Blackvue 650 (Dashcam) Group Buy for $310, including 32 Gig card and Power Magic Pro

[Andyw2100]

I tried posting the link but it said it needed moderators approval??

That's probably because you don't have very many posts here yet.

From Amazon review of the 650-
Update #1: I was able to install a 64GB SanDisk Extreme Micro SDXC Memory card. However, using the SD Card Formatter program as described...

Thanks for posting.

This is a picture from the article I mentioned:

I really don't think we have much to worry about if we stick to the cards recommended in the article. The article, as you may guess from the image I posted, specifically said to avoid the card the Amazon poster was having trouble with.

Here is the direct link to that article: 64GB Micro SD cards for Blackvue DR650GW-2CH,DR600GW and DR750LW-CH (Page 1) / The Best 64GB Micro SD for Blackvue DR650GW-2CH,DR600GW and DR750LW-CH Dashcams / Blackvue UK Forum

From this point forward let's try to keep discussion of what cards will and won't work with the Blackvue 650 to a more appropriate thread, and keep this one for discussion of the group buy.

 

[AnOutsider]

I'm in for 2

 

[pmoa]

Looks like we are all onboard!

 

[efusco]

Can someone please elaborate on the Power Magic Pro a bit? This seems a pretty good deal (no mention of shipping costs yet though), but the link to the other crowd funding site is a bit less if you forego the PMP. I understand it gives an option to turn the Blackvue off or on and does some sort of ability to leave the camera on continuously (ie park mode)...anything else? Any other Tesla users that have and any that don't have it that would have done something different?

 

[Gr8pursuit]

Can someone please elaborate on the Power Magic Pro a bit? This seems a pretty good deal (no mention of shipping costs yet though), but the link to the other crowd funding site is a bit less if you forego the PMP. I understand it gives an option to turn the Blackvue off or on and does some sort of ability to leave the camera on continuously (ie park mode)...anything else? Any other Tesla users that have and any that don't have it that would have done something different?

I have the Power Magic Pro and it allows me to use the switch to turn the dashcam on or off so it does not go into park mode. I don't need it recording sometimes when I'm parked in my garage as it is very motion sensitive and will activate recording constantly. If you go in or out of your garage all day or your camera faces the street from inside your garage then it will record every time a car goes by. No real big deal but remember these memory cards can only write over so many times and do wear out. You can of course pull out the power cable from the dashcam to turn it off but it's easier to wire in the PowerMPro. PM me if anyone needs any further info on PowerMagicPro.

 

[efusco]

add me to the buy

 

[Griffinlair]

Add me too

 

[MichiganMS]

Please add me to the buy!

 

[Andyw2100]

It looks like we easily have more than the five purchases the rep required, so I'll plan to give him a call tomorrow (Friday) to work out the details and ask about the possibility of a "No Power Magic Pro" option, and hopefully will then be able to post his number and extension so people can start calling and taking advantage of the group buy pricing right away. I don't know how long he'll leave the pricing open, so please be prepared to monitor this thread for details tomorrow, and please be prepared to call tomorrow to place your order. I'd hope he'd be able to accept orders for at least a few days, but he may not be able to or want to, for simplicity's sake.

Stay tuned.

OK. Here's the scoop.

I just hung up with the rep, James. I asked about a discount for not taking the Power Magic Pro. That's not going to be possible. I also tried to get them to sweeten the deal a bit because of the higher number of orders we're going to have, but unfortunately they can't. They can't even pick up the shipping, unless we shipped to one address (which of course we can't do) but he did confirm that the USPS Priority Mail shipping option is in the $6 range.

The rep's name is James, and you can reach him at 800 764 1028, ext 725. Reference the Tesla Motors Club deal for the Blackvue 650, and he will know what you are talking about. The price is $310, and includes the 32 gig card, and the Power Magic Pro.

He will honor the $310 price for today only, and he leaves at 4PM Eastern time today, so call as soon as you can. If he is taking an order you'll get his voicemail. Leave him a message with your name and number and why you're calling, and he will call you back, of course. If he doesn't get to everyone today he will honor the price when he does call you back.

There is a chance he will honor the price longer than just today, but he is not committing to that. Do not dawdle. Call now.

Interestingly in the last day or two Rear View Safety modified their package to no longer include the Power Magic Pro in the $349.99 price, so we had miscommunicated about that yesterday when I referred to the package on the website, but they --ARE-- including the Power Magic Pro for the $310 price, in spite of the miscommunication.

I have placed my order. Have at it!

 

[jwon]

OK. Here's the scoop.

I just hung up with the rep, James. I asked about a discount for not taking the Power Magic Pro. That's not going to be possible. I also tried to get them to sweeten the deal a bit because of the higher number of orders we're going to have, but unfortunately they can't. They can't even pick up the shipping, unless we shipped to one address (which of course we can't do) but he did confirm that the USPS Priority Mail shipping option is in the $6 range.

The rep's name is James, and you can reach him at 800 764 1028, ext 725. Reference the Tesla Motors Club deal for the Blackvue 650, and he will know what you are talking about. The price is $310, and includes the 32 gig card, and the Power Magic Pro.

He will honor the $310 price for today only, and he leaves at 4PM Eastern time today, so call as soon as you can. If he is taking an order you'll get his voicemail. Leave him a message with your name and number and why you're calling, and he will call you back, of course. If he doesn't get to everyone today he will honor the price when he does call you back.

There is a chance he will honor the price longer than just today, but he is not committing to that. Do not dawdle. Call now.

Interestingly in the last day or two Rear View Safety modified their package to no longer include the Power Magic Pro in the $349.99 price, so we had miscommunicated about that yesterday when I referred to the package on the website, but they --ARE-- including the Power Magic Pro for the $310 price, in spite of the miscommunication.

I have placed my order. Have at it!

Thanks! Just placed my order as well. After calling the number, there was no place to put the extension, so I just pressed "1" for Sales, and it went directly to James. Super nice guy and knew exactly what I was talking about.

 

[JPP]

OK. Here's the scoop.

I just hung up with the rep, James. I asked about a discount for not taking the Power Magic Pro. That's not going to be possible. I also tried to get them to sweeten the deal a bit because of the higher number of orders we're going to have, but unfortunately they can't. They can't even pick up the shipping, unless we shipped to one address (which of course we can't do) but he did confirm that the USPS Priority Mail shipping option is in the $6 range.

The rep's name is James, and you can reach him at 800 764 1028, ext 725. Reference the Tesla Motors Club deal for the Blackvue 650, and he will know what you are talking about. The price is $310, and includes the 32 gig card, and the Power Magic Pro.

He will honor the $310 price for today only, and he leaves at 4PM Eastern time today, so call as soon as you can. If he is taking an order you'll get his voicemail. Leave him a message with your name and number and why you're calling, and he will call you back, of course. If he doesn't get to everyone today he will honor the price when he does call you back.

There is a chance he will honor the price longer than just today, but he is not committing to that. Do not dawdle. Call now.

Interestingly in the last day or two Rear View Safety modified their package to no longer include the Power Magic Pro in the $349.99 price, so we had miscommunicated about that yesterday when I referred to the package on the website, but they --ARE-- including the Power Magic Pro for the $310 price, in spite of the miscommunication.

I have placed my order. Have at it!

Just spoke with James--done.

BTW, with respect to the use/lack of a PowerMagic Pro and some folks having issues with the Park Mode on the Blackvue, you need to set the firmware in the Blackvue to your desired level of sensitivity to activate recording in Park Mode. If your car is outside or in a garage with lots of motion/activity, the camera will begin recording. Just crank the sensitivity down so the motion the camera sees in Park Mode needs to be relatively close to your S/the camera lens. Then you should get very few 'spurious' recordings while parked. Again, I do not have a PowerMagic Pro in my setup, and have never had a 12v issue, due to the way the Model S 12v system is designed/engineered. BTW, I did have a preventative 12v battery replacement at 1 year to replace the original 'problematic' battery, and no warnings or issues before or since. I for sure want to have my Blackvue record in Park Mode, and do not want to have to remember to power it up/down. It showed me when another individual in the garage I park at unplugged the J1772 while I was charging to charge up her car--nice video evidence. If for some inexplicable reason you need to switch off your Blackvue, yes, you can just disconnect the power cable from the camera (no biggie). The new 650 is for my wife's new S (see below) and I will not need/use the PMP that James is bundling (...I will probably eBay it). YMMV.

Andy--many thanks for putting together this deal.

 

[Andyw2100]

Thanks! Just placed my order as well. After calling the number, there was no place to put the extension, so I just pressed "1" for Sales, and it went directly to James. Super nice guy and knew exactly what I was talking about.

You can just enter the extension, without being given the option to do so. (I did earlier, and it worked.) I don't believe James has a personalized greeting though. I had left him a voicemail message before he got in today, and was not 100% certain I had actually left it for him. (I discovered later I had.)

Glad you reached James and placed your order.

 

[JPP]

Can someone please elaborate on the Power Magic Pro a bit? This seems a pretty good deal (no mention of shipping costs yet though), but the link to the other crowd funding site is a bit less if you forego the PMP. I understand it gives an option to turn the Blackvue off or on and does some sort of ability to leave the camera on continuously (ie park mode)...anything else? Any other Tesla users that have and any that don't have it that would have done something different?

See my comments in another thread...PMP not really necessary IMHO, certainly not to protect the 12v battery (required for an ICE vehicle). If you adjust the Park Mode sensitivity level in the Blackvue firmware, you will reduce 'spurious' recordings.

 

[Fezzik]

Thanks. I ordered it!

 

[swaltner]

Order placed

 

[Andyw2100]

Andy--many thanks for putting together this deal.

You're welcome!

BTW, with respect to the use/lack of a PowerMagic Pro and some folks having issues with the Park Mode on the Blackvue, you need to set the firmware in the Blackvue to your desired level of sensitivity to activate recording in Park Mode. If your car is outside or in a garage with lots of motion/activity, the camera will begin recording. Just crank the sensitivity down so the motion the camera sees in Park Mode needs to be relatively close to your S/the camera lens. Then you should get very few 'spurious' recordings while parked. Again, I do not have a PowerMagic Pro in my setup, and have never had a 12v issue, due to the way the Model S 12v system is designed/engineered. BTW, I did have a preventative 12v battery replacement at 1 year to replace the original 'problematic' battery, and no warnings or issues before or since. I for sure want to have my Blackvue record in Park Mode, and do not want to have to remember to power it up/down. It showed me when another individual in the garage I park at unplugged the J1772 while I was charging to charge up her car--nice video evidence. If for some inexplicable reason you need to switch off your Blackvue, yes, you can just disconnect the power cable from the camera (no biggie). The new 650 is for my wife's new S (see below) and I will not need/use the PMP that James is bundling (...I will probably eBay it). YMMV.

So since we're getting the Power Magic Pro units anyway, would there be any downside to using them in the installation? I'm having my unit installed professionally. I had thought the PMP would, among other things, make the installation simpler for the installer. But I do like what you just wrote about not having to think about powering the unit on or off, even in my garage. Of course I could still leave it powered on all the time using the PMP, so I'm just wondering if there is a downside to using it, other than the expense of the unit itself.

Thanks!

 

[JPP]

Andy--no real downside risk with the PMP. However, installing the PMP might add some complexity to the install, plus finding a place to hide the PMP itself. For my Blackvue 550 install (no PMP), I needed to just connect 2 wires (red/black) from the OEM Blackvue power cable (I cut off the cigarette lighter plug, kept the in-line fuse holder) to the always on 12v in my headliner under the microphone grille. Power cable ran under the headliner, exited under the inside rear view mirror mount, and a short hop to the right hand side of the front Blackvue unit. No fooling with the firewall, fuse box, add-a-fuse, etc. Now, that said, once we take delivery of my wife's 70D, I will need to scout out what is available under the microphone grille/headliner to see what 12v options are available. Might actually need to find 12v somewhere else (like the OBDC port).

 

[efusco]

Thanks! Just placed my order as well. After calling the number, there was no place to put the extension, so I just pressed "1" for Sales, and it went directly to James. Super nice guy and knew exactly what I was talking about.

I just punched in 725 when the options came up and it range a few times then went to VM.

 

[Andyw2100]

Andy--no real downside risk with the PMP. However, installing the PMP might add some complexity to the install, plus finding a place to hide the PMP itself. For my Blackvue 550 install (no PMP), I needed to just connect 2 wires (red/black) from the OEM Blackvue power cable (I cut off the cigarette lighter plug, kept the in-line fuse holder) to the always on 12v in my headliner under the microphone grille. Power cable ran under the headliner, exited under the inside rear view mirror mount, and a short hop to the right hand side of the front Blackvue unit. No fooling with the firewall, fuse box, add-a-fuse, etc. Now, that said, once we take delivery of my wife's 70D, I will need to scout out what is available under the microphone grille/headliner to see what 12v options are available. Might actually need to find 12v somewhere else (like the OBDC port).

Thanks.

Perhaps I will leave it up to the installer, with the understanding that I want the installation to be as clean as possible. I am aware of the power available under the microphone grille, and had considered using it, but I worry about what would happen if Tesla comes up with a use for that connection in the future, as I wouldn't be able to rewire the Blackvue myself.

I also realize I'm now violating my own request to keep this thread for the discussion of the group buy, but I think that's OK, as the details on that are pretty much wrapped up. People can obviously continue discussion related to the group buy, but I don't think talking about stuff like this too would be particularly detrimental to the thread at this point.

- - - Updated - - -

I just punched in 725 when the options came up and it range a few times then went to VM.

Yes, I had posted that very shortly after jwon posted about there not being an option to enter an extension:

You can just enter the extension, without being given the option to do so. (I did earlier, and it worked.) I don't believe James has a personalized greeting though. I had left him a voicemail message before he got in today, and was not 100% certain I had actually left it for him. (I discovered later I had.)

 

[Xpress]

Called and got an answering service - left a message for James.