Brian Davis wrote: ↑

August 18, 2018, 4:28 pm

I was in Central myself and tried to scan types etc. But would have helped if I'd remembered my glasses. Didn't see Transcend, but other makes, which included some well over 1000 baht.
After an accident about a month back, my car repaired and returned today, so straight in to S Auto to have, what I hope is a reasonable camera, fitted. Now just to try and figure all the settings! (Some woman was telling me, in Thai, too close and keep left etc. ) I was given a Kingston 32GB Grade 10 SD card, as part of the package. I tried to enquire if this was a good un', with all the copies about. He implied yes, so it MUST be ok.

Ring Road Powerbuy had a limited selection of cards yesterday. I think I might have a shop do the install on my next one. Where is S Auto located?

Just off the top of my head, the Transcend High Endurance 32 GB cost 890 baht. The 64 GB was 1,890 baht. Not cheap but I don't want to save a few baht and have the card fail when I most need it.

runrunshaw wrote: ↑

August 18, 2018, 6:20 pm

Where is S Auto located?

From the Prince Prajak monument/roundabout up from the University main campus, the place is about 250 metres up Srisuk Road on the right hand side. It's set back a little, but room to park out front, or drive right in.

Maybe I can ask a few more 'dinosaur' questions? I drove home with the new camera and all seemed fine. Incidentally, it was the camera offering driving advice, NOT my wife moaning away. The video was playing and I have to say that was distracting, although in time, I guess you get used to that. At home, wanting to check set up, menus etc. I pushed a few buttons and received almost an immediate "battery low" message and an icon, not normally there I think, appeared. Shortly after, I couldn't get anything to come up on the screen, although power light still showing. So, I presume the battery is 'dead'.

1. I've seen a lot of references about battery discharge. I presume these are referring to the camera's own battery, and NOT the car's?
2. Is it possible to recharge the camera battery outside of the car without causing a problem? e.g. connect to a computer USB port?
3. As above, driving home the video stayed on all the time, presumably using up more power. Is it usual to have the video on all the time, because really I've only a need to see that in the event of an incident? I think I understand the car's own battery should be charging the camera's battery at the same time. So. it's possible to turn off the actual video, whilst still recording?
4. I've also still to comprehend the protection offered when parked. So, with the ignition off, the system remains alive(using just the camera's own battery?) and recording would kick in, if someone came near, or tampered with the car? If you're off for a few hours, wouldn't that be a big drain on the camera battery alone? And worth it, if the camera only kicks in AFTER the event, may not catch the culprit, particularly at the side of the vehicle.

I think Youtube answers some of my other queries, otherwise I'll be back! Thanks.

It sounds like you have a combination GPS and camera, maybe a Garmin? If you have it direct wired to the vehicle battery, it should always have power when the car ignition is on. Some cars have a cigarette lighter that is always hot. That is a problem. Most car cigarette lighters go off when the ignition is off. In any case the device battery should never be discharged. I'd take it back to whoever installed the device and let them take care of it. I have an AC to DC 12 volt converter in the house that I use to program my GPS and car cameras before I put them in the vehicles. So, yes it can be charged in the house. The USB connection on a computer will power the unit but charging the unit will be very slow. Just not enough amperage.

Thanks for your reply.
The camera I bought is a Proof PF720. No GPS. So many cameras, so many views, I settled for one stocked at an outlet I knew, cost 4,500 baht, which I think is mid-range. I believe it's aluminium casing, which I thought would last longer in the sun and I wasn't certain of the cameras clipping on the rearview mirrors - just my preference, right or wrong.
I confess that, whilst I looked in a bit as the technician was fixing, I'm not certain where he wired to. I've never grasped electrics! There doesn't appear to be any new wires to the car battery itself(if that's what you meant). But my Honda has a 12V power outlet under the console, which I guess he used (wired at rear under console?), although there's nothing plugged into the socket itself.
As you say, the device battery should never be fully discharged and I don't think I messed up in my ignorance. In just trying to look at settings, menu etc. 'battery low' appeared immediately, then black screens not long after.
I asked about separate charging of the camera, in case that was something users chose to do. But, presumably that shouldn't normally be necessary, if the camera is working and installation correct.
Probably back at shop tomorrow and insist wife gets involved to translate/explain. Thanks.

Have the same unit. Decent and we got off Lazada.
https://goo.gl/4zgkhf

You hardwired. We run of the power plug or power bank, and latter being better.

The internal batteries on most dashcams are very small as standalone use is supposed to be quite short (see later). Assuming you disconnected and removed it from the car to check the settings, there's probably 5 minutes tops before low battery and not long after that it will shut off, as you experienced.

Most car 12V accessory outlets including cig lighter and USB outlets are switched in that power is off when the ignition is off. If you want to play around with the setup in the car, the ignition needs to be on (engine not running OK). If you want to do it in the house, then yes, the separate USB power cable that came with the camera can be used.

Looking at YouTube on your particular camera, it is a dual-camera unit so did the tech install a camera looking out the back window or mounted somewhere outside on the back of the car as well?

There may be an option to 'mute' the display if you find the live playback a distraction. However, you would need to ensure that there's some other way of knowing it's running, if there are no other status LED's visible.

My experience with my truck that has accessory outlets always live even with the key in my pocket, the dashcam is powered from the standard 12V cig lighter power and I have a dual outlet unit with a power switch that I got from Halfords in the UK (equivalent units can be had on lazada). So I manually turn off the camera after I park (also turns off the separate Garmin GPS). While it is plugged in and I am driving/recording, the dashcam battery is charging. When I turn it off, the small internal battery powers the G-Shock sensor which in the event of a bump, turns on the camera which records for about 30 seconds (programmable). That should record anything that hit from behind or backed into you and anything that did a side blow may be caught as well as they drove away ahead or behind.

Brian Davis wrote: ↑

August 19, 2018, 9:02 am

From the Prince Prajak monument/roundabout up from the University main campus, the place is about 250 metres up Srisuk Road on the right hand side. It's set back a little, but room to park out front, or drive right in.

Maybe I can ask a few more 'dinosaur' questions? I drove home with the new camera and all seemed fine. Incidentally, it was the camera offering driving advice, NOT my wife moaning away. The video was playing and I have to say that was distracting, although in time, I guess you get used to that. At home, wanting to check set up, menus etc. I pushed a few buttons and received almost an immediate "battery low" message and an icon, not normally there I think, appeared. Shortly after, I couldn't get anything to come up on the screen, although power light still showing. So, I presume the battery is 'dead'.

1. I've seen a lot of references about battery discharge. I presume these are referring to the camera's own battery, and NOT the car's?
2. Is it possible to recharge the camera battery outside of the car without causing a problem? e.g. connect to a computer USB port?
3. As above, driving home the video stayed on all the time, presumably using up more power. Is it usual to have the video on all the time, because really I've only a need to see that in the event of an incident? I think I understand the car's own battery should be charging the camera's battery at the same time. So. it's possible to turn off the actual video, whilst still recording?
4. I've also still to comprehend the protection offered when parked. So, with the ignition off, the system remains alive(using just the camera's own battery?) and recording would kick in, if someone came near, or tampered with the car? If you're off for a few hours, wouldn't that be a big drain on the camera battery alone? And worth it, if the camera only kicks in AFTER the event, may not catch the culprit, particularly at the side of the vehicle.

I think Youtube answers some of my other queries, otherwise I'll be back! Thanks.

0) on quite a few models the internal battery is generally just to preserve date and time not to run the camera, so the battery probably isn't dead.

1) it could be both the camera's battery and the car battery if the camera has been wired to be always on rather than switched with the ignition then it will be running the car battery down, you can buy an external battery for the camera that will usually give enough power for quite a few hours.

2) no real benefit to doing that, the battery is quite small. The only reason to o that is if you want to view the videos.

3) when the ignition is on the camera will use the vehicle power, if the display is bothersome you can probably turn it off but from a power usage it isn't using much power.

4) some cameras need to be powered on (vehicle power or external power) to record when the car is parked and go into a sleep mode, if the camera is woken by an impact it will record a few seconds before and after the impact.

If the display is distracting, there are number of high quality cameras that have no display. They are more compact and you use a smart phone to view the videos. Your rear view mirror hides the camera. I nearly bought one of those but finally decided on a camera with a display because just a glance tells me that the camera is properly aimed and recording. The no display cameras work well with capacitors because there is no power hungry display to use the power.

ADDED - I now have my new Yi Ultra Cam. I have it set up and in my wife's car. The resolution is outstanding. I was pleased to find out that a smart phone can view the video clips both in my truck and the car even though they are different model cams. The WIfI software is also easy to use.

Just ordered the Rexing V1P 2.4" Dual cam unit. It's being shipped to a buddy in the States who is coming over in two weeks. That saved me 4000THB (!) from the Lazada price. (there were two sellers selling it much cheaper, but they have only been on Lazada a short time and have a low 'positive seller rating' so I don't consider them trustworthy.

Also got a Transcend 128gb Class 10 micro SD card for 1000THB. I noticed some selling on Lazada for as low as 400 THB. Sounds too low--and the product ratings by verified buyers were coming in at one star, so those Transcend cards quite likely are bootlegs.

Thanks to Glalt for his OP and to everyone for the good info and recommendations for dash cams. I studied every unit mentioned here, and many others. I decided to mount a cam on the rear windshield (considering how people drive around here, I should probably get a four cam unit!), so that narrowed it down considerably, and eliminated some dash cams I really would have liked to purchase.

I'm not a taxi or Uber driver, so getting a unit where the second cam only shows the "cabin" view, didn't make sense to me.

The only disappointment was not getting a unit that has WIFI. There are very few dash cams with two cams AND Wifi. The only ones I found in the States sell for about 13,500 THB---too expensive.

Yes, thanks all for the replies. Sometimes people need a helping hand in their desire to understand and/or double-check. It's a lot clearer now with the information provided, but I will go back to the installer to ascertain just how he wired the thing. The camera appeared to be running ok today, but I've still to sit down and check settings, playback and try indoors with the computer. And yes, Tamada, a dual camera, the small one fitted in the rear window (I've a Honda B-RV, not pickup), which I would imagine is preferable to outside and subject to the elements and grime.

Double post deleted

The backup camera on my Isuzu is in the tail gate. Every time it rains, I have to clean the lens. It gets very dirty. Based on that, I sure wouldn't recommend a rear facing car cam outside the vehicle.

Just another idea. The first time I upgraded the camera in my wife's car I put the old one in the rear window. It worked OK but I had replaced it because it was no longer to be trusted. It worked for a while then it totally died. It seems like another stand alone camera for the rear may be better than worrying about the dual image on the main cam.

glalt wrote: ↑

August 20, 2018, 2:37 pm

Just another idea. The first time I upgraded the camera in my wife's car I put the old one in the rear window. It worked OK but I had replaced it because it was no longer to be trusted. It worked for a while then it totally died. It seems like another stand alone camera for the rear may be better than worrying about the dual image on the main cam.

I have an SUV. Not sure it would be very practical to put a stand alone cam on the rear door. With a dual cam, you can see both images on the screen in front of you at the same time and see the LED is on and it's recording. Without eyes in the back of my head, it would be a bit inconvenient to have to monitor the rear stand alone.

The second cam on dual units is always small, and generally, of a lower resolution (although there are some dash cams with both cams having the same resolution). Seems like twice as much trouble to have two units instead of one. Also, you'd need two SD cards, whereas the Rexing I bought only needs one. But if you have an extra camera lying around, then I guess, why not?

I have no experience with two channel cameras so I don't really know how they work. As for the second stand alone camera, I could see in the rear view mirror that the recording light was blinking along with the image. Of course I couldn't see the image other than to know that it was on. Whatever works for different people. Since my wife's accident, I wouldn't be without a good car cam.

runrunshaw wrote: ↑

August 20, 2018, 2:58 pm

I have an SUV. Not sure it would be very practical to put a stand alone cam on the rear door. With a dual cam, you can see both images on the screen in front of you at the same time and see the LED is on and it's recording. Without eyes in the back of my head, it would be a bit inconvenient to have to monitor the rear stand alone.

The second cam on dual units is always small, and generally, of a lower resolution (although there are some dash cams with both cams having the same resolution). Seems like twice as much trouble to have two units instead of one. Also, you'd need two SD cards, whereas the Rexing I bought only needs one. But if you have an extra camera lying around, then I guess, why not?

Outside lenses get dirty, especially at this time of year but the second dash cam lens can be mounted inside the back window instead. The problem with most SUV's is that although the rear door glass looks big, the glass available for lens mounting with a good, undistorted view from the inside is much smaller.

The second lens on a dual cam setup is low res but both video streams feed onto the same sd card on the one, front-mounted camera. The falling prices of high-speed/capacity sd cards made dual-lens dash cams cheaper and thus more common. The camera software writes the 2 separate video streams concurrently with a file for the front view and another file for the back view. Well that's how my current ~2300 baht one works.

I did have a Russian-made dual camera where the camera software formatted the sd card and also installed a bespoke video player on the sd card. If you placed the sd card in a computer, you only saw the executable and no video files. However, launch the inbuilt player and all the video files were there and the player was really quite good as it recorded g-forces on a rolling graph and mapped the gps info too. However, it was glitchy and after it irreparably screwed up a couple of sd cards, I ditched it.

Thanks for all the useful information.

Still can't make my bloody mind up though!

I had an 'intimate moment' with Samlor last week. Me, stopped at the fire daeng for 10 seconds or more, then I heard the long squealing of brakes being applied.

He managed to avoid running right into the back of the p/u, & scraped the nearside wing, quite deep.

He was completely soused in lao, despite his 'my mau' protestations.

There were two witnesses, & after Mrs F bent his ear out of shape, I could see he would have no insurance, money or anything of value to offset the body repair.

Didn't call the police, didn't see what was to be gained, & in way, I felt some compassion for him & his miserable existence.

As I didn't make a police report, & didn't want my premium to rise, decided to pay for the repair myself.

Went to Ford later, 5000baht, 3 days repair time.

Yea, I know a camera wouldn't have changed anything, but at 05:42, the new bag of coffee I bought yesterday, has stimulated the few Neurons I have left.

Enjoy your day ....

I had a similar situation. A motorbike decided to pass me on the left. What he didn't see was a concrete abutment ahead. He made a good decision for him but bad for me. Rather that hit the abutment, he sideswiped me. The amazing thing was that he never went down. The abutment kept him up. Same deal, no money and no insurance. I too didn't bother with the police.

oh , those tuktuk guys are at times frightening. reeking of rice whiskey. no working lights on
their vehicle. a child's bicycle could stop faster

Two more near things driving the last two days. Morning journey to school on highway and a car with Laos plates (brown/copper SUV?, maybe others saw him?) absolutely roared down the road at a crazy speed behind me. Anyone would think it was a motor circuit, rather than morning rush hour. I was just about to move to overtake, when fortunately I saw him coming behind me. He swerved and chose to zoom by in the inside lane. Then again, on lesser road coming home evening, similar situation with two kids on a motorbike, who ‘came from nowhere’ and there was traffic coming the other way. Utter madness. One has to have eyes everywhere in this stupidity.
The point of above is to urge me more to understand my car cam. But I’m struggling still.
Any thoughts here?
I get nothing appearing on the computer when plugging in the USB lead from a switched-on camera. Usually, of course, there’s a message pop up to indicate an external connection. Dodgy USB lead?
A micro SD card adaptor and a separate slotted USB plug in works. The files are there (normal and incident) but MOST do not play (perhaps 30 files and perhaps one early, one late plays). Do I have a codec computer issue? (I haven’t yet mastered and it appears difficult to playback just on the camera itself).
The SD card appears to fill up quickly. Perhaps an hour and half return journey and it seems nearly full. A Kingston 16 Gb supplied by the shop. In the computer, it shows about 15 Gb capacity, but could that reading be misleading?
So, as I understand it, a smaller memory card would probably be fairly full all the time, but with looping, would still record the latest file, at the cost of deleting the earliest one? But most of my files aren’t playing – at least not on the computer. When looping occurs, does an older file get deleted, or the detail remain, but with the video element ’blanked’ – in effect, replaced by a later one.
And, maybe a further daft question! If one has a dual camera, the front capable of 1080P full HD, but the rear of only 720P, what setting should you set up on the camera? I’m presuming it should be 1080 (to make use of the superior quality on the front) and that he rear still functions, but at a lesser quality.
Sorry if this sounds so naïve. I was expecting to have an easy to use device. Perhaps it is and it’s just me! Any patient people out there?