Dash Cam

sawdust

Member
Location
Argyll
Can anyone recommend a really good dash cam? I'm not to phased on price but do the £200+ ones really do a better job than the £70-£150 range? or do you get what you pay for???
 

Lincsman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I have just fitted a Nexus 212 lite that seems to do the job and is simple to use, you buy a memory card to suit how much you data want to hold at any one time before it writes over it.
 
I use these

82F1C015-2033-4060-B080-A63405D3B753.jpeg


Shows speed
Location on a map
The G force the vehicle was under

It’s all pod unless the accident is your fault and then it could be used against you :D
 

A1an

Member
Funny this should come up.

I had one in my hand earlier when in Aldi's.

They wanted £18 for it, that incl the memory card. At that price I swithered about it but decided you get what you pay for.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
Can anyone recommend a really good dash cam? I'm not to phased on price but do the £200+ ones really do a better job than the £70-£150 range? or do you get what you pay for???
No need to spend more than £100 inc VAT.

I personally prefer ones without a screen [because they are poor quality screens and it serves no purpose] but with wi-fi to stream and download, as required, to a smartphone.
In a tractor a glued-on camera is far more secure as well. Just make sure it is positioned discreetly where the wiper sweeps.

Something like the Dd-pie

Its far more convenient to view and transfer to a phone through the free app than it is to remove the micro SD card and use an adapter and card reader to transfer clips.

On a tractor, whatever is fitted, don't forget to turn the G-sensor off, otherwise you will find the card soon filled with files that can't be automatically over-written.
 

sawdust

Member
Location
Argyll
No need to spend more than £100 inc VAT.

I personally prefer ones without a screen [because they are poor quality screens and it serves no purpose] but with wi-fi to stream and download, as required, to a smartphone.
In a tractor a glued-on camera is far more secure as well. Just make sure it is positioned discreetly where the wiper sweeps.

Something like the Dd-pie

Its far more convenient to view and transfer to a phone through the free app than it is to remove the micro SD card and use an adapter and card reader to transfer clips.

On a tractor, whatever is fitted, don't forget to turn the G-sensor off, otherwise you will find the card soon filled with files that can't be automatically over-written.
Is the G sensor for collision sensing only or does it work also for motion sensing too,? the reason I ask is I'm thinking, can it be used as a security camera too, IE, in the harvester at weekends will it switch on and record, if it detects a lorry or 4x4 approaching? I looked earlier for the 1 you recommended in the Pictures & Videos but it's still sold out. I have absolutely no knowledge of these things whatsoever.
 
Is the G sensor for collision sensing only or does it work also for motion sensing too,? the reason I ask is I'm thinking, can it be used as a security camera too, IE, in the harvester at weekends will it switch on and record, if it detects a lorry or 4x4 approaching? I looked earlier for the 1 you recommended in the Pictures & Videos but it's still sold out. I have absolutely no knowledge of these things whatsoever.

The one I’ve posted the smart witness, i have mine wired into a permanent live feed so records for 12 hours before overwriting or if you press save
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
Is the G sensor for collision sensing only or does it work also for motion sensing too,? the reason I ask is I'm thinking, can it be used as a security camera too, IE, in the harvester at weekends will it switch on and record, if it detects a lorry or 4x4 approaching? I looked earlier for the 1 you recommended in the Pictures & Videos but it's still sold out. I have absolutely no knowledge of these things whatsoever.
The G sensor just detects significant shocks and interprets them as some kind of accident, so write protects a section of video file. The cameras don't record one great long video but generally three to five minute long episodes. In a tractor you may find just too many shocks triggering the write protect feature, which could soon fill up the SD card, so you need to enter the menu, whether on the camera's own screen or using the app on your phone, and switch that off.

Using It to detect motion when the tractor's idle is another matter entirely. Some cams have batteries that will last three to five minutes when new, but the better cams have capacitors, which only supply power for a few seconds after the wired supply is switched off. So it follows that if you want what is known as 'parking mode' to work, you need a constant 5V supply to the camera. You can either wire it to a permanent live in the vehicle, obviously using the plug that comes with it, or a hard wire kit. Once fitted the camera will partially sleep when it detects that your vehicle is not moving for, typically, five minutes, and only start recording when it detects motion either of your vehicle or another in its range. I can't vouch for how well any particular camera works in sleep mode but most cameras have the facility.

You can also buy battery packs to power the camera if you prefer not to have it wired to a permanent live for some reason. These will give the camera enough power for three days or more.

I still haven't got round to fitting that one in the Techmoan review video. The front and back double unit that is sold out, but it isn't really suitable for tractors, because you do not need a backward facing camera. I also see that the Goluck T3 has risen substantially in price in the last few weeks. It was selling for around the same money as the DD-Pie not long ago but is up to £114 or so for the moment. These things tend to fluctuate in substantially price depending on local stock and season.

Just checked and the Aukey unit is available on Amazon as a single unit for £90 currently. Its the type with a screen, but if pulling the SD card out to transfer files doesn't bother you, and you don't need to do it often anyhow, Its a fine little unit I'm sure.

These things come with a cigarette lighter socket 5V adaptor, which isn't always convenient as I indicate above, and you will certainly need a 32GB class 10 microSD card for video storage. Possibly an adaptor to SD standard size [often supplied with microSD cards] and a card reader if your intended viewing device doesn't have one of its own.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
The one I’ve posted the smart witness, i have mine wired into a permanent live feed so records for 12 hours before overwriting or if you press save
It surely goes to sleep and doesn't keep recording 24 hours a day? Some cheap ones may not have a sleep mode, no doubt. Its important for a dash cam to record good quality video, so 1080p is the minimum standard most find acceptable these days. The bigger the capacity of card the better really, because you don't want to lose footage too soon after recording, just in case you want to review and save something after a few hours more travel. A 16GB card will normally record 4 hours of video before looping and overwriting, but consider that you will store some files that will be write-protected, which will lower the card's looping capacity.
As such, its best to get a 32GB card, which will store 8 hours of video at best. Slightly less in practice.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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