Lightdow LD-4K Sale

Old Yeti

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If you go over to Amazon, right now, they've a sale going on for the subject camera at $29.99. I've 3, just bought a 4th and have had good luck with these sj9000 clones. Yea, I know these are not real 4K, I also know they're not real sony mx117. I'm sure this is a model year close out since I believe these are 2015 models. I use them to record my girls fastpitch softball games and practices at 1080p @ 60 fps. They produce a great image and at this price I don't care if they get hit.

Edit: Caution, see below. If you've purchased this camera, do not update the firmware! Original 20160421 version records in 1080p 60fps, I don't know about other update but 20160923 does not.

Another edit: If you made the mistake of updating your firmware, I've a link to goprawn where you can see how I learned to resolve this mistake. The cheapest route cost the price of a CH431A programmer, around $3 and several weeks from china or $10 and a couple days from amazon. And yes, I've just purchased my 7th copy of this camera, don't learn from my mistakes. Einstein had a comment about that, or something. Guess I need to change my name to Insane Yeti or Insane in the Yeti Brain.o_O
 
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And just bought my 5th & 6th one of these. I keep on coming up with ideas like recording opponents games and referees for scouting purposes. Someone stop me please..........
 
Yeah I grabbed one to check out.

I'm betting they made the price low so people buy them and they get more positive reviews because wow those reviews on those cams are negative.But I honestly expect about the same quality as other generic IMX078/NT96660 cams. Which is usually ok... For $30? Good deal.

Also Amazon charges extra fees if items sit around in FBA warehouse for a few months and don't sell. So that's possibly another reason.
 
Oh, most definitely, these are in no way GoPro killers. But you haven't felt a tighter sphincter than watching a 60 mph softball bounce off your new $400 GoPro. People even hang their Androids / iPhones on the fence to record their daughter's softball games. Did you know that iPhones can fly? :)
 
OK, so I couldn't resist the urge to tear into one of these puppies. I've verified that a USB connector could be a problem. They are using a connector that is different in design than what the PCB layout was designed for and or insufficient solder is used. If manufacturing isn't careful the flow solder could miss the SMD pad for the USB connector support wings.

So time to eat crow,:( if you are not brave enough or don't have the skills and equipment to apply a couple dabs of solder, don't buy this product.

Edit: Upon further investigation, I've found that in some cases insufficient solder was used making the potential problem worse. I'm working now on a repair procedure, if you're interested. Not for the weak of heart though.

Edit: Edit: Spent the day looking over my inventory of cameras and found only the one with a suspect USB connector. While playing with the connector it popped off. Nuts! Under the connector was an excessive amount of flow solder. And when the connector popped off, it left the positive post behind. Time for a new connector. I replaced the connector and it is up and running again.

Edit: Edit: Edit: Have validated that update firmware 20160923 version will not record 1080p 60fps. The original, as supplied, firmware 20160421 version does record in 1080p 60fps.
 
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OK, so I couldn't resist the urge to tear into one of these puppies. I've verified that a USB connector could be a problem. They are using a connector that is different in design than what the PCB layout was designed for and or insufficient solder is used. If manufacturing isn't careful the flow solder could miss the SMD pad for the USB connector support wings.

So time to eat crow,:( if you are not brave enough or don't have the skills and equipment to apply a couple dabs of solder, don't buy this product.

Edit: Upon further investigation, I've found that in some cases insufficient solder was used making the potential problem worse. I'm working now on a repair procedure, if you're interested. Not for the weak of heart though.

Edit: Edit: Spent the day looking over my inventory of cameras and found only the one with a suspect USB connector. While playing with the connector it popped off. Nuts! Under the connector was an excessive amount of flow solder. And when the connector popped off, it left the positive post behind. Time for a new connector. I replaced the connector and it is up and running again.

Edit: Edit: Edit: Have validated that update firmware 20160923 version will not record 1080p 60fps. The original, as supplied, firmware 20160421 version does record in 1080p 60fps.

Do you have the original firmware? I'd like to revert, if at all possible.
 
Response from Lightdow support when I requested the 20160421 firmware:
Here is the 20160421 & 20170218 version:
https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZrGfAZFurvmJMajLplDtoRBcVYbuapLKhV
https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZyvfAZKO7dQ9VBYhjgrQOXTIgrofWxejOV

Again, these didn't work for me. When I installed with the supplied loader my drop frame persisted. As described in the aforementioned link, I had to obtain an original camera, copy the firmware from the memory chip and flash it to cloned camera. Worked great.

If you go over to the goprawn link, you'll see that I've shared the file I copied from my original state camera. The 2 items cost around $10 each. If you don't mind soldering, you can get away with just the CH341A programmer.
 
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