Mobius stuck in standby despite multiple cable swap.

Luton Driver

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I had a working Mobius with a super capacitor that still works with its supplied 3 metre USB cable but I changed cars and needed a longer lead but despite buying a 5m cable from an official UK supplier the camera appears to be stuck in standby with a solid yellow LED.

I have a a further 3 half metre cables that all exhibit the same fault and another 5 metre cable I bought on ebay that also does not work but if I go back to the original 3 metre cable it works fine. Swapping cars makes no difference either. I am assuming the original supplied 3 metre cable has a non standard pin arrangement but seeing that an official supplier has sent me a cable that does not work I am wondering if I have missed something?
 
Just want to add that while the original 3 metre cable works fine in the car if I plug that cable into the PC the PC does not see the Mobius so I can't play back any recordings but all 5 "faulty" cables are seen as a drive on the PC so allows playback of videos and allows the Mobius to be seen by the Mobius programme on the PC.

Everything points to a cable issue but what is different between the 3 metre cable and the other 5 USB cables? Has me removing the battery for a super capacitor made a difference?
 
Could it be your 12 to 5 volt adapter/transformer gives marginal Amps output? Longer wire will have some loss. Try a adapter/transformer with a higher Amp output. Mobius needs 1 amp to work.
 
You don't identify the power supply you are using so we have no information on that score but it does sound like a possible issue with your newer cables. The particular USB power supply you are using in the cars could also be the cause of the problem but the cables are also part of the problem and the key to the solution.

The supplied Mobius cable has 5 pins which are wired as shown below. Your new cable apparently has a different configuration, so the reason this is happening is because the data wires in your new cable (and/or your USB power source) are making the camera think it is connected to a computer rather than a power supply. That is why it just goes into standby mode (waiting for data transfer). You could purchase different cables or modify the ones you've got.

If you carefully slice open the cable and cut the unneeded/unwanted wire(s), leaving just pin 1 (+5 volt...red wire) and pin 4 (ground...black wire) active, the camera should work again as expected. You will need to cut the green wire and the white wire. (the data wires - see photo below) Without these other wire(s) you'll no longer be able to use the new cables to connect the camera to a computer but you didn't buy the cables for that purpose anyway, right?

You can test all this out temporarily before cutting any wires by simply putting a small piece of thin black electrical tape over the center two pins in the USB-A plug on the cable before plugging it into your power supply. (The USB-A type plug is the one on the right in the notated image below.)

cable.png


USB cable copy 2.jpg


P.S. You didn't really need to start a whole new thread for your problem but rather should really post this sort of thing in the Mobius support thread. In fact, if you had searched a bit more thoroughly before posting you would have found the answer to this problem has already discussed in that thread several times.
 
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First of all sorry for starting a new thread, I did have a quick look but could not find my scenario covered so got confused as I could see no logic as to what was happening particularly when an official UK supplier sends me the wrong cable after I had already email the company to confirm what my issues were.

Anyway thank you for your help and taking the time to write a reply to an old duffer. Everything is now crystal clear.
 
First of all sorry for starting a new thread, I did have a quick look but could not find my scenario covered so got confused as I could see no logic as to what was happening particularly when an official UK supplier sends me the wrong cable after I had already email the company to confirm what my issues were.

Anyway thank you for your help and taking the time to write a reply to an old duffer. Everything is now crystal clear.

The UK supplier may not have sent you the wrong cable.

As mentioned in my post above, the problem could easily be caused by whatever USB power supply you happen to be using rather than the cable. Some USB power supplies, adapters and battery banks are intentionally designed to evoke a data connection so that they function with certain brands of smart phones and tablets. Cutting the data wires in the cable is simply a work-around to such an issue. I've encountered exactly this problem with an eternal battery bank I purchased where one of the two USB ports on the battery bank has the data connection and the other doesn't. Any dash cam connected to that port goes into "mass storage" mode or standby (Mobius) but when plugged into the other port works fine. The solution was to modify the cable as outlined above.
 
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You can also cover the unwanted terminal connections with cello-tape when you use a standard full-format cable instead of a power-only type.

Phil
 
You can also cover the unwanted terminal connections with cello-tape when you use a standard full-format cable instead of a power-only type.

Phil

Yes, I mentioned using tape back in my first post in this thread. However, I described it is a temporary measure because in my experience using tape on a USB plug never holds up very well. Unplug and re-plug it a few times and that's the end of the tape.
 
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