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Blackvue or like dash cams please step in. Few questions

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#41
Indpowr said:
I have a forum vendor able to install but few questions.

1. Year you have
2. Any issue with battery dying?
3. Any tesla warranty issues?
4. Does the big battery charge the small one if it starts to drain?

I do not want to run into any issues of we go this way. We use the car daily and have eas so do not want any issues.
Click to expand...
1. Dec 2015
2. my 12V battery was replaced ~14months under warranty, after getting a dash warning. Car was still driveable however.
But if you search the forum you'll see 12V replacements every 1-2yrs is not uncommon for the Model S.
3. No. As others have said, the service centre (usually) unplugs the dashcam when they're doing work
4. Yes

my 650GW-2ch is powered by constant-on 12V behind the microphone grille. I have parking mode enabled on the dashcam (but I park overnight in a dark garage at home so it's not recording actively 24hrs/day). Note the 650-2ch power consumption is only 5W max while recording
 
#43
#49
cjesurun said:
Another questions-is there any advantage to packaging the memory in 2 minute packages instead of three? Any advantage in recording time? Also if the car is garaged in a dark space is the recorder using up space on the chip?
Click to expand...
I have mine set to record 3min clips - ideas being fewer clips to look through if I'm looking for something where I don't know the exact time it happened (I have a 128Gb card so it stores lots of video). But really just a personal preference, if you're using the desktop viewer app it doesn't really matter since you can view sequential clips easily and quickly.

If parking mode is enabled and it is completely dark* (eg inside a closed home garage) it doesn't record anything. *however the video-motion detection in parking mode is VERY sensitive even if he setting is turned way way down. Almost anything moving in the field of view in parking mode will trigger a recording - eg if you're parked outside, passing cars, wind blowing trees, pedestrians, or even raindrops on the windshield shimmering under a streetlight on an otherwise pitch-dark street at night- these will all trigger parking mode recordings. IMO this over-sensitivity is one of the negative things about the 650.
 
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#50
I haven't found any dashcam that records well in dark. At night, you can read the license plate if the car is within a few feet from the camera.

Also, while I am happy with blackvue as "about as good as it gets for dashcams" .. the security cameras around my house are crystal clear in the dark. So it's not a technical limitation ~ just that nobody cares to make a good dashcam.

Here is what I'd like to see in a dashcam.
- 360 recording
- Excellent night time visibility
- 4k
- blackvue style download/view on wifi
- a sim card slot so the camera can have it's own LTE.
- always on
- motion sensor

Barring the fact that the perfect dashcam is yet to be made, I'm quite happy with my blackvue, and would not want to drive around without a dashcam.

One thing about blackvue - I've set mine to record in 5 min clips.
You can filter front/rear/parking modes etc. and the files are numbered by time/date.
So it is very easy to find whichever clip I was looking for. I see not a lot of advantage in creating lots of smaller files.
 
#52
1. 2013 & 2017 (see sig)
2. No
3. None. I don't know whether they unplug in service because never bothered to check, it came back plugged in.
4. Yes

Both BV 650 (W and S), wired to the unused (in the USA) alarm power connector in the microphone grill. Self install, took about 2 hrs the second time around to route everything under the roof, through the rubber boot to the tailgate and in the tailgate.

It recently came handy when a driver threw some coins at the Tesla on a highway chipping the windshield, got him on camera including license plate and the coins. The insurance company said without the video they'd just file it as a comprehensive claim. The ball is in the cops' court at the moment.
 
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#53
I have installed many BlackVue Cameras, both the legacy 650 - 2 CH and the new cloud based - DR650S-1CH (I have bought and installed a total of 14) installed them in 7 different cars - no power magic pro's (not necessary). The rear camera on the DR650S-2CH is 720P and useless - don't get it.

Cars installed: 2014 Tesla P85+, 2016 Tesla 90D, 2013 Tesla P85, 2014 Mazda Miata, 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser, 2014 Ford Fusion Hybrid, and my neighbors Toyota truck (Tacoma I think).

Don't get the power magic pro - its just a profit center for the seller - its a total POS (30 gauge wire with - complete garbage).... If you are getting charged $400 for install - that is abusive. $150 to $200 is excessive - it took me 5 minutes to install the wiring in my FJ Crusier - it took me longer to get the double stick tape sticker off the camera mounting bracket.

My setup is twin DR650s-1CH (one front and one rear). cool thing about the Tesla is this is a power port in the rear on the same side as the subwoofer that is not used. I bought a $3 power port and and just plugged in the supplied power supply from the Blackvue and hide it under the molding... no big deal - in the front I found a constant hot next to the driver side accelerator pedal - you will find four 15 amp fuses in a fuse box if you pull the kick panel touching the center console... then used a
5x ATM Fuse Mini Adapter tap Dual Circuit Adapter Holder For Car Auto Truck Hot | eBay to daisy chain off that port for power - then installed my cigarette lighter plug (power port)
Amazon.com: SMAKN® 12V 5A Female Car Cigar Cigarette Lighter Socket Plug Connector Adapter: Home Audio & Theater

Easy Peasy... it takes longer to work the software setup
 
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#54
Erik on youtube posts a pretty good video on how to do it. He even lists all the things you need to buy on amazon. Im a total noob when it comes to these things and yet it only took me 45 minutes to install. ironically the splicing to access the 12v power under the microphone grille was the most complicated part.

 
#55
I had Calibred Customs (calibredcustoms.com) install my Blackvue dash cams and they were very professional priced fairly. After one of my car washes, it stopped connecting to wifi and I couldn't get it back so called Johnny, owner of Calibred Customs, who came out to the house the next day and fixed it. His customer service is as good as it gets; I recommend highly.
 
#56
Xenoilphobe said:
I have installed many BlackVue Cameras, both the legacy 650 - 2 CH and the new cloud based - DR650S-1CH (I have bought and installed a total of 14) installed them in 7 different cars - no power magic pro's (not necessary). The rear camera on the DR650S-2CH is 720P and useless - don't get it.

Cars installed: 2014 Tesla P85+, 2016 Tesla 90D, 2013 Tesla P85, 2014 Mazda Miata, 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser, 2014 Ford Fusion Hybrid, and my neighbors Toyota truck (Tacoma I think).

Don't get the power magic pro - its just a profit center for the seller - its a total POS (30 gauge wire with - complete garbage).... If you are getting charged $400 for install - that is abusive. $150 to $200 is excessive - it took me 5 minutes to install the wiring in my FJ Crusier - it took me longer to get the double stick tape sticker off the camera mounting bracket.

My setup is twin DR650s-1CH (one front and one rear). cool thing about the Tesla is this is a power port in the rear on the same side as the subwoofer that is not used. I bought a $3 power port and and just plugged in the supplied power supply from the Blackvue and hide it under the molding... no big deal - in the front I found a constant hot next to the driver side accelerator pedal - you will find four 15 amp fuses in a fuse box if you pull the kick panel touching the center console... then used a
5x ATM Fuse Mini Adapter tap Dual Circuit Adapter Holder For Car Auto Truck Hot | eBay to daisy chain off that port for power - then installed my cigarette lighter plug (power port)
Amazon.com: SMAKN® 12V 5A Female Car Cigar Cigarette Lighter Socket Plug Connector Adapter: Home Audio & Theater

Easy Peasy... it takes longer to work the software setup
Click to expand...


The going rate for labor around the SF Bay area is in the $400 range from what we found with experienced Tesla installers.

We have a 650S-2ch and while the 720 rear camera isn't ideal, it does allow both cameras to record continuously and save every second unlike as I understand a popular competitor's dashcam with 1080 on both camera isn't capable of doing. What good is it to have a truncated accident clip if that's the whole purpose of having the dashcam, seeing the car approaching and leaving that hit you. We bought our dashcam over accident/vandalism concerns and leave it On the whole time. No problems doing so. Just remember to do your card maintenance...first of month probably a good way to remember. Did upgrade to the 128Gb capacity so we have more of a chance to save off any incidents before it rewrites.

Back to the 720 rear camera, it still provides a lot of detail on the vehicle if hit from behind, like make, color, etc. Situations will be different but you could get hit from behind and have the car turn left or right without passing you to get recorded on your front 1080 camera. The 720 rear camera video would be enough to give to the police or to your insurance company. With 2 separate 1080 1ch front cameras used, one in front and one in back, the big disadvantage is not having them supported in software for viewing together. Also increases the cost over the 2ch and really not sure the 1080 will provide you with more useful info in the long run. Sunlight, reflections off surrounding things, shadows, and the fact that many cars at least here in California don't even have front plates displayed to record on a rear view camera, just make me question the value of a dual 1ch set up.
 
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#57
It's not the much more and it's a less complicated install so I am happy we did this all our cars. (DashCam store had a sale - I bought them with 128GB cards also). Also I am doing the installs, so I'm saving the $400 in labor for a better quality system.

Watch some 720P video at night in the rain or with sunlight glare and see if you can figure out the make of a car, I don't want to take a chance. But my primary reason for going with 1080P rear is we have some punks in our neighborhood breaking into cars and I want to post the video on our neighborhood Facebook site so we can catch the preps... Also in Virginia we are required to have front plates, so I can now read them.. both my daughter and wife have been rear ended as well (nothing serious, $1700 in damage to the Tesla and $700 to the Ford Fusion Hybrid), neither car had cameras - but now they both have 1080P Blackvues DR650S-1CH front and rear.

The DR650S is cloud based and it reaches my wireless access point from in front of our home - so everything is stored in the cloud and I can view live if I want, I haven't had issues with knowing which camera is where as each camera is named Tesla 90D front Tesla 90D rear etc.. etc... and are date/time/location stamped.

I love it - also caught the bastard who has been letting his dog crap on my front yard!!!!!

Here is the link to the constant hot in the trunk area 12v constant in rear trunk
 
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#60
I know the cloud feature on the Blackvue has some nice options but what we don't like about it and won't use it as a result is that Pittasoft loves to show what I think they call car clusters. By agreeing to use the cloud software (separate from using just the camera software) you let your car be an anonymous bird icon on the map. Not very anonymous if you see people's cars parked in their driveways and can see when they leave their house and learn their driving routine. I've seen some people turn off their cloud tracking while driving and suppose you can do this before you get home so your bird icon doesn't show up at your house but kind of a PITA and you might forget about to do it or forget to turn back on when you've left your house. While it might be "fun" to watch the bird icons moving on the map we don't see the point of producing it on a map for everyone to see.

Without the cloud software enabled you would have to pull out both micro cards for a 1ch system or log onto each wifi address to retrieve the info with two cameras when you wanted to view footage. Getting video off only one card/camera right now is kind of slow transferring over our home wifi which reaches the car when parked outside. One of the things we do like about the dual channel set up is you can get an image of one camera and have the second one as a PIP with both time synchronized together.

The camera's not perfect and other cameras have their own issues too so it's really a matter of evaluating what works best for you. Pittasoft needs to get someone to rework some of their software to improve their algorithms on auto exposure for low light and improve their file transfer rate when uploading video files over wifi. Transfers seem usually slow given the file size. We also experience some annoying broken spinning circle when trying to watch videos live on our phone for example. All that said we do have a lot we like about their camera but definitely see room for improvement. Wish they were here in the U.S. instead of Korea. Some info on the camera is in the manual but a lot of questions and answers covering important topics can be found in different areas of their website, like formatting the micro card for 64 and 128Gb, only if you know where to look. Which is why it's a good idea to buy your camera from a reliable source that can handle questions or do an RMA.
 
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