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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Help me make a dashcam!
 
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bolind
Jun 19, 2005



Pillbug
Cool! I don't currently have a dash cam; my major hurdles are wiring it, ease of offloading and confidence in it actually working.

Ideas:
  • I really like the ditch-the-screen idea. Make it so a smartphone can be used to aim it etc, and then spend the money elsewhere.
  • Sync to NAS over WiFi is super rad, and a good selling point.
  • While it's always going to be a pain in the rear end to hardwire a cam, maybe make it so it just need a USB C cable with power on ignition or something, basically, don't make me rewire for the next generation/model/something.
  • Big red SAVE AND WRITE PROTECT THE LAST X MINUTES AND THE NEXT X MINUTES EVEN IF IT MEANS DELETING MY FAVORITE PORN button - yes please.
  • Good, well thought out low profile mounting. Maybe publish the interface so people can create custom car-specific mounts for 3D printing at home?
  • I like the supercap idea but I see the issue that Laserface brings up.
  • All LEDs off stealth mode yessss please.
  • Something that alerts the user if the cam somehow isn't operating. I'm not sure how that could be designed, maybe connect via BT to your phone and have some sort of heartbeat? The idea is to prevent the situation where footage is needed but oops camera hasn't been recording for three weeks, sorry, hope you like steel toilets and stripey clothing.
  • Just thinking out loud here, but would some sort of image stabilization be nice?

Edit: I've been thinking. Not everybody can park their car near WiFi, but most everybody can get fast, cheap/free data on their phone. Something something upload through phone to Google Drive/Dropbox just the flagged clips or something?

bolind fucked around with this message at 11:38 on Jul 17, 2017

* # ¿ Jul 17, 2017 11:31
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# ¿ Apr 23, 2024 14:36
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bolind
Jun 19, 2005



Pillbug

ratbert90 posted:

How about a blinking LED pattern?

That's all well and good if the camera is not completely braindead (i.e. it knows enough to know that it ain't recording) but if it well and truly dickered only the absence of a heartbeat or something similar could show that, methinks.

Maybe it's mainly a problem with cheapo cams.

* # ¿ Jul 17, 2017 13:11
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bolind
Jun 19, 2005



Pillbug
But won't you just push that problem to the USB 12V->5DC thingimajig that has to reside elsewhere?

Edit: or at least some of the problems.

* # ¿ Jul 18, 2017 14:37
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bolind
Jun 19, 2005



Pillbug
ratbert90, can you provide some rough numbers for dimensions for packaging? Lens/sensor assembly, PCB, battery/supercap if any. I feel the urge to flex my newfound F360 newbie skillz.

* # ¿ Jul 20, 2017 08:00
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bolind
Jun 19, 2005



Pillbug
ratbert90, any progress on this? Just curious.

* # ¿ Sep 18, 2017 07:50
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Help me make a dashcam!