ARECORD B40D Dual Lens Car Dash Camera Super Capacitor Car Driving Recorder 1080P@30FPS | Novatek NT96655 + Aptina AR0330 + Rear View Camera + No Internal Battery[Upgraded from B40 B40-C A118C B60]

Power supply failed almost causing a fire. Read below for a cheap fix for this.UPDATE (9/22/2016):The company that makes this camera has sent me a new power adapter for free which was awesome. The new adapter fixed an issue I was having with corrupt files. But as the weather cooled down an issue I listed below came back. This was the issue where the camera would shutoff if it got bumped and I would have to tap/smack it a bit to get it to work again. I contacted the company today to see if they will replace the camera and luckily they responded letting me know they will be sending me a new camera.I have had great customer support from these guys thus far which I am happy about. I did quite a bit of research before buying this camera and now that it is out of the return period I am happy they are backing up their product.Pros:- Can be used as a webcam (not mentioned anywhere on the amazon page, reviews, or even the package. But I saw the option when connecting to PC)- Has great quality on the video for the price.- Can turn off the screen while driving at night (although I never do. I just leave it on because it's behind my rear view mirror).- Pretty good audio quality- Video files have about a second or two of overlap so you do not miss anything between 5 minute record sessions.- Pretty good in low light conditions.Cons:- Unit was having issues for first two weeks I owned it (read below for more information)- Power supply died after a month and a half (see below for more information)- Whenever I unplug the rear view camera (it uses a 3.5mm headphone jack) I seem to have to wipe it off with a cloth before I plug it back in or I get static and problems with the video feed.- Rear view camera could be better. But I did know it was VGA quality. In the drive through I was able to read license plates from the footage, so it's not absolute crap. But it could still be better.- No GPS for reading out current speed (you can buy an antenna, but reviews have been terrible for the functionality and latency).First Thoughts and Installing:When I first bought the camera I spent about 30 minutes installing it in my car. I first made sure the unit worked then I started running the wire throughout the car and making sure it was well hidden. I then plug in the device and nothing. The device doesn't power on and something is going wrong. I was frustrated so I grabbed the device and brought it inside to try on the computer and it still wasn't working. I then took the camera and just lightly smacked it against my hand on the side where the ports are and tried to power it up again and it seemed to work. I then brought it out into the car and plugged it in and got nothing again. So I smacked it some more and it started working again. The only downside was when I would remove it to check the video over the next couple days, just the small force of pulling it off the mount and unplugging stuff made it not work again so I had to smack it. I really didn't want to return the product and have to re-install everything all over again so I just gave it a shot over the next week and figured I would return it if there were still issues. Well, it stopped having this issue after the first week. I think it was just some loose solder on the inside. It gets about 100~110 F here in the summer (can be much hotter in the car) so I think the heat fixed the issue.Month and a half later:Every now and then I will look up at the camera screen (it is behind my rear view mirror to keep it out of the way) to make sure it is still working. Well I was driving home from work the other day and noticed the device was not powered on. I tried switching power outlets and still same thing. I just figured whatever and continued my drive home. Well, before I got home I looked at the power adapter (the part that plugs into the cigarette lighter in the car) and the light was really dim. I went to grab it and it was very hot (almost burned my hand) so I unplugged it and let it sit. When i got home I took the camera out of the car and plugged it into the PC and it was still working. I took apart the power adapter and checked the voltage coming out of the device and it was only 1.2 volts with barely any amps. Looks like the power supply shorted out some how putting most the energy into heat. I am glad I noticed before the unit caught fire or fried the camera. I didn't want to have to re-run the power cable so I just stripped the wire and soldered on a USB adapter so I can plug it into any USB port for power. This works great and have had no issues.Cheap fix for power adapter:The power adapter is crap. Cut the cable coming out of it and strip it then take an old USB cable and cut the end off of it. Combine the new USB port with the long USB cable you cut off the original power adapter and you will have a long USB cable that you can use with your own (more reliable) power supply.

防爆スーパーコンデンサーと謳っているものが逝きました。コンデンサーは無くても電源が確保されているうちは録画できますが、電源が断たれると直近のファイルが保存されません。この直近のファイル保存用にコンデンサーが使われています。コンデンサーが逝ってしまうと、事故直後に電源が断たれた場合、肝心な録画が再生できなくなります。ドラレコの意味がなくなってしまいますね。エンジンを切った直後に起動時のような画面表示と「シャキーン」？っていう音がしない場合は、コンデンサーが逝ってます。保存ファイルを確認してください。再生できないファイルがあるようなら修理です。物理・蓄電 大容量コンデンサー/3.3Fこれの交換で直りますよ。それ以外の不具合は無く、非常に満足しています。リアカメラの映像は☆０ですね。画質は悪いのはもとより、肝心なピントが合っていません。後続車のナンバープレートは読めません。外れだったかな。まぁ、オマケ程度でしょうか。

The screen is so dinky that you can barely make out the picture of what's being recorded. I was only able to set the proper time and date ONCE. after that it was impossible.I installed this as a temporary camera while I got ahold of a nicer higher quality camera, on a new vehicle I had purchased.It works, it records when you plug in the power. You can see the recordings on any computer you can use the micro SD card on.Too bad it just died out of the blue, no warning nothing. Luckily I wasn't in an accident when it did decide to die. Couldn't even tell it was dead. The screen was still on, the "recording" symbol was still on. Only reason I found out it died was because I decided to look at a cars license plate. Low and behold, no recording on the microSD card. Did the standard trouble shootings, changed the SD card, pushed some buttons and nothing.

造りはしっかりしてそう。取説が英語でよく理解ができない。ユーチューブに映像が上げてあるとと説明ですがスーパーが変な日本語訳でわからない。何回かいじっているうちに設定ができたようです。が、やはりきちんとした日本語の取説が必要。

When it works, it does poorly: the dynamic range is very narrow, if you're driving on a tree-lined street, the street and everything on it is utterly black. And yes, you can raise the exposure to a slightly lighter shade of black.But that's when it works. Most of the time it doesn't:The 12V "cigarette lighter" power cable didn't work at all, so I used a generic one.The device randomly freezes and stops recording, leaving the last recorded file corrupted and unreadable.With the rear-view camera connected it freezes within 1-2 seconds of powering up. Without it it sometimes records for several minutes.One star because I like the formfactor: it's nice to have it just rest on the dash on a friction mat, without need for suction cups and all that obstructive gear. If only it worked.