Mobius ActionCam Wishlist 2015

[unni]

I would really like a beep sound to indicate that the camera has turned on and off.

Recently, I went for a 3.5 hour trip when outside temperature was around 25 degree celcius. I had one road rage incident. So came back home to check the videos. Both my front and read Mobius stopped recording after the first 1 hour or so. No idea what happened. When I took the cameras out of the mounts, they were uncomfortably hot, so I am assuming they turned themselves off due to temperature.

Is there any device that I can plugin between the car charger and the USB cable to Mobius that will alert me if Mobius is not drawing any current?

 

[Bungus]

I would really like a beep sound to indicate that the camera has turned on and off.

Is there any device that I can plugin between the car charger and the USB cable to Mobius that will alert me if Mobius is not drawing any current?

That's what the blinking red led at the back is for.
Just make a habit to look at it.

 

[unni]

That's what the blinking red led at the back is for.
Just make a habit to look at it.

Unfortunately, if I make that a habit, I will end up crashing a lot. This is a photo of my front camera. It is completely hidden behind the rear view mirror and there is no way I can see it unless I bend over.

Besides, reliability is important for me. If the camera fails like this randomly, I will loose trust in it. I noticed it this time because of a road rage incident and I connected it to PC to check the footage. No way of knowing if this was the first time it has happened. Somebody else reported the same issue here.

 

[horaceCJ]

The front camera is completely hidden behind the rear view mirror and there is no way I can see it unless I bend over.

There are people that "extended" the rear LED by using an optical fiber, for example from an audio cable.
Anyway, my cameras never turned off because of heat, so maybe you have other problems, especially if both stoped at the same time.

 

[unni]

Thanks for the optical fiber suggestion.

I am not sure if they stopped at the same time. Both the cameras were connected to different cigarette charger adapters. I had stopped at a hotel towards the end of the journey. Both of them started recording once I started from the hotel. So, that eliminates loose connection.

I left both the cameras running in my room continuosly for 3 hours 43 minutes yesterday. By the time I stopped the recording, the heat sinks were extremely hot. Still both recorded perfectly fine.

I hope I didn't get fake cameras. I bought one from here and the other from here.

When this issue happened, the file system was set to FAT32 even though the cards were exFat. I don't know if that could cause this behavior.

 

[Isoprop]

Thanks for the optical fiber suggestion.

I am not sure if they stopped at the same time. Both the cameras were connected to different cigarette charger adapters. I had stopped at a hotel towards the end of the journey. Both of them started recording once I started from the hotel. So, that eliminates loose connection.

I left both the cameras running in my room continuosly for 3 hours 43 minutes yesterday. By the time I stopped the recording, the heat sinks were extremely hot. Still both recorded perfectly fine.

I hope I didn't get fake cameras. I bought one from here and the other from here.

When this issue happened, the file system was set to FAT32 even though the cards were exFat. I don't know if that could cause this behavior.

FAT32 is the correct format to use for loop recording. Your problem sounds as if your card could be the problem.The results will be random. Formatting the card may help, and formatting your card from time to time is good practice anyway. Try a different card, if possible only use class 4, although class 4 doesn't exist for 64GB cards.

 

[country_hick]

I hope I didn't get fake cameras. I bought one from here and the other from here.

Both resellers are on the authorized sellers list. The heat sinks do get warm.

 

[HeWhoMustNotBeNamed]

I would really like a beep sound to indicate that the camera has turned on and off.

Recently, I went for a 3.5 hour trip when outside temperature was around 25 degree celcius. I had one road rage incident. So came back home to check the videos. Both my front and read Mobius stopped recording after the first 1 hour or so. No idea what happened. When I took the cameras out of the mounts, they were uncomfortably hot, so I am assuming they turned themselves off due to temperature.

Is there any device that I can plugin between the car charger and the USB cable to Mobius that will alert me if Mobius is not drawing any current?

I'd like a beep as well. In the sunlight even looking directly at the LED (at a stop light!) it's incredibly difficult to see.

A beep would be a much better indicator. And it's not difficult or expensive to implement.

 

[unni]

I'd like a beep as well. In the sunlight even looking directly at the LED (at a stop light!) it's incredibly difficult to see.

A beep would be a much better indicator. And it's not difficult or expensive to implement.

Also, I have to look at the LED for at least 2-3 seconds to make sure its actually blinking and not always ON or OFF. Keeping eyes away from driving for such a short time itself is a big danger, at least with my driving skills.

 

[russ331]

I frequently glance at my rear view mirror & door mirrors. When I look at the rear view mirror I see the winking red LEDs of the front & rear facing Mobius cams nearly every time. So I see the winking many times each trip. Works well for me.

 

[Dashmellow]

I frequently glance at my rear view mirror & door mirrors. When I look at the rear view mirror I see the winking red LEDs of the front & rear facing Mobius cams nearly every time. So I see the winking many times each trip. Works well for me.

My experience is very much the same with the blinking LED. It's become a habit to glance at the reassuring winking of the pilot lights on my Mobi. This habit began for me in earnest when I had some intermittent connection problems with my first Mobius some time ago but these days they tend to function quite reliably.

On the other hand, I can see the value of a beep option for the Mobius. Nowadays, I run discreetly mounted lateral facing cams out the rear side windows of my extra-cab pick-up truck and of course, there is no convenient way to keep an eye on them, especially the Mobius pointing out the window right behind the drivers seat. A beep sound or two would be just the thing to confirm camera start-up and alert on shut-down, especially if the shut-down were to be unexpected. If the Mobius did have a beep however, it should be low in volume and have the option of turning it off completely.

 

[coropete]

audible notification and battery indicator.

 

[Dashmellow]

audible notification and battery indicator.

The Mobius already has a battery indicator:

"When the camera is turned on, the rear LED will blink one to three times to indicate the battery charge. Three blinks indicate a full battery, whereas one blink indicates the battery charge is getting low."

 

[coropete]

The Mobius already has a battery indicator:

"When the camera is turned on, the rear LED will blink one to three times to indicate the battery charge. Three blinks indicate a full battery, whereas one blink indicates the battery charge is getting low."

Thanks!! I always find myself glancing at the red light while driving. I guess I will put up with this (minor inconvenience), for having dashcam.

 

[Dashmellow]

Thanks!! I always find myself glancing at the red light while driving. I guess I will put up with this, minor inconvenience, for having dashcam.

You wished for a battery indicator on the Mobius. It has one. How is that an inconvenience?

The red LED that blinks during recording is different from the red blinks at camera start-up that indicate the state of battery charge. If by "inconvenience" you mean that you don't like seeing the red LED blinking while you are driving you can easily turn it off when you configure the camera.

 

[coropete]

Thanks I learn something new everyday.

 

[Simon Wright]

what improvements or enhancements could be made for the updated model

For the next model, I'd want to see an evolution of the hardware, maybe a newer chipset, better sensor, perhaps more lens options. But I'm happy with the current model.

My only feature request is pretty simple and might even be implementable with a firmware update to the the current product. It would be to add a video resolution option of 2304 X 900 pixels, cropping into the centre of the frame. I suggest these dimensions for a specific reason: it's the exact same number of pixels as a 1080p stream, but retains the sensor's native pixel width. This should not increase the amount of processing power needed. If anything it would require less processing effort as it eliminates the pixel binning step.

This would be especially useful in a car dash cam setting where the extreme top and bottom of a picture tend to be extraneous.

 

[BobDiaz]

Some type of WiFi or Bluetooth option to connect to your smartphone would be great. I'd love to be able to play back or copy a video to my phone. That would offset the lack of LCD on the Mobius and would also keep the size down too.

 

[richcam]

Some type of WiFi or Bluetooth option to connect to your smartphone would be great. I'd love to be able to play back or copy a video to my phone. That would offset the lack of LCD on the Mobius and would also keep the size down too.

The MiWitness dash cam I purchased a few years ago came with a Wifi dongle which plugged into a dedicated USB port, the problem with it was that it made the unit run very hot indeed, though was very useful to have the free iPhone app for initial set-up so you could see where the camera was pointing, set the preferences, view and save video footage to the iphone, etc. Was a nice bit of kit except that the 720p video quality wasn't that great and it was hellish expensive compared to the likes of the 080* range of dashcams and the Mobius Action Cam.

 

[Dashmellow]

Some type of WiFi or Bluetooth option to connect to your smartphone would be great. I'd love to be able to play back or copy a video to my phone. That would offset the lack of LCD on the Mobius and would also keep the size down too.

I too would love to see WiFi and Bluetooth on the Mobius but that won't happen until the camera gets a new chip-set that supports it. Then again, by the time that happens whatever new DSP ends up in the camera will likely support a whole range of new features and specs we'll all be excited about.