Brand new - Won't stay powered on - "Low Battery" message.

[BleachX]

I just received this brand new from Amazon tonight. I have it plugged in to my computer. It powers on, flashes a blue screen with white letters saying, "Low Battery" once or twice and then powers off. I can't use any menus or do anything. Am I doing something wrong? I think it will do the same thing if I bother to install it in my truck. Should I send this back for a refund?

 

[Street Guardian USA]

You can't power it via a computer USB port. (Often times only 500 mA) It needs a full 1A of power. Try it in the truck with the included cigarette lighter power adapter

 

[throrope]

Mine needed a good overnight soaking charge before it acted right. These cams require patience, trial & error and are often counter intuitive. Once up and running? you can't understand why anyone would go without.

 

[Dashmellow]

Mine needed a good overnight soaking charge before it acted right. These cams require patience, trial & error and are often counter intuitive. Once up and running? you can't understand why anyone would go without.

If you are talking about a camera with a lithium-polymer battery such advice would make sense. If the camera is powered by a super-capacitor as the SG9665GC is, the camera's capacitor should be fully charged in about ten seconds. In certain cases a capacitor might take a minute or two to fully charge but it wouldn't take all night.

Plugging the SG9665GC into a suitable power supply that provides at least 1000 mAh (1Ah) @5V as @Pier28 suggests should solve the OP's problem immediately unless the camera or the power supply is defective.

 

[jokiin]

yeah don't connect it to a computer please, the PC doesn't have enough power to run the camera

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Thanks @Dashmellow

Yes, I'm confident the camera is fine. I personally triple QA checked each and every camera that was sent out. (customized each timezone per customer, and let GPS sync date/time)

Anything is possible with electronics from time to time, but based one the OP's description, it should be ok once fully powered with the 1A adapter.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

yeah don't connect it to a computer please, the PC doesn't have enough power to run the camera

Under powering a CPU causing it to struggle isn't good/healthy, best to avoid. This is why we don't include a miniUSB cable in the box. We'll look into adding some clearer warning sticker or insert.

 

[jokiin]

This is why we don't include a miniUSB cable in the box. We'll look into adding some clearer warning sticker or insert.

also why we include a card reader

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Just answered the Amazon question as well:
http://www.amazon.com/received-toni...t&newContentID=MxNPV4MMK2B17W&newContentNum=2

 

[Feitelijk]

Ahhh, I should have read this before I got mine.
I use my other cams to read the card via miniUSB. And I got this same low bat warning when I tried my new SG9665GC tonight.

Also spent 2 hours rebuilding mplayer ffmpeg and x264 from scratch because of the newer codec.

 

[adalex]

I'm actually having a similar problem. Even after driving for like 30 mins plus as soon as a stop the car about 5 seconds later it says low battery and shuts off. Kind of defeats the purpose of a delay off? Am I doing something wrong?

 

[jokiin]

I'm actually having a similar problem. Even after driving for like 30 mins plus as soon as a stop the car about 5 seconds later it says low battery and shuts off. Kind of defeats the purpose of a delay off? Am I doing something wrong?

have answered this elsewhere but will answer again in case anyone else comes looking, there's no low battery message, it turns off 4 seconds after power off by design, all capacitor based cameras do that

 

[adalex]

yea sorry I answered in here first before I made a post

 

[jokiin]

yea sorry I answered in here first before I made a post

no problem at all, we're just interested in answering your questions so you can get the most out of your product