Modifying Car Dock to Allow Video

[m00m00w4t3r]

@640k just curious what are your mods so far for the GR?

 

[droid droid droid]

I have since found that there are still some issue capturing in background, but it is working great in the foreground.

Video doesn't record while in the background. The audio is recorded, but the video is just a single frame from when it was originally pushed into the background. I'm running H.264 at 640x480.

Like you mentioned, it does work great in the foreground.

 

[DailyRoads]

I have since found that there are still some issue capturing in background, but it is working great in the foreground.

Video doesn't record while in the background. The audio is recorded, but the video is just a single frame from when it was originally pushed into the background. I'm running H.264 at 640x480.

Like you mentioned, it does work great in the foreground.

For recording in the background, you may try with a lower resolution (e.g. 320x240) and/or the MPEG4 encoder. Maybe there are not enough resources (memory or processor power) to encode video in the background at high resolutions.

Feel free to contact me, if you can spare some time to test with various settings. I don't have access to a Droid, but hopefully together we can identify some settings which allow video recording in the background, too.

Thanks,
Robert

 

[DJTURNz]

Somewhere along the line I missed hearing about this app, but yesterday I got a tweet from Droid_updatez about Daily Roads app.
I tried it out this morning and although all I could see was headlights coming at me, it's pretty cool. I really didn't care what the footage was of, I just wanted to record my whole 45minute commute. It records it in 1minute sections, complete with GPS location of where that minute took place.
I haven't played with all the other settings yet, but it seems cool so far. One thing I forgot to do was see how much space 45min took up on the SD card before I deleted it all.
Will it work simultaneously with navigation?

 

[DailyRoads]

You really got up early in the morning, if it was still dark when you tested the app

With the current Android version on the Droid, Voyager is not working simultaneously with navigation. As soon as Voyager is put into the background, video is not properly recorded. It works fine in the background on the Nexus One (Android 2.1), so hopefully it will also work on the Droid, once it is upgraded to 2.1.

Robert

 

[dustonio]

Here's my "how to" article, which explains how to modify the OEM Window Mount to show the camera lens. Link to Instructables article

You can also download a PDF of the how to here:
View attachment 5252

 

[DailyRoads]

Great instructions! Even though it took you 30 minutes to work with the hardware, I am sure it took more to prepare the "instructables". Thanks for sharing, and mentioning DailyRoads Voyager! Glad to see people are going to this length, just to use my app, or other video recording software on the Droid...

Robert

 

[tdpolo26]

just an idea

while getting ideas for my motorola t605 install I ran across this braketron mount linky. Now at first i wanted the OEM mount so i could see everything in landscape mode, But i ran accross a youtube video about how the oem mount works and it sends the droid into car mode with a magnet flipped the right way. Now this mount grips the phone great bends towards or away from you and if you have it sideways and put the the grips to the right that leaves the volume buttons and the camera unobstructed. I put a small coin magnet on it. The advantage is no case modification and you can use any case you want to protect your very expensive droid.
just a thought on the subject hope this helps some of you guys

 

[GameBoiye]

Dailyroads, there any chance you're still around to answer a question. I love your app sooo much, best thing ever been using it for about a week and can't live without it now.

One thing I was wondering though, is there any plans to add options to the app to increase the encoding bitrate? Using 640x480 (VGA) or 720x480 (D1) the video has way too many artifacts. I have plenty of space on my phone, so I don't mind the videos taking up more space, but I want them to look a lot clearer.

Thanks again for the great app.

 

[skidemn]

Window mount holder enables video recording

For anyone still interested in a holder that will allow you to record video, I just got a new model holder in and tested it in my car. It has a window mount for easy attachment and the top of the phone (camera area) clears the holder so it is not visible in the video. I will make a small video tomorrow so you can see how it works, and I'll take some photos of it since we haven't even put them on our site yet. I haven't yet checked to see if I can mod it with the magnet for auto Car Home mode, but since the holder sits clear of the camera I think it will be too far away from the area where the magnet needs to be in order to work. More details to come...

 

[DailyRoads]

GameBoiye, I am still here and continuously improving Voyager. A number of Droid users reported the artifacts in video at higher resolutions, and sent me the 3gp files as proof. The strange thing is that I am not using any compression setting in the code, besides the frame rate (set to 20).

But, next week I am getting a Droid myself, and will thoroughly test Voyager. Hopefully, I will be able to fix this problem, too.

Thanks,
Robert

 

[jedijunk]

Just thought I'd chip in here... since the image the camera is capturing is rectangular, I realized that you can avoid removing as much plastic by cutting a rectangular hole. I drilled four 1/16" holes in the dock, forming a rectangle over the lens. I connected the holes with a razor blade knife, then gradually shaved away more plastic on all sides until the shadowy fringing at the edges of the live camera view had just disappeared. As I shaved away with the knife, I held it at an angle to bevel the edges so the opening was smaller on the phone side of the dock than on the back side, mimicking the path the light needed to follow to get into the lens (this wasn't totally necessary, but it did allow me to keep a bit more plastic intact).

The end result was a perfectly rectangular hole with beveled edges that looks great, all while removing the bare minimum of plastic/strength from the dock. Time invested: 25 minutes...

 

[anabolix]

Just thought I'd chip in here... since the image the camera is capturing is rectangular, I realized that you can avoid removing as much plastic by cutting a rectangular hole. I drilled four 1/16" holes in the dock, forming a rectangle over the lens. I connected the holes with a razor blade knife, then gradually shaved away more plastic on all sides until the shadowy fringing at the edges of the live camera view had just disappeared. As I shaved away with the knife, I held it at an angle to bevel the edges so the opening was smaller on the phone side of the dock than on the back side, mimicking the path the light needed to follow to get into the lens (this wasn't totally necessary, but it did allow me to keep a bit more plastic intact).

The end result was a perfectly rectangular hole with beveled edges that looks great, all while removing the bare minimum of plastic/strength from the dock. Time invested: 25 minutes...

Can you take a picture?
I would like to see this
thanks

 

[RallyLegacy]

As a fellow Subaru owner and because I recognized 640K's sn from NASIOC, I feel like i need to comment. I modded mine by taking a metal file to the car mount and just filing it down. It created a nice clean circular void for the camera to peak through. Since this is the interwebs, here is the proof that I actually did it (most recent autox run I have on video):

[video=youtube;NrmswgMdzY4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrmswgMdzY4]YouTube - Kentucky Region SCCA AutoCross Cardinal Stadium 97 Subaru Legacy 04/11/2010[/video]

 

[Jim 777]

A buddy of mine got a droid after I did and his car mount allowed video without modifying is mount. Haven't seen it yet or why it's different than mine, but mine is like the one pictured above.