auto record doesn’t work in lower temperatures

[kuze]

Hello, I have a problem with my Mobius, I have two cams (both V1), the first works totally fine. But the second one is giving me headaches. The auto record doesn’t work in lower temperatures.I use them as Dashcams in the front and back of my car. I installed the second one in summer so didn’t notice something was wrong.

With 10° Celsius the auto record fails very often and at or under 7° C the auto record works never and I mean never.The cameras use the exact same setup / firmware and cables (original Mobius cables) and Kingston sd cards and the same Car 12V to 2x 5V Adaptor.

The cameras are plugged into the adaptor via USB-Cables, I only plug the adaptor in once the car engine is started and the lights are on, so that there are no voltage spikes.I see that the camera isn’t designed to work at -20°, but common 10°C should be possible, my first Mobius auto records even at -15°C. I´m really upset because I paid 85€ (German seller).

First I suspected the Lipo because the auto record works fine under room temperature.I contacted the seller and he sended me a new Lipo and the Super cap, tried both no luck.

When I plug usb cable into the camera the led shows solid green, so it charges the Lipo and the Super cap. When full the green led goes off.

So it seems the camera doesn’t know that it is supposed to start recording, I also updated firmware and checked the configuration (msetup and syscfg.txt), and changed USB cables, adaptor and sd card.

The strangest thing of all is that when I hold down the power button while plugging the camera in the led blinks blue one time and the camera shuts down. If I then unplug the camera und plug it in again then the auto record works. But it sucks to climb to the back of my car every morning and in my lunchbreak to get that thing working.

I appreciate any kind of help, idea or solution. Thank you!

 

[jokiin]

I take it the cameras are installed one in the front, one in the back? If so have you tried swapping the cameras front to rear and leaving everything else intact to rule out any possible cable issue etc?

 

[kamkar]

My mobius ( V1 ) in the rear was acting up for a while, some days recording everything, and other days not recording at all.
But the LED was flashing allright.
It turned out the long USB cable i used to get power all the way back to the rear og my small car was too long or of too bad quality.
Anyway instead of that long USB wire i tapped into my fuse box and put 3 ciggeratte plugs in the rear of my car, and i now power my camera with standart PSUs inserted into that 12 V extension.

Works perfect now, but my mobius in now in my Left window and a joovuu X cam is in my rear window. and both run perfect not missed a milisecond of footage.

Sadly it took a accident where my car got rear ended to get my power grid in order, but i am now ready for the next time.
Only problem is if that will happen with the same time between accidents as before i will have to wait 30 years.

 

[jokiin]

It turned out the long USB cable i used to get power all the way back to the rear og my small car was too long or of too bad quality.
.

this problem is common but can sometimes be tricky to diagnose as some cables work ok when they're new but degrade over time and start playing up so often get overlooked when troubleshooting

 

[kamkar]

Yeah i was expecting my long cable was allright, and i pushed 2.4 A into the other end, but it seem that enuff "juice" dident reach my camera.

I can only recomend to take a look at the power, its allso pretty easy to do, either try the camera on another PSU or with a shorter cable, or try power it off a USB power bank if you have one of those.

It did freak me out that the LEDs was flashing normally, but i did know somthing was wrong as inspections of the memory card clearly indicated somthing was wrong.
Still kicking myself for not getting my car beeing rear ended on tape
I doubt i will ever again get a chance to film somthing like that, so now i an down to "hoping" some one else will crash near my car.

O and welcome to the forum Kuze

 

[kuze]

I don’t think it is a matter of the cables. Both cables are 3 meters long, I also switched them out. If the power would be insufficient the front Mobius would also not work. I also tried a different vendor cable and 30 cm long cable, no difference.

I think it has something to do with the board inside the Mobius; my guess at the moment would be a hairline crack.