Dashcam video with GPS speed imprint - court date soon... - Page 3

Serialk1llr · 07-02-2007, 02:42 PM

Bra-freaking-vo

You have my standing ovation.

Hcomplyr · 07-06-2007, 12:49 AM

very nice work!

maybe you should write a FAQ on how you got it all together i would love to do this

erkme73 · 08-28-2007, 10:40 PM

Sorry guys, I hadn't checked this thread in ages. Here's the skinny on how the system works.

The DVR is an SD-based recorder (12 FPS @ 720 x 480). Can be found on eBay for about $200 to 250.00. It can be configured to record several ways. I chose to record upon ANY motion in the camera's view. This means if my truck is parked, and someone walks by, they get recorded. It records for 2-3 seconds after the motion stops. In my driveway, facing my garage door, it does not record at all. A 4GB card will hold anywhere between 2-3 days of solid driving, to 1 month of occasional driving. I have it wired to be 'always on' - though after about a week of not driving, it (along with the camera, GPS, and overlay unit) will run my battery down. It is a little larger than a deck of playing cards, has A/V in and out - and a full menu with playback capabilities.
The camera is a cheap $60 12V outdoor camera (also from eBay). I removed the outdoor housing, leaving just the postage-stamp sized PCB and lens mounted to the back of my R/V mirror. It's so small no one knows it's there. The camera has no microphone, so all my vids are w/o audio. Standard RCA video out will connect to the adapter cable from the DVR. The camera I use has night vision, but I had to disable the IR LEDS (reflection from the windshield at night).
The video overlay unit is from a manufacturer in England. For my truck, I have a separate GPS receiver (Garmin 12 channel eTrex) connected to it via serial cable (it's the one on the bottom left of the linked page). It's not the best way to do it. The company that make the overlay box actually has a new one now with the GPS unit already inside the box. It runs about $250 and has an external SIRFIII antenna. I got that one for my wife's car. It picks up 6 sats on the 5th level of a 7 level parking garage! The overlay unit has a video in and video out jack. So the camera output goes to the video overlay box, the output of the overlay box goes to the DVR. The DVR output goes to a clip-on sun visor mounted 7" LCD monitor.
The LCD monitor ($60-$80 / eBay) is about .3" thick, and hides nicely under the visor. If needed you can flip it down, rewind the DVR, and instantly review any questionable event (i.e. did I really beat that light?)

All of this was recently moved from my 2000 Toy Tundra to my new 07' Tundra. Great care was taken not to expose any of the components. Unless you do a detailed search, there is no way anyone would know the system is in there.

BTW, a nice feature is being able to reverse the camera (to view into the car) for when service is being done, or you want to see what the valet driver is doing in your glove box. Or, aim it at that car that's parked 3 RHC hairs from your passenger door. It's great to catch people when they think no one is looking. Of course, it helps in court too (proven!).

On an aside, last week I had after market leather seats (Katskinz) and seat heaters installed on my wife's 07 Rav4 as a surprise. She pulled a 30 hour shift (she's and ER resident physician), so I was able to get it installed before she got off. I couldn't be there to see her reaction when she got in, but the camera did. I turned it around to aim it at the driver seat. The result? When she got in, she had this 5 seconds of panic look... "is this my car???", then a beaming smile. It was classic.

Again, sorry for the delay in providing the details. Hopefully the length of the post makes up for it.

Lastly, now that the court date is over, I am not concerned about the state finding me. I'm now openly hosting the video here:

http://dilo.com/ticket/sr54-cecelia.wmv

And for knorf, you may want to see this BBC video on the LTI 20/20 (the one they got me with) about the supposed accuracy issues...

http://www.speedcameras.org/video/InsideOutFinal.wmv

sebberry · 08-28-2007, 11:06 PM

Nice write-up! Now to find software that can do this all through the carputer, but I suspect a system like this would hold up better in court.

Is it just my computer or does the speedcams.org video not have any audio?

inspiron77 · 08-29-2007, 04:04 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by sebberry

Nice write-up! Now to find software that can do this all through the carputer, but I suspect a system like this would hold up better in court.

Is it just my computer or does the speedcams.org video not have any audio?

ya...true..very nice and properly written..thanks for the info

Uraijit · 08-29-2007, 07:42 AM

Did a quick search and found this device http://www.blackboxcamera.com/stv5730a/gps.htm for £60.00, or about $130 US. It's not in the budget for a few weeks, but I'll be getting one for sure! Not going to use the DVR box, I'll just use the computer's video inputs. The only downside is that it will only function when the vehicle is running, so I won't be able to spy on people dooring my car or whatever...

nobb · 08-29-2007, 09:40 AM

I am also interested in a more software based solution that can be integrated into the carputer. I have found a program called Digiwatcher, where I can connect a standard usb webcam and have the program automatically record. The great thing about this program is that it can automatically delete video files after a set amount of days, so it can be pretty maintenance free. I couldnt find any other program which does this. However...I am not sure how I would go about integrating the gps overlay. I think to have a gps overlay on the actual video file might hold up better in court than to have a separate program which records your location and speed and then having the judge to compare the two files.

Uraijit · 08-30-2007, 01:36 AM

Agreed, there have been a couple of attempts at getting a software based solution; even a claim of someone having such a program working. He seems to have just been blowing hot air though. He wouldn't give any details on it, and the thread just fizzled. http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/soft...rlay-data.html

Who knows though. Maybe someone will figure it out. Since it doesn't look like anybody has/can/will do it any time soon though, I'll probably end up going with this hardware based solution for now. My MOBO has an RCA input already, as does my video card, so I can get both rear cam and dash cam running into it.

I'm going to do a date/time imprint on the rear cam (plenty of software available for doing that). And then use the hardware to imprint the GPS time/Speed/Location for the dash cam.

bambam · 08-30-2007, 08:02 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by erkme73

Court date was yesterday. Judge reduced citation from 72 to 68 based on the video evidence. Also withheld points. Probably the fairest of outcomes. In the end, my speed infraction went from 17 over to 13 over, and my insurance company won't know.

On the down side, less than 24 hours after my court date, my wife was pulled over - doing 18 over. No dash-cam or GPS. It won't be here until next week

Congratulations! I'm really happy to see that you decided to fight it and won. I hate the idea that things like this go uncontested. It ticks me off almost as much as watching cops blow by me at 80-90 mph's for no reason other than they think they can speed anytime they want. I hate people that use their position to "be above the law".

I wonder if there is anyway to have your gps software create a trail that records speeds and times in conjunction with coordinates? It seems a much cheaper way to go.

Again, congratulations man. Now if you can get your wife to slow down you'll be all set!

erkme73 · 09-28-2007, 08:10 AM

Bambam - do a search on "trackstick II". It may be what you're looking for.

geekasaurus_rex · 09-28-2007, 08:38 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Toxic0n

This would be awesome in case of an accident as well.
Does anyone know how to record from a webcam in Windows Xp and make so it only stores the last 1 hour of video?

Zoneminder? (www.zoneminder.com)

Yes, its full DVR / security, but it handles webcams and does overlays.

Uraijit · 09-29-2007, 09:02 PM

I looked arounf at that zoneminder thing, an it looks like it's for Linux. It mentioned a "windows live" version, but I didn't see much in the way of detail. Is that a windows live plugin, or what?

fairmontboy · 10-02-2007, 03:14 AM

Question... What software/hardware did you use for the DVR and also the overlay? Excuse if you have mentioned it and I havnt noticed

Uraijit · 10-02-2007, 05:06 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by erkme73

Sorry guys, I hadn't checked this thread in ages. Here's the skinny on how the system works.

The DVR is an SD-based recorder (12 FPS @ 720 x 480). Can be found on eBay for about $200 to 250.00. It can be configured to record several ways. I chose to record upon ANY motion in the camera's view. This means if my truck is parked, and someone walks by, they get recorded. It records for 2-3 seconds after the motion stops. In my driveway, facing my garage door, it does not record at all. A 4GB card will hold anywhere between 2-3 days of solid driving, to 1 month of occasional driving. I have it wired to be 'always on' - though after about a week of not driving, it (along with the camera, GPS, and overlay unit) will run my battery down. It is a little larger than a deck of playing cards, has A/V in and out - and a full menu with playback capabilities.
The camera is a cheap $60 12V outdoor camera (also from eBay). I removed the outdoor housing, leaving just the postage-stamp sized PCB and lens mounted to the back of my R/V mirror. It's so small no one knows it's there. The camera has no microphone, so all my vids are w/o audio. Standard RCA video out will connect to the adapter cable from the DVR. The camera I use has night vision, but I had to disable the IR LEDS (reflection from the windshield at night).
The video overlay unit is from a manufacturer in England. For my truck, I have a separate GPS receiver (Garmin 12 channel eTrex) connected to it via serial cable (it's the one on the bottom left of the linked page). It's not the best way to do it. The company that make the overlay box actually has a new one now with the GPS unit already inside the box. It runs about $250 and has an external SIRFIII antenna. I got that one for my wife's car. It picks up 6 sats on the 5th level of a 7 level parking garage! The overlay unit has a video in and video out jack. So the camera output goes to the video overlay box, the output of the overlay box goes to the DVR. The DVR output goes to a clip-on sun visor mounted 7" LCD monitor.
The LCD monitor ($60-$80 / eBay) is about .3" thick, and hides nicely under the visor. If needed you can flip it down, rewind the DVR, and instantly review any questionable event (i.e. did I really beat that light?)

All of this was recently moved from my 2000 Toy Tundra to my new 07' Tundra. Great care was taken not to expose any of the components. Unless you do a detailed search, there is no way anyone would know the system is in there.

BTW, a nice feature is being able to reverse the camera (to view into the car) for when service is being done, or you want to see what the valet driver is doing in your glove box. Or, aim it at that car that's parked 3 RHC hairs from your passenger door. It's great to catch people when they think no one is looking. Of course, it helps in court too (proven!).

On an aside, last week I had after market leather seats (Katskinz) and seat heaters installed on my wife's 07 Rav4 as a surprise. She pulled a 30 hour shift (she's and ER resident physician), so I was able to get it installed before she got off. I couldn't be there to see her reaction when she got in, but the camera did. I turned it around to aim it at the driver seat. The result? When she got in, she had this 5 seconds of panic look... "is this my car???", then a beaming smile. It was classic.

Again, sorry for the delay in providing the details. Hopefully the length of the post makes up for it.

Lastly, now that the court date is over, I am not concerned about the state finding me. I'm now openly hosting the video here:

http://dilo.com/ticket/sr54-cecelia.wmv

And for knorf, you may want to see this BBC video on the LTI 20/20 (the one they got me with) about the supposed accuracy issues...

http://www.speedcameras.org/video/InsideOutFinal.wmv

Read the whole thread before asking questions.