Why dashcams are so important.

mchale

marcarm wrote: »

Often thought about this myself, but my lighter socket is permanent live. Is there a way to change this or would I just need to plug the cam in each time?

google "fuse tap"

Strider590

Iceweasel wrote: »

I thought my lighter socket was permanently live too - but then i discovered it takes 8 minutes to shut down - that's how long it takes the ECU to 'go to sleep'.

My Mundano does this too, 15mins from the last "activity", but that can include simply opening/closing a door, so it's actually really hard to tell if it does turn off or not.

mr_accountant

I've just recently purchased a dashcam for many of the reasons given.

Re a small hard to notice one, have a look at the rexing v1 on Amazon, they have increased the price by £10 to 49.99 but it's still reasonable value and hidden behind the dots on the top of the windscreen, I've used it for 2 months and it seems fine, they also have a website for future fimware update and info, which is a good sign it's not going to disappear soon

In fact, someone borrowed my car for a week and judging by the stories they were talking and the language they used they had no idea it was there, or maybe they didn't know what it did! I can't wait to tell them there journeys were recorded :eek:

Re hardwiring, if your cigarette lighter is switch live then that means it goes on and off with the ignition which is what these dashcams require as so not too flatten your car battery when not in use.

if your cigarette lighter is constantly live then you need to buy a hard wire kit, I have recently fitted a Nextbase kit to the rexing (it's the same connector at the camera end) and the wires are hidden in the fuse box which means apart from the camera on the top of the windscreen nothing's on display. The nextbase it is about £12 on Amazon/ eBay, or £20 at Halfrauds, and dead easy to fit, just look on youtube

Nodding_Donkey

Strider590 wrote: »

When I had my accident back in 2009, Admiral "lost" the CD with the video footage 6 times, when they got it they couldn't play it (I think they inserted the CD and expected it to just auto play) and they couldn't view it on Youtube because it was blocked on their network and when they finally saw it, they were suspicious of why I was driving around with a dashcam.

Perhaps things have changed?

A bit of a late reply as I missed this at the time but all I did was uploaded it to Youtube and sent them the link so no excuses

Now it's all paid up I can post the link to the video

ETA: OOps no I can't as it links to my real name.

The update to this is that I received the money in my bank account for the car on day 8 and by day 12 I had received the payment for the other bits I had claimed, recovery, a couple of taxis etc. The odds and ends invoices/receipts weren't sent to them until day 9 so all in all I think Admiral handled it very well indeed.

bsod

that must have been at least 11 car lengths in less than 3 seconds, in a 30 zone, 640 inches per second, 36mph+

Nodding_Donkey

Just think, had I been doing 50mph I would have been past before he pulled out without looking.

bsod

36 was giving you the benefit of the doubt, it was probably much closer to 50 in the last 1.5 seconds

I'm surprised the insurance company didn't pick it up.

Nodding_Donkey

bsod wrote: »

36 was giving you the benefit of the doubt, it was probably much closer to 50 in the last 1.5 seconds

I'm surprised the insurance company didn't pick it up.

I think you are vastly overestimating the acceleration of a 2.5 diesel Pajero Automatic lmao

Anyway, as he didn't bother looking the speed was totally irrelevant. 20mph, 30mph it really made no difference

roddydogs

Trouble is the nextbase thing still need wires to the fusebox, not that much of an advantage. Is it not possible to wire it to the interior light?

missile

roddydogs wrote: »

Trouble is the nextbase thing still need wires to the fusebox, not that much of an advantage. Is it not possible to wire it to the interior light?

Yes it is and some users have chosen to do that. All you need do is find a switched live feed and earth :beer: