Disassembly FineVu-CR500HD (pictures)

[Hanty86]

Use in FineVu Cr-500HD Digital Media System-on-Chip (DMSoC) TMS320DM368ZCE

[Broken External Image]:http://www.ebay-forum.ru/phpBB2/uploads/monthly_01_2013/post-186389-0-50133800-1357389232_thumb.jpg

 

[DashCamMan]

Thanks Hanty86 for the pics. I will link to them on the main site. That TI TMS320dm368 is a very popular chip. Thanks for sharing that as well.

 

[Gábriel Priòre]

These picture-instructions are completely useless. There needs to be a step-by-step explanation on how to properly disassemble this camera. For instance, the fourth picture shows the decorative shroud removed, but then the fifth picture already shows the entire casing as being apart. There seriously needs to be a sequence between picture four & five. There is no explanation how "how" to properly remove this casing. I have carefully inspected all your pictures, and still cannot figure out how to properly remove the casing without worrying about damaging it.

 

[jokiin]

he has highlighted where the clips are, to anyone familiar with pulling apart plastic chassis electronics this is about all that is needed, anyway they're just pictures to show the inside, not a comprehensive repair guide

 

[Gábriel Priòre]

My goal is to simply replace the internal battery with a new one. As I already said, I carefully studied all the provided pictures, and even the highlighted clips are completely useless in their attempted help in showing how to properly disassemble the plastic chassis. If you are claiming that this forum is strictly for pictorial entertainment, then may I ask where I can find a comprehensive repair guide for properly disassembling the plastic chassis?

 

[jokiin]

no idea where you will find that, speak to your FineVu dealer I guess if you can't work it out, not sure they will have what you need but don't ask, don't get

most mobile phone repairers should be able to do this quite easily

 

[Gábriel Priòre]

I've already spoken with my dealer, and after finding out that FineVu deliberately soldered their useless battery to a circuitboard just so that the customer would be forced to permanently pay a residual fee every three months to have the dealer replace the battery, I am now taking FineVu to court for conning their customers into purchasing a camera that does not allow the user to replace their own batteries.

 

[jokiin]

good luck with your court case

 

[Gábriel Priòre]

I already knew you were going to say that. That's what everyone always says. Anyways, thanks.

 

[jokiin]

I'm sure the legal system must be very accommodating there if you can take a Korean manufacturer to court over the way they designed their product and conned you into buying it thinking it was user serviceable

Perhaps send @Hanty86 a message (click on his user name, start conversation) was a year and a half ago but perhaps he remembers some detail about how to unclip it that might help you, keep in mind English is not his first language so it might not be straightforward to explain in writing

 

[Gábriel Priòre]

If a camera will not save video files just because the internal battery is dead even though that camera is still receiving a hard-wired electrical feed from the car, then what is the point of this camera??? And then when the user further finds out that it is impossible for them to replace that battery themselves, do you not call that a scam?

 

[jokiin]

product has failed, that's not a scam

 

[Gábriel Priòre]

Wrong. The product has not failed. The battery has a maximum life-span of only three months. Therefore if the customer is required to mail the camera to the dealer a whopping four times per year, all at the customer's expense, just to replace a battery, that "IS" a scam.

 

[jokiin]

we seem to be missing the reports from all the other FineVu owners stating their batteries also only last 3 months, if this is happening to your camera then there's something else at play that is causing this problem but it s not a problem for every FineVu camera, yes you have a problem, that doesn't mean it's some sort of scam

 

[Gábriel Priòre]

Just because people are not reporting this to "you", does not mean it is not happening to most people. I have heard this same complaint from several others.

 

[jokiin]

Just because people are not reporting this to "you", does not mean it is not happening to most people. I have heard this same complaint from several others.

Perhaps there's a batch fault, you can't sell 100,000 pieces of something with a catastrophic failure rate and not hear about it, particularly on a site dedicated to dashcams, there is no basis in saying it is happening to most people, most is a long way from several

In your case there would be something causing repeat failure of the battery but not actually being the battery itself that is the problem, it's the outcome, not the cause

I would say under the circumstances that the dealer should have replaced the whole camera though if this issue keeps resurfacing, did you buy it locally or buy online from an overseas seller?

 

[Gábriel Priòre]

I bought a whopping four of these cameras, and all four have been replaced a whopping three times! I live in Arizona, and bought it from a dealer in California.

 

[jokiin]

I bought a whopping four of these cameras, and all four have been replaced a whopping three times! I live in Arizona, and bought it from a dealer in California.

So that's the several failures you're referring to, 4 cameras have been replaced 3 times each for 12 total or 3 of the 4 have been replaced?

If the batteries have been replaced multiple times then the cameras should have been replaced, coming from the same dealer there's every likelihood that they are from the same batch and could all be bad, these things have sold literally in the hundreds of thousands, they're very big in Korea, if all were affected it would be widely known.

There is a seller on Amazon that has grey market Korean product, not sure who you bought off but there are circumstances where there are sellers that buy returned or refurbished stock locally in Korea and then onsell in other markets, not sure if this is the case for yours of course but it does happen.

All that aside though being in Arizona I would say that this product is not suited to your environment anyway, battery life will suffer due to heat, if you can take the seller to court or whatever to get your refund then buy yourself cameras that use capacitors rather than batteries and are actually designed to take the heat, the FineVu (or any camera with an internal battery really) is not the right product for your use.

 

[Gábriel Priòre]

That is very good, thank you. So my question is, what is the absolute finest camera that strictly uses capacitors?

 

[Gábriel Priòre]

Also, it was a total of 12 cameras replaced!