I am having a hard time figuring out a good reason for GPS, my 0801 has it and it is a useless novilty unless you are tracking a driver. I have GPS on my radar detector for speed confirmation. I sure as hell wouldn't want MPH on event footage.

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These things are all only 5v and a very minimal current draw.

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It is the capacitor version maybe that makes a difference

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Both of mine(neither Lucas) were 11 feet. Wired direct with Keedox step downs, I wired them keyed rather than hot all the time because my truck sits in the garage most of the time.

And this is why we have dashcams. I recorded this today. Power surge during restart of electricity followed by idiots running a traffic signal even after it rebooted.

http://youtu.be/pZPd01Nl7OM

EDIT: made the link hot

I don't think it's been posted on here yet, but are any of these cameras all weather?
Do any of you with trucks have rear facing cameras?  If so, how well do they work, is much masked by the bed?
And lastly, I know it's a bit of an odd question, but is there any way the rear facing ones could be interfaced to work as a backup camera as well? Or that a traditional backup camera would be linked for recording purposes?

Thanks,
Zach

I have a rear facing in my tacoma. It works fine. You aren't going to see the point of impact if rear ended, but you will see everything leading up to. I will upload a video tomorrow to show you.

This weekend I almost had two accidents, same day in the same intersection.

Time for camera for both vehicles.

I have been looking at this thread off and on again for quite a while now, today I finally took the plunge. I placed an order for the...HD1080P 2014y G1W Car Dash Camera DVR Novatek NT96650 AR0330 Lens 320mah Battery...straight outta China. In a couple weeks I will be trying to figure out a way to hard wire the thing in. I watched a youtube video with a guy that sounds like James May from Top Gear doing a demo of the camera and it looked pretty sweet for $53 shipped to my door.

I've used electrical tape to tighten up the connection.  Alternately, there's a rearview mirror mount available on ebay that is much tighter.

Alright, I have no unboxing video or photos. I got it in hand mere minutes before heading out the door for a weekend camping trip. Several months ago I happened to buy a two-pack of 32-GB micro SD cards so I tossed one in the camera and hit the road after messing with the settings briefly. The wife was not amused, so I missed switching the audio on and I had a couple video clips disappear which might have something to do with the card or my chaotic setup.

First impression, well, I am impressed. I was in an OHV park riding some trails and it was pretty steady it seems. There is some vibration when I hit some decent bumps or go too fast over rough terrain, but it really was amazingly steady for just being stuck to the windshield via the provided mount. It had a tab to keep the camera in place, which I don't recall seeing on other cameras. It didn't fly off like mentioned earlier, this tab is apparently their answer to that issue. Might be safe to say they are paying attention to feedback...maybe? The problem I have is that it is focused on my hood. I need to research how to correct that, because it is annoying. Second problem is that since I am in a Jeep without the top on there is a reflection present a whole lot. Not sure if there is a solution to that though.

I bought the camera because almost once a day I nearly get run off the road by the idiots that live out here. They cannot comprehend that someone may be coming around the bend, and it is my sincere hope that I get hit one day now that I have video to accompany my testimony should I survive. I am not too sure about my survival when/if this happens because they are usually hauling butt.

Nice trail.    I have the same glare/reflection issue on my Jeep.  I'm planning to get a black foam donut and stick it around the lens between the camera and windshield.  That should solve it.

As for the idiots.  Have you already replaced that plastic OEM bumper by one of the aftermarket heavy-duty steel models?    I have a full-width LoD on mine and it would pierce through those plastic and tin-can car bodies like a can opener.    

I think the issue is that the mount is perfect for a vehicle with an angled windshield, but for a Wrangler with the near-vertical windshield it is causing the issue. It keeps the lens from being close to the glass, and there is no way to adjust this to be flush or even remotely close. That is what I can best tell is causing the glare. I did happen to find a mount that clamps onto the rear-view mirror, but the photos of the product make it appear to maintain the same angle. However, it does have a swivel ball, so it should be more easily adjusted than the mount which ships with the unit. Also, in one of the images you can see the retaining tab I was talking about. It seems like some of the mounts out there come with the tab while others do not. I do know mine, with the tab, does not come loose no matter what terrain you are driving on.



ETA

I gave this some further thought and realized what I need to solve this issue, a circular polarizer! A CF will let me shoot photos through glass or water, so it should stand to reason it would work on my dash cam as well. I hopped back on Amazon and found this gem:



A little bending and I am going to be in business!! Also, while I was on there I searched once more and found a mount that I think will work in my Jeep perfectly!!



And as far as the bumper goes, I still have the stock one! I did bash it into a tree while descending a hill this weekend, but the camera did not catch it, only me stopping the Jeep for a moment. Nothing to do but shrug since it was already done. The plan is to replace the bumper and fenders with some goodies from Metalcloak later down the road.

Can you post links for the bottom two things please?

That circular polarizer is a cool idea.  However, would it require adjusting for the different times of the day?  The Sun glare will come from different angles.  Please let us know how it goes.  

I installed a Vector e-dock on my Jeep.  It lets you use RAM mounts to hold anything.  So far it was the only thing that did not come apart on the trails.

 

Mount

Polarizer


The concerns I have with the polarizer is the diameter not matching up well with the dash cam since they intended for it to slide onto a cell phone, additionally would be the adjustment. I believe that it should be a set it and forget it type of thing since its viewing angle will never change, it will simply eliminate the glare. The concern with that is it will cut into the view (vignetting) or that at night it may be rendered useless. Again, it shouldn't but time will tell the tale I suppose. I will be ordering everything on Friday, so next week I hope to have good news!

You should be correct about the polarizer.  Let us know how it works; I'd pick one up if you have good luck with it.  Also, if it works let us know how you got it to fit properly.

Guess here's an added benefit to having a dash cam: http://forums.themustangsource.com/f804/ford-dealership-abuse-532026/

Apparently I am not the first to have this idea, I am not surprised and actually quite glad. The Go-Pro users have been doing this, and I did find some dash cam links where others are doing the same. This was a blessing because the lens I linked to will be too small in diameter to work. A post I have been reading through when I have a spare moment has these guys contacting a 3D printer to have a mount of sorts fabbed up. If I can get them to share the files I am going to try a guy locally that has a new 3D printer and see if he will crank me something out. In the meantime I am about to order another filter. I also found a video where the guy adjusted the focus on his camera lens, and if my new mount does not make it better then I will be adjusting the focus myself.

It's been a month that he's had no resolution!  I would have brought down the metaphorical wrath of god after one week of them not making me whole.

"Give me a new car.  I'll be back next week to pick it up."

I gave up on my G1W. Pretty sure that I ended up with a ripoff version. Never could get it to work and the seller kept wanting me to pay $25 shipping/handling each way for a free replacement. Amazon is "looking into it". Anyway, I broke down and got the Lukas 7900 Ace. So far so good with it. Haven't captured any drunk Russians crawling across the road or airplane crashes.

I did get spooked by a motorcycle fly-by on the way home from work one night. It was bike night and a herd of crotch rockets buzzed me at a fairly high rate of speed. They were much closer than the video looks. If they had loud pipes like me, it would have served as a warning.

Has anyone found a rear facing camera to be useful? If you get hit from behind, and your front camera shows you not doing anything wrong, aren't you in the clear?

What would you guys recommend for something small and inexpensive with a parking mode? I don't need GPS but would like it to record movement when I'm not around.

My state doesn't let me defend myself

Guess it's worth the trouble to run the wiring...

Guess you could say this is a teaser post of sorts. I already mentioned what I disliked about my G1W and decided to figure out a way to fix it rather than just complain. I started doing research, buying some stuff, then discovered what I hoped would be perfect. I waited until it all arrived to post anything.



What we have up above is my add-a-circuit, my new mount, a hard-wiring cord, the boxes are filters and mounts. The red box, it turns out, was one of the purchases I made needlessly. I didn't realize it until the thing was on its way! You guys benefit from my mistake I suppose. During the course of my research I had found some people making mounts using 3d printers. Well I happened to be on eBay and while looking for a circular polarizer I discovered this kit down below:



Believe it or not, this is a circular polarizer kit for a Go-Pro. It is almost a perfect fit. If you look closely you might notice the problem.



Here is another angle where you really can see the issue. It is not exactly flush with the lens-barrel, and on my particular camera it is due to a barely 1/8" bulge at the top of the body where the lens enters.



The last bit I have to show for now is a quick demo video. With everything mocked up I am really impressed. I thought I would have to cut down that bulge so the adapter would sit flush, otherwise I may get some vignetting. Well, turns out that is not necessary! You can see there is no vignetting at all. Ignore the Chinese character, I was playing with the settings earlier and forgot to go back and turn the plate number off. Also, the lens screws onto the adapter so if you are driving at night and really concerned with performance you can just take the thing off real quick. I will take some pics once I get going on the install part. For now I am going to try and find out how to focus the lens because the depth-of-field on mine is from the wipers to the bumper. Beyond that I am really out of focus, and that is where I would like to see, not my hood.

As an FYI, everything I've read on parking mode says it's worthless.  It doesn't spin up instantly but rather takes a bit to start recording after feeling the bump.  So all you'll catch on video is...nothing.  The rough time it happened, I suppose.  The car that hit you or the guy that smashed your window/keyed your door will be long out of frame.

Is parking mode the same as motion detection? I would like to think the camera would be recording because there is motion from the other car.

Regardless, I didn't find a good option with two cameras that fit my criteria....and I decided 550hp is enough to avoid road rage situations.

I ordered a few "e-prance" cameras off of Amazon (making sure I chose sellers that were "fulfilled by amazon"). Both are thin mirror mount types that have a single camera, 1080p, and one even has bluetooth for calls. I'll probably end up keeping whichever model attaches more securely assuming quality is decent.

my camera's "parking" mode is pretty much just always recording. I have the power magic pro so it will record about 3'ish days straight before it shuts off.

New mount installed, power cord wired through to the fuse box (under the hood in a JK), and the polarizer installed. It now sits nearer to the windshield and the little I got to play with it earlier the glare seems to be lessened if not entirely eliminated. I took photos to post a tutorial of sorts on another forum and thought about posting it up here as well but didn't want to hijack. If TheGrayMan approves and anyone is interested I can post it up here or I can start another thread, but if no one is interested then that's cool too!

Power magic pro looks like an interesting product. My car should technically be kept on a trickle charger (but I live in an apartment with no power in the garage) so I'm unsure how it will deal with a DVR with parking mode

This is one of the things I really love about having a Jeep, a hood that you can get out of the way easily! What follows is how I went about installing my G1W with a permanently wired power cord, installed a lens adapter, a hard mount for the camera, and a polarizing filter into a 2014 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. If you have the same, or similar vehicle, then you will basically see how to do the same. There are some steps that I failed to get a photo of, and then again I figure that if you are attempting this sort of thing then you have some mechanical abilities and don't need your hand held. Now if there is something you would like a photo of, maybe a bit that I didn't explain well enough or that could be better expressed with a photo, then let me know and I will try to make it happen. And now, on with the show...



Here we have an unmolested fuse box. Reading the labels on that lid is truly a pain in the rear, but I did manage to find my 12V accessory outlet fuse location and decided that is where I am going to be adding the circuit. It is on the left side of the box, near that yellow dip-stick handle, and if you are super curious then its the little yellow 20A fuse sandwiched between the red and clear fuses. Since the camera only requires 5 volts and anything I might happen to plug into the accessory outlet also requires 5 volts then I am not in the least bit concerned about making this addition. Now if it was an electric winch or some LED overhead lighting...



Sitting here typing this up I am thinking about tearing this bit back apart. I happen to hate crimp connectors. They are fairly bulky, they corrode rapidly, and if you don't make the crimp just right you damage the wire. This is where the confession, and the thoughts of tearing it back apart, come in. I filled this connector with dielectric grease before crimping it and adding some electrical tape to seal it up, then called it good. At this point I was rather irritated and just ready to go inside since it had been a long day. Later on this will make more sense when I elaborate on a few things. Until then, here is the shiny new add-a-circuit and a box of fuses I had in a drawer so you can see what we are working with.



Now onto the next phase, and there are several things going on here. First, the instructions suggested that you test the cord out and ensure the LED illuminates within the module. If it fails to illuminate then the module is defective and to give them a shout for a replacement prior to going through the trouble of completely installing it. Next you will notice the alligator clip and an in-line fuse holder. Fuses are great. They make sure the magic smoke stays inside, and I used this one to test out my new cable to make sure I didn't ruin the thing before I even got started. Look close on the lower right corner of the module and you can see the tiniest little LED casting off an evil red glow.



My wife would love to go into the garage and throw...well...pretty much everything in there into the dumpster. There is definitely an assortment of goodies in there and from my stash of wire I found some that would be perfect. Not shown is the heat shrink tubing that was added prior to my soldering the wires together, or a photo of the completed connection. I figure everyone knows what that looks like anyways.



Getting the wire from the engine compartment into the cab was looking to be impossible if I wanted it to be a clean install. In fact, its hard to even see the firewall on a JK. I decided I would just pass through the grommet/boot on the passenger side. To make this easier I grabbed a scrap piece of Romex and taped my cord onto it. This went through easily and the white was easy to spot while laying on the floor looking up into the fender with dirt caked eyes. Easy is good...I like easy.



I had to peel back the fender liner a bit so I could even see up where the wire had come out, the battery was in the way. I suppose I should have removed the battery, the battery tray, and put chocks under the tires...but only after donning hearing protection, gloves, a crash helmet, steel toed boots, and eye protection. OK, I might agree a bit on the eye-pro. When I tugged on that fender liner some gunk did rain down on my face. Regardless, looking up I spotted that wire and fished out a healthy amount. It was an awkward angle to photograph.



And speaking of awkward, here is a shot from the interior. I had to use my phone since my camera would not fit under there, so excuse the poor quality and odd angle. Crawl into the foot-well and look up on your passenger side, this will suddenly make perfect sense if you have a JK. Everyone else, pretend this is on your car and look for where the harness passes through the firewall. Hopefully you will have a better place to work with, these new Jeeps have been completely filled to the brim with crud....er...vital electronic components and safety features.



Getting around that battery tray is no problem at all if you have a fish tape, even one of those flexible rods or a long stick would work. Run it down, tape on your cord, and now you are in business!



Where are we now? Well, in the progress of installing the camera I would say the hard part is over. From here on out it is a series of connections and decisions to be made. For instance, do I want to use a wing-nut, a regular nut with a lock washer, or a nylock nut with a plain washer? I decided I am not going to be removing this ground any time soon and I would prefer it to look factory if possible. Obviously that rotten crimp connector will not look factory, and I truly dislike the thing, but I do have a jar of them to be used and I am not sure where to find anything better locally. A healthy dose of dielectric grease will have to suffice. Don't judge me!  



Its almost as if Chrysler knew we would be installing accessories. On the negative terminal there was an open post just begging to be used and I was fortunate enough to have the right size fasteners on hand. I also took this time to install some plastic sheathing and tidy things up a bit with some zip ties. I would really like to get my hands on some of that mesh sheathing for future use but for now this will have to do. You can see that open terminal I used on the negative post, and how I attempted to camouflage that crimp connector.



The new mount's tab is a bit too long to insert into the camera, which may not be obvious from the photo alone, so you will have to take my word for it. A little love with the Dremel and it works perfectly. The red is some electrical tape I used to mock up the filter and the mount. There is a bulge on the body where the lens protrudes which makes installing it flush impossible. I address this a bit later with the Dremel as well.



And it is here and now that I make the discovery that I am, in fact, a moron. Read that sentence again, but instead use James May's voice, then take a look at the photo above and the mini-usb power port. Now take a look down below at the end of our newly installed and beautifully routed power cord. Notice anything...like maybe that the cord is a friggin MICRO usb??



Well, rather than get mad or give up I decided to take a break on the wiring and tackle another project. The lens seemed a bit out of focus to me in looking at previous footage so I wanted to take a crack at adjusting it. Some careful prying and obscenely tiny screws removed gets us this. I fired the camera up and gave it some twists to see what happened. It ships bottomed out apparently, meaning that you can only turn it one direction to adjust the focus. I learned that clarity is achieved with it very nearly bottomed out, if not completely bottomed out, so there really is not much adjustment to be made. It seems that this was wasted effort in my case, maybe your camera will be different.



During my "test phase" I had tried attaching the lens filter adapter ring with some Super Glue. It worked wonderfully, except that I had it at a very slight angle and the glue ensured it would remain at that angle. I dabbed on some paint thinner with a cotton swab until I got the ring off and then sanded the chrome barrel down to clean off any remaining glue residue. I also took the Dremel and carefully cut away the protrusion that would not allow the ring to seat fully. It looks rough in this photo, but it was actually after sanding it with a sheet of 1200 grit on the bench so I knew it was perfectly level before forging ahead. There is really not a lot of plastic to play with, so if you do this then be really careful or you will blow through it really fast.



Here is another shot with the ring installed. It now sits flush with the lens barrel. A couple drops of Super Glue and this thing is ready to be re-assembled.



A quick word of advice with regards to the Super Glue. Wait until this stuff is completely cured before installing your lens filter. I had forgotten my youth and building models, remember how if you used too much glue it would mess up the windows? Well I wanted to test out my new filter and put it on right away. Later on I notice the picture was a bit foggy and was confused until I remembered that the CA Super Glue gives off some nasty fumes. I managed to clean the filter off, and the lens of the camera, but really wish I had thought about that one! So my pain is your gain I suppose.

Finally we come to a photo of the camera installed in the vehicle. If you look close you can see the ugly 3M double-sided adhesive tape I had to use. In spite of me prepping the surface properly the little adhesive patch that shipped on the mount was just not any good. It may have worked wonderfully if you stuck it to glass or maybe smooth plastic, but it failed miserably on the textured surface in my Jeep. So I cleaned it off, prepped the surface again, and its 3M with the save. I tried to trim it with a razor as closely as possible but it was rather difficult due to the inherently sticky nature of the adhesive tape so there are a few blobs here and there that you can see in the photo. In person its really not that noticeable and I may use a Sharpie to color it black so it truly disappears. Maybe not, but the option is on the table.



And that is all. Wait. No its not. See that cord? Remember how it was wrong? Well I dipped back into my parts stash and found a USB charging cord. I hacked the end off of both, and then soldered the proper end onto my newly installed cord in the Jeep. The splice was made about two feet back so its hidden beneath the trim, I used black heat shrink so even when it was still visible that bit was not that noticeable really. If for some reason you find yourself in the same position make sure you are using a USB charging cord, not just a regular USB cord. For whatever reason the camera recognizes the difference and will ask you if it has been connected to a computer as a storage device or for viewing. The charging cord only has two wires within, not the four, and that makes all the difference in the world.

So there we have it, a fully installed and hard-wired G1W dash cam in a JK. The polarizer can be removed for night driving if necessary and I even have a lens cap if for some reason I decide I need to use it. While this may sound like or look like a lot of work, it really wasn't that bad. I have more time invested in research than I do actual wrench time...or solder time if you prefer. Later on, if I remember, I will try to get a photo of the camera from outside the vehicle and post up some footage to hopefully demonstrate the new focus and clarity. I am open to any questions or comments. Love it, hate it, let me know! I had not seen anything out there Jeep specific and was trying to be specific without going overboard, so like I said, let me know what you think!

Nice report, thanks!  I just installed the same mount yesterday in my Frontier.  I'm using the adhesive it came with, hopefully it will hold on the windshield part.  I did twist it around so that the mount's knob was to the right, that way it is easier to get to when it's tucked in close to the right side of the mirror.  Yours looks like you have more space there.  The mount is very much better than the stock mount, nicely adjustable.

I wasted to share some idiocy I saw this weekend:
Let's carry the car by Ry Jones, on Flickr

They were literally trying to pick up the front corner of the car to carry it off the road. No triangles, no flares, no blinkers, nothing.

Also, when I bought these cameras, I replaced the stock SDHC cards with 32 gig Hitachi cards. In a little over a year later (last weekend), the card in the front camera developed a bad sector and disabled the camera. I replaced it with a Sony card.

This would have been a lot more difficult if I hadn't made a copy of the blank card at some time in the past.

I'm guilty of turning this thread into a "look at this video" thread.....but here is one from last week.  

Watch the little grey car ahead of me swerving around. It gets interesting at the 30 sec mark.

When I got the chance to get around this guy, he was fishing around in the passenger floorboard. Must have dropped his cell phone.



Ipad

Oh yeah?

Here is a short vid of my vacation to Glacier. This is "Going to the Sun Road". Crazy drop offs on a narrow road.

Almost nailed a deer. I was pulling my travel trailer. You can see it get a little squirrely when I hit the brakes.

I just installed this to replace my stock mount, and for those complaining that their G1W series camera doesn't attach securely, this is your answer.  It snaps into place so it can't come out.  Also gets your lens a lot closer to the windshield than the stock mount.  The tape it came with stuck onto my windshield just fine.

Here's the link again for those who need it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ENYDS1M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1