UPDATE: A few years in, and the ROVE DashCam is still going strong. The only failure to date is the MicroSD card, which died last summer, and I just now replaced it.I'm a bit of a tech-head—okay, maybe that's an understatement. I got my first computer in 1982 and worked in the IT field professionally in the '90s when the internet was really taking off. I worked for big companies like AT&T, IBM, Digital, Honeywell, etc. Around 2000, I left the field because it got too competitive; everything became about certificates and credentials. I went full-time into EMS and eventually firefighting in 2006, retiring in 2010. However, I still cling to my tech roots and tinker prolifically.With the rise of Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and the general craziness of drivers lately, I began looking into DashCams. First, it's a neat little technical project. Second, it provides peace of mind if you get into—or even witness—an accident or other event on the road. And third, it's just cool.I was looking at several options on Amazon, ranging from $50 to $200. Three of the top contenders were:
REXING V2 PRO Full HD Dual Camera 2.7” LCD Screen | Dash and Inside Cabin | Infrared Night Vision
TOGUARD Dual Dash Cam with IR Night Vision, FHD 1080P Front and 720P Inside Cabin | Dual Lens Car Dash Camera with 1.5-inch LCD Display
Nexar Beam GPS | Full HD 1080p Dash Cam | 2021 Model
Each had its pros and cons. One thing I didn’t like about the turnkey devices was their reliance on an SD card or the need to pay for cloud storage. Plus, the models with the features I wanted at a price I was willing to pay seemed large and unwieldy. One of my pet peeves is things hanging from the rearview mirror, and I can’t stand that! The screens on these devices were only 1 or 2 inches.I began looking at downloadable apps like Nexar, DriveRecorder, AutoGuard Dash Cam - Blackbox, AutoBoy BlackBox, and DailyRoads Voyager. Again, each had pros and cons. I finally settled on DailyRoads Voyager. I liked its interface, options, stability, and the price ($4.99 USD). I downloaded DailyRoads Voyager Pro and started setting it up on a Raspberry Pi 4B+ 8GB with an IR camera and a 7” touchscreen.I ran Lineage OS 17.1, but Android really isn’t optimized for the Pi, and it was unstable and ran too hot. The whole thing became too troublesome to cobble together, not to mention the case and mount I would have had to design and print. In the end, I repurposed my wife’s old Samsung Galaxy Note 10, which was having issues with calls and texts, so she replaced it with a Motorola One 5G.Her old Note 10 worked perfectly. No need for a SIM card or data plan either, as it connects via Wi-Fi from my Harmon Spark (from AT&T) OBD-II port smart car device. Using the phone also allows me to use other apps like Google Maps and control my HAM radio. The DailyRoads app lets me upload to Google Drive or Dropbox, but I wish it could upload to my private server (I’ve got 12TB of storage in my workshop compared to the 2.5TB on Dropbox and 1TB on Google). The phone mount sits low, out of my line of sight but still captures the road, and with the Note 10's 6x2.5-inch screen, I’ve got a solid display compared to those small turnkey devices.My Samsung Galaxy S7 10" tablet is on a flexible arm mount (attached to a seat bolt) for GPS and internet access when needed. It even connects to my home PCs for remote control. It’s handy when I’m at places like the VA, DMV, or car dealership and need to pull up a document.I also printed a small air vent bracket for my Google Pixel 4 XL to use the app that controls my Vero VRN7500 HAM radio.One frustration I had was with Google Maps: they removed the "Start Driving" feature, meaning I now have to close and restart the app every time the map resets. Splitting the screen between the map and radio app became a pain. I’m thinking of moving the HAM app to the phone and mounting it on an air vent.Overall, the setup doesn’t take up much room. The tablet used to be in a cup-holder mount, but that broke while adjusting it. Luckily, I had an old seat bracket mount from my Kia Sorento, so now I have full use of both cup holders again!I used DailyRoads Pro for a few days, and it worked well. The videos, even dumbed down to 720p to save space, were high quality. The files were small, averaging 300MB, and the recordings didn’t skip. The only issue was the lack of automatic GPS and speed overlays on the videos. Android doesn’t allow real-time overlays, so you have to upload the videos to a separate server to add that data later, which can get tedious. It’s only $4.99 a month, but having to do it manually for each video is a hassle.To get around this, I tried using a HUD app on another spare phone. I settled on Navier HUD 3. But eventually, I decided to go with a turnkey solution: the Rove R2-4K Dash Cam. At just under $80, it’s a good deal. It has a small screen (2.4 inches), and it requires a Class 10 MicroSD card, but the video quality is great, even at 720p. The main selling point was the built-in GPS/speed overlay on the video.The Rove kit comes with everything you need: a long USB cable, short USB cable, cigarette plug, suction mount, sticky tape mount, cable clips, and a tool to push the cable into crevices. I mounted it just to the side of my rearview mirror, where it’s out of sight but still accessible. I ran the cable along the windshield and down to the cigarette lighter outlet.As for the HUD, I set up the Note 10 with Navier 3 and paired it with an Innova Quicklink OBD-II Wireless Adapter to pull engine data, speed, navigation history, and a moving map. I initially used a cheap Bluetooth OBD-II adapter, but it was unreliable. Thankfully, switching to a better one solved the issue.Quick Update: The Bluetooth adapter wasn’t the problem—it was the Y-cable causing the connection issues. Once I connected the adapter directly, everything worked perfectly. Now, I’ve got real-time stats, HUD, and a moving map. I no longer have the Harmon Spark connected, so no Wi-Fi, but the Rove doesn’t use Wi-Fi anyway, and my other devices have their own data connections. The only downside is losing vehicle tracking when it’s out and about, so I’ll probably look for a GPS tracking solution that doesn’t use the OBD-II port and can be hidden in the truck.