Owners with Dash Cams

[theslimshadyist]

Hi,

I see a lot of you owners have dash cams installed and wanted to ask, do you run them full time whether you are driving or parked? Stupid question but video consumes a LOT of data so where in the heck are you storing all of this information? Even with a 256GB microsd card, you can eat through that pretty quickly. I know because my video cameras at home sure as hell do. Surely it isn't up in the cloud, that would cost too much $ over a cellular data connection.

Anyways, just curious as I haven't even considered getting a dash cam.

 

[kirkbauer]

The good ones have parking mode where they only record when there is motion. It records all the time when you are driving. They delete old clips to make room for new clips as needed. I have a Blackvue BTW.

 

[rickrickrick]

Hi,

I see a lot of you owners have dash cams installed and wanted to ask, do you run them full time whether you are driving or parked? Stupid question but video consumes a LOT of data so where in the heck are you storing all of this information? Even with a 256GB microsd card, you can eat through that pretty quickly. I know because my video cameras at home sure as hell do. Surely it isn't up in the cloud, that would cost too much $ over a cellular data connection.

Anyways, just curious as I haven't even considered getting a dash cam.

Local storage on a 128GB card, recording full time while driving but only on a motion event while parked.

 

[f-stop]

I've had a Blackvue 650-2ch w/ 128GB memory card in my Model S for a couple months now. It is powered by constant 12V source and I have parking mode enabled, so it triggers a 1min recording (@ 3.2Mbps) while parked if it detects motion in its field of view. For regular mode while driving, it records in 3min segments (8.4Mbps).

When parked out in public on the streets or public parking lots this means it's often continuously triggered by cars or people passing by, even on the lowest motion setting (seems to be overly sensitive). However I don't have a regular daily commute nor do I drive the car a lot of miles/day so other times it's in my dark garage (ie not recording). Overall I'd say the 128GB card seems to hold ~ 1-2wks of recordings before it fills up and automatically frees up space - i.e. any time I decide to pull up the files I can certainly find any event within the past week or two. This dashcam also has a cloud mode, but it needs a full time internet connection (mobile hotspot) which I don't do - instead just connect at home in my garage to home wifi to be able to pull files. also the included free cloud account has limited storage and downloads (5GB storage, 100 downloads/mo, 10min/day live view) so overall cloud mode is of limited use

 

[whitex]

One more piece of information: Blackvue also have a G-sensor in addition to motion, to make sure you capture footage if something hits your car.

 

[Soolim]

I use the 16 GB drive as it is too hard to locate the file of interest with a 128 GB drive.

 

[TaoJones]

It just overwrites after x hours. In my case, x = 12 to 16 hours.

If something of interest occurs during the day, I note the time. Before dinner, I activate the cam's wifi, save the relevant clips to the app's internal storage, and then transfer from there to an iOS device's album. The saves take maybe a minute per clip, and the transfers take a few seconds per clip. After that, I can edit the video using the iOS device at my leisure. Periodically, I delete clips from the app's internal storage as well. Easy peasy.

If there are a lot of clips for a given day, I replace the in-camera microSD card with a spare card, insert the day's microSD via a dongle into my laptop, and leverage the Blackvue and other apps to edit the clips. Again, easy peasy.

The only times the above processes fail is when Service fails to reconnect my front cam properly (has happened once - that cost me a day's canyon video as I had no reason to believe the cam was not properly connected, and they didn't tell me they'd disconnected it), and when I wait too long (has happened a couple of times - the most recent costing me a chance at some Yellowstone rockslide footage. Doh.)

Recommendation: Get the fastest, largest microSD cards you can justify. There are various Google-able discussions with regard to what the best cards are for dashcams. Presently, I have mostly 64GB SanDisk Ultra cards, and they have held up fine for the better part of a year now.

 

[buckerine]

I've had a Blackvue 650-2ch w/ 128GB memory card in my Model S for a couple months now. It is powered by constant 12V source and I have parking mode enabled, so it triggers a 1min recording (@ 3.2Mbps) while parked if it detects motion in its field of view. For regular mode while driving, it records in 3min segments (8.4Mbps).

When parked out in public on the streets or public parking lots this means it's often continuously triggered by cars or people passing by, even on the lowest motion setting (seems to be overly sensitive). However I don't have a regular daily commute nor do I drive the car a lot of miles/day so other times it's in my dark garage (ie not recording). Overall I'd say the 128GB card seems to hold ~ 1-2wks of recordings before it fills up and automatically frees up space - i.e. any time I decide to pull up the files I can certainly find any event within the past week or two. This dashcam also has a cloud mode, but it needs a full time internet connection (mobile hotspot) which I don't do - instead just connect at home in my garage to home wifi to be able to pull files. also the included free cloud account has limited storage and downloads (5GB storage, 100 downloads/mo, 10min/day live view) so overall cloud mode is of limited use

How did you install the cam to your car's 12V?

 

[Maximus8]

How did you install the cam to your car's 12V?

Do a search for BlackVue 650 and you will find plenty of very instructions on how to locate and use 12v (switched and non-switched). Search is your friend.

 

[theslimshadyist]

I know that most mobile audio/video places can install these but I wonder if the Tesla SC can install as well?

 

[Tech_Guy]

I have a blackvue with 64gb card, I can go back 3 days currently though id suspect it would be less if I was on a road trip it still should be more then 24 hrs worth of video on the card before it overwrites it self

 

[TaoJones]

I have a blackvue with 64gb card, I can go back 3 days currently though id suspect it would be less if I was on a road trip it still should be more then 24 hrs worth of video on the card before it overwrites it self

There are configurable options for video quality. These selections will affect the number of hours of video that will fit on the card. Also, see the manual for a decent chart on one of the pages that attempts to ballpark number of hours for whichever size card they use.

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

You only need about last day's worth of video. The idea being, in the event of an accident or damage, you can recover last 1-2 days worth and review it and find out who banged your car and who was at fault. You then lock that file, so it won't get overwritten, and copy it to your mac/pc, and let the camera record in a roll again (overwrite old files).

And no Tesla won't install these, and Tesla will tell you that installing these could void your warranty. But plenty of third party shops will install them, and you could do it yourself (takes a couple of hours).

 

[sorka]

I use the 16 GB drive as it is too hard to locate the file of interest with a 128 GB drive.

Huh? It's ordered by time stamp. It could be a thousand terabytes and would be just as easy to find.

I too have a BlackVue 650 dual channel with a 128GB card. Stays on all the time but only records when motion in park mode.

 

[f-stop]

How did you install the cam to your car's 12V?

I didn't do the install myself, but there's a constant 12V supply behind the microphone grille, above the mirror, front center of the headliner. If you have one of those plastic pry tools, it's easy to pop off the grille. There should be a spare connector there with unswitched 12V - the installer spliced in there with an inline fuse to the dash cam power lead.

 

[brianman]

I used to have a Blackvue and would export/extract the video to a server in my house over Wifi. Then the GPS died on the camera and I stopped using it.

 

[sorka]

I didn't do the install myself, but there's a constant 12V supply behind the microphone grille, above the mirror, front center of the headliner. If you have one of those plastic pry tools, it's easy to pop off the grille. There should be a spare connector there with unswitched 12V - the installer spliced in there with an inline fuse to the dash cam power lead.

There's also a constant 12v supply coming from the OBDII port which means no splicing or modifying existing Tesla wiring. I run mine off this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GGLVXG2

spliced into the power cable for the blackvue.

 

[Maximus8]

I know that most mobile audio/video places can install these but I wonder if the Tesla SC can install as well?

From my experience, most SCs will not install non-OEM parts.

 

[GoTslaGo]

From my experience, most SCs will not install non-OEM parts.

Maybe we can convince Tesla to offer an OEM dash-cam....

I can dream can't I?

 

[jjchan]

I also have a Blackvue 650 but only 64 gb microSD card. For those of you who use 128 gb cards, what are the brands that you find are compatible with the 650?