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In-car-video & telemetry

Joined
28 April 2000
Messages
1,190
Location
SF Bay Area / Boston MA
Some of you guys probably read about my incident with the police last week... I started to think about ways I could protect myself from this kind of problem again.

I have been planning to purchase a harness bar and video camera mounts in my car so that I study my driving at the track events etc. I have begun thinking about how I could possibly keep my video recorder or whatever video telemetry equipment on ALL the time including some telemetry data such as RPMs, Speed etc so that I can use that as evidence AGAINST police when they wrongfully pull me over. I have looked at some equipment from PiResearch, but their equipment is a little too costly for me for what I want to do. I basically want a cheap CCD/recorder or just a regular video camera that somehow super-imposes the telemtry data right onto the recording.

If anyone has any ideas or has done something like this before, I'd be really interested in knowing how it was done.

If the solution costs too much, then I probably will have to figure out something cheaper... maybe even just getting a cheapo 8mm video camera and just point it down at my instrument gauge and out the window.
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Anyways... it seems like a pretty fun project nonetheless.

If the solution is affordable, maybe other people would also be interested to use it to improve their driving skills at the track as well.
 
I've always wanted to do something like this... but was afraid that it would cause me to do crazy things in front of the camera for the "sake of the movie!!"
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I've seen the pencil sized cameras around that are small enough to be mounted out of sight and wired up to a centralized location for recording purposes... I've just never found out where exactly I could pick up these things!?

These cameras could be used for a number of things... this being one of the main things I wanted to use it for -to nab the police in THEIR wrong doings...

-Electro
 
These cameras could be used for a number of things...

"I'll tell you EXACTLY how those footprints got onto the inside of my side windows... AND I CAN PROVE IT!"
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Doug Hayashi uses a Datacam, though I'm not sure where he got it. I was pushing him to get one of these for his NSXFiles video tapes and we talked briefly about it at NSXPO one year right when he was getting it all set up. I seem to remember his setup was around $1500-$2000. It's pretty cool and putputs data such as throttle, braking, Gs, etc. in white text at the bottom of the screen. You can use multiple inputs to overlay it on video tape in real-time.

You won't get anywhere in court with one unless you have it calibrated and certified on the same schedule the cops have to use for their equipment.

And since very little police interaction is likely to take place in front of your car, I doubt the video camera would help much either. Just my opinion.
 
Yeah, Lud, it probably won't help much to just leave the camera facing forward when I get pulled over, BUT I could swivel the camera out toward the side window or rear hatch while rolling the tape to prove that they cuffed me for no good reaseon!
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I could also prove that I wasn't running over pedestrians either. I mean, the ticket I got for reckless driving... There were NO ONE in front of me or anything.
 
Hindsight is 20-20.

A couple of years ago, I received a ticket from a state police cop who was very obviously lying, based on his actual statements. A friend told me he keeps an audiocassette recorder in the car for just that purpose. In that particular case, it would have easily led to an acquittal on my ticket. However, in Kenji's case, I'm not sure that would hold up (although a video would have been better testimony to his cop being out of control).

IMO the moral is, you can always come up with a strategy or equipment or something after the fact to prevent that particular situation. But it's doubtful that it's worth taking those measures for a "next time" that probably will never recur. Best to just take it to court and (hopefully) get out of it (I did) and move on with your life, instead of continuing to agonize over it.

$.02
 
Don't most police cars have video recorders in them now? I think you would be better off trying to get ahold of the police's video and use that as evidence.
 
Tom Henneka, [email protected] is the guy who built/sells the Datacam. I do not think he has a website yet.

To see a screen shot, go to www.nsxfiles.com, click on Pulp Stories, and go to chapter 55, there are pictures there.

The Datacam requires one camcorder, and one camera(could another camcorder). First camera grabs the image, sends it to the Datacam black box, superimposes the data, and then feeds it into a camcorder. Make sure your camcorder will allow analog inputs for recording. You splice in wires to your speed sensor, brake lights, RPM, etc, to get the info to put on the screen.

-Doug
 
Check out the m10-twin laser jammer @ jamradar.com; I just installed a pair in the front of my 98' NSX and I was so amazed at how well the thing worked I bought another set for the back. It is one of the best investments I ever made; and has saved me 100% of the time. Cost is about $260 a set; don't forget the license plate cover as well.
 
Originally posted by kenjiMR:
Thats awesome.

How much does that black box thingy cost?
How much does the whole setup cost not including the camcorder/recorder unit?

It was somewhere around $2000 when I bought it about 3 or 4 years ago for the black box and sensors. You supply the camera and camcorder.

-Doug
 
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