Plastic melted in heat

Technophobe

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Location
Canberra
Country
Australia
Dash Cam
Mini0806
I have recently mounted a Mini0806 as a rear camera (last week). I noticed today that it was on an angle. I thought it just might have slipped out or the mount had peeled away from the window. Nope, it has melted and warped the plastic in the heat. We have had a couple of hot days here (36 -38 C). So, as well as being paranoid about the battery in the heat, now I have to think of something to protect the actual unit in the heat.

Bought from Gearbest just before Christmas. Worth returning under warranty? (will be a pain to remove everything) or I'm thinking I will just fix myself. Anyway, thought people should be aware of what has happened with mine. Pictures attached.

20160114_073622.jpg 20160114_075903.jpg
 
Wow. It'll be a long time before I get temperatures like that here (if ever!) but it's something to remember.
I wonder how hot it was inside the car if it was 36C outside. Someone gave a link recently about car temperatures going over 100C quickly when it's hot outside.
 
Maybe its different by you, but for me here in the states, Gearbest insisted I ship the unit back to China and then would give me a credit to purchase something else by them (we call it a 'store credit' here) but would not give me my money back (i.e., put a credit on my cc).
 
Stick with a super capacitor based system that has a thicker solid mount in Australia
If the plastic reaches melting point then it will not make much difference how thick or solid the mount is, it will still start to flow.

You either need a camera with a higher melting point, or give it some shade from direct overhead sun by sticking some form of sun strip or just normal tape to the glass above it.

It's not the first to do that, but it is very rare. Does your car not have heat reflective glass or any form of sun shield?
 
Does your car not have heat reflective glass or any form of sun shield?
No sun shield on the rear window. Who knows if it is heat reflective glass - Mazda 3 2015 sedan.

Tried fixing it tonight, no luck. The part I need to heat and reshape has the very fine power + GPS wires coming out right near the mount join. Very tricky to get the heat gun at the right spot without frying the thin wires. Oh well, bent, droopy, dashcam for a bit I suppose. As you can guess, not really happy. Also, taken the camera in and out of the mount so many times now, its getting quite loose. My guess is next thing will be intermittent power / GPS because of bad connections between unit and mount.
 
Hi @Technophobe,
was the camera recording 24X7 in the car?
 
was the camera recording 24X7 in the car?

No, the unit only has power when the car is on. As I can't find a specification to say what the 'storage' temperature might be (temperature when unit is off), would this unit be able to be returned under warranty?
 
No, the unit only has power when the car is on. As I can't find a specification to say what the 'storage' temperature might be (temperature when unit is off), would this unit be able to be returned under warranty?

yes please contact your distributor for a new replacement.
whenenver you found a hardwire fault in one year from your purcahse, you can ask for a new replacement.

the recommended working temperature is below 40C (although we burning tested cameras in 60C oven)
the storage temperature is below 65C. (although we think the storage temp can be 80C)
 
in car temps in summer in Australia can exceed 80°C if parked out in the sun

yest that will be quiet a challenge for the dash camera products.
even use super capacitor battery (working temperature 60 to 70°C) is not enough for a long time working because the camera inside temperature is much higher than outside even not considing the direct sunshine burning.
 
yest that will be quiet a challenge for the dash camera products.
even use super capacitor battery (working temperature 60 to 70°C) is not enough for a long time working because the camera inside temperature is much higher than outside even not considing the direct sunshine burning.

running the cameras at these temps is beyond what the hardware can support, even memory cards can fail at these temps
 
the recommended working temperature is below 40C (although we burning tested cameras in 60C oven)
the storage temperature is below 65C. (although we think the storage temp can be 80C)

Thankyou for the reply and specs. I will be a lot more careful in leaving any units in a locked car from now on. I will either remove them each time or have some sort of physical sun protection over them.
I will try out the process of warranty return and see how it goes...
 
Wow, that looks really bad. I always keep one of the ac vents pointing to the camera while driving and I live in the Caribbean so temperatures can climb a lot and neither my old 0803 or the new 0806 have had that problem. I never remove them when parked but I don't usually leave my car parked in the sun for a long time. One solution, although a bit expensive is to have the windshield tinted with the clear V-Kool tint that blocks heat but not light from coming in. I plan to do that at some point.
 
The same happened to me. My mini 0806 melted. It works well but this fall on one side.
There a way to just get the housing and replace it by myself.

 
It looks like the battery heated up then swelled on yours.
 
I do not think that, that part you see is the top where sunlight hits. And that just melted!
 
I'm late to this thread, but where I live the summer-time temps usually max out around 105°F (40°C). I'm not going to bother taking the cam in and out of the vehicle while parked, and at work I'm parked in the sun all day.

Just installed the cam a couple weeks ago. Will be interesting to see if it survives the summer.
 
No sun shield on the rear window. Who knows if it is heat reflective glass - Mazda 3 2015 sedan.

Tried fixing it tonight, no luck. The part I need to heat and reshape has the very fine power + GPS wires coming out right near the mount join. Very tricky to get the heat gun at the right spot without frying the thin wires. Oh well, bent, droopy, dashcam for a bit I suppose. As you can guess, not really happy. Also, taken the camera in and out of the mount so many times now, its getting quite loose. My guess is next thing will be intermittent power / GPS because of bad connections between unit and mount.
I have two of these cameras (fitted to different vehicles) and have gone through 4 bases so far. The first 2 bases lasted approximately 10 - 11 months, the second two lasted a couple of weeks through late March in the Gold Coast hinterland, Qld. One only saw the light of day twice a week during that time. Feed up with replacing the bases and have plugged the power lead directly into the camera and putting up with the drop resulting from the bases deforming presumably from heat. It's a shame because the cameras when working are great with a very small profile which was a key factor for me. Now I will have to look for a suitable replacement. I also put a HP310 in my son's car at the same time last year and it has had no problem at all and his car is in the sun most days. Would have used one of these except it is a comparatively bigger unit than I wanted but given it is still working without problems maybe I should just put up with the bigger form factor.
 
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