poweredbyplaav

iTrader: (1)

So for the 2nd time in about a year, some ******* broke into several cars in my building garage, including my moms bmw. I'm really fed up and worried about the rx8 now. Ive been doing some research and came across a video on youtube of a break in that was being recorded from the inside of the car. LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_XF_9iYbOc

I also came across a company named Mobile Watchman that actually offer this. LINK: http://www.mobilewatchman.com/index....mart&Itemid=76

Price of this is pretty high, and the quality isnt too good. Im interested in getting some kind of camera system for the inside of the car. Any suggestions. Anyone else thought of doing this?

Socket7

Thought about it when I had my car computer in my old honda. The problem is hiding the cameras, and having a recording device that won't kill your battery in a matter of hours.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Yup. It will come down to power every time. You can get a DVR that records on motion, but it still has to be on. You can get down to a pinhole/pentip camera, but it still needs power...

...and power isn't easy to conceal if it is big enough that you don't have a duration problem. If you separate the power from the vehicle, then you need a recharging method, ideally it recharges off the alternator. Then you have the wiring and relay issue surrounding that.

Not saying it can't be done, but it is alot more complicated than it seems, prone to failure and requires alot of babysitting to keep it running good. I would lay money that the video clips like the one you linked was done with a simple system, but turned on when it was likely to happen. Leaving something like that running indefinately is ...troublesome.

Without going into details I can't share, I have assisted from time to time with a 48ft trailer rigged like this for law enforcement stings. The bank of 10 batteries to allow for even minimal drain 4 camera system were ~$1200 each, and the most we got was 7 days. Enough for some things, not for others. The best possible way to do it is get a low drain motion sensor or some other tripable sensor, which trips the power relay to start power to the recording device and camera, and it shuts down after a period of no-motion, although the boot-up time can be long depending on the system, and care would still have to be taken to keep stuff like cloud shadows or light reflections from passing vehicles from triggering it too much. And you will still probably need an alternate power source.