Smallest Ambarella Car DVR a.k.a. Mini 0801

bugelrex said:
Let's be realistic now, how much profit do you think they make off each unit? $10 or dollars?
This is would be crazy good service if they spent more than 30 mins testing for a single customer
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they make less than that, if you want to find a problem though that may be affecting hundreds of units it's no big deal to test it properly
 
Camera still working without audio, no errors at all.

After a few messages from eprance, they offered a $20 partial refund for the lack of audio recording on the camera. I tried for more but that's all they would offer, it was either that or send it back to China at my risk and expense.
 
trancen said:
Try http://www.gorillatough.com/index.php?page=super-glue press the two parts together and will be good as new. This glue is by far the best "crazy glue" I have used.
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Thanks I actually found some and used a pier of extra wide clamp style vice grips to let it cure perfectly flat. Good as new! I wanted an extra mount anyway to put in the back of my friends Plane for when we do pilots lessons. (I use the WF1 up front)
 
jokiin said:
suggest asking them once it's full to do some trials in a running car, if powered from an AC adapter it's a very stable power source, understand it's not practical to do the entire test in a vehicle but once it's full they'd do better to emulate the actual working environment of the product
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Response:

"Hi Jon,

my colleague test for you one night, the dvr is all OK,

we will arrange the shipment for you.

The tracking number is: LNXXXXXXXXXCN
You can track here: http://www.17track.net/index_en.shtml

Have a nice day,

Demi:p"
 
Just wondering is anyone has managed to install this dashcam such that its hidden from both inside and out?

Short of stuffing it in a teddy bear sitting on the dash or a huge ezpass box, I can't think of any other ways
 
I was hoping to mount it behind the tint strip on my windshield, but I tried it there an it's a bad idea. Don't know any other way to make it disappear.
 
bugelrex said:
Just wondering is anyone has managed to install this dashcam such that its hidden from both inside and out?

Short of stuffing it in a teddy bear sitting on the dash or a huge ezpass box, I can't think of any other ways
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How about on top of the passengers seat between the headrest? That only would work if you drive solo. The auto exposure correction might be screwy with the light outside/dark inside contrast though

You should invest in a rear view mirror dashcam if it needs to be 100% stealth.

There will be other dashcam options soon that keep the guts hidden away and you place the tiny remote camera near the rear view mirror via a long remote wire.

Mini 0801 is limited. You can at least black out the white letters.
 
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unpaidbill said:
I was hoping to mount it behind the tint strip on my windshield, but I tried it there an it's a bad idea. Don't know any other way to make it disappear.
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I assume the tint strip is merely stuck to the screen or did you mean it was a bad idea because the resulting picture was blue assuming the tint is blue...lol

I know the black dotted area that masks the rear view mirror mount looks as thought that is probably stuck to the screen afterwards when they are made, so was wondering if someone had stuck the camera base with any success to that area, as I would think that black dotted masking area is pretty well stuck fast to the glass.
 
Hi guys. Just joined the forum, having recently received a Mini 0801 bought from e-prance off of ebay.

It seems to have a problem. If the unit goes without USB power for more than a few minutes, it doesn't switch back on -- not automatically on restoration of USB power, and not via the power button on the side. If its left on charge for quite a while --- 10s of minutes, maybe up to an hour -- it will sometimes respond to the power button and switch on. Once that happens, you can switch it on and off as you like, and it will automatically switch on and off according to the USB power, as long as it isn't left without power for more than a few minutes.

Obviously, this makes it pretty useless as a dashcam -- if the car is off for more than a few minutes, the unit won't start automatically, and can't be started at all for several minutes to an hour.

Does anyone have any advice?
 
morse said:
Hi guys. Just joined the forum, having recently received a Mini 0801 bought from e-prance off of ebay.

It seems to have a problem. If the unit goes without USB power for more than a few minutes, it doesn't switch back on -- not automatically on restoration of USB power, and not via the power button on the side. If its left on charge for quite a while --- 10s of minutes, maybe up to an hour -- it will sometimes respond to the power button and switch on. Once that happens, you can switch it on and off as you like, and it will automatically switch on and off according to the USB power, as long as it isn't left without power for more than a few minutes.

Obviously, this makes it pretty useless as a dashcam -- if the car is off for more than a few minutes, the unit won't start automatically, and can't be started at all for several minutes to an hour.

Does anyone have any advice?
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That doesn't sound normal at all. Maybe the battery is corrupted somehow?

What version firmware do you have? (check settings)
What kind of microSD card do you have? Brand and Class 4, 6, or 10?
I'm not sure what you can do to "fix" that issue you might need to swap it for another one but too early to say. Did you message Demi from e-prance via eBay messaging? She always responds quickly. She might have another fix to try after you describe the issue and she checks with the factory engineers.
 
JazJon said:
That doesn't sound normal at all. Maybe the battery is corrupted somehow?

What version firmware do you have? (check settings)
What kind of microSD card do you have? Brand and Class 4, 6, or 10?
I'm not sure what you can do to "fix" that issue you might need to swap it for another one but too early to say. Did you message Demi from e-prance via eBay messaging? She always responds quickly. She might have another fix to try after you describe the issue and she checks with the factory engineers.
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Yes, I fear it might be hardware as well, given that I can't find anyone else reporting similar things on the forum. It has firmware 20130903.

At the moment, I don't have a proper SD card, I'm waiting for a delivery from Amazon of a 32GB Cl 4 microSD. I've tried it out with an old 1GB Nokia-branded card (no class mark!) that I had lying about from an old mobile phone. Surprisingly, the unit seems to work with that card, records video and overwrites without errors, as long as I can get it to switch on that is. However, the card doesn't seem connected to the problems I'm having -- it had this problem right out of the box, and it has the same problem whether the Nokia card is inserted or not.

Thanks for the advice re. messaging e-prance --- I've done exactly that. I'll hopefully hear something from them tomorrow.
 
morse said:
Yes, I fear it might be hardware as well, given that I can't find anyone else reporting similar things on the forum. It has firmware 20130903.

At the moment, I don't have a proper SD card, I'm waiting for a delivery from Amazon of a 32GB Cl 4 microSD. I've tried it out with an old 1GB Nokia-branded card (no class mark!) that I had lying about from an old mobile phone. Surprisingly, the unit seems to work with that card, records video and overwrites without errors, as long as I can get it to switch on that is. However, the card doesn't seem connected to the problems I'm having -- it had this problem right out of the box, and it has the same problem whether the Nokia card is inserted or not.

Thanks for the advice re. messaging e-prance --- I've done exactly that. I'll hopefully hear something from them tomorrow.
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That old card sounds like a problem. If you've never tried it with a proper Class 4 card that's probably the issue. I'd see if it happens with a different card first before calling it bad.
 
Mine's just been delivered to my house, 8GB internal with GPS from eprance. I have a 16GB PNY Class 4 card to go in it - looking forward to trying it out! This is my first dedicated dashcam - previously I've used the excellent Witness Driving app for iPhone.
 
Samsung I've had great results with, kind of figure as a memory manufacturer its possible they favor their own supply chain with the best quality product
 
JazJon said:
I read a lot of un-happy customer reviews on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/PNY-microSDHC-Flash-Memory-P-SDU32G10-EFS2/product-reviews/B005BOMU3K

I'm going to stay away from Sandisk for awhile.

I'm going to stick with Samsung for the next few cards I try. (both class 6 and class 10 for non 0801 cams)
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There is no doubt there are a lot of difference in the performance and reliability of memory cards. :-( I sometimes wonder if some card manufacturers use mediocre memory, rate them at class 10, and rely on the increased bus/clock speed to basically overclock them to make them appear faster. Or in reality use faster memory properly designed for the faster bus speed... it does make one wonder. ;-)

It's certainly one of the reasons I tend to choose Samsung when buying memory cards, not just because they make their own memory, but simply because over the last couple of years of using them on several devices, for me they have proved to be the most reliable. I recently had a Transend class 10 32gb which performed slower than my Samsung class 6 cards, and surprising one of my class 4 Samsung cards even beat it too.
IOW these so called high speed cards are okay as long as the manufacturer has fitted decent memory rated for the higher bus speeds, and are not purely relying on overclocking them to achieve their class rating.
 
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jokiin said:
Samsung I've had great results with, kind of figure as a memory manufacturer its possible they favor their own supply chain with the best quality product
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absolutely correct. Every company keep the best technology/components on own-brand products.

SDRAM chip/wafer vendors: SAMSUNG, Micron, Infineon, Hynix, NEC, Hitachi, Nanya, ELPIDA, Mosel Vitelic, Powerchip, Winbond, Oki;
SDRAM packaging brands: KingMax, Kingston, ADATA/VDATA, Apacer, TwinMOS
 
Update: I got my microSD card from Amazon -- it didn't make any difference to the camera's behaviour.

I got the camera powered on when I came home this evening. Its battery was completely flat, and it powered on again after a few minutes charging, and then it accepted charging for over 30 minutes. I turned off 'auto power off' and left it sitting there, with the screen on. When I next came back to it, the screen was still on, and the image displayed changed as I moved the camera around, but the device wouldn't respond to the up, down or middle buttons.

When I pressed power off it turned off. When I pressed power on, the LED went blue, but the screen didn't come on. I pressed the power button again, and it went off. Now it's in that state again where it won't respond to the power button at all - no blue LED, no nothing.

Any ideas?
 
I've yet to read about this behavior so you probably have a statistical lemon unfortunately. You should probably ask for a replacement unless someone else has a suggestion to mess with anything inside. It's not easy to open these cams though so if you're not in a rush, replacement is the way to go.

It's usually faster to order a new one, and get a refund on the old one. (unless they agree to an "advance replacement")
 
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