Cell Phone Camera

[Challenger392]

I have an old smart phone that I'd like to use for capturing my runs up the hill, Its an HTC Thunderbolt so its not too old. It takes 720p HD video, anyone think there is a remote possibility that it will take any semblance of useful video mounted to my car. The car has quite a bit of vibration (the engine mounts are blocks of aluminum) so im hoping someone has some brilliant idea as to how to mount it successfully. Does anyone else use an old phone for a camera? I've borrowed a GoPro before and it worked great, but borrowing one once in a while won't help me improve run to run. If nothing else I at least want to use the phone for data logging simple things like GPS speed and accelerator data. If anyone has any novel ideas please share them.

[sachilles]

There is a android app called track master. It will give you video, and GPS data overlay. Allows you to tme your run, split markers etc. works better with an external GPS, but for what you want, the internal one should be fine. Hard mount the phone, and the vibes shouldn't be too bad. YouTube also can correct some shaking in video.

[sachilles]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... FzdGVyIl0.

[Chief Geek]

I've been using Dad/Rich's gopro for fancy video because I pipe clamped his obsolete still camera (in video mode) to the bar over my right shoulder.

It's only VGA-quality, and very good VGA quality, but having a video, with the same view, of every run is really educational. It has shown me which type of "mistakes" hurt (turning in 5 ft late) and which don't (missing a gear or bouncing the rev-limiter).

Paul

[sdwarf36]

Heres my zero dollar -10 minute iphone mount. 2 muffler clamps-a scrap of aluminum and a holster. I cut 1 corner off the holster-and put the phone in screen toward me-lens out. I also put a oring around the length for safety. It doesn't move a bit.



Now about Track Addict-i either need lessons-or its utter crap. Without the external gps, all the info was lagging way behind. (speedo still climbing for 2 seconds after Ive slammed on the brakes) and it picked a different place to shut off each time-varying by 5 seconds.

[sachilles]

Some phone software setups have that problem and have ways to calibrate it, unsure about how they do it with the iPhone, the delay may be adjustable.
If you use race render or dash ware for the video editing, you can shift the data so it syncs up.

[Challenger392]

Awesome, thanks. I hadn't thought of the cell phone case as a mount. I'll have to try and find one that will hold it good. I currently have the Torque app so I might try and see if it has enough processor to run both that and the camera reliably at the same time. If it can't I'll just buy track master and hopefully that will work.

[sachilles]

torque should work fine.
I suggested trackmaster as I figured you wouldn't have obd2 connections with the mod.
They both will do basically the same thing if gps is the only input. I've found that extracting the video from tourque with the data overlay is a little hokey.
They each have their pluses and minuses.