How To How to use your Droid as an in car dash cam

[Sensisnow]

I was bored this afternoon so I decided to finally try out a project that's been on my mind for awhile. I wanted to hack the stock car dock so that you could actually use the camera with it, either as an in car dash cam, or to use it with some of the vehicle related augmented reality apps like Augmented Traffic Views.

The procedure was about as easy as it gets. It only required the stock car mount and about 1 minute of dremel work. If you don't have a dremel, you could probably use a small instead. I suction cupped the mount to the side of the refrigerator in my garage as a make-shift vice and trimmed out the area in the photos below.







Now the camera has an unobstructed view.



Mounted on the windshield I have since moved it back onto the dash so none of the view is obscured by the suction cup. Also much easier to access the phone.



Here's a quick video I did using the Qik app. I was using the low quality setting at the time. I'll get another video using the high quality setting tomorrow as well as try out the stock video app for comparison.

The car app still works perfectly fine when the phone is inserted and the removal of the material there didn't seem to affect the strength of the mount in any way. I'm not sure why they didn't just make the mount like this to begin with.

 

[johnlgalt]

2 Things:

1) Surprised you haven't ported out a speaker hole to make the phone clearer when driving along (helps if you're an audiophile like me).

2) think you left out a word in the following phrase: "...don't have a dremel, you could probably use a small instead." Drill bit?

 

[Sensisnow]

2 Things:

1) Surprised you haven't ported out a speaker hole to make the phone clearer when driving along (helps if you're an audiophile like me).

I'm not sure what you mean by porting out a speaker hole. If you're referring to the speaker on the back of the phone, porting a hole there would be pointless since all audio now comes through the car speakers and the quality is 100x better than the stock speaker.

2) think you left out a word in the following phrase: "...don't have a dremel, you could probably use a small instead." Drill bit?

Whoops, good catch! Yes, a drill, small saw, or even quite a bit of time with some sandpaper would get the job done as well.

 

[alostpacket]

You totally didnt stop for that stop sign!


(very cool stuff btw )

 

[Sensisnow]

You totally didnt stop for that stop sign!


(very cool stuff btw )

It's alright, the signs with white borders are optional.

 

[mihalich]

That's awesome. Not bad video for low quality setting either.

Joe

 

[Sensisnow]

That's awesome. Not bad video for low quality setting either.

Joe

Thanks, I know I've been slacking on the high quality video and the stock video. I'll have it up in a couple of days.

 

[fortworthbret]

qik is excellent like this, https://qik.com/video/4574012

but so is 'droidnetcam' I am often a mobile webcam:

TXFishes Live

 

[bucbrian]

I was bored this afternoon so I decided to finally try out a project that's been on my mind for awhile. I wanted to hack the stock car dock so that you could actually use the camera with it, either as an in car dash cam, or to use it with some of the vehicle related augmented reality apps like Augmented Traffic Views.

The procedure was about as easy as it gets. It only required the stock car mount and about 1 minute of dremel work. If you don't have a dremel, you could probably use a small instead. I suction cupped the mount to the side of the refrigerator in my garage as a make-shift vice and trimmed out the area in the photos below.







Now the camera has an unobstructed view.



Mounted on the windshield I have since moved it back onto the dash so none of the view is obscured by the suction cup. Also much easier to access the phone.



Here's a quick video I did using the Qik app. I was using the low quality setting at the time. I'll get another video using the high quality setting tomorrow as well as try out the stock video app for comparison.

The car app still works perfectly fine when the phone is inserted and the removal of the material there didn't seem to affect the strength of the mount in any way. I'm not sure why they didn't just make the mount like this to begin with.

Good Idea, I was thinking of doing the same thing with my phone, mounting it on the dash and running a continual looped recording so if I get in a traffic accident I have proof of who's fault it was.

a droid application would be nice if it was recording in a continual loop and also running in the background so that you can use the phone for other apps like gps, mp3, or just your regular phone.

 

[TheDriver]

That's so cool with the Droid!
I'm planning to do the same with my SE X10. Only problem is to find a good mount, that makes the cam lens visible or is at least breakable like the Motorola's.

Right now, I really don't got any ideas - Needs research.