The idea of having a permanent one camera recording 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.
The cable and the charger car, you probably have it stored somewhere in your drawer. As for the base, if you don't already have one, you can get one from electronics stores at a cost of 20-25 euros. Choose a stable base that does not hide the rear camera of your mobile phone.
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, once you have wired and wired your mobile phone, make sure the device is secure and tight enough and can not be moved by the shock of the car or a sudden braking. The cables do not prevent you from driving and the camera is not covered by any accessory or obstacle. If it's all OK, then it's time to see for 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.
Don't forget, too, that we're talking about a smartphone. So if you don't have much storage space, you can always delete apps, photos and stuff, or just factory reset it (or get a bigger 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.
AutoBoy has a clean, intuitive interface and is very easy to use. Let's take a look at just a few of the many settings. Under the general settings, you can turn on the shock sensor that will measure the impact of the collision (apparently using your device's accelerometer), and you can also change the unit settings from mileage to kilometer per hour.
Another unique feature is emergency dialing where you will dial a phone number extraordinary emergency (for example: 112). You can set the recording time and 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 delicate electronic device in a locked car exposed to the sun can mean its quick death. In relation to action cams or dash cams smartphones they have no heat resistance, neither their body nor their battery. If you decide to mount a dash cam smartphone, then make sure you don't leave your car unattended for a long time or remove your cellphone from the dashboard when you park it.
The second disadvantage is that your smartphone, although it is old and almost zero, is a target for the thieves. And it's not that they'll steal your old cell phone, it's that they will damage your car by violating it. So the option to take your mobile phone with you every time you park your vehicle seems to be necessary.
