Good camera placement for the FCD & dash is between the drivers setbelt loop and headrest, with the steering wheel dropped.

I recorded both FCD and the road successfully this afternoon. It was a decent drive except for a ~15MPH head-cross wind that I fought all the way. I'm thinking the swinging stop lights and blowing flags/trees should be visible in the video. I parked with just over 63MPG...a little short of my goal but I guess I'll keep it anyway. The traffic in the rearview mirror should even be clear.
Sometimes the FCD is so hard to control for the eyeball sitting right in front of it.
The dashboard mask was a neccessary evil to prevent glare but made it very difficult to see the CHG/REGEN gauges.

I experimented with good eyeball camera positions, and I can catch both IMA and FCD gauges if it is placed about one inch in front of the steering wheel. Perhaps some kind of exotic mounting scheme someday?

I plan to fake the IMA gauges next to the FCD. My drive is so routine that I can be pretty accurate. I hope it won't cheapen the video, but after all my intent is only to help those with lower numbers.
I also plan to cut the route into segments. Each segment will have a visulal estimate of the grade, and the vehicle position on the grade.
I might also indicate posted speed limit and estimated vehicle speed.

Audio would be some kind of crazy music and commentary.

I took a couple JPG photos of my recording setup and tried to upload to the share section but only got a blank screen that says "fabfasdfsda".
Not sure why that is happening but perhaps it is the company firewalls ??

I hope to digitize my analog tape of the road early this morning. I plan to render it together with my FCD in a PIP tomorrow. We'll see how syncronization goes.
I noticed my webcam FPS is fixed at 15.035, while the video is 29.97 FPS.
Hope it all renders out together correctly.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

about masking off the gauges. Did you try dimming them with the gaauge diming knobby thing A.K.A the trip reset knob?

My hydroponics experiment

You ever notice how hard it is to lip read cartoon characters?
"Crazy is what the sane call Delta Flyer"

The problem isn't really the brightness of the dashboard, but there is a protective clear plastic sheet that is right in front of the dash gauges. This plastic is angled downward so when our eyes look at the guages from up above, the reflection is of the black lower part just in front of the steering column, so our eyes as we drive see no reflection or glare at all.
However, since my camera eye sits very low it picks up reflections (glare) from everywhere.

I think a very, very short person who can only see through the steering wheel would have a terrible time seeing them!

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

I've uploaded 4 pictures of my high-tech video equipment setup for the project in the share section.
(Kidding of course about the HT )

http://www.greenhybrid.com/share/image178.html

http://www.greenhybrid.com/share/image180.html

http://www.greenhybrid.com/share/image179.html

http://www.greenhybrid.com/share/image181.html

Oh man. Anyone who reads this thread has to check out The second picture (#180)
"Kinda hard to see the speedo, FCD and IMA though." is an understatement!

I love it!

Eric Powers

MHG Organizer - www.MadisonHybridGroup.com
Hybridfest - A Hybrid Electric Car Show and More! www.hybridfest.com
Third weekend in July
Madison, WI

I've uploaded a screenshot of my project if you're interested:

http://www.greenhybrid.com/share/sho....php?i=216&c=6

Looks good. Go check out the questions about the picture in the share section.

When is the video gonna be avaliable?

I'll be working on the 3rd PIP that will fit on the bottom Right which will have IMA, AutoStop, Reboot and Brake indicators.

I've been using Video Edit Magic software for its PIP function but had problems with the program crashing, but found a work around which took alot of time.
The developer of this software at www.deskshare.com never answers my emails.

After that I'll have to do some editing...mainly things like removal of stop light and traffic waits etc.
Then I'll do the Audio portion.

The file is about 12G's on my HD which is AVI with a MJPEG compressor set to max quality for editing but I'm not sure how small I can compress the final render or what type of file it would be. The FCD needs to remain readable.

Any suggestions?

Once its done you could cut it in to smaller pieces. I think the pieces should be 500MB max. Preferably under 100MB. It seems lots of people don't mind downloading 75MB files as the one I'm hosting for lakedude has about 30 downloads.

My hydroponics experiment

You ever notice how hard it is to lip read cartoon characters?
"Crazy is what the sane call Delta Flyer"

I'm a big Xvid fan. Xvid is a free MPEG4 codec that allows fantastic compression ratios while maintaining acceptable quality. It can also be used at higher bit rates for better quality. G-knot is a nice app that will help you convert to Xvid or Divx.

Get em, along with any advice you need at www.doom9.net