Roadhawk in-car camera GPS and black box system

Darren · Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:37 am Post subject:

I made the comment about the Filenames not containing the date/time not that the files themselves were not date/time stamped. My unit is out in the car at the moment so I can't check, Nick did I miss something there?
_________________
Darren Griffin

NickG · Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:39 am Post subject:

It just uses the GPS date/time, so you don't really need to set anything. Despite what it looks like in the viewer - the videos are not actually timestamped graphically - that's just an overlay in the viewer software and does not show up in the exported video.

Darren · Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:42 am Post subject:

But is there an easy way to look back and locate the file that covers a specific date/time?
_________________
Darren Griffin

NickG · Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:46 am Post subject:

If you look at the raw files on the SD card - then yes. But annoyingly no date/time indicator is present in the viewer's own list of files. I'm going to write to them and ask them to add this in as it would be very useful.

The file names are just serial numbers, but as it's so incredibly easy to rename files and alter the created and modified dates of the file, it's not too important whether they're stamped in this manner anyway, IF the viewer software showed this information. EDIT: By that, I mean that it would be no use from the point of timestamping them from an evidential point of view. It would be useful to us users.

Darren · Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 11:48 am Post subject:

DennisN · Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 9:19 am Post subject:

The really really most significant factor for me is the capacity of SDHC cards. In less than an hour's time, I'm setting off to do something like 600 miles round trip. That's an unusually long day for me, but I shall start by driving partly along the road in Bristol where that van driver got his NIP overturned - that means the "evidence" will be perhaps 12 hours old on the card.

I really think this is information which should be available from RH themselves - a table saying 2GB card = 1 hour at top resolution, 2hrs at x etc etc, with all the possible card sizes and resolutions. Can we ask them for it please. I really fancy one of these devices, but if the recording time for 2GB cards is 1 hour, I don't want to know - there has been mention of the supplied 2GB card lasting "days", but from what's being said here now, it doesn't sound anything like even one of my normal days - I don't do school run and a bit of shopping, I do a working day's driving.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

Darren · Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 9:39 am Post subject:

NickG · Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:11 am Post subject:

These are designed as low cost consumer 'incident/crash cameras' - not permanent recording systems for professional drivers. If you need something which can record everything permanently, there are probably better solutions out there, but obviously you have to pay a bit more money. The same company that distributes these cameras (dogcamsport.co.uk) do quite a few other types of camera which might suit your needs better.

Don't forget though that 2GB is tiny by modern standards and you can easily put in a 16GB card for about £25.

mostdom · Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:43 am Post subject:

Part of this discussion goes hand in hand with the recent news article about the van driver getting of a speeding conviction using gps. How fantastic it would be to have peace of mind from a unit like this. Not only could it log your speed but show the camera of mobile speed trap as you pass it, but unless you press the button every time you pass a camera or swap the sd card after it is full, the length of time you can store is limited. If I remember correctly the authorities have up to at least 30 days to inform you of an NIP.

30days x 8hours x 2gb= (anyone got a 480Gb SD card)

I did recently spot a small in car camera capable of high resolution capture with long recording times but no gps for about £200.
_________________
Dom

HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace.
Navigon 7310/iPhone Navigon&Copilot

SpikeUK · Regular Visitor Joined: Nov 29, 2005 Posts: 140

I use a T-eye, which is very similar - except that it also has a rear facing camera which records what the driver is doing (protects against accusations that the driver is using mobile phone, etc). So the T-eye has twin cameras, sound, 3 shock sensors, Google Map on playback, conversion to .avi etc. It also has an LED display of the GPS speed you are going at, and an infrared light for illuminating the car interior at night, and a "save incident permanently" button (one minute before & two minutes after incident). The software to view the footage is stored on the card itself, so any computer can be used to view the footage.

There's several videos on You Tube - search for T-eye.

I use an 8 GB SD card, which records the last 10 hours or so of driving.

It would be interesting to see a side by side comparision of the video quality of the Road Hawk and the T-eye, and the distance at which a number plate can be read.

It's a good insurance against those clowns that stop infront of you at roundabouts, then reverse into you and claim that you drove into them. Also useful to be able to go back and review exactly what speed I was going at when I passed that speed camera.

Sorry about all the edits - I keep thinking of more features of this device.

NickG · Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:53 am Post subject:

If all you're trying to do is validate speeding tickets - you don't need video. You just need a GPS travel recorder. Trying to store 2 weeks of GPS data is a hell of a lot easier than trying to store 2 weeks of video!

Unfortunately, I don't know of anyone that makes a travel recorder which takes SD memory cards (or any type of memory card).

My QStarz only seems to have 16MB (yes megabytes) of RAM and that's only enough for about 9 days of recording at 6 hours per day (~200,000 seconds). Why they can't just let you put a MiniSD card in I really don't know. I want to be able to record 2 weeks of skiing at 1 second intervals. You need 64MB to reliably do that.

Darren · Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:58 am Post subject:

I've got a few dataloggers that use memory cards, one used SD, the other micro-MMC.
_________________
Darren Griffin

Darren · Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:00 am Post subject:

mostdom · Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:01 am Post subject:

I want all my cake to eat. I had been looking at standalone gps data loggers but the idea of including video has been delaying my decision to buy.
_________________
Dom

HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace.
Navigon 7310/iPhone Navigon&Copilot

	PocketGPS
	Web