400 watt inverter to the outputs is a big enough load to trigger the relay (you can hear it click), but the MT1 doesn’t trigger it and thus receives no power.

I will try one of the TalentCells next.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I had a successful test and 90-minute ride today (shorter than usual due to extreme heat/humidity in the USA Midwest) with the MT1 with a 11,000mAh TalentCell as the power source. The battery arrived today with 2 out of 4 charge LEDs lit. After charging it for an hour, it went to the 3rd LED. The indicator was still on the 3rd LED when I got home 90 minutes later. I'm planning on a 6-hour ride this weekend, so hopefully I will get a full battery life test with the setup.

No complaints with picture quality. I have yet to install the app, so the camera install positions were just eyeballed.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I've been on a few rides now with the TalentCell+MT1 combo. I have yet to go on a long all-day ride to give the battery life a good test, but I've been on a few 2.5-hour rides with the battery charge indicator never going below 3 out of 4.

The one issue I do see is that at night and twilight, the picture tends to go out of focus and stay that way, particularly on the rear camera. Otherwise the system does everything it should.

 

[Nigel]

The one issue I do see is that at night and twilight, the picture tends to go out of focus

I would expect vibration to cause motion blur at night, which will make it look out of focus while moving. Getting a good picture at night is going to be very difficult.

I don't expect it to go genuinely out of focus, although in very dark conditions it will need to turn up the gain more than a car dashcam because they have brighter headlights, and turning up the gain probably also turns up the noise reduction unless street lights are very bright, which can have a similar effect to looking out of focus.

I think if you need to record the license plate of a moving car at night, it is probably wise to shout it out so that the microphone records it!

 

[MuscleMemory]

Responding to this old thread to share my power source, Milwaukee M12 drill batteries. I also tried RC car lipo batteries, 3 18659 batteries in a holder, and some other things but the M12 batteries have the best capacity per weight, have convenient charger, and they sell generic ones for cheap.
I have the battery driving a power box that also drives my lights and a phone charger. Adding the dash camera was easy because I provisioned an extra connector when I built the power box. The power box also links with my dynamo hub to turn the whole thing on and off automatically.