Cold Weather DVR207 Performance.

[Snarfblat]

Hi

It was -16C (3F)here the other morning, and I had a snowstorm to drive through on the way to work (in the dark). I thought it would make for an interesting video, unfortunately the camera refused to work. It was in the vehicle overnight, and previously seemed to work OK at -5C or so.

The camera would turn on, show the Low-Battery indicator, and turn itself off. It is connected to the cigarette lighter power cord. I tried removing the battery and warming it briefly in hand, but that didn't help. Even at the end of my drive with the cabin fully heated the camera would not stay on for more than a few seconds.

After bringing the camera inside for the day it seems to be working normally. I don't see a working temperature range in the manual, but I think I may need to bring camera inside in the winter when it gets below -10C or so. A quick-release mount would be very helpful for that.

 

[CheckYourLights]

I don't see a working temperature range in the manual

I couldn't find one when i looked when i had mine out months ago,but at the bottom here it is listed as

Operating temperature: from 0 ° C to +40 ° C
Storage Temperature: -20 ° C to +50 ° C

 

[horsepower]

It almost sounds like the cigarette lighter fuse is blown or something causing no power to get to the camera. When you turn it on, it tries to start from the camera battery and since it's dead, shuts off. But I am not familiar with how that brand of camera works.

 

[Snarfblat]

I thought it was unusual that the camera would refuse to start even with the power adapter attached. With the vehicle running I have about 14V on the dash gauge, and the red light on the power adapter comes on when it's plugged in. I have 2 sockets, (ignition-on and always-on) and I tried both. I didn't try turning the camera on with no battery inside, I will try that if it happens again.

 

[Lajos]

This morning it was –16°C outdoors. My car was in the cold carage, which had the doors open. The thermometer of the car showed –13.5°C. The Dash Cam had been in the car over the night. I turned the key – and the DVR-207 started as usual.

 

[Gurkha9]

This past Jan and Feb I have had no issues using a DVR 027 in -15 to -20c temperatures.
It started up as usual and recorded. Maybe they just rushed the 207 out the door? there are so many issues it seems.

 

[Snarfblat]

I think I have a different problem other than the cold temperatures, that may have just been a coincidence? Today I still couldn't get the camera to work when connected to the cigarette lighter plug. When I plug it in to the live socket, or start the vehicle with the camera connected to the ignition-on socket, I get the "Welcome" screen, and then it turns off. I hit the power button, I get the welcome screen, and it turns off.

The battery is fully charged and warm from inside. It runs fine off of the camera battery - record start/stop and power on/off no problem. If it's running off the battery and I plug in the power adapter, I get the low-battery indicator, and the camera turns off.

I checked both of my cigarette lighter plugs today with a voltmeter at the lighter end, the plug end, with engine on and engine off. Here's what I got:

Engine OFF: 12.61V at the socket, and 5.84V at the plug that goes into the camera.
Engine ON: 14.0V at the socket, and 5.86V at the plug.

I have a Transcend 32GB card in there, formatted on the camera itself.

I am not great with electronics, but I am thinking of opening it up to see if there is anything visibly wrong with the power plug socket on the camera. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks for your help!

 

[Ramshackle]

It may be the card.

Do what I did: format it as FAT32 with 32Kb sectors, using a card reader (NOT the DVR by itself or the DVR connected to Windows).

 

[Snarfblat]

Thanks for the tip Ramshackle! I also contacted estore009 about this issue. Bear in mind that the camera was working fine for a few days, and on a cold morning refused to work any more. Since that morning I have been using the camera powered by the battery. I'd take it in overnight, charge the battery, and mount it the next morning. Everything was working fine on the battery, no problems with recording or power or anything. I honestly thought the camera or power adapter was fubar'ed.

I took the card out and powered on the camera by the power adapter. It gave the "No SD Card" warning, but otherwise seemed to be working fine (didn't power off like before). So I took the card inside and loaded it into Ubuntu Linux "Disk Utility". I deleted, recreated, and formatted a FAT32 partition for the full capacity of the card. Then for good measure I formatted it again on the camera.

My problems have been solved. Everything seems to be working normal now when the camera is connected with the power adapter. I don't understand how it could work off the internal battery but not off the power adapter, and the SD card would be to blame, but there it is.

I still have the FM interference issue, but Vicky at estore009 has sent me an RF choke which is yet to arrive. The interference gets worse as I travel away from the station on my morning commute, so when I can't hear anything anymore I unplug the cable and run off the battery.

Thanks to all on this forum and to Vicky for the help.