Washed my truck. Had a shit ton of salt on it from the Adirondacks. Mad cold with the power washer. Rust belt life, fighting the tin worm.
The Glenmont Car Wash at 1/2/17 3:35 pm
Washed my truck. Had a shit ton of salt on it from the Adirondacks. Mad cold with the power washer. Rust belt life, fighting the tin worm.
My Dashboard Camera, A VIOFO A119
People often ask questions about my dashboard camera.
I have a VIOFO A119 with the GPS base. You will want the GPS base, not just for logging, but because it makes it very easy to remove from your truck to download the photos (it just slides out of the GPS base, with the standard base, you have to unplug the USB cable each time you remove it).
With the GPS base, you get a second plastic-only base (USB wire connects directly) for using in a second car in the package. The cost with the GPS base was around $100 (it was $90 without the base plus $10 for the GPS base). You will also need to buy a Class 10 USB card which are about $25 from a local retailer. 64 GB gets you 6 hours of video at 2560×1440, which is automatically overwritten oldest video first. I have two cards to store things while on vacation. Plugs into any computer with a USB port, looks like a USB hard drive when it plugs in.
http://www.viofo.com/home/30-a119-1080p-60fps-dash-cam.html
I am very happy with it, and has very good quality on sunny days, with some pixelation issues in low light levels and if there is a lot of trees moving in the picture. As soon as you get it, you will want to update the firmware to A119.20160829.V1.1 from their web page (it’s possible the newest models have this firmware version). The newer firmware allows you full control over the labels (you can turn all of them off) and adds an option for MPH rather than the earlier firmware’s Km/h only option. The firmware can be updated from any computer with USB port as you just have to download a file on it in a specific folder from VIVOFO’s web page, and it can be installed on any Mac/Linux/Window computer with a USB port.
The camera is powered by a USB cable (11 foot cable included). It starts recording automatically when plugged in, but should be put on a switched outlet in your truck, so you don’t kill the battery. Make sure you have a steady voltage supplied to the USB port, as it will stop recording shortly after losing voltage and may corrupt the currently recording file if it repeatedly loses voltage, like if you have a rough road, and the power connection is flipping on and off.
All of the relatively affordable dash board cameras are from China. They don’t make many many American ones, as they aren’t as popular in America. But I’m pretty happy with what I got, and it was well packaged and good quality for being an obviously Chinese model (and everything was in English).
Here are some my observations about using my dash camera in my truck.
January 2, 2017 Morning
Well folks, it’s the second day of 2017. 78 days until the first day of calendar spring. With the clear skies and calm wind, we got fairly cold last night but now it’s 26 degrees and cloudy in Delmar. Without the heater working last night, I’m glad I abandoned my plans to camp in the Adirondacks. I still wish I had gotten an earlier start and been able to make it work.
Today will have a slight chance of rain and snow after 5pm. Partly sunny, with a high of 36 degrees at 2pm. Six degrees above normal. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had snow and a high of 35 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 1890. 7.1 inches of snow fell back in 2014.
The sun will set at 4:34 pm with dusk around 5:06 pm, which is 54 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 9 hours and 9 minutes of daylight, an increase of 53 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will have a chance of rain, snow, and sleet before 1am, then a chance of sleet between 1am and 3am, then a chance of freezing rain after 3am. Cloudy, with a low of 33 degrees at 9pm. 17 degrees above normal. Southeast wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Little or no snow and sleet accumulation expected. In 2016, it got down to 27 degrees with periods of snow. The record low of -14 occurred back in 1970.
There are 2 weeks until Martin Luther King Day when the sun will be setting at 4:49 pm with dusk at 5:20 pm. On that day in 2016, we had rain, snow and temperatures between 40 and 29 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 30 degrees. We hit a record high of 62 back in 1995.