The idea of having a permanent recording camera in your car can be done inexpensively and simply using your old smartphone phone.
Why do you do it? Not to be the only one to have recorded scenes from the fall of a meteorite or airplane, but for more realistic situations, such as microcontractions, which are common in a big city.
Most of you most likely have an old one smartphone hidden somewhere in a drawer. You could revive your old device and turn it into a roadway monitor by installing a free, dedicated application for that purpose.
In addition to your old smartphone and one application, you'll need a charging cable long enough to reach your car's socket as well as a dashboard or windshield base.
Το καλώδιο και το charger αυτοκινήτου λογικά το έχετε κάπου αποθηκευμένο στο συρτάρι σας. Όσο αναφορά για την βάση, αν δε έχετε ήδη μία, μπορείτε να προμηθευτείτε από τα καταστήματα ηλεκτρονικών ειδών με κόστος που κυμαίνεται από 20-25 ευρώ. Διαλέξτε μία σταθερή βάση που να μην κρύβει την πίσω κάμερα του κινητού σας.
Once you've got the essentials, place your mount on the dashboard or on the windshield in such a way that the camera has the widest view of the road ahead. Make sure your smartphone's camera frame starts just below the middle of the hood and equals right and left.
You may not be able to cover much of the road, you may have a range of 150 degrees or more, and you will not have the effect of a wide-angle camera action, but what you will achieve will meet your needs.
Make sure your phone is continuously connected to the power. You do not want to run out of battery at a critical time, and most older devices have batteries that have begun to reduce their performance and therefore do not last as long as new ones.
Finally, after placing and wiring your cell phone with power, make sure that the device is secure and tight enough that it cannot be moved by the vibration of the car or by a sudden braking. The cables do not obstruct your driving and the camera is not covered by any part or obstacle. If all this is ok, then it's time to see about implementation.
As far as the software is concerned, you have many choices. The so-called blackbox apps come with a long list of features, but we need something that constantly records, monitors our position and estimated speed through GPS, date, time, and has adjustable video quality.
This last piece is important, because you have to be sure you will not run out of memory. Besides the fact that your old smartphone can have a large amount of storage, reducing the quality of the video automatically increases the recording time.
On the other hand, very low quality video can give you useless results, so you need to find the golden ratio. Another thing that can help is to reduce the saved recording time. If your smartphone has low memory capacity, then you can reduce the recording storage time and create a loop that records each time on the previous recording.
Do not forget, too, that we are talking about a smartphone. So if you do not have a lot of storage, you can always delete apps, photos and other stuff, or simply restore it to its factory condition (or get a larger SD card if your phone supports it).
Android application: AutoBoy Dash Cam - Blackbox
If you have an old Android smartphone that you no longer use, we recommend using something like this Autoboy Dash Cam - Blackbox or Autoguard Dash Cam - Blackbox. As expected, there are several dash cam applications in the Play Store, but these two are free and have the highest rating.
Το AutoBoy έχει ένα καθαρό, έξυπνο περιβάλλον εργασίας και είναι πολύ εύκολο στη χρήση. Ας ρίξουμε μια ματιά σε μερικές μόνο από τις πολλές ρυθμίσεις. Σύμφωνα με τις γενικές ρυθμίσεις, μπορείτε να ενεργοποιήσετε τον αισθητήρα σοκ ο οποίος θα μετρήσει τον αντίκτυπο της σύγκρουσης (προφανώς χρησιμοποιεί το επιταχυνσιόμετρο της συσκευής σας), και επίσης μπορείτε να αλλάξετε τις ρυθμίσεις της μονάδας από μίλια σε kilometers ανά ώρα.
Another unique feature is an emergency call to call an emergency call number (for example: 112). You can set the recording time and the maximum storage allocation, which is 10GB by default.
Another important setting is the quality of the video. The lower the quality for as much recording time as you can fit on a memory card.
We could make a more detailed analysis of the program settings as there are several features, but if you decide to use AutoBoy Dash Cam, do not hesitate to study them more thoroughly than the Play Store.
Application for iPhone: DashCam
If you are using an old iPhone, then the choice is simple: dashcam. DashCam includes all the necessary features you need, including speed, position, and loop recording.
There are many options in the App Store, but the DashCam is the only one that seems to have no negative rating and the most recent version has gathered particularly favorable reviews.
The DashCam is really simple to use, and it's also very powerful. It has loop recording capability and you can switch between high and low resolution video. There are very detailed reports on iTunes to study them.
General disadvantages: Heat and Thieves
While using your old smartphone as a dash cam is easy and inexpensive, there are disadvantages. The first in series is heat.
Leaving a relatively thin electronic device in a locked car seen by the sun can mean its quick death. In terms of action cams or dash cams, smartphones have no heat resistance, neither their body nor their battery. If you decide to place a smartphone for a dash cam, make sure you do not leave your car unattended for a long time or remove your mobile from the dashboard when you park it.
The second disadvantage is that your smartphone even though it is old and almost zeroof value, however, is a target for thieves. And it's not that they will steal your old cell phone, it's that they will damage in your car by breaking it. So the version of taking your mobile with you every time you park your vehicle is probably deemed necessary.
