CF-100 dead after 5 months

Kip

Kip

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Dash Cam
JooVuu X, Shadow GT550WS, Blacksys CF-100 (dead & gone)
So after 5 months of reliable and trouble free use (average miles driven for the UK, no parking mode), today it would not even power up. Just totally dead, no lights or anything. The last file recorded was the last time it was used, right before it shutdown, saved properly.

I've tested my cars 12v socket, the cams power cable and its fuse, all appear to be okay. Even unplugged the GPS and rear cam incase they were at fault but made no difference. The SD card is fine but I wouldn't of thought a bad card could completly kill this cam, as it has dedicated error messages for that. I will test with the stock card either later tonight or tomorow but I'm not getting my hopes up. EDIT: Tested cam without any SD card as it would normally boot this way but still nothing.

Unless there is anything else I could check, looks like I will be testing Amazon returns...

Edit: Title and post changed. I originally thought I'd been using this for 4 months but now that I've worked it out properly it's actually been closer to 5.
 
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Sorry to hear that, and hope the RMA goes smoothly if it comes to that.

I'll be continuing to keep a weekly eye on mine, also 5 months old now. I had one issue recently where the front cam just stopped recording about 30secs into a journey but the rear continued, I got one huge file for the entire 40 minute run. No flashing lights, no voice messages, nothing. Luckily I pulled the card (still using the supplied 16MB) for its regular check straight afterwards and found it. I don't know if that was a one-off or if it would have carried on doing the same thing if I hadn't caught it. Anyway I formatted the card in the cam to be on the safe side - the first time I'd even had to do that since setting it up out of the box.
 
i have 3 of them now (cf-100's). one died because i modified the case (different mount) which bent the case enough to touch the heat sink... heat sink got hot enough to melt the plastic, which closed all the vent holes, and then the cam overheated and died a very slow death. that one was over a year old when i did the mod to the mount. the other two the only issues i have is a loose mount on one, which even the "rubber glove fingertip over the ball" fix didn't help. once i'm done moving to my new house, i plan to squirt a little silicone caulk into the socket, and then rig it so it can dry exactly where i want it.
 
Gibson99 said:
Does it do anything with no card inserted at all?
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Tried powering up with no SD card earlier today, still nothing. It normally would boot without a card and then complain repeatedly at you "please insert SD card", as it has done on one occasion when I forgot to put it back in. I've now removed it from the car, wires and all. It's funny how it came out much quicker than it went it! Had to remove all the PlastiDip which was a bit of a pain but I'm now very glad I chose that over a proper paint. Have driven a few times without a cam now, feels awful. I now see the benefit of fitting 2 single channels vs one dual channel cam.

Proghound said:
Sorry to hear that, and hope the RMA goes smoothly if it comes to that.

I'll be continuing to keep a weekly eye on mine, also 5 months old now. I had one issue recently where the front cam just stopped recording about 30secs into a journey but the rear continued, I got one huge file for the entire 40 minute run. No flashing lights, no voice messages, nothing. Luckily I pulled the card (still using the supplied 16MB) for its regular check straight afterwards and found it. I don't know if that was a one-off or if it would have carried on doing the same thing if I hadn't caught it. Anyway I formatted the card in the cam to be on the safe side - the first time I'd even had to do that since setting it up out of the box.
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Mine has literally been perfect since day one, no faults whatsoever. The only hiccup it had was when formatting while an event was going on (me fumbling the button, my fault), but that was more weird than anything else and didn't actually break or screw anything up. Seems really strange that it worked perfect all the way to its very last shutdown, then just never came back on again.

It was a good camera while it lasted and a nice introduction to the world of dashcams, I could have happily used it for a few years before upgrading had it not died. I do wonder though, the manufacturer's seal was already cut when it arrived to me from Amazon. When I questioned Amazon about this, they told me sometimes they check inside boxes to make sure everything is there that is supposed to be, and I could return it at no cost if I wanted to. I thought I would give it a try but now I'm thinking it wasn't Amazon doing checks, more like it was a previously returned item for some reason or another.

I'm now on a search for my second cam, but that will be a topic for a different thread. Lots of things to consider, things I liked about the CF-100, things I didn't like, the fact that I also have a 128GB MicroSD card and would prefer to continue to use that, etc. Will keep this thread updated with the returns process. Might be difficult getting all my money back as the GPS module, although ordered in the same order as the camera itself, was from a different seller. And the GPS module was not cheap vs the cost of the camera (about £59 for the CF-100 2CH vs £28 for the GPS). We shall see.
 
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I can happily recommend the new a119 as a single channel cam. I'm one of the early testers and I've been very impressed by the video quality as well as viofo's responsiveness when it comes to bug reports and feature requests. And they're saying 128gb cards already work in it. As an added bonus you won't have to plastidip anything since it's already very stealthy. You only need to use black 3m tape for the mount if you want. The adhesive on mine is in the dotted area above my mirror so you can't see the gray tape from the outside.
 
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Deffinately going to consider the A119 and very good to see Viofo's participation on this forum. What's the night quality like vs the CF-100? I do drive quite a bit late at night in both lit town and unlit fast rural roads. I like how I can use a gamma filter on VLC with the CF-100 and can see a lot more of the scene, does that trick work with the A119 too? The only problem with the A119 for me is I might have to mount it on the drivers side due to the swept area of the wipers but it's not a deal killer. Oh, and I would miss the convieniance of having a dual cam.
 
night quality is great. i haven't done a side by side comparison but i have no complaints. i would post some footage but i'm staying with family right now - just finished moving out of our old house, and our new house isn't finished yet, so it'll be another couple of weeks at best.
 
That's alright, moving is supposed to be the most stressful thing one can do in life. From what I've seen on YouTube it looks at least good enough.
 
Got a reply from Amazon, they have accepted my request to return for a full refund without argument on both items in the order. Just have to get it sent off now. :)
 
Just to tie all this up, parcel was sent off and is with them now, refund is in the bank. My new JooVuu X arrived today so just been playing around with that in the house until I get around to installing it. It's a bit tricky setting it up and getting used to all the quirks but it seems to be fine now.

My wife also has her very first car now so have been busy sorting that out. The windscreen washers don't work very well (rear one not at all), the drivers electric window was sticking on the way up (fixed now, WD40 :D), tyre pressures obviously not done properly by dealer which was a surprise, wheel bolts all slackened off and re-torqued correctly, because it seems everyone just over-torques them to whatever they fancy, then mechanics wonder why so many wheel bolts seize up if they don't use bucket loads of copper slip, which isn't even needed if the bolts are kept clean and torqued correctly in the first place! :mad: And it probably takes the same amount of time to scrub the bolts with a wire brush for a few seconds before putting them back on the car and torqueing correctly vs messing around with copper slip. There's also the handbrake to sort out as they have set it too tight and the handbrake on mine as I have allowed it to get a bit loose... Then maybe, I'll get the camera in, drive somewhere to test it, and if I'm happy enough, buy another one for the wife's car. Hopefully the windscreen washers will get done under the dealer's warranty though. Anyway, sorry for the little rant. :p
 
Howdy guys.
A few days ago I checked my recordings and found out that my rear camera hasn't been recording for the past 2-3+ month. The front camera works just fine and I got "two channel recording" message every time I start the car , but when I check the rear video I see only frozen up fragments, it looks like partially downloaded pictures and sometimes completely black picture. Mu Sd card is still good, it does the same on any SD and soft update didn't help at all.
I borrowed a whole set up (front cam, rear cam and cables) from a buddy to see which part of the set up failed and after trying different combinations circled out the rear cam.
My unit is just over a years old, so I'm kind of disappointed with CF-100 2-ch reliability. I doubt I can find a replacement rear cam and looking to replace it with another 2-ch camera.
I hate to run cables again and wandering if anyone knows if CH-100B is using the same kind of DC and AV cable connectors as CF-100, so I can just replace front and rear unit and use the GF-100 cables.
Also after some research I like Blackvue DR470-2CH, to bad the cheapest one I've seen is $280.
p.s. I asked our tech to opened the camera and per his opinion video chip looks fried...
 
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I think the reason some of these cameras are going bad is that some are returned products being dressed up and sold as new. It would help explain the very low price they now fetch and mine did arrive with its seal broken.
 
Kip said:
I think the reason some of these cameras are going bad is that some are returned products being dressed up and sold as new. It would help explain the very low price they now fetch and mine did arrive with its seal broken.
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Maybe. However I bought mine from an authorized seller and everything looked brand spanking new ans back then prices were not so low. I never opened my front camera, but our tech opened my bad rear camera and according to him the board and chips look like your average low to mid grade pretty cheaply made electronic.
 
i have a spare sitting in my desk drawer. i can even hook it up and record with it to make sure it still works if you want. and since i'm just down the road from you (relatively speaking), shipping won't take long. i replied to your wanted thread with my email address.

and i can tell you that the cable for the rear cam will NOT work with the CH-100B. i actually tried it myself, but the rear cam on the CH-100B uses micro-usb, and the CF-100 rear uses mini-usb. also, compared to the CF-100, the CH-100B front video is lower quality.
 
molson.david said:
...... CF-100 2-ch ........ I doubt I can find a replacement rear cam...
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Some people don't use their CF-100 rear cam - I don't - so there are probably some in bits boxes that people would be prepared to part with.
 
Gibson99 said:
i have a spare sitting in my desk drawer. i can even hook it up and record with it to make sure it still works if you want. and since i'm just down the road from you (relatively speaking), shipping won't take long. i replied to your wanted thread with my email address.

and i can tell you that the cable for the rear cam will NOT work with the CH-100B. i actually tried it myself, but the rear cam on the CH-100B uses micro-usb, and the CF-100 rear uses mini-usb. also, compared to the CF-100, the CH-100B front video is lower quality.
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ok, so CH-1ooB is out.
p.s. check your email.
 
molson.david said:
Looks like I just found one of those ppl. :)
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my story is a bit different. i DO use the rear cam. but i tried to modify the mount on the front unit (metal bracket instead of ball/socket). well, my new bracket warped the case enough to allow the front cover to make contact with the heat sink inside. the heat sink got hot enough to actually melt the plastic, which caused the vent holes to melt closed. suddenly there was no ventilation, so it overheated and died. then i bought a used 2ch setup from someone here on the forum. i left all the old parts (cables, power cord, mount, rear cam) in the car and just swapped in the main unit. everything's been fine since, so that's why i have a spare rear cam.
 
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