A118C Car Dashcam - Review

[CRACING]

Re: Strontium 32gb MicroSD with OTG Card Reader - Quick Review

That's a steal deal! These things never drop below 800 mark. Strontium has earned my trust with their prompt replacement of a gone-kaput card few months ago.

Good to hear. I have always used Sandisk, Kingston products and none caused issues so no experience with replacement. I hope Strontium performs same.

How is the read speed over OTG? Does it read without lags? I tried with my Strontium USB reader connected to another no-name USB to OTG but it doesn't even start playback . Thankfully, my phone has a card slot in case I have to play the recordings on the spot.

VLC plays videos smoothly but buffers at the starting as well as after seeking. MX player buffers as well but doesn't start to play. I have to fast forward to play the video. May be app bug. KMPlayer doesn't detect files on OTG.

PlayerXtreme works perfectly. It does buffer but very quickly. I like this app but will try more and report here.

Note: All the above apps doesn't show videos present on OTG drive so I had to use ES File Explorer and open videos via selected apps. This happens only on my HTC One M7.

 

[Prabhagar]

My hardwire kit and fuse taps have arrived and ready to be installed soon . I have to swap the ring from +ve to -ve wire for hooking up to a bolt.

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[CRACING]

My hardwire kit and fuse taps have arrived and ready to be installed soon . I have to swap the ring from +ve to -ve wire for hooking up to a bolt.

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I see that the usb plug is 90 degree bent. Since you don't use cable cover on top of dashcam so there shouldn't be a problem with connecting the USB plug. Let me know how it works once you install it.

As of wire spade, you can get ring spade from electronic store. Because fork spade may disconnect or become lose on vehicle vibrations. There are different sizes in spade so make sure you get the one that fits into ground bolt.

Also I don't understand why they have put fork spade on positive wire. It should have been in negative.

 

[Prabhagar]

I see that the usb plug is 90 degree bent. Since you don't use cable cover on top of dashcam so there shouldn't be a problem with connecting the USB plug. Let me know how it works once you install it.

I specifically chose this product to match my cam's pin position. I am also planning to move it up so that I can see the power/record lights above the IRVM.

As of wire spade, you can get ring spade from electronic store. Because fork spade may disconnect or become lose on vehicle vibrations. There are different sizes in spade so make sure you get the one that fits into ground bolt.

Thanks for the tip, I would have never thought about this if not for you.

Also I don't understand why they have put fork spade on positive wire. It should have been in negative.

The reason mentioned in the product listing is to allow direct connection to battery terminal

 

[Prabhagar]

Successfully hard-wired my dash cam on Sunday. Took help from my brother for soldering and routing wire thru A pillar.

Mini ATM Fuse Tap. The blue pin is cut off and the wire will be soldered to dashcam adapter:


Power adapter 12V to 5V. The ring on the +ve wire will be cut off and soldered to fuse tap:


Soldered fuse tap to adapter along with a nut & ring for negative (ground):


Used 5A fuse for dashcam:


Made use of these empty bolt slots for negative line (ground). These are located on the metal bar above fuse box:


Removed 'A' pillar to route wire from fuse box to roof liner. Three plastic locks secures this panel in place. It also houses the tweeter:


The gap was too small to push the adapter's wire from underneath. We had to push another wire from top and pull the adapter's wire:


All set to be tested. Ideally I should have tested before soldering anything, but missed to do that:


Adapter is stuck to a side panel using 3M double sided tape:


This is the on piece of visible wire, that too when IRVM is removed. Note that the L shaped mini USB pin is facing left as opposed to right side which was shown in the product page. A straight pin would have been a safer bet and looked a lot cleaner:


Special thanks to CRACING for his inputs along the way and for sharing his hard-wire installation earlier in this thread.

 

[sumesh]

After going through all the positive reviews about A118c dashcam on dashcamtalk forum and youtube, i bought mine for 32$ from Gearbest website. Got it installed on my car and recorded a few videos. After going through the videos, realized that Gearbest has sold me either a fake or a defective copy A118C. Video quality is not anywhere near sample A118c videos available on Youtube and on top of it my unit does not focus well on one side( right). If anyone is planning to order A118c from Gearbest, think twice. Its better to up the budget to 6.5k and get the new A119V2 from Aliexpress.

 

[Prabhagar]

No doubts, there are quite a few fake ones out there. I assume you have set your unit to 1080p F30 mode during your tests? If possible please share some photo and video samples of your recordings.

 

[CRACING]

After going through all the positive reviews about A118c dashcam on dashcamtalk forum and youtube, i bought mine for 32$ from Gearbest website. Got it installed on my car and recorded a few videos. After going through the videos, realized that Gearbest has sold me either a fake or a defective copy A118C. Video quality is not anywhere near sample A118c videos available on Youtube and on top of it my unit does not focus well on one side( right). If anyone is planning to order A118c from Gearbest, think twice. Its better to up the budget to 6.5k and get the new A119V2 from Aliexpress.

Hello Sumesh,

I'm afraid, you got a duplicate or unbranded dashcam. Mine is also same, Quality of video is far from those published on Youtube.

There are lot of duplicate dashcams with same model number. Housings look very similar but camera sensor, lens, PCB, chipset differ. Hence video quality and performance won't be as expected. Original Viofo, Street Guardian, Spytec and etc brand dashcams are very reliable but cost higher. Raise complaint on Gearbest for full or partial refund.

You are right about A119, I would have suggested the same if you asked me before buying A118. But again, we should watch for fakes and aliexpress is no excuse. I'd suggest to visit dashcamtalk forum and find a reliable sellers link or contact dashcam experts.

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Hello Friends

My replacement dashcam had mic recording issue and I was waiting for warranty to expire so I could open the device and fix the issue. Last week I disassembled it and replaced the mic but forgot to discharge capacitor before soldering and I burnt a MOSFET (A1sHB) which is used for switching from power to battery (capacitor). Fortunately that MOSFET is available online for very cheap and my dashcam is fixed now.

I have taken few snapshots of the PCB and attaching the same here.




Thanks...
Best Regards

 

[sumesh]

Hello Sumesh,

I'm afraid, you got a duplicate or unbranded dashcam. Mine is also same, Quality of video is far from those published on Youtube.

Like you mentioned, looks like mine is a fake copy. I bought my unit from Gearbest on Dashcamtalk recommendation. I raised a complaint and after sending a few sample pics, GB has accepted that there is a QC issue and offered me a partial refund. I'm in touch with their customer care for a full refund though.

Learned a good lesson. Like they say penny wise and pound foolish. Should have picked up the Viofo A119V2 instead.

 

[sumesh]

No doubts, there are quite a few fake ones out there. I assume you have set your unit to 1080p F30 mode during your tests? If possible please share some photo and video samples of your recordings.

Here is a short video clip. Pls play the video in 1080p. Quality of video seems to be further degraded by Google.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw7nEzPHY3QpSGpnbEtjcnd0eVU/view?usp=sharing

I'm afraid, you got a duplicate or unbranded dashcam. Mine is also same, Quality of video is far from those published on Youtube.

 

[CRACING]

Here is a short video clip. Pls play the video in 1080p. Quality of video seems to be further degraded by Google.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw7nEzPHY3QpSGpnbEtjcnd0eVU/view?usp=sharing

Looks similar to mine or slightly better. However, the camera is focused (Metering) on the sky hence the video is underexposed. Tilt the camera lens little downwards so that it focuses (meters) on the road or upcoming trees.

What is the firmware version? and did you notice purple noise and sudden darkness issues in the nighttime videos?

 

[Prabhagar]

Looks similar to mine or slightly better. However, the camera is focused (Metering) on the sky hence the video is underexposed.

I was gonna say that too . His video looks much better than mine, at least in the recent days.

 

[sumesh]

Looks similar to mine or slightly better. However, the camera is focused (Metering) on the sky hence the video is underexposed. Tilt the camera lens little downwards so that it focuses (meters) on the road or upcoming trees.

What is the firmware version? and did you notice purple noise and sudden darkness issues in the nighttime videos?

Thanks cracing. I will adjust the focus of the camera.

I'm currently in Bangalore for work and don't have access to my car for another 10 days. I did not get a chance to check the night video clips. Will test it once i'm back home & post back.

I was gonna say that too . His video looks much better than mine, at least in the recent days.

My concern was more about the lack of sharpness on the right side of the videos. After a bit of an argument with GB, they have issued a full refund back to my card. As per GB, their QC team did find some issue with the quality of the cam. Perhaps mine was a from a faulty batch. Will use this cam for a little while till i lay my hands on Viofo A119V2. Just waiting for some decent offer.

 

[CRACING]

Dashcam gps

MY DASHCAM GETS A GPS​

My best friend Prabhagar had bought a GPS module for his A118c dashcam but unfortunately, it didn't work. He tried his best to make it work but the dashcam was not able write GPS data into the video file. Since I have similar dashcam, he donated the module to me and I'm thankful to him. Surprising it is working on my dashcam and GPS fix is also rather quick. Here are some snapshots:

I have affixed the GPS module inside the A pillar and there is no issues with GPS reception. A pillar panel fits fine too. Wire is routed next to existing cables and through roof lining till dashcam.



The 3.5 jack is 90 degree bent so its a not proper fit for my dashcam but soon I will find a solution.


This is Registrator Viewer tool which shows GPS metadata that is written in the video file. Data includes speedometer, trip, compass, location, path on the map and etc.


Thats it! If you have any queries, please feel free to post here or send me pm.

Thanks...
Best Regards

 

[sethumurugan]

Is this camera is fixed behind IRVM? Can you share the pic of the camera how it is fixed