I just ordered one of these, mainly for my motorcycling, but I might try it on my bike too. It has very long battery life even at 4k 30fps (4hrs 20 mins), or you can run it from a USB socket or powerpack.
Dangerous incidents fail.
- Thread starter saneagle
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Heroic riding! Maybe you are a young fellow. There was a time when I thought a hundred mile trip on my unassisted Dawes Galaxy tourer was pretty ordinary.... Not anymore.
I wonder how you regulate the output of the panels to charge the bike.
How long has your tour been going on? I got the impression that this trip is more than just a couple of days jolly.
I look forward to seeing video, particularly those shot at night. Does it have manual settings? There's no mention of manual settings in this manual:
https://www.innovvau.com.au/core/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/INNOVV-H5-User-Manual.pdf
Moving number plates look blurry in low light, but this could be due to an editing program blurring video to reduce export file size:
This is my third summer with this setup. My work pattern is 7 days on, 7 days off, so whenever good weather hits my off time in the summer I go riding. This will be 5 days, or 6 if conditions dictate, 300 to 350 miles.
If you search the forum for 'solar trailer' you'll see some of my earlier exploits, and the fairly simple electrical design.
In a nutshell, two batteries in parallel, linked by the same Schottky diode arrangement mentioned in the Swytch thread recently. Solar panels charge the big cheap Chinese generic battery in the trailer, and as long as it is at a higher voltage than my 'passenger' Shimano battery, I run on solar. It is a Shimano bike, so needs the Shimano battery to switch on. Woe betide me if it ever gets flat!
Special charge controllers which boost panel output of about 20V to battery voltage. Chinese, cheap.
Nothing fancy, nothing expensive except top quality solar panels from Sunpower. Simple, rugged, reliable, suits me! See SunTrip for the professionals!
Anyone lightweight touring with a modern 625Wh or larger battery and overnight accommodation with charging facilities doesn't need this, as their range is likely 70+ miles. I enjoy the freedom of mostly wild camping, no need to plan, and managing my energy budget across the whole trip. Each to their own!
Here's a quick test of the spy glasses. It's difficult to hold my head up high enough to point forward correctly. The blob at the top is my cap. I had to have it down a bit because the wind would blow it off down that hill. They're not so good if you want to record evidence of wrong-doing, but not bad for £20, and very convenient. These ones are much more discrete than some of the others. I'd be surprised if anybody noticed the camera.
The problem I had last time was my card reader. It was fine this time.
Don't forget to set Youtube to 1080p.
The problem I had last time was my card reader. It was fine this time.
Don't forget to set Youtube to 1080p.
One of advantages of my setup is that when I camp at the natural end of the solar day, wherever I happen to be, most people are far too interested to question my right to be there, and the rest give me a wide berth as I am clearly too odd to approach!
And I only leave flattened grass, which means I never feel guilty.
And I only leave flattened grass, which means I never feel guilty.
That looks prety good for the price. What's the sound recording quality/ ability like?
I'm currently having a lot of neighbour issues with a guy giving me loads of verbal everytime I walk out the house. I want something that'll catch the insults and veiled threats he's coming with. Think this will do?
The resolution is easily good enough to read number plates at 10 meters.
Battery duration might be the weak point. For £20 the quality is amazing.
I would be interested in hearing how you get on with the INNOVV H5 4K Helmet Camera when it comes. Battery life on that seems amazing.
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Yes. Try them.
Only £13 from China with a 32gb SD card. My ones were supposedly from a UK supplier, but took two weeks to come from China.
1080P HD Mini Camera Glasses DVR Sports Smart Eyeglass Video DV Cam Recorder Cam | eBay
Video resolution: 1920 1080p or 1280 720p vga. Keep proper distance and vertical DV when recording, and have good wide-angle lighting to ensure a good captured image. Video format: AVI video. Interface: USB Android data cable.
www.ebay.co.uk
Thanks Saneagle.
The guy seems to object to the fact that we've both retired and so are around more. He hasn't worked for the last 10 years (though he's younger than me) and has got used to the gardens being quiet. He's decided (and has said) that he hates us since we retired so takes every opportunity to give us greif. Also has not really started going out again after lockdown. So, basically, yes a stir crazy nutter.
The guy seems to object to the fact that we've both retired and so are around more. He hasn't worked for the last 10 years (though he's younger than me) and has got used to the gardens being quiet. He's decided (and has said) that he hates us since we retired so takes every opportunity to give us greif. Also has not really started going out again after lockdown. So, basically, yes a stir crazy nutter.
I reckon the ideal place for me would be a house on a hill top or in a big forest, so that there are no neighbours at all within perhaps a kilometre. That would suit me perfectly. Crazy or inconsiderate neighbours are a curse.
It doesn't matter what house you have or where it is, there's always something to spoil it that you find after you moved in.
What's great about cheap Chinese cameras is, there's much less motion blur - that output is very similar to the many small cheap crappy Chinese video cameras I have owned over the years. Freeze a frame to read a number plate, simples. If you freeze frames trying to see number plates viewing low light video from the Innovv H5 below, plates are blurry. Probably because it's on an automatic mode. My GoPro Hero 7 Black did much the same on auto, but fortunately there are manual settings to reduce shutter speed to make the damn thing useful. After adjustment, it does a good job. Manufacturers of newer small video cameras prioritise making them easy to use, and the video look pretty. As a cyclist, I need sharp and not necessarily pretty video, day and night.
In the Innovv H5 manual, there is a tab marked "Exposure controls" in the app. I certainly hope manual settings are accessible there. Reduce shutter speed and increase ISO. Colours will look crappy, but number plates will be clearer. Even slow moving number plates are blurry:
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Export the audio from video recorded as you hold your phone in your hand? Audio is proof, therefore you needn't look like you're recording video. Perhaps your phone's microphones can record verbal abuse (however faintly) while you simply hold it in your hand while walking? A free video editor could export the audio, a free audio editor like Audacity could boost and clean it up. In my experience, councils and cops act on that. There's a free program out there which edits file attributes, so you can match the cleaned up exported audio's tags to the recorded video's tags, in case someone looks carefully.
Or buy a decent quality small shotgun mic for your phone...
... or a high quality dedicated audio recorder and add a production quality shotgun mic to it? Such and similar stuff is cheaper to hire.
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"WHO declares loneliness a ‘global public health concern’
The World Health Organization has launched an international commission on loneliness, which can be as bad for people’s health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day"
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This is true.
It is perhaps something built into the core of our nature. We come after all from a creature that wandered all across the planet, constantly searching for somewhere better to live - for a while - and then move on. Quite amazing that 48 to 50 thousand years ago, modern humans from Africa had walked and rafted to begin populating Australia. It was only perhaps 60 to 70 thousand years ago that we walked out of Africa in the first place into the Middle East and into Europe.
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