Integrated dashcam update...

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I ordered yesterday... there is a small discount available on aliexpress right now.

I received an iMessage from a +86 number requesting photos, so I sent those along this morning.

Thanks for sharing the video, it answers one question I had which is whether the card slot is accessible from the outside. I'll probably prefer just pulling the card to using the app.

I'm going to skip the rear one. (But I was wondering... seems like it should be possible to hack the backup camera to record that to a card somehow... surely someone's done that.)
 
Specs say it does not do park mode. Does it just abruptly stop recording when you power off? Wonder if you could wire constant power to it.
 
carrrl said:
Specs say it does not do park mode. Does it just abruptly stop recording when you power off? Wonder if you could wire constant power to it.
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I powered my front dash cam from the fuse box and the rear from the 12V trunk outlet. The front fuse power turns off when the door is opened after a drive but the rear turns off after something like 15 minutes (or faster if the car is locked)

Basically there are different sources of power within the car that turn off at different times, you can choose the one that suits your needs (no clue about the rain sensor power behavior though)
 
Carsten Haase said:
the rear from the 12V trunk outlet
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I've used this location too for the extended power window. It's a handy location and feature.

I like the FitcamX for it's packaging. Was just curious if it could be made to work if you wired it yourself with 12v and ACC. Some makes/models from FitcamX do support park mode and they all have the same cost and specs. Motion detection, g-sensor, or under volt/time out are also required for proper parking mode.
 
GvilleGuy said:
I'm definitely considering this FitcamX. The wiring harness splits the power between the rain sensor and the camera?
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Yes, you disconnect the OEM plug (the highest under the casing) and plug in the splice wire, plug the OEM into the splice and the camera into the splice. Super easy! The tiny release push-tab on the OEM plug requires an eyeglasses-size screwdriver head, but I just gently pried the external tab and it slid right out. As always, look at the plug they sent you to get an idea of how it works.

Super happy with the cameras, almost pushed off the freeway while merging by some oblivious/obnoxious (or both) Lexus, if I'd been hit it could've looked like my fault, but the footage demonstrates otherwise. Like I said, never want to need it, but happy to have it!! I put in a Samsung EVO Select 256GB microSDXC (130MB/s) card and it works great, no lag and perfect footage. Ordered a camera and the same card for the Toyota HyHi.
 
carrrl said:
I've used this location too for the extended power window. It's a handy location and feature.

I like the FitcamX for it's packaging. Was just curious if it could be made to work if you wired it yourself with 12v and ACC. Some makes/models from FitcamX do support park mode and they all have the same cost and specs. Motion detection, g-sensor, or under volt/time out are also required for proper parking mode.
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Yes, you can get a version that is wired to the fusebox behind the glovebox. That is required for 24h monitoring, but that also draws power the whole time, I believe. The camera itself has a g-sensor to begin recording, not sure if it wakes up when the alarm goes off? My cameras continue recording for a few minutes after the car is off and locked, apparently that's how long the rain sensor is powered.

Regarding the card capacity, I'm not sure how long for this camera exactly, but with a 64GB card on a previous 4k dash cam it was only about 60-90 minutes. It meant on our 3 hour drive into the mountains it looped over a 70 foot tree falling onto the road right in front of us and a horrific head-on collision RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. I was too busy cleaning out my pants and trying to help the survivors I didn't think to go back on my phone to watch the footage until we reached our destination. Footage was already looped over.

This camera has a collision sensor that locks the footage shot if YOU are one of the participants in the collision, though.

One FINAL note -- the card port is set to make the card discreetly invisible when installed. You'll need long fingernails or something similar to pop it out. Make sure to cover that gaping center console vortex when you do, if you fumble the card it's gone forever! Or until you figure out how to access that thing!
 
Clearly this is going to become my new obsession...I've realized the DashCam is the Police-cam or bystander cam for life. Not getting political, but when EVERYONE is screaming "fake news", EVERYONE thinks they can get away with EVERYTHING. Video as it stands currently (yes, even with AI) is the only way to claim innocence, as long as it is provided from different sources. I have have no problem being recorded in every aspect of my life outside my house, and will happily provide corresponding footage to reflect what I do outside my house. (My daughter recorded my dentist appointment today, and given my wimpish responses was admittedly funny. But I consider that private, so I stole her phone and deleted it. Granted this is a fluid situation.).

Here's my quickly thrown-together video from my new dash cam, clearly with altered video :D and if the other party wants to post footage of me brandishing a weapon (don't have one), he's free to do so.

Do want to point out that with a quick iMovie video, if you have 2 different resolution videos with PiP when you create it, it will resort to the lowest resolution. If you want to send the higher res to the Po-Po, they'll be able to see it in all its glory.

 
Well, if anyone here has learned anything about my posts, it is to completely disregard them, for at least a week!! The ONLY issue with the FITCAMX is that it apparently doesn't reliably support cards >128GB. I discovered that with my 258GB card it was missing about 20 seconds of capture every few minutes of recording. The video is great, and reliable, but once I realized this and plugged the included 64GB card there was no issue. The good news is even the biggest card is <$20, and I can still use it in my DSLR or drone. And if this reaches you, can still be returned to Amazon. Or feed it to your rabbits. The other good news is the FITCAMX support team is wonderfully responsive, and if I had discovered the problem would've told me immediately. They will also happily guide you through any questions regarding installation, fitment, etc.
 
drdunkyn said:
Well, if anyone here has learned anything about my posts, it is to completely disregard them, for at least a week!! The ONLY issue with the FITCAMX is that it apparently doesn't reliably support cards >128GB. I discovered that with my 258GB card it was missing about 20 seconds of capture every few minutes of recording. The video is great, and reliable, but once I realized this and plugged the included 64GB card there was no issue. The good news is even the biggest card is <$20, and I can still use it in my DSLR or drone. And if this reaches you, can still be returned to Amazon. Or feed it to your rabbits. The other good news is the FITCAMX support team is wonderfully responsive, and if I had discovered the problem would've told me immediately. They will also happily guide you through any questions regarding installation, fitment, etc.
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Bummer! I noticed the Aliexpress page for it indicated a max SD card of 125GB, and thought you had mentioned 256, so I was going to ask if that was actually working out for you.

upload_2022-5-3_10-11-9.webp

That being said - you should be able to move up to a 128 from the 64 they include, no?
 
drdunkyn said:
Well, if anyone here has learned anything about my posts, it is to completely disregard them, for at least a week!! The ONLY issue with the FITCAMX is that it apparently doesn't reliably support cards >128GB. I discovered that with my 258GB card it was missing about 20 seconds of capture every few minutes of recording. The video is great, and reliable, but once I realized this and plugged the included 64GB card there was no issue. The good news is even the biggest card is <$20, and I can still use it in my DSLR or drone. And if this reaches you, can still be returned to Amazon. Or feed it to your rabbits. The other good news is the FITCAMX support team is wonderfully responsive, and if I had discovered the problem would've told me immediately. They will also happily guide you through any questions regarding installation, fitment, etc.
Click to expand...
Lol I gave the video a like the very first day
 
It is indeed the size of the card, and yes, I confirmed with them the Max supported is 128GB. Must've missed that on the website. The 64GB class 10 is working fine. You definitely want to get a class 10, they'll specify whether they're meant to work with 4K video.
 
Strange it’s size limited to 128GB…
Last time I heard of that limitation was probably 20 years ago when the old ATA interface only used 28bits of the addressing space or something like that and thus maxed out at 128GB.
So sounds like some of these embedded electronic devices might be using some old standard (I know CF cards are essentially IDE but didn’t think SD cards were)…
 
I got mine set up. A bunch of thoughts...
  • It took 2.5 weeks to arrive in California
  • It includes a pry tool to open up the existing enclosure, which is useful
  • The wire you want is the small, difficult-to-reach red one -- don't be a dummy like me and hook it up to a different port and wonder why it doesn't work
  • Smushing the two halves back together is challenging, the camera module will probably fall out multiple times, and you'll end up with a sore neck after, but be patient
  • It can record files in 1min or 3min lengths, if you want anything longer you'll have to stitch them together yourself
  • I had a hard time staying on its wifi, since my phone kept trying to do CarPlay and you can only do one or the other
  • 4k files are big, a 3min file is about 500MB -- on a 128GB card that's about 12.8hrs (this card works fine)
  • You can set it to 2k instead, which should give you 4x the recording time
  • Fussy wifi and big files mean I don't want to use the app, I'll just put the card in my computer or maybe a use a lightning card reader -- just don't drop the tiny card into a vent
  • It'll record audio, but most of what I hear in the recording is just vibration
  • I didn't notice any rattling while driving
  • Haven't tested at night yet
  • I see that it recorded for 3min at 2am when the car was definitely parked and not plugged in... why'd it do that? (see attachment)
Here's an untouched video of me racing some San Francisco trolley cars on the way home from work today.

 

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I was thinking it would be neat to overlay the video with information about the car -- SOC, mi/kwh, etc etc. I think if I could get this data I could write a program to produce such a video. I know apps like mi3 will display things like that, but is there a way to export it into something I can read?
 
Lol it’s been a while since my test drive and I’m once again startled by how loud the synthesized turn signal ticker is, especially in such a quiet car!
 
endquote said:
I got mine set up. A bunch of thoughts...
  • It took 2.5 weeks to arrive in California
  • It includes a pry tool to open up the existing enclosure, which is useful
  • The wire you want is the small, difficult-to-reach red one -- don't be a dummy like me and hook it up to a different port and wonder why it doesn't work
  • Smushing the two halves back together is challenging, the camera module will probably fall out multiple times, and you'll end up with a sore neck after, but be patient
  • It can record files in 1min or 3min lengths, if you want anything longer you'll have to stitch them together yourself
  • I had a hard time staying on its wifi, since my phone kept trying to do CarPlay and you can only do one or the other
  • 4k files are big, a 3min file is about 500MB -- on a 128GB card that's about 12.8hrs (this card works fine)
  • You can set it to 2k instead, which should give you 4x the recording time
  • Fussy wifi and big files mean I don't want to use the app, I'll just put the card in my computer or maybe a use a lightning card reader -- just don't drop the tiny card into a vent
  • It'll record audio, but most of what I hear in the recording is just vibration
  • I didn't notice any rattling while driving
  • Haven't tested at night yet
  • I see that it recorded for 3min at 2am when the car was definitely parked and not plugged in... why'd it do that? (see attachment)
Here's an untouched video of me racing some San Francisco trolley cars on the way home from work today.

Click to expand...

All great points, nice to see your success with this camera! Also glad to see you got the right wire in the right hole. ;)

I didn't experience the camera module dropping out like I did with the Jabbra one, where the two housing halves were connected by the wire ribbon connector, that was very tricky. Probably my previous experience that made this one MUCH easier. I found that getting one half of the housing in place, then ensuring the wires were tucked while putting in the right side housing was pretty easy. But not so easy that I want to do it again!

My (slightly) earlier model only allowed 1 minute footage, the company just sent me an update to get to 3 min, involves install onto the card, and it does the rest. Not a big deal, but wish it was OTA.

For CarPlay interfering I only access the camera after I've turned off the car and opened the door. It connects every time that way, and downloads are not too slow to go. As I've said before, you really only need this thing to vouch for your (hopefully) lack of responsibility in an accident, or to just replay interesting actions on the road.

I've put a small towel over the gaping dashboard vortex when removing the card to ensure I don't fat-finger a card into oblivion (one time, shame on you, MINI. Twice, I'll never be fooled again. :confused: )
 
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