YI Home Camera 'lags' inside car

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#1

Hello, I have been using the Yi Home Camera (chinese version) for some time lapse projects. A few months back I decided to use the same camera as a dashcam to record my trip and then make it become a time lapse. After gathering and looking at all of the footages I noticed that some (ones without IR/night vision) videos sort of speeds up and speeds down when the car is moving, I have also noticed that the timestamp is also sort of unstable. The weird thing is that when the infrared is on, it doesn’t seem to have that lag at all.

IR Enabled - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bfgdn1MizHHYJsTn70rHulNnY_DKCFHc/view?usp=drivesdk

IR Disabled - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bktDUYMMIwJAt9W3kkknyJ9RejGvQ7Fg/view?usp=drivesdk

I understand if this issue cannot be resolved, as the camera is supposed to be used at home anyways. Thanks!

#2

Side note, the camera even lags during low speed. I also noticed that the videos are doing fine when the car isn’t moving. I’m running the camera using the car power supply (2 Amps), and an 8 GB memory card. Yesterday I confirmed that the camera’s footage is normal and working fine when sitting on a static spot (not moving). After the car completely stopped, the camera continues to work normally. I also noticed that when the IR is disabled BUT the sun isn’t up yet its still doing fine, overheating maybe? (video of IR off but video doing fine here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RZQnn6WelCUT5Guca9InJ0-5uQr3FkHs/view?usp=sharing)

#3

That’s very interesting feedback! Did you connect the camera when at home and remove it from wifi while using the SD card?

I can inquire as to why IR has better speed but is still a very interesting use case. Have you looked at some of our dashcams?

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#4

Thanks for the reply, yes I did connect the wifi at home and then used SD card to record the rest of the trip. Sometimes I enable hotspot on my phone (same wifi name) to sync the clock. I did looked at YI’s dashcams, I find the features very interesting. As of now I’m just recording trips, so the YI Home Camera should be enough to make a time lapse. Have a great day ahead and good luck inquiring on how IR has a better speed!

#5

Hello @Steven_Kami, I am back with a cool thing I found. As you know, the YI camera makes the timestamp visible by changing the color of it. Last time I only managed to enter the toll road when the sky is still dark (causing the camera to turn on IR). I noticed the video tends to lag when the timestamps’ colors changes from black and white. To test it out I might cover the timestamp area (with a black tape) of the camera so the timestamp’s color won’t change. My friend mentioned that there might bee too many colors for the camera to process, but I’m sure the YI camera is capable of doing so

Here’s the footage https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h_YmWfJB1d5XTMlVTnnHMJtuocszqCS5/view?usp=sharing

Thank you!

#6

I now have the footages with the timestamp covered, and now I think it might be the reflections of the dashboard, or just the light brightness changing rapidly. I will test it by mounting the camera on car’s (inside) roof after this.

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#7

The more change between frames the more data that needs to be compressed. Your missing frames and getting something like 700 frames in one minute which is on average about 11 or 12fps for the 24fps reported. Which camera / firmware is it? When I get some spare time I’ll try driving around in daylight with my Yi Dome Guard and see how it goes for comparison. Strange that there doesn’t seem to be an option to directly upload video into the post?

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#8

Thanks for sharing @Jourd I’ll share your footage with the team here to see how we can improve.

@anyone thanks for being active on the forum and willingness to help others! Thats what the forum is for :slight_smile:

#9

Not much sunshine around. I tried using the Dome Guard in a car, could do with stabilization, increase in bitrate, sharpness is a bit too much for my liking. Didn’t get the effect you had or didn’t notice it. Have you tried a faster SD card? If not that then maybe it’s just a bit too much for the camera and a dash camera might be more suitable?

Unfortunately I cant attach a small ~2MB mp4 demo of the guard dome and converting to GIF (~11MB) is too large. :frowning:

#10

The camera that I’m using is the YI Home Camera (720p maybe), we bought the Chinese version of it as the international version wasn’t available at the time. Because of that, I can’t update to the latest firmware as I was told that it’ll make the camera unable to be used. The firmware I am using is 1.8.6.1B_201603181307 (from the gz file inside SD card as I can’t access the camera now)

An update from my latest test, the camera still lags when I point it away from the dashboard. I also noticed something, (which doesn’t really matters) the camera stopped recording audio in the last few seconds of a single video. From my guess its the audio not syncing properly to the video, which makes the audio stop at the end of recording. This isn’t a big problem as the camera only records sounds of roads and conversation inside the cabin which I don’t really need. If there are very simple fixes then yes I’ll fix that problem.

I might not be able to upload videos directly because of my level in this forum. Thank you for the reply!

#11

I was planning to find a SD card with a bigger storage to try it on, but I can’t find any micro SD card with a capacity more than 8 GB (current one). I never knew SD cards have speed, but I’ll try experimenting with other micro SD cards when I get home. As I said earlier, I only use this camera to record my trip then make it become a timelapse to share to my friends. A smoother footage may or may not enhance the quality of the timelapse, so I didn’t bother much about it as I’m ok with the timelapse result. I’ll send the log files if you want to, it might help you find out more about my camera’s model.

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#12

It might not be the SD Card so if you can borrow from a friend it might save unnecessary expense. If buying one be aware that there are a lot of fake cards around.

Camera firmware version alone should be enough to identify the camera, no need for personal log files. It’s not important if the quality is usable so no need to do anything in that case.

#13

I actually have a ton of fake ones lying around my house :sweat_smile: my dad accidentally bought a lot of fake micro SD cards, they’re usable but the storage is not like what is written. I’ll try with the fake SD cards and the genuine 2GB cards, I might also try to swap SD cards with my home camera which has 16 GB if I remember correctly.

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#14

Update here, I haven’t tried changing SD cards, but I found a footage at where my dad held the camera then walked. There was a lot of sunshine, but he was walking slowly. The lag looks heavier when compared when the camera is being a dashcam. It might be just some visual illusion.

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#15

Hello I’m back, @Steven_Kami did you miss me?(jk) Anyways I tried flashing some lights into the camera with a 8GB card (the one I was using) and 16GB card. Then I placing a timecode using premiere pro to compare with the camera’s timecode. The 16GB card turned out to have the correct timecode when lights are being flashed. The sequence of flashing lights may not eb the same so it might also affect the result. I’ll try placing the camera at dashboard again tomorrow. Anyways here’s the video https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z6pgb5sLiIykK-wyDxLHuYHWtNkSWVIE/view?usp=sharing If you don’t want to watch it all the way, skip to 0:54 for 16GB testing, and 2:00 for the 8GB testing (the one that ‘lagged’)

(edit at 9/8) I got the footages back, and turns out I was wrong about it.

#16

We just bought a dashcam. It means this is the end of this thread. Thank you for everyone’s help and assistance, it has been fun.

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