PINREK Thermal Imaging Camera & Dash Cam for Cars - 1000ft Night Vision Security System with AI Alerts, Blind Spot Detection & 64GB Storage | People/Vehicle/Animal Detection Camera

Beautiful

Pros:+ A legitimate thermal imaging camera system. You can navigate (cautiously) at night without any light using this, which also makes it great for night time hunting.+ The firmware seems to be kept updated by Robofinity.+ Sensitive vehicle/human/critter detection by the software.+ Pretty easy to install.+ Anodized aluminum housing for decent protection.+ You can also use it as a dash cam and record footage to MicroSDXC card.Cons:- The package did not include the silicone cover as pictured. I had to 3D print a hardcase out of ASA.- Smartphone and app are required to change some of the more intricate settings.- No way to turn off the highlight box. When the unit detects a vehicle, a pedestrian or an animal, it overlays a highlighted box. I wish the highlight could be disabled and show just the box.- The cable coming out of the camera doesn't appear to be detachable, which means if you accidentally damage it, you'll have to replace the entire camera assembly.- Long boot time. About 6 seconds from initial power input.- Limited field of view.- Package included a MicroSDXC card that the software kept complaining about being too slow and refused to record on. I just threw it out and replaced it with a high speed card.Things to consider:* Daytime use may lead to overheating, which will result in choppy video feed. But this thing is meant for low to no light conditions.* Power requirement is 12V/1A, which means it can't be powered using USB, but you can wire it directly to your 12V lighter socket wiring if you want.* A rather low resolution, but not unexpected from a sub-$500 thermal imaging camera system. The detection software compensates for this.* The camera wire is long enough that I was able to snake it from under the steering wheel (where the image processing box is) to the top of my roof rack where the camera is installed. I do wish it was a little longer by another foot or two, which would've let me put it on a custom pan/tilt mount, but the length is adequate as it currently is for fixed position.* You can toggle between clear versus inclement weather modes on the screen. The inclement weather mode apparently increases the refresh rate, according to the manual.* The on-screen range estimation has decent accuracy.* Proprietary magnetic mount on the display. I found the included magnetic mount to be not strong enough for my use. Regular Magsafe mounts don't work, but the display is the size of a large smartphone, so you can just use a regular phone mount. If you want to use this for hunting, get one of those bike/ATV phone mounts that has a bar clamp.* Firmware updates require a smartphone with the app installed.

Before I start, I am not an "influencer'" or paid tester. I paid with my own money to see if this is an item that could save me from accidents. I travel some very dark and sketchy roads for work. There are no street lights and it's miles of wilderness and wildlife such as elk, deer, bears, etc. I have totaled one work truck already by hitting a cow elk in a snowstorm. The drive is white knuckle almost everyday.I was torn as to what thermal imaging system to buy and I decided to test this one first. It had a reasonable price point and it had 2 reviews and a 4.0. rating.First thing I noticed was there was no instruction manual. Ok. Then the mount...it's a good concept, but they use M3 bolts with a special triangular screwdriver that makes it almost impossible to install it by "feel". I replaced them with some standard Philips head screws to make my life much easier as I was testing it. I started on the very back of the hood and it was pointed well above the horizon. I could not figure out how to adjust the angle and so after 2 emails and 48 hours customer service showed me how...like I said, there was no instruction manual. The adjustability of the head is not very precise. They have like 6 "clicks" you can adjust to and not a single one had the correct elevation, so I got it halfway between the clicks and locked it down. After a few days, I moved it to the front grill. An F-250 has large enough openings to fit it nicely and it looks non-discreet and I also figured it would be a lot more reactive and responsive to hazards in the dark.Operationally, It does not "see" 1000 ft at all. It can barely detect a car at 400 ft and if it's raining...no matter what mode you put it in, it may or may not detect one. I had many that it detected only when it was directly in front of me, around 40 ft away. Not good.My sole purpose though was to detect wildlife and so I wasn't worried much about cars, but that should have been the biggest clue. It failed miserably to detect wildlife of all sizes, missed 95% of them. It missed deer on the road, on the shoulder, crossing in front of me, running from me. It missed elk. It did detect 1 jack rabbit...Understand, it "saw" their thermal heat signature, but if you were not looking directly at the screen, you would not know it "saw" them. The system 3 times alerted me to an animal in 3 weeks of testing and I encountered hundreds.Now the "AI"...it is horrible. Seriously. One would think that you would train the AI to look for heat differentials and trigger an alert off of that since IT'S A THERMAL CAMERA, but no. The AI looked for shapes. It would alert on clouds, trees, street signs, tire tracks on my gravel road, anything but the important, vital objects that it needs to alert on. I got to the point I just muted it because it never shut up and would alert on the dumbest things.I also got bugged by the fact that it would "freeze" up a lot. I would be driving and it'd freeze then a few seconds later it would catch up. One day the entire screen just started getting wavy. I shut it off and powered it back on and that fixed it for a bit. It kept doing that and that was the absolute final straw.I did like the compact, unobtrusive size. The display was a good size with adjustable back light so in the dark it did not blind you. The cable from the unit to the power box is a tad short. For me it needed a few more feet.They are on the right track, but they need to do a lot more work and better refinement of their AI to ensure it is a quality product that people would buy.

Dry cool device that lets you detect object based on their heat signature.Includes everything to get it mounted in your car. You have to fish a wire thru the firewall to get into the cabin, but if you’re looking at this your probably expected that! The thermal imager does not work behind a windshield - if you have one of the home ones to detect drafts, your probably know that when you’ve seen your heat reflection in windows!Screen is clear and looks like a phone which may invite theft…. The magnet is not MagSafe type so you have to use the included magnet to hold it up.There is a proprietary connector on the unit, so if that get trashed or a wire is sliced, you are in trouble.The sensor is small, but I wish it was just a bit smaller still as I’m having trouble finding a mount point for my car. This may be better suited at this size for a truck and you will have a larger grille to work with.Setup is easy, just works! You can set a few setting but I had to cut the sound since it is constantly beeping when it detects something.Overall it’s a good price for a thermal imager plus it has car specific features that make useful when driving at night and keeping you aware of potential road hazards like crossing animals or cars without lights.