I always suggest they need about half an hour more than the race. You have to have a safety margin the includes driving to the grid, sitting on grid, the race, and back to the pits. You do t want to record over the incident if it happens on the first lap and you finish the race.

 

Nice thing about the SmartyCam HD is that 32 Gb is eight hours of record time!

 

No doubt! That's why I always tell people to get a 64 GB card, that way they can forget about it for at least two weekends of racing and not miss anything.

 

Gotta love Rennlist: guy asks about a $50 camera from ebay and the advice is to spend $3,000+ on a complete data system with a compatible HD camera. In another thread a guy asks about racing in Cayman Spec and the advice is build a his car and go racing professionally in the Continental series. The Rennlist motto must be: go big or go home!

My GoPro Hero2 HD cameras have started turning on and off intermittently after several years of use. I was looking at replacing them with GoPro Sessions, but there are lots of other options from Contour, Sony, Garmin, even Shimano. Lots of options these days so I'm interested in hearing what others are using.

 

+1

 

No, I think it's pretty balanced. There have been multiple suggestions for $18-$180 cameras on this thread. There have also been, like you, several folks that have lamented the intermittent and not infrequent failure of these cameras (up to $400, in the case of the GoPro) to record video. Pay your money and make your choice!

 

Yeah. When you get the camera, this would be a good time to upgrade to a diesel truck and an enclosed trailer.

 

So if I just get SmartyCamHD, do I also need the GPS module if I want to overlay (speed, g-force) data on its video? I'm assuming no GPS module is needed if the camera is connected to SoloDL since the solo already has GPS? Does the camera+GPS collect/record exactly the same data as the Solo/DL (free-standing; not connected to the car's ECU/OBD)?
What's the max SD card the smartycam would read (128GB?)?

 

Yes. The SmartyCam could run 75-90 minutes on it's own. But NO speed, NO lap timing, ONLY lat and long g's.

The SmartyCam can be (and many people DO) used standalone with a GPS antenna ($149) and a power cable ($49) to record a finished video that includes speed, track position, lap timing, best lap, lap count, lat and longitudinal g's. NO data is saved for later analysis. The power cable will turn on and off the camera without pressing a button, if connected to a switched power source in the car.

People with older cars often use an RPM Bridge ($220) to supply power and RPM in lieu of a power cord. Newer cars can use an ECU Bridge ($250) to put nearly any measures onto the video that are accessible from that particular car's CAN or OBDII stream, again in lieu of the power cable. But NONE of these first three scenarios allow the "saving" of even basic measures for review in Race Studio Analysis software. No segment analysis, no construction of ideal laps, no colored maps or strip charts for highly valuable measures like gSum...

IF folks want basic measure LOGGING (recording for later analysis) on older cars, some folks buy a Solo DL and connect only the power leads to switched power to automate the on/off feature, then the Solo DL is connected to the camera with one cable to a SmartyCam, to which the Solo DL supplies GPS info (speed, track position, lap timing, lap count) for recording onto the video.

128 GB is max.

 

To clarify what Peter wrote above, the SCHD does not record any data for later analysis in RS2 Analysis. The old, standard definition SmartyCam does record video and a data file that can be downloaded by and analyzed in Race Studio 2.

The old standard def cameras are popular with folks who want video and some data and drive a car with no OBDII or CAN connection.

For your car, if you want to go the full data route, then you should think about a Solo DL (or MXL2) and a SCHD. I have deals going on both right now.

If you go with a Replay Prime X, let me know and I can get you some instructions on how to hardwire it and get it to automatically turn on, record, and turn off.

 

I also have three brand new Replay Mini 1080 cameras for sale NOS for $115, shipping USPS Priority Mail.

 

So, if I wanted a rear facing camera to add to my MXL2/SCHD v2.1 setup, there is a way I could wire a camera to be automatically turned on and off just like or similar to the SCHD v2.1?

Tell me more!

What cameras could I do this with? How is it done?

I guess I could use a digital out to do this with the Replay XD1080 that I currently have. The XD1080 is setup to start recording when power is supplied and set to turn off 1 minute after power is removed. I assume I could program the digital out to supply power at the same speed and RPM value I have the dash start recording data. If desired, I could then use Race Render to combine the videos.

Interesting....

 

That's how you would do it.

 

My vote would be for the Replay Mini 1080. A Mini 1080 replaced my GoPro as I got tired of my GoPro overheating in the sun, hanging, running out of battery power, etc. The Replay is super durable, small, easy to use, and produces very good video quality. It does not have a bunch of fancy features, but then I hardly used those on my GoPro anyhow.

Cheers,
DJM

 

I believe I have missed a few but I have experimented with several over the years! I started with a Sony (tapes) that shook itself to death, went to an Aiptek that took great video but ripped off its (reinforced with a SS washer JB welded to it!) mount during a crash, had a (non-HD) Smartycam hooked into an MXL that worked every time and was synced to data but the video was crap, Then tried a ReplayXD (still have it) with a remote start/record that took great video (no data). Even tried the Roadhawk, which to me (hardwired in) is the best "cheap" camera due to its built in GPS...

I have come to the conclusion that:
I can't be relied upon to start and stop my video camera
I have NEVER been able to sync up any video with data on my own and have wasted MANY hours of frustration trying.

Want my advice? Put in a SmartyCam HD ver. 2, even if it doesn't sync with the Solo (does it?). It will at least show you speed and accelerometer data on your video, track maps, and will always start and stop on it's own. If you can swing it sell the Solo, buy an MXL2 and add the sensors you want and be done with it!
If you want a rear view buy something cheap..