Carcam III report

I bought a pair of dual-camera, "Carcam III" on Ebay on sale, $99/each and started testing today:

• Out of box - it comes with a GPS mouse, 12V plug using a mini-USB port, and a suction plug mount.
• Requires a miniSD card, type 10, up to 32 GB so I bought a pair at Costco, $24/each.
• Borrowing an USB cable with mini-USB port, I powered it at work to get a feel for the operation and controls
• Formatted the miniSD card using the 'built-in' menu
• Set the local date and time
• Using a mini-tripod with an iPhone holder, mounted the unit on the passenger side, sun visor
• GPS mouse laid on the dash and the 12V supply plugged into an ignition/aux enabled plug
• Adjusted front camera on the right-most, passenger side, rear camera pointing between the seats
• Drove to favorite market, about 5 miles away
• Parked and left everything alone to do shopping
• Drive about 10 mils home

When I got home and unloaded the groceries, I removed the Carcam III from the tripod holder and brought it the house. My first test was just to use a USB to mini-USB cable to see if it possibly acted like a disk . . . no luck. The camera powered up and started recording so I unplugged it. The OS did not 'see' the unit so apparently only power is used.

I put the mini-SD card in a full size, SD card carrier and installed in a generic SD-to-USB adapter and the computer, a MacOS. It mounted a drive but reported a format problem. So I dismounted it and launched Windows XP and plugged it in again. This time I connected it to Windows which mounted cleanly.

Using Virtual PC running Windows XP, I found:

• DR_DISK - the name in both operating systems
• E: - drive
• 832 KB - used
• 119 MB - free
• FAT file system
• ~31 GB - not found . . . this suggests a private file system is used for the data. For performance, this approach makes sense.
• F:, G:, and H: drives with no space

Running "X2Player" with an icon "ADR Player" brings up software that displays the recorded data:

• Recorded data names - appear to be "G<trip>-<segment>" each automatically powered-on session is a numbered "<trip>"
• The numbered "<segments>" appear to be ~1:34 long
• Clicking on the "ID" line for each "<trip>" treats all segments as a single, unified 'file' with the "Resolution" 2CH for both cameras, "StartTime and date" from the earlier setting, run length "hh:mm:ss", and estimated size.
• Playback was seamless, again suggesting a 'private' file system in the 31 GB of missing space.
• Because of cable interference, the unit was mounted upside down but a control rotates the image 180 degrees including the associated frame date and time stamp text.
• Playback can vary from 1/5th to 5x original speed.
• The GPS mouse initially took ~1 mile, ~5 minutes, to sync up and report location and speed but not altitude.
• The GPS software connects via the internet to Google for a map. No internet, no map.
• As each segment plays, there is a slider to change the position within the current segment.
• Evening, near sunset, both cameras handle the changing shadow and lighting conditions OK. Driving into the sun makes everything else too dark in that camera but no more or less than expected with any other camera. But once in the shade, everything returns to normal.
• CPU running ~60% on a Virtual PC running on a MacBook, Intel processor 1.8 GHz
• There appears to be three-axis, G-force, recording with three digits displayed and sensitive enough to identify potholes
• The camera was able to catch snippets of the car, electronic display. As it got darker, the slower scan rate eventually reached a point where the instrumentation was 'readable.'
• I was able to save and drag an "*.avi" file but it only showed the video, not the GPS and other ephemeris data.

One "lesson learned," I've become a sloppy driver: (1) not coming to a complete stop at all stop signs, and (2) coasting through 'yellow' that turned to 'red' in the intersection.

I have not found a way to 'playback' recent video with the Carcam III but this is not a problem. Pop the mini-SD into a holder and it is easy enough to watch. Sad to say, X2Player appears to be Windows only, not a Java application.

There is a "settings" that includes a "FW Upload", apparently firmware upload to the mini-SD card. Also, this is apparently the way to put a password on the files. The X2Player is Version 2.21, copyright 2011/12/20.

Bob Wilson

 

Initially the GPS appeared to work fine. But after a day or so, it stopped and has not returned to operation. So I've sent a note to the seller asking for advice.

The manual claims the X2Player runs under MacOS 10.3.6. However, MacOS 10.6.8 can not open the application.

I've sent e-mail to the seller asking for their advise. I'm sending a follow-up asking if there is someone to register to get updates or patches.

Although I only found it on the cover of the manual, it is called an "X8000".

Bob Wilson

 

All problems resolved. It turns out the playback application requires "Map" icon enabled to see the GPS data:


One very happy customer.

Bob Wilson

 

I haven't gotten that far in my testing. I'm still working on the mount:

• as close as possible to ceiling of cabin - so I can see stuff as near the front as possible
• in the space between passenger and driver, offset towards passenger - so the rear view mirror is not an obstruction. Some risk of passenger lowering visor and blocking view but the driver side view should still be OK.
• front camera looking from passenger side forward - covers the area forward of the rear view mirror.
• rear camera more centered because nothing blocks the rear view

Bob Wilson

 

I use a PC emulator on a Macintosh running Windows XP. It runs the application without a problem.

Bob Wilson

 

We are using:

• MacBook
  • 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  • 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
  • 750 GB hard disk
• VMware Fusion V3.1.4
  • Windows XP
    • Home Edition
    • Version 2002
    • Service Pack 3

Sorry but everything is registered with the vendors and loaded from CD-ROMS with software key protection. There could be a lot problems for me if I were to release any of this software.

Bob Wilson