Topic: dash cams

[dave500]

if its buttons rattle within their housings owen it picks it up and sounds bad,holding just the camera in your hand shake it and see if they rattle?i smeared silicon around mine and wiped of the excess,they still function but dont rattle now,it might even be the buttons in the weatherproof case?i use mine without its case as im after the stealth look so its not glaringly obvious its there.

[Christo]

Thanks to evanphi, I tried mounting my Gopro elsewhere as i thought the handlebars was a solid place. Obviously not. So this is a test run with the mount directly off the main frame. I cut an old rubber grip to wrap around the frame between the clap to minimise any vibrations. Seems to work better.

[evanphi]

Great idea for a mounting spot Frostyboy! I had a custom bracket 3D printed to bolt into the speedo/tach mount, but that bracket just acted like a spring and amplified all the vibrations. My GoPro actually shut itself down after being vibrated for too long!

I really want to get this.

[evanphi]

Thanks to evanphi, I tried mounting my Gopro elsewhere as i thought the handlebars was a solid place. Obviously not. So this is a test run with the mount directly off the main frame. I cut an old rubber grip to wrap around the frame between the clap to minimise any vibrations. Seems to work better.

Much better! The only thing I don't like about this angle, as I'm sure you noticed as well, is all you get is engine noise... no exhaust note! I need to find that perfect mounting spot... I think it may end up being on the rear grab rail or something. That's where the big flexy clamp would come in handy.

[Christo]

I am using this type of mount. Called a Ram Mount. Good as its multi directional. Also comes with different sized clamp to fit larger diameter tubes. I am not using it on the handlebar.

http://www.rammount.com/CatalogResults/PartDetails/tabid/63/partid/082065077045066045049052057090045071079080049085/Default.aspx

[Terry in Australia]

I'm not sure that I like mounting a camera on a bike. I see more and more riders with GoPro's mounted on their helmets, and I'm thinking that the reason for this is that with the camera fixed in location you only have a very narrow focus, so on a ride, all you'll see is what's in front of the bike.

With the camera on your helmet, it sees what you see, so it sees your speedo and tacho, it sees the scenery on the sides of the road, it sees the knockers on the women beside you at the traffic lights, the cops hiding behind the trees, oil leaking all over your boots, etc etc, and it's far enough away from your engine that you hear more than just your camchain rattling away.

I got a new GoPro a couple of months ago and haven't gotten around to using it yet, but I might try mounting it on my helmet and see if that produces a more interesting documentary of my rides than my earlier efforts with my eBay el-cheapo fixed to the windscreen on my 'Wang. Cheers, Terry.

[Christo]

This was when it was mounted on the handlebars. Notice shacking and loss of picture quality. The loud noise you hear at certain times is when the revs are higher and causes more vibration.
Sorry if length is long. This piece of road was soooo nice, smooth, wide. A pleasure to do a few months ago. Location is Northern NSW . Waterfall Road heading north from Bellingen to Dorrigo.

[Christo]

Now its mounted like this.

[dave500]

your riding nice and smooth there christo!i wanna see terry with a gopro mounted on his head!itll look like a telly tubbie?

[evanphi]

dave500 you are correct... we tend to look like telletubbies! I guess that is the major selling point for the Contour cameras, is they can be mounted on the side of the helmet nicely. GoPro has to go on top or on the chinbar.

[dave500]

i was next to a motorcycle cop at the traffic lights a few weeks ago and was checking out all the gizzmos and switches on the bike,he had a circular tube type one on the side of his helmet with a cable that ran down to a small box on his belt amoungst the cuffs and pistol,i couldnt quite make it out if that was part of the camera system?looked neat and discrete though,ive been trying to spot others cops on bikes but they dont all seem to have it?maybe a personal piece of equipment?

[Terry in Australia]

I've got an Aldi "Action Cam" that I bought in 2009 Dave, it's a tubular shaped thing with various attachments for helmet, handlebars etc, but like the GoPro I don't really like it because you just have to assume that it's on and working at the right angle, unlike the eBay el-cheapo hat has a flip down screen so you can view what you're watching and correct the camera angle as necessary.

You're right about the "Telly Tubby" thing, it does look a bit odd, but that's the price you pay for movies of rides that go beyond the (ho-hum) road ahead. Your short vids of your rides with your mates on their bikes are interesting to us all, but can you imagine how boring a ride on your own from say, Melbourne to Sydney on the Hume Freeway would be with the camera just fixed on the road ahead?

I reckon Dr Phillip Nitschke could use it at his new suicide clinic in Adelaide to bore people to death! Cheers, Terry.

[kghost]

Not if you sped up the video to like 30X

[dave500]

come on tim,make it a hundred times!if your camera is wired in and runs full time it would be handy just in case there were any incidents?when its turned of or flat something will happen.

[Terry in Australia]

I bought the largest SD card that I could for my eBay el-cheapo cam (it cost more than the camera) so I can record for around 4-5 hours, so I suppose I could buy another card which would allow me to do a long trip, and yep, speeding it up would make it more interesting, but being able to see more than just the road ahead would be a lot more interesting, methinks?

[dave500]

does yours not loop record terry?records in say 5 minute blocks till the card is full then over writes the first file etc?and keep going.

[Terry in Australia]

does yours not loop record terry?records in say 5 minute blocks till the card is full then over writes the first file etc?and keep going.

It probably does Dave, but with the new card in it I'd need to drive further than my 320 Km twice weekly drive for it to over-write the earlier files. I just use it in my work car in case I have a prang, but once again, because it's fixed on the road ahead it's pretty useless if I get rear-ended, T-boned, etc.

[Frostyboy]

Great idea for a mounting spot Frostyboy! I had a custom bracket 3D printed to bolt into the speedo/tach mount, but that bracket just acted like a spring and amplified all the vibrations. My GoPro actually shut itself down after being vibrated for too long!

I really want to get this.

Well it might look okay, but it's totally useless. This camera is going back I think. Although it doesn't pick up so much noise as it did on the bars, the mic lets it down badly.
Mounted on my helmet might help, but I'm afraid I can't live with the tele tubbie look. Have a listen to what happens if I actually rev the bike up a bit. Useless!


**Edit: Sorry, when I say useless, I'm not referring to the clamp, I'm talkin' about my camera. 

[evanphi]

I've got an Aldi "Action Cam" that I bought in 2009 Dave, it's a tubular shaped thing with various attachments for helmet, handlebars etc, but like the GoPro I don't really like it because you just have to assume that it's on and working at the right angle, unlike the eBay el-cheapo hat has a flip down screen so you can view what you're watching and correct the camera angle as necessary.

All new GoPros have wifi, so you can connect to an app to set up your shot!

[dave500]

hey owen thats exactly what my kaiser bass cameras did on the bike,have a look at my reply #92 here its the same sound your getting http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=116660.75
they work fine in the car and truck though,i think its picking up rf interference as at a certain point the sound cuts out fully?i tried wrapping one in a beer can,i had a few laying around!keep that one for your work car and get an sj1000 for bike use?,it was only a hundred bucks delivered and does a good enough job!heres a link.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12M-HD-1080P-Waterproof-Mini-Sport-DV-Camera-4-Diving-Bike-Helmet-Car-Recording-/121155357728?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item1c356c0c20#ht_14260wt_1075

[Frostyboy]

I have a camera for my my work vehicle already Dave. Have a look at this doozie. Watch the red light runner coming from about 2 o'clock on the screen. Resulted in serious entrapment of an elderly woman in the passenger seat of the Commodore. I passed a copy onto the Police. What chance would we have had on our bikes?

[dave500]

yeah always make sure whos supposed to be stopping is stopping before you just roar away,i rarely ride in suburbs,i drive there all week!whoa!nasty hit,bit far away but still proof of some sort,cops have tech guys wholl zoom it up and what not?

[dave500]

just cruising here today with kghost and christo,not really apparent in this view but that 4wd was fully on the wrong side of the road around that blind bend and cuts back over once it straightened up,anyone going faster or in front of me wouldve done some dodging?
wrong side

[Frostyboy]

He was probably too busy texting Dave. 
I did some experimenting today & found my camera mic performs a lot better if it's not connected to the bike.
I'm thinking the mounts are simply transferring too much noise.
I've ordered the same mount that Christo is using (thanks Christo for the link) & hope that the rubber balls make a difference. I'm hoping that I can achieve nearly as good as Christo's results. 

[dave500]

local rural drivers in 4wd are always all over the road owen,sure you dont have rf noise?