U3000 PRO Front & Rear

Purchased a Thinkware 3000Pro and having it installed tomorrow on my new A5. I used to own the Thinkware F770 (front and rear) on my A6 and loved it.

I was delayed in the install, but my local AV shop finally installed it today. I purchased the LTE module as well. They installed the front cam and the LTE unit to the right of the rear view mirror, with the front cam somewhat hidden from the driver's view. The whole install took 2 hours and was $350. I'm sure many will shudder at the cost, but it was worth it for me.

There is a rear 2K camera as well. Here are some of the pictures (please excuse the poor quality). [https://imgur.com/a/gLDsb41](https://imgur.com/a/gLDsb41)

Running the Thinkware U3000Pro. Image quality is solid, app works well for pulling clips. A bit pricier than Viofo but the build quality and reliability have been worth it for me.

Got mine for almost the exact same reason, got rear ended last year and the other driver tried to flip the story. Footage shut that down in about 5 minutes. I have a Thinkware U3000 Pro, the part I didn't expect to care about is the app. Pulled the clip on my phone at the scene and sent it to insurance before the tow truck showed up, no fishing out the SD card. Viofo is solid too, recommended here all the time. I'd just take the amazon reviews on Rove and RedTiger with a grain of salt, most of those people never had to actually use their footage.

How long you get for parking mode will depend on several things including how much power your dash cam uses in parking mode, the state of charge of your car battery, the condition of your car battery and the amount of motion in your parking spot. Currently, the Thinkware U3000 and U3000 Pro have the longest parking mode when set to RADAR. I've gotten past 8 days but again depends on those factors I mentioned above. If I were to use a dash cam battery pack I could probably extend it to past 21 days. These are expensive dash cams so budget will also play a factor. It's possible a different dash cam used with a dash cam battery pack could cost less and last more than what you need it for. Note too that dash cam parking mode differ between brands and makes so you would want to know how it really works for a specific dash cam. A lot of cheap dash cams implement parking mode not too great or use too much power or have a long wake-up time. This matters because if it takes a long time to wake-up you will miss recording some or all the action. Here is my comparison video on parking modes and power usage of some common dash cams: [U3000 vs VIOFO, BlackVue, Akeeyo](https://youtu.be/52nfmtyEEQ8) [My full Review of U3000 Pro](https://youtu.be/6PxwpG2-ZII) [My full Review of 70mai 4K T800](https://youtu.be/G88zYI3J5YE) [My full Review of VIOFO a129 Plus Duo](https://youtu.be/9YQGChfUGIY)

Depending on the dash cam some will eat power for breakfast. To know how long you can have parking mode for will depend on that, the condition of your battery and how many events get triggered. I tested the Thinkeate U3000, BlackVue DR770X Box, VIOFO A129 Plus Duo, and Akeeyo EYES AI dash cams to show how much power is used by each in parking mode. Watch for more info: https://youtu.be/52nfmtyEEQ8 I also am trying to use a solar panel to potentially have unlimited parking mode. Find out more about the solar dash cam project here: https://youtu.be/BI-fhD5w0m8

I've got a couple of Garmin units (57 & 67w, the latter is too wide a view and everything appears too far away, but the voice control is handy, and... The cable of the 67w melted at the camera, not sure why, Garmin replaced both but never offered any explanation, which is concerning). A viofo a229 which I don't love, especially for manually triggered event recording. And just put a thinkware u3000 pro into my new (used) car which was wired from the previous owner alread, only problem, it was an older model so I still have to deal with the cable for the rear camera anyway. Jury out on it still, I do like the parking mode features on paper. Will see how it goes in practice.

I was going to get the u3000 pro. The video not as good. The app is so bad from Thinkware. I went with the S1