Considering about buying a dash cam for your truck? The dashboard camera or, the dash cam has gained huge popularity in recent years. Truckers love it because of numerous advantages. They feel extra protection and drive trucks with the peace of mind.
Lots of the truckers use dashboard cameras, but many of them don’t know exactly how does a dash cam work. This article is designed to let you know the basics of dashboard cameras.
What Is A Dash Cam?
The term clearly indicates that a dash cam is a video recording camera to perform particular tasks. This small device is placed on the dashboard of the trucks or any vehicle such as cars. It records footage in front and the rear of the driver while driving vehicle.
When you turn on the ignition, dash cam starts working. Most modern dashboard cameras are available with the ‘Parking Mode’ which records incidents while you’re away from the truck. It saves you from theft and unexpected damage.
Dash cam works as an independent witness about any accident occurs in a remote place or anywhere else. It helps in different ways and resolves insurance claims.
How Does A Dash Cam Work?
A driver monitors everything carefully during driving on the road. Sometimes, it becomes necessary to review footage and voice recording. Self-witness doesn’t work always. And in this case, a dash cam supports by providing essential footage and other recordings.
The dashboard camera ensures proper road safety and additional security of your vehicles. It captures videos of everything that happen in front of you. This gadget can be equipped with a powerful microphone. You can record audio with this or keep this always off depending on your needs.
You should remember that many recording devices can work as a flimsy alternative to the dash cam. But using a purpose-built cam can be more supportive for a trucker. As many important things are involved in the truck driving job, you shouldn’t ignore the necessity of an ideal dash cam for vehicles.
A dashboard camera is special by its working procedure from a general purpose camera. It consists of a few basic elements:
- A powerful video camera
- Wired power inputs
- Removable or built-in storage media
The dash cam is generally wired into a power circuit board. By activating ignition key, it starts working. This device is designed in such a way that without any controls, it runs when you start driving your vehicle. You will find it as a simplistic camera that automatically starts recording without any interaction or input from the driver.
Digital video technology is utilized in a dash cam. To get a proper idea about how does dash cam work, we should know a few things about this device:
- Operating Process
- Data Management
- Data Usage
1. Operating Process
This camera is face forward. Some installations ways make it active inside the vehicle. Currently, truckers like to capture everything from the front, rear as well as both sides. This process allows them to receive a 360-degree view. We already know that dashboard cameras automatically start capturing when the ignition of your vehicle is placed at the ‘ON’ position.
2. Data Management
Many older versions of dash cams do not save the captured video footage. They actually offer a continuous display on a monitor same as the backup cameras.
However, a purpose-built dash cam records and saves videos on storage media such as an internal SD card or flash drive. This type of storage option has confined memory space. A driver may need to download the specific footage to different storage if he wants to save that for the future.
Videos captured by dashboard cameras can be available to view from a remote place. The commercial vehicles use a particular type of dash cams. These cams record continuously like other cams. But when any unexpected things happen, these cams preserve that footage for future review.
3. Data Usage
Commercial trucks owners use dash cams in various purposes. Mostly, they investigate how their drivers are performing by watching the recorded video by dash cams. If they find any issues that can lead to severe accidents, they try to arrange training for the drivers.
Dashboard cameras ultimately ensure fleet safety. These cams offer enough protection against civil litigation and deceptive insurance claims. The recorded videos help more efficiently than other evidence available.
Truck drivers and owners utilize dash cams to reduce the expenditure caused by unexpected accidents and violations.
How Do Dashboard Cameras Work When the Storage Is Filled?
Let’s consider some common gadgets like your cell phone or digital camera. Did you notice what happens if the storage is filled with data?
Simply, you need to replace the memory card with a new one. Another way, you can copy files from the card to another resource and then, you can use your old memory card again. Otherwise, your device will not accept any new media files or data.
The storage issue is very critical for a dashboard camera. No matter what’s the storage capacity! As dash cam continuously record videos, it is obvious that the memory will never be sufficient for the huge data captured daily. This is not easy to change the memory card on a regular basis.
The storage of dash cams works in a different way. The older videos are automatically deleted and replaced by the new videos. It is a nonstop process. The most modernized (designed particularly) cams capture and save only those videos which are involved in an accident or unexpected thing.
How Does A Dash Cam Works after An Accident?
Most of the best dash cams are equipped with sensors. These sensors can notice any type of crash impact.
If your truck has an accident, the dash cam will record and save that footage with additional fewer seconds of before and after incidents. The recorded files of the incident moment will be locked automatically. They are secure as overwritten is not possible for these videos.
Recommended Resources:
1. Guide on Dash Cam Installation
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