Recycle/Loop

[mr_milo]

acrowau - Anytime, glad I could help. Russ331 has a great point which I failed to mention. Just to clarify my suggestion of disconnecting the battery was purely for testing purposes only. I do not at all suggest running it that way under normal conditions.
I also don't remember exactly how long it would take to loop but I assumed a day or two of running 24 hours a day should be enough to loop a 32GB card. So you could detach it from the GPS base, disconnect the battery, run it on your desk for a day or two and see if it loops. It would only take a couple of days to know if the battery was the issue or not. If so, either replace the battery or try your own crazy supercap mod.

It's either a risk of not having a camera while testing it or the risk of having it fail when it doesn't loop.

 

[acrowau]

If the power supply is disconnected in an accident, the critical file containing the accident video evidence will be corrupted or lost. A dashcam without a functional internal battery or capacitor isn't fit for purpose.

mmm, fair point....wont be disconnecting the battery then.

 

[acrowau]

acrowau - Anytime, glad I could help. Russ331 has a great point which I failed to mention. Just to clarify my suggestion of disconnecting the battery was purely for testing purposes only. I do not at all suggest running it that way under normal conditions.
I also don't remember exactly how long it would take to loop but I assumed a day or two of running 24 hours a day should be enough to loop a 32GB card. So you could detach it from the GPS base, disconnect the battery, run it on your desk for a day or two and see if it loops. It would only take a couple of days to know if the battery was the issue or not. If so, either replace the battery or try your own crazy supercap mod.

It's either a risk of not having a camera while testing it or the risk of having it fail when it doesn't loop.

all good Putting the unit on the PC would be the way to go....but.... for some reason the pc doesn't find the unit although very rarely it can.
The supercap might be beyond my abilities (maybe), but that said and what you said that it could look weird, I will just keep formatting it need be (with battery connected).

One day it will probably give up the ghost and I get a newer one then.

Funny thing though, the front unit has never ever given me any trouble. The original rear one started to just when it wanted, the a replacement one now has these troubles.

Just luck I reckon with the front one lol.

Thanks again guys, much appreciated for your input.

 

[mr_milo]

I wasn't suggesting running it on your computer but to just powering it up on your desk (or table) and letting it run for a while until it loops. I just checked my Mini0803 video files and a 1 minute recording is about 12oMB so that means it would take less than 4 1/2 hours to loop a 32GB card. Since the Mini0803 disconnects for the GPS but can still be powered directly, this makes for an easy setup that could be tested overnight. Taking it apart and disconnecting the battery is actually the harder part. Also, I'm not sure if you had seen my supercap mode or not, it's not pretty but works. I think you could actually get away with just the external cap but I'm not 100% sure.

Last thought (but I doubt this is the issue) have you tried swapping the front & rear cameras? What I am thinking is to just unplug the cameras from the GPS mounts and swap locations. The reason I even think to try this is due to the fact that your front camera has been fine but two rear cameras have had issues. Maybe it's something as simply as a power supply issue. All the best!

 

[acrowau]

Thanks for the thoughts once again mr_milo and your supercap looks interesting, but I don't think I'll go down that path.

I'm feeling a little dumb here, but I'm scratching my head on how to power the unit up as you suggest to see if it loops - how can I do this?

I had swapped the rear and front some time back to see if any issues - but as expected the 'faulty' one still continued to not loop.

 

[mr_milo]

Hehe, yeah the supercap on a Mini0803 isn't for everyone and it has its faults due to lack of firmware support. I just had too many batteries "puff" due to heat that I had to do something.

As for powering the 0803 it has two power ports, one on the side of the GPS module and one on the top of the camera itself. The camera is powered by 5V DC so you can use any USB power plug and micro USB cable to power it. If you have a smartphone with a micro USB charge port, it's cable and charger would likely work great. Just beware that it will operate differently than in the car if you plug it into a computer's USB port since it senses the data lines. So a USB adapter/ charger works best to mimic car power in the house.

Good to know you swapped the cameras and the problem stayed with the camera, just one less thing to worry about.

 

[acrowau]

ok, haha, that makes sense and gets my head back into normality.

I'll give it go and see what happens.

And, ain't you suppose to be in bed over in the USA you never seem to sleep lol

 

[mr_milo]

And, ain't you suppose to be in bed over in the USA you never seem to sleep lol

Yeah, supposed to be in bed but you got lucky..... I've got two sick kids keeping me up tonight and your post popped up on my phone. I figured I'd reply while you were awake this time around.
Glad I could clear things up. Enough people here really helped me out when I started with dashcams that I like to pay it forward when I can.
Good morning & good night.

 

[acrowau]

Good night and hope your kids feel better soon.
Off now for pot roast.
Catch ya later and I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks again mate.