Am I just unlucky and where to from here ?

[308GTS]

So I bought a 2 channel U1000 from Ryda.com in Australia in November last year. I paid the extra for 3 year warranty.
About a week after it arrived I finally had a chance to wire it in so I was super careful and spent about 5 hours on just the front camera.
The result was nothing ! ........ I checked everything and found there was a very consistent 3 volts at the plug where it goes into the dash cam. The car definitely has 12 volts where it supplies power. So the retailer says I'm doing it all wrong , , I check again and there is only 2 volts now ....... during the process of filming what is happening the connection goes to 0 volts. I checked the fuses and there was continuity to the far side of both fuses but nothing at the plug.
The retailer says send back the front camera, wiring harness and rear camera for replacement. The retailer says its all working fine but will send a replacement. I have video of the failed wiring harness being checked.

The replacement arrives in January this year.

So I put the whole thing in with exactly the same connections (including the rear camera this time) and everything works ............... for 2 weeks.

Now it is lucky to run for long enough for the start up message to complete saying "continuous recording" and the sound stops , lights go out and a loud click sound can be heard coming from the dash cam itself. It will try to restart after 20 seconds or so then the same thing happens. After about 3 kms of driving it no longer does anything ,, , no lights or sounds come from the dash cam. It's impossible to connect wirelessly. I'm using the original Thinkware micro SD card.

Ryda.com are not answering requests for assistance any more it seems.

So what is a reliable brand and who is a good retailer in Australia ? Obviously not Thinkware ...... definitely not from Ryda either.

 

[Maddog1974]

I would say you have been incredibly unlucky there. In the UK we probably come across 1 Faulty Hardwire cable per year but we never know if whoever was installing it may have given it a bit of a Tug to break it or if it was a natural failure. As for the other fault that is something i have come across before but very rarely on a unit within Warranty. If i come across that the unit is usually 3/4 years old. Do you have a different memory card you could try as that can cause a reboot frequently, although they don't tend to 'click' usually, worth a try though or see if Windows will format the card if it's successful the card is almost certainly OK. If Windows fails it's a good sign the card has failed.

 

[308GTS]

I would say you have been incredibly unlucky there. In the UK we probably come across 1 Faulty Hardwire cable per year but we never know if whoever was installing it may have given it a bit of a Tug to break it or if it was a natural failure. As for the other fault that is something i have come across before but very rarely on a unit within Warranty. If i come across that the unit is usually 3/4 years old. Do you have a different memory card you could try as that can cause a reboot frequently, although they don't tend to 'click' usually, worth a try though or see if Windows will format the card if it's successful the card is almost certainly OK. If Windows fails it's a good sign the card has failed.

I was the guy that wired it in. Aside from being paranoid about stretching anything I connected everything with 6.35mm (1/4") spade connectors, crimped them aaaaaaaaaaand soldered those crimps in. I also added heat shrink to ensure no short circuits. ( I didn't want it wired up like a 1970's Ducati ).
The U1000 is in a Fiat 500 so no need to stretch or tug on anything. It did have about 18 inches of spare cable but gosh if it would be way too short if you had a 1970's Cadillac !
I put a video of the click noise on Youtube ...... the click is surprisingly loud and the dash cam gets hot quick.

The retailer hasn't responded. I bought it new but I did ask if the replacement was new or factory refurbished ...... no reply yet.
The national distributor got back to me and confirmed the front recorder / camera or micro SD looks faulty and to contact the retailer ......... mmmmmmmm ............. this is the way we do things in the colonies.

 

[308GTS]

The retailer got back to me. They seemed a bit annoyed that I've contacted them about U1000 failing again. They have organised a return but it will be 2 to 3 weeks before THINKWARE will decide what happens next.

I took the Thinkware micro SD out to see what video is on the card. There is a few corrupted MP4 files so nothing of any use. The recording in my previous post is about the very last. I had tried another micro SD card that the retailer had accidentally sent me but it was not able to make any uncorrupted recording either.