Black box video recorder with old Android phone

jrand said:
the roof is multi-directional (front/back & up/down) and the switch is 3way.
you might want to go to harbor freight and grab one of the non-contact voltmeters for like $10-15 and play around with the switch and check the wires. http://www.harborfreight.com/clamp-on-digital-multimeter-95683.html

you could also put the phone on a switch. jump in the car, throw the switch, jump out, throw the switch. just dont forget..
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Yeah I'm thinking Multimeter it is. I'm leaving for Colorado tomorrow though (epic snowboarding adventure WOOT!) so this will have to wait at least a week. I figure if I'm going to do any hard wiring itll be to make it an automated thing, not to add a switch, but thanks though
 
Stopsign002 said:
... I was thinking I could hardwire the charger into the same wires that the moonroof uses since it doesnt work when the power is off, but then I noticed that there are four wires going into the switch. I searched around the LS manual (http://deneau.info/ls/) but couldn't find any information about what wire is what. Can anyone shed any light on this? Or does anyone have a suggestion as to what to wire it into to make it shut off with the car? Torque has a auto sleep mode you can enable if power is turned off to the phone. Seems a perfect solution if I can get the charger to turn off when the car does.
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Sorry, I missed this earlier. I'll look it up for you tonight. Why not just use the power to the rear view mirror instead?
 
joegr said:
Sorry, I missed this earlier. I'll look it up for you tonight. Why not just use the power to the rear view mirror instead?
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Perfect. Thanks for the idea. Ill do that. Like I said, I'm pretty newbish to car electronics. That kind of stuff doesn't really occur to me. It's almost like tunnel vision lol. Had my sights set on one thing... Anyway, thanks Joegr!
 
Rear view mirror:
Black/orange is ground
Yellow/blue is switched power

Moon roof (at the smart motor, not the switch, no power at the switch)
Black/green is ground
Red/green is always on power
Gray/violet is switched power (with RAP)
 
joegr said:
Rear view mirror:
Black/orange is ground
Yellow/blue is switched power

Moon roof (at the smart motor, not the switch, no power at the switch)
Black/green is ground
Red/green is always on power
Gray/violet is switched power (with RAP)
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks a lot man. Do you have a LS shop manual or something?
 
Yes, I have the factory shop manuals and the factory wiring diagrams.
 
i think it would be cool to have it run while the car was off. kind of like theft/vandalism monitoring. i have no clue how you would rig that up without prematurely killing the car battery though. probably have to put a whole other battery in just to make it happen in these cars, sadly.

plus i guess all they gotta do is bust the window, grab the phone, and youll never see the video. unless its very well hidden.
 
If the phone has service and you have a data plan to allow, you should be able to auto upload them to a cloud service such as dropbox.



Here's an image of the overlay as it is with Torque running.

screenshot2013032312295.jpg


Still playing around with Torque to see how I want things on the many screens the app offers.
 
Yeah it killed my battery in about 10-12 hours. The phone was fully charged and the screen was off when I turned the car off, but it still killed the battery unfortunately.
 
I charge my phone in the car overnight occasionally and the battery is always good. Sure it's not something else.
 
If you were running the app then you've got to consider just how much of a power hog it is.

The camera alone uses a lot, then there is the constant writing of the file, plus whatever the app it self uses. Have any connections active while it's running, such as Bluetooth and wifi? Do you leave Torque open too? It will keep trying to connect to the OBDII adapter. Any other apps running, email accounts still setup (thus trying to check for new mail) You might get a task killer and make sure nothing is running but what is needed for your use. Along those lines, you might also look into Tasker and see if that can be helpful.

You mentioned that the EVO you have is an extra and not activated, but are the Cell antenna's still turned on? Pay extra attention to the 4G antenna as 4G (WiMax & LTE) is a huge battery eater. On my EVO 4G LTE, the Data connection is separate from the voice, not sure about the original EVO 4G, but something to look at. (you can turn the LTE off, or the LTE and Data by options, but to turn the voice ability off I have to place it in Airplane mode - Where you can then independently turn Wifi and/or BT back on)
 
i dont know if theyre still updating the torque app or not but you would think they would have some code in there to automatically close the app after like 3 mins of no connection with the obdII. that may be an option and i just never found it. torque app does suck a lot of resources/power. i havent spent a ton of time with it. check codes, clear codes, occasionally check live data thats about it. good to see someone else trying to maximize the potential though
 
Blk04LS said:
If you were running the app then you've got to consider just how much of a power hog it is.

The camera alone uses a lot, then there is the constant writing of the file, plus whatever the app it self uses. Have any connections active while it's running, such as Bluetooth and wifi? Do you leave Torque open too? It will keep trying to connect to the OBDII adapter. Any other apps running, email accounts still setup (thus trying to check for new mail) You might get a task killer and make sure nothing is running but what is needed for your use. Along those lines, you might also look into Tasker and see if that can be helpful.

You mentioned that the EVO you have is an extra and not activated, but are the Cell antenna's still turned on? Pay extra attention to the 4G antenna as 4G (WiMax & LTE) is a huge battery eater. On my EVO 4G LTE, the Data connection is separate from the voice, not sure about the original EVO 4G, but something to look at. (you can turn the LTE off, or the LTE and Data by options, but to turn the voice ability off I have to place it in Airplane mode - Where you can then independently turn Wifi and/or BT back on)
Click to expand...

No, it was literally just asleep. Apps were closed, nothing was running. No worries, I have a degree in computer networking so I'm not a newb. Thats why I was so confused. I'm wondering if something happened to wake the phone and keep the screen on. The cell antenna was off, though it did have wifi on (which can connect to my house network easily from the driveway). I have all forms of syncing off though. An idle connection to a wifi network (or even one with a minor amount of syncing) doesnt pull much power. My Nexus can go days on wifi with the cell antenna off. All I can think is something triggered the screen to turn back on.

jrand said:
i dont know if theyre still updating the torque app or not but you would think they would have some code in there to automatically close the app after like 3 mins of no connection with the obdII. that may be an option and i just never found it. torque app does suck a lot of resources/power. i havent spent a ton of time with it. check codes, clear codes, occasionally check live data thats about it. good to see someone else trying to maximize the potential though
Click to expand...

Yeah I would definitely like them to add the ability for the phone to go to sleep based on if the ignition is on or off. Of course the issue would be that sleep mode would probably turn off bluetooth... so it would never wake up. The power option is nice though, and should work well with proper hardwiring.
 
Stopsign002 said:
...Thats why I was so confused. I'm wondering if something happened to wake the phone and keep the screen on. The cell antenna was off, though it did have wifi on (which can connect to my house network easily from the driveway). I have all forms of syncing off though. An idle connection to a wifi network (or even one with a minor amount of syncing) doesnt pull much power. My Nexus can go days on wifi with the cell antenna off. All I can think is something triggered the screen to turn back on.
Click to expand...

If the BT is on overnight then perhaps it's responding to the connection? Does your BT OBDII module have power when the car is off? Maybe turning the phone off at night would be preferable. This would also give the OS a fresh start each day in regard to system resources. Something earlier versions of Android can really struggle with... well even more than the latest ones anyway.
 
purevilpleasure said:
Hey I'm looking at recommendations on the bluetooth obd2 plug ins.

thanks
Click to expand...
Look at or for recommendations? :confused:

If it's for, then the app that's been mentioned here is Torque. Available on Google Play in free and paid flavors. Most refined of the ones that I have tried and appears to be the app of choice for others here.

Although one capable of accessing more data, like trans info would be nice.
 
just type elm327 into ebay or amazon
then get an android and torque app
 
Blk04LS said:
Look at or for recommendations? :confused:

If it's for, then the app that's been mentioned here is Torque. Available on Google Play in free and paid flavors. Most refined of the ones that I have tried and appears to be the app of choice for others here.

Although one capable of accessing more data, like trans info would be nice.
Click to expand...

I know about the app...but you have to have an OBD II plug in adapter, the app needs it.
 
Ah I see :Beer

I bought one of these

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008U1MOM8/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Nice and small, does not get in the way when plugged in and seems to work well for what it can due.

I'd check out the first review that appears on the page, it's by Allen C in Kansas City and includes a video. He noted a difference in products and recommends only buying from one seller. I went with his and the one I received works fine.
 
Thanks everyone...I think I know what I'm looking at and now I need to find me a cheap droid laying around.

I still have a year left on this one I have.
 
Blk04LS said:
Ah I see :Beer

I bought one of these

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008U1MOM8/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Nice and small, does not get in the way when plugged in and seems to work well for what it can due.

I'd check out the first review that appears on the page, it's by Allen C in Kansas City and includes a video. He noted a difference in products and recommends only buying from one seller. I went with his and the one I received works fine.
Click to expand...

ive never seen this one, but i would recommend it due to the size. the bigger one thats shaped like a rectangle gets in the way due to the location of the port in an LS. i clip my leg on it once or twice whenever im driving with it installed
 
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