Just wondered on peoples thoughts on these action cams. I'm not keep on the idea of police seeing you have one and using it as evidence of speeding. That's why I am in the process of creating my own out of a raspberry pi and building it into the bike with the camera (about as big as a large stamp) hidden on the smaller front radiator. Footage will output to USB which will be located by the bikes display.
Sounds really interesting, especially for track bikes too as if you can tuck away its less likley to get damaged. Saw a guy last week, one helmet, one seat backwards and one on the side fairing. Looking at his bike I cant imagine what entertainment he was recording
Also thinking of it for the commute, someone pulls out on you then you have a bike-eye-view of exactly what the twat was up to for insurance. I have got a 12v to 5v converter with 2 USB outs so one will power my iphone satnav and the other will power the camera. On startup it will run a script to automatically start recording, no forgetting to turn it on. Any edits required and I'll just start the bike in the garage and it'll join my homes wifi.
I'm going to store it based on rides. Each ride (engine on until engine off) will store a separate file on a USB stick that sits by the clocks. If I know i'm going to be running low on space (all day trackday for example) then I will carry a couple of spare USB's. It will comfortably record at 720p 30fps (i could do 1080 at that framerate but file size would be huge). Hardest part will be getting it to safely save the file and shutdown upon bike shutdown. Will have to give it a tiny battery pack and when it senses it's running on that, start the save & shutdown process. The raspberry has GPIO pins so I can use them to monitor wether or not the bike is 'on'.
On track they are fine. On the road - Well if you can walk away from the accident you have recorded and get home to edit the footage you have recorded great! BUT if you are in the meat wagon and the recording is taken as evidence just make sure you were riding like an angel on any previous footage. As for helmet mounted cameras - would you want to hit the road and have the camera twist your head round as it hit the deck? Just food for thought.
Has anyone any evidence whatsosever of the cam being taken from a bike and used? Not mate of mate of mate, actual evidence? Youtube yet but taken from a bike at the roadside. Tbh that doesnt worry me as much as looking like a knob having a cam on in the first place lol
i think this posts direction is quite ironic given insurance companies are now offering car drivers huge discounts if the use the insurance companies video and data recorders....
in my humble opinion i have never seen a recording device taken from a motorbike involved in a serious or fatal collision... That said i have been requested on numerous occasions and as recently as this week to create a recording of a collision scene involving car v bike for the benefit of a Crown court so they get to visualise the speed and movement of a bike prior to a collision....
All of the above are the reason I want it so well done that you can't even tell it's on the bike. Every wire will be taped to the loom with proper loom tape. You'll have a USB stick by the clocks, that's it. The actual camera will be peeking out between the beaks on the nose. We don't all ride like angels but most of us ride safe. What I wouldn't want is to be riding perfectly safely but the previous days footage of some empty back roads is then held against me.
if a bike was involved in a serious collision it would be subjected to a full vehicle examination.......they will see the cameras...............
Hmm, encryption may be required. I'm mostly doing it because I love to tinker and have the parts, I don't tend to get myself into situations where bad accidents happen. I don't however want some plod requesting footage and doing me for speeding I may have done on some dead quiet roads. I assume they would need a warrant to view footage anyway
i think if they are investigating because you are nearly dead, or dead, or you have nearly killed someone else, or killed someone else......having a fishing exercise for the purpose of prosecuting you for a bit of excess speed is small potatoes....
Going a bit deeper than expected. I don't ride dangerously, I'll ride with pace down some nice empty twisties but it's the sensible commute to work in London where they pull out on you... That's where it's needed. As I said, don't want the weekends twistie fun to impact on a possible case were someone else wasn't paying attention. I'm not saying that in wanting my stealth cam, that I'm out to kill everyone on the roads because I'm a menace to society.
im not saying you are either......... but you are saying some common myths................and i can give you a bit of fact to kerb the myths...
I'm looking at getting one for track and offroad but I very much doubt I'll take the risk of using it on the road unless it's for a particular planned ride.
Given that insurance companies are in business to make money it is an interesting business case. They pay for the equipment and give you a big discount so they must be expecting to pay out less in claims? The small print on those policies could be an interesting read.
I just love tinkering with gadgetry. I've started on the whole home automation & multimedia haven route but want to continue it on the bike in some way that doesn't add a tonne of weight and needless stuff.
With a camera and telemetry, drivers will take less risks and therefore lower claims and less cost. Plus you can use to reduce spurious third party claims. Thats the theory
