Decent In Car CCTV System

[joecctv 0]

Hi all,

 

About 5 weeks ago I parked my car in the communal carpark at the back of my house, I didn't use the car for two days because we did a couple of day trips out on the train with the kids. Went to use my car on the Monday only to find the front of my car caved in. No CCTV cameras in the carpark and no note left or witnesses so unfortunately I had to ring my insurance and get them to sort it. Luckily I had a protected no claims so apart from the £100 excess things wern't too bad although I was still pretty pee'd off to say the least. Anyway, Thursday (this week) on my way to work I take my normal route pull up at the roundabout in the left hand lane ready to go straight across, just as I pull out some ****er in a white van decides to shoot past from behind me in the right hand lane at 50MPH+ onto the roundabout I have just joined then tries to turn left in front of me and smashes straight into the front wing. The insurance company are now saying it is difficult to prove liability on roundabouts??? If I had a front facing camera there would be no dispute, this guy was driving like a complete moron and not following the highway code.

 

Basically I am now looking to fit both of our cars with CCTV systems with front and rear cameras that will record over night in the carpark and obviously will record whilst driving. I've seen some very basic all in one units but I am looking for something slightly more covert that uses fitted cameras that will record front and back to a memory card based DVR. I've seen some single camera wired systems that only record a max of 4hrs but obviously I want 24hrs+. Also want something that won't cause me to need the RAC out each morning to jump start the car because the battery is flat.

 

Anyone know of a good system or where I can get components to build something myself?

 

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Joe

[tweak'e 0]

something like mobile watchmans EDR event recorder and rig it to car alarm system.

there is also the DVR version of it.

event recorder is probably better for the parked up recording due to power usage. even then you would want to run it off a separate battery.

[Scruit 0]

You have two problems to solve. You will need two solutions.

 

1) Proving fault in accidents

There are more and more cheap DVRs on the market now. In fact I just ordered a device called an MD80 for $9.99 from ebay after seeing video clips from a friend of mine who bought one. I've also seen the same device advertised for $100, so shop around!! It's a mini DVR that uses a microSD card (up to 8gb) and records 30fps in 720x480 with sounds. Handles the sun very well. Small enough to install up behind your rear-view mirror. You could install a second one facing back if you want.

 

If you want to go with a more professional unit check out the Aver MOB1304NET. It has GPS and 3G / wireless backup options. Or the old version called the EB1304MOB which is cheaper (About $350) but you still have to buy the cameras and run the wires.

 

 

2) Watching you car when it's parked

If you can park within sight of your house then install the camera on your house with a zoom lens. Installing a camera in a car and expecting it to run for an extended period of time is a challenge. My dashcam will flatten the battery in about 2 days. (you said the car was sat for 2 days too) You'd need either a pair of dedicated batteries in the trunk or some external power source. Even if you had the extra batteries you'd burn up your alternator continuously recharging those batteries.

 

The MD80 similar small SD-card all-in-one would use much less power and might last a few days. If you go this route then look for a "Battery Buddy" type device that will disconnect the accessories if the battery charge gets low - this means you will always have enough charge to start the car even if some accessory (such as the DVR) starts to wear the battery down.

[Scruit 0]

If you are an electronics hobbyist then give me a shout. I made my own electronic power controller that takes 6 trigger inputs to allow the DVR to turn itself in situations like Ignition On, Vibration, Someone inside the car (ultrasonic motion detector), doors/trunk open etc. It was a great deal of work to design and perfect this circuit and then etch it into a circuit board. I can give you a copy of the schematic if you're interested.

 

However if you're looking for a setup that you can install and not have to worry about maintaining an tweaking, then go for the off-the-shelf DVRs.

[joecctv 0]

Guys, thanks for the replies,

 

tweak'e, the watchman setup looks good however it doesn't seem to be available anywhere in the UK, although I think using various triggers to record could be the way forward.

 

scruit, I have seen a number or hand held units similar to the MD80 here in the UK for around £30 ($60), usually advertised as handheld camcorders, coincidently I have been toying with the idea of dismantling one and seeing if I can fit it into my rear view mirror.

 

I've seen a unit over here called the falcon which is basically one of these units specifically packaged to be used as a car CCTV unit, it fixes to the windscreen using at suction cup and retails for around £199 ($400). I thought it was a rip off as it only supports upto 2GB SD which means max of 4hrs recording. There is also a version that uses a seperate camera but I think its sells for £400-500!! Not that price is the issue when you consider the increase in insurance if I lose my NCB but I'm not in the habit of paying through the nose for something I could build myself much cheaper!

 

For watching my car over night it's a bit of a shame, on the house I have a geovision GV650 running with a VCL orbiter watching over the back garden and a couple of nice little nightvision cams at the front. The shame is that the carpark starts around 200yards to the right of my back yard so the ptz camera is in totally the wrong place to cover the carpark, I have two spare orbiters in my garage but if I was to mount one of them high on my house to cover the carpark it will be looking directly into the back yards of around 10 houses adjacent to the carpark and would cause privacy issues. The only option would be to get permission from a neighbour further down to mount a small external dome on their back wall, not sure if I would need to get permission to run the cable along the other neigbours walls?

 

I was thinking of building some sort of battery backup unit that charges off of the ignition switched 12v so as not to flatten the car battery, really I need to work out power consumption of one of these MD80 units and work out how much current a fast charge of an appropriate size battery would take. Although I didn't use the car for 48hrs when the damage happened I rarely leave the car for more than 14hrs so this would be the range i would need.

 

I was actually working on a dual battery altenator charge switching unit for a friend with a rather large in car entertainment package a few years back and when we did some testing it was surprising for how little time a car battery is actually charged when it is only used for starting the engine. We found on my friends car that it was only being charged for around 5-10mins, although the battery was only around a month old and the alternator the same.

 

Definately will look at using different triggers to start/stop the recording, I used to work as an in house prototype engineer for a manufacturing company so I am no stranger to etching boards and building circuits so wouldnt mind having a look at your schematic for your power circuit.

 

Thanks

Joe

[Scruit 0]

 

For the triggers, I use:

 

+1 Ignition On - Detects the car engine being turned on

+2 Manual switch - Allows me to keep the cameras running all the time. I use this in dodgy areas, or to prevent constant on-off (getting the oil changed etc)

+3 Unused/reserved

-4 Trunk Lid switch - Detect the trunk lid being opened

-5 Vibration Sensor (Switched Ground) - Detects anything that hits the car

-6 Ultrasonic Motion Detector (Switched Ground) - Detects any movement inside the car

[joecctv 0]

Thanks scruit, this has given me a few ideas i can incorporate into my battery backup system.

 

Picked up one of those md80 cameras in the week from ebay for £13, it arrived yesterday and i must say i am surprised at the quality of this thing! I tested it just clipped to the passenger sun visor in normal daylight and the recording was amazingly clear.

 

Will try and upload a sample vid later today...

 

Will probably take apart today as well lol

[Soundy 1]

I was thinking of building some sort of battery backup unit that charges off of the ignition switched 12v so as not to flatten the car battery...

We used to use standard sealed lead-acid "gel cell" batteries as backups for alarm systems when I was doing car-audio installs. Basically, the battery would be wired in to the alarm in parallel with the car's power source, but with a diode added so the car's systems wouldn't draw off the gel cell.

 

I was actually working on a dual battery altenator charge switching unit for a friend with a rather large in car entertainment package a few years back and when we did some testing it was surprising for how little time a car battery is actually charged when it is only used for starting the engine. We found on my friends car that it was only being charged for around 5-10mins, although the battery was only around a month old and the alternator the same.

Ostensibly, cars have batteries for only one purpose, and that is to crank the starter... when running, EVERYTHING should be powered by the alternator. In a car with a properly-functioning charging system, you should be able run with the battery disconnected.

 

Of course, the batteries have long since been pressed into extended service...

 

What you're looking for here, in any case, is commonly known as a battery isolator, and they're readily found at any RV/camper supplier, as having a separate battery to run your RV/camper systems without killing your vehicle's starter battery is kind of a good idea In their simplest form, these units are no different from the isolating diode used with the alarm backup system above - they're just a pair of very high-current diodes with a very hefty heat sink. Check out the diagram here: http://www.bcae1.com/battiso.htm

 

If you go with a separate full-size lead-acid battery for this, you'll want to use a deep-cycle type, rather than a standard starter battery. Deep-cycle will better handle being drained to very low levels at lower maximum current draw, vs. a battery that needs to be able to deliver a lot of instantaneous current.

[wozzzzza 0]

how about this for a mobile unit? would this be any good?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230355751592&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT