Anyone installed a dashcam?

[Guest001]

Got my DR500GW-HD (wifi) from 'dream-seller' on eBay (dream-seller | eBay), $329 for the 32gb model, delivered in 4 days. Its the proper English version (English Firmware, Manual and Box).

Have only played round with it in the living room so far, going to do the car install tomorrow. Very impressed so far. Has anyone thought about a more permanent power install? I have a Mk6 Golf, would the 'console' immediately above the rear vision mirror have a power supply linked to the ignition that the camera could be permanently wired into? (such as the sunroof?)

Go to Jaycar and buy one of the fuses with pigtails on them and fit it in the fusebox under the dash or wherever it is There is usually a couple of spares with power on only one side I just heatshrinked the other pin and has been ok for 18months.

You only need one fuse and some wire and a ciggy lighter socket All up about $15 worth and no cutting into car wiring needed.
Use an acc fuse with power only when ign on

Run the wire up the A pillar and across the front of the roof and you will never see it. See the pics of mine on earlier pages

I have used a power magic but not really necessary.

Pm Me if you want any help.

It also says not to cut the power lead so i havent but dont see why you couldnt.

Mine fits all nicely in the end of the dash.

Wouldnt mind a copy of the English software to play with as mine is Korean to see if I can make it understandable LOl

[Aurange_Tiguan]

I've had my BlackVue DR400 HD II installed with PowerMagic for a few months now. It's a great setup, but now that I've had it for a while I've noticed some aspects I'm not really happy about.

The BlackVue records in 1920 x 1080px with industry standard formats, etc, but one thing I never considered was the sensor or compression. The BlackVue records at 30fps, but the image quality is not the best. Compared with my GoPro Hero3 Black, or even White edition, the video sensor/compression of the BlackVue has an inferior image quality. To my dismay, the quality is so bad that most of the time I cannot read car plates of moving cars on the road; either driving in front of me or oncoming traffic. I'd have to be 2 or 3 metres away in good lighting conditions with a front-on aspect to read plate numbers.

There are plenty of incidents on my recent 6,000Km road trip where I wish I could identify the car plate of an idiot driver from the video, but although there may be enough pixels, the sensor quality or compression algorithm was inferior.

That said, the motion detection of the BlackVue was good. Even if I park next to a busy road, the camera doesn't seem to be activated by background movement. The maximum microSD card size is 32Gb, and at maximum resolution it equates to about 9hrs recording time before it loops over itself. It gets quite sensitive when driving at higher speeds and logs "Events" at the slightest bump in the road when going 100-110Km/h. Even adjusting X,Y,Z-axis sensitivity doesn't help much there. It's possibly because of windshield mount and the vibrations on the windshield at those speeds.

For now I'm thinking of augmenting the BlackVue with my GoPro camera to capture better image snapshots while the DVR takes in the context with GPS/speed logging.

[Transporter]

Thanks to the OP I jumped on the band wagon and bought drive cameras for all 6 our cars.

The first was Navman - the image quality seems to be very good from its 5MP sensor and it has everything like the Blackvue 400G except the GPS, but it has the 3" screen at the back and mini HDMI connector, also has the buttons, so you can take the picture or start manually recording protected file that won't be overrun in the loop recording. It lives in my T5 and my wife's Tiguan, however it's on a bit bigger side compared to Blackvue, so I will maybe get a smaller one for the Tig and use the Navman for the rear recording in my van. The size is something to consider here if it goes in a small car.

The second one, the Blackvue400G went in the RS Octavia and my daughters Tiguan - I'm yet to see the videos from them.

The 3rd one - iTronics Blackbox recorder with the 2 cameras and remote hidden box with SD card went in the Touareg, just finished installing it yesterday and will test drive it tomorrow. It has inbuilt low voltage battery disconnect and video out connector for the screen. It came with the external GPS antenaa.

Now, connecting the incident camera to the power in your car to make it work in the parking mode, it has to be ON when the key is out of the ignition and the car locked, so you need something to prevent excessive battery discharge. I use power magic that came with the Blackvue, but you can get Projecta Low Voltage Disconnect, there is 30A version that is well priced and you can adjust how low you want to get the voltage on the battery to drop and you can also connect other things to that little box, up to 30A load (there is also 50A version).

[Transporter]

The Power Magic Box installed in Golf MK6;



Works the magic.

[Guest001]

The Power Magic Box installed in Golf MK6;


Works the magic.

Nice and neat Wish there was that much room in the Passat.

Had to wrap mine in bubble wrap and fit it in above Fuse box so that it didnt rattle.

Also having two cameras I ran mine slightly differently.

The ACC wire goes to the front camera through a line fuse BEFORE connecting to the PM

The rear camera has the output from the PM.

The always on wire is run through a switch so I can turn it off when car is home in the garage and only turned on when driving or parking somewhere. Same as the Power Magic Pro but cost less to put switch in myself.

I have found that if you do a screen "CAPTURE" of the numberplate you want to see it shows up better than just pausing the video.
Or else using the full screen mode in the viewer

I usually take the SD card out and drop the whole "RECORD" folder onto a HDD and can play with it on there. I did that with our whole 3500mile trip in the USA

The magnify " feature " of the DR 500 is crap as it just magnifies a bit but I cant read the plates that it shows

Thanks to a member on here I have installed the English config files on the SD card and it now runs the English Blackvue Viewer but still the Korean voices which is not really a problem. Advantage is the settings pages are now in English as are the maps.
I dont however like the wide angle lens as much as the DR400. The WIFI works great and connects easily but is pretty hard to read on the small screen.

[Transporter]

Video sample from Navman dashcam

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60080395@N04/8556713336/

[Guest001]

I've had my BlackVue DR400 HD II installed with PowerMagic for a few months now. It's a great setup, but now that I've had it for a while I've noticed some aspects I'm not really happy about.

The BlackVue records in 1920 x 1080px with industry standard formats, etc, but one thing I never considered was the sensor or compression. The BlackVue records at 30fps, but the image quality is not the best. Compared with my GoPro Hero3 Black, or even White edition, the video sensor/compression of the BlackVue has an inferior image quality. To my dismay, the quality is so bad that most of the time I cannot read car plates of moving cars on the road; either driving in front of me or oncoming traffic. I'd have to be 2 or 3 metres away in good lighting conditions with a front-on aspect to read plate numbers.

There are plenty of incidents on my recent 6,000Km road trip where I wish I could identify the car plate of an idiot driver from the video, but although there may be enough pixels, the sensor quality or compression algorithm was inferior.

That said, the motion detection of the BlackVue was good. Even if I park next to a busy road, the camera doesn't seem to be activated by background movement. The maximum microSD card size is 32Gb, and at maximum resolution it equates to about 9hrs recording time before it loops over itself. It gets quite sensitive when driving at higher speeds and logs "Events" at the slightest bump in the road when going 100-110Km/h. Even adjusting X,Y,Z-axis sensitivity doesn't help much there. It's possibly because of windshield mount and the vibrations on the windshield at those speeds.

For now I'm thinking of augmenting the BlackVue with my GoPro camera to capture better image snapshots while the DVR takes in the context with GPS/speed logging.

You can turn compression off and reduce sensitivity. When watching video later If you pause video when vehicle is close I find that number plates are normally readable.. If you want to retain video for future use , heres what to do.
Take card out and put it in computer Open contents and go to "RECORD" folder Copy it to a HDD on computer and you can read it later in Blackvue viewer by changing the path above the video files.
We did that every night on a recent trip to the USA have all the roads we travelled retained for posterity.
Also if you turn the beep off when an event is recorded its less annoying. I have all lights and noises turned off.

[Guest001]

To go along with Transporters pics here is the DR400G vers 1 and the DR500g WIFI pics


400g



500G in same car on same mount Needs pointing down a bit I think



Note the extra width in the 500 compared to the 400

[sVWatt]

The quality looks equal, so it's mainly a wider lense and the new wifi features?

[Guest001]

The quality looks equal, so it's mainly a wider lense and the new wifi features?

Yep and on mine voice is Korean but no biggie. I prefer the 400 picture however Here is the 350 I have in the rear window as well It has no GPS though

[Guest001]

English firmware update for a Blackvue DR500GW WIFi

Here is a link with all the English stuff for you Am going to see if it will work in my Korean version shortly

DR500GW-HD - BlackVue Car Black Box with Built-in Wi-Fi

[ian]

English firmware update for a Blackvue DR500GW WIFi

Here is a link with all the English stuff for you Am going to see if it will work in my Korean version shortly

DR500GW-HD - BlackVue Car Black Box with Built-in Wi-Fi

Hey hillbilly you can change from Korean to English ,just follow the instructions , I have to do it every time I format my Dr400G HUD
Should be the same principle in the 500
Please follow the steps below.
1. Format miniSD card with recommended formatter.
2. Download v.1.040E
3. Run 1.040E setup with miniSD in reader
4. Change language on miniSD in folder: \blackvue\Config\version.bin from English to Korean using notepad or any other text editor.
5. Insert miniSD in camera, powerup, wait for upgrade to be completed. (on camera restart will be in Korean)
6. Power down, take out miniSD and put it back in PC. Change language from step 4 Korean back to English
7. Insert miniSD in camera and you will be greeted in English!

[Aurange_Tiguan]

You can turn compression off and reduce sensitivity.

I have compression as Normal, instead of High. There is no setting to make the compression any better. I've even tried making fps 15 instead of 30, in the remote chance this could affect frame quality. If I can't pause on a frame and recognise the characters on a number plate within 5 metres, there's little point of having the BlackVue for "peace of mind".

I've done what you did at the start of the year and used the BlackVue to record a 6,000Km roadtrip from Perth. It's great for that, but I'm still disappointed with the poor overall video quality. If I could attach some examples of poor quality I would.

[Guest001]

Hey hillbilly you can change from Korean to English ,just follow the instructions , I have to do it every time I format my Dr400G HUD
Should be the same principle in the 500
Please follow the steps below.
1. Format miniSD card with recommended formatter.
2. Download v.1.040E
3. Run 1.040E setup with miniSD in reader
4. Change language on miniSD in folder: \blackvue\Config\version.bin from English to Korean using notepad or any other text editor.
5. Insert miniSD in camera, powerup, wait for upgrade to be completed. (on camera restart will be in Korean)
6. Power down, take out miniSD and put it back in PC. Change language from step 4 Korean back to English
7. Insert miniSD in camera and you will be greeted in English!

Pittasoft told me the domestic Korean versions, which mine is have encrypted firmware which cant be changed I have managed to get the English viewer to work but have just tried to install the english firmware and it doesnt like it at all.

Have been on lots of Dashcam forums and no one has come up with a solution yet, including the Russians who seem to be the best hackers

The 500 is quite a bit different to the 400 as regards to sophistication of workings.

My 400 would just run whichever language was put into it but it is a couple of years old and before they got smarter and stopped that sort of thing

Your instructions definitely dont work Sorry

Have just installed firmware on a new SD card and followed your instructions and as expected it said that " The version information is different" and wont go any further. Will leave it for the Russians I think There is hacked firmware on the DASH CAM FORUM which give a better bitrate and supposedly better clarity http://forum.dashcamtalk.com/viewforum.php?f=6

Try it at your peril after reading the thread but only on English versions I think

[Guest001]

I have compression as Normal, instead of High. There is no setting to make the compression any better. I've even tried making fps 15 instead of 30, in the remote chance this could affect frame quality. If I can't pause on a frame and recognise the characters on a number plate within 5 metres, there's little point of having the BlackVue for "peace of mind".

I've done what you did at the start of the year and used the BlackVue to record a 6,000Km roadtrip from Perth. It's great for that, but I'm still disappointed with the poor overall video quality. If I could attach some examples of poor quality I would.

Upload them to photobucket and post the link U use the 4th box down under the pic to do it R/click on it and copy and paste it into a post

I have found it you capture a still out of the movie you can usually read a plate The magnify in the 500 is absolute crap

Look at my images on page 6 of this thread there isnt much wrong with them I reckon and they are 3 different cameras