Cold Weather - Not Recording

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Hi Dashmellow.
Thank you for your reply, I have bought and tried another SuperCap' that made no difference, tried two SD cards, two power supplies, checked the 820mAh battery was fully charged and nothing made any difference. This has been bugging me for over a month, but further internet searches brought this little gem from a suppliers website:
Quote: ...........The battery is too cold to provide the power needed to record video. Keep the battery warm before using the camera in cold temperatures (around freezing and below). Unquote.

This I find odd as other dashcams use the same type of battery - LiPo, but rate their cameras as -20~70deg C
Quote:
Ddpai M6 Plus HD 1440P WIFI Car Dash GPS Camera Video DVR Cam
Lithium battery Built-in 250mA high-temperature lithium battery
Temperature -20~70℃ Unquote.
If I want to continue using the Mobius looks like I will have to remove it when it gets cold, which is a bit of a pain as its nicely hidden using a lens extension lead. Maybe time to buy a dedicated dash-cam but I do like the Mobius. :confused:
 
ajw1100 said:
Hi Dashmellow.
Thank you for your reply, I have bought and tried another SuperCap' that made no difference, tried two SD cards, two power supplies, checked the 820mAh battery was fully charged and nothing made any difference. This has been bugging me for over a month, but further internet searches brought this little gem from a suppliers website:
Quote: ...........The battery is too cold to provide the power needed to record video. Keep the battery warm before using the camera in cold temperatures (around freezing and below). Unquote.

This I find odd as other dashcams use the same type of battery - LiPo, but rate their cameras as -20~70deg C
Quote:
Ddpai M6 Plus HD 1440P WIFI Car Dash GPS Camera Video DVR Cam
Lithium battery Built-in 250mA high-temperature lithium battery
Temperature -20~70℃ Unquote.
If I want to continue using the Mobius looks like I will have to remove it when it gets cold, which is a bit of a pain as its nicely hidden using a lens extension lead. Maybe time to buy a dedicated dash-cam but I do like the Mobius. :confused:
Click to expand...

Yesterday, it was -6º celsius (it had been much colder than that during the night) when I started up my vehicle and all three Mobius cameras booted-up as normal. Many others here report a similar experience with only occasional start-up issues during extended periods of extreme cold. I'm sorry, I don't know the explanation. I guess you could try a different Mobius camera but I can understand that you may not want to do that. (Unless you can buy a replacement Mobius on the condition that you can return it if it has the same issue for you.)
 
Last night it went down to -1º Fahrenheit (-18.3º Celsius). By the time I went to start my vehicle at around noon today it had warmed up to the balmy temperature of 16º Fahrenheit (-8.8º Celsius). I mentioned earlier in this thread that, "I've noticed that the early V1 version of the PCB is more prone to cold temperature start-up problems than the later V2 or V3 versions." The three Mobi in my vehicle are V1, V2, V3 PCB versions respectively. (side facing and rear).

So today, not surprisingly, the V1 did not boot up but the other two started up just fine. The V1 camera flashed the rear red LED three times indicating a fully charged super-capacitor and then went dead. After waiting about ten seconds I unplugged the USB cable from the 12V cigarette lighter adapter and then immediately plugged it back in. The rear red LED flashed three times and the camera booted up and began recording as normal.

Yesterday, the temperature scenario both overnight and when I started my vehicle was almost identical to today but all three cameras began recording as soon as I started my vehicle. Go figure?

Anyway, this has been the typical scenario with these cameras for about two years now. The V1 is always the one with temporary extreme cold start problems if it happens at all but never the V2 or V3 cameras.

Apparently, the circuitry just needs to warm up a bit on this one camera. Usually, I leave it plugged in for a longer period of time before attempting a reboot but today with this thread in mind I wanted to see what might happen with only a ten second waiting period and it worked!

On the whole the cold start issue has been no big deal for me and the experience has been more or less consistent and quite repeatable.
 
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Mobius cam with battery (not cap).
Noticed this past year that after a cool night (maybe 50-60F) it wouldnt start. Problem has gotten much worse to where it wont start 99% of the time and takes several to many power off/on attempts before it will start. Sometimes just no lights at all, sometimes the initial blue light then nothing, most times it will give the blue, then three flashes and one following flash, then nothing. Lately it takes up to a few dozen attempts and isnt worth my time driving and messing with the plug. I have ruled out the momentary power interruption theory by pulling the plug before shutdown and plugging it in after engine start, so thats not the issue. Neither is the cold temps, being that it began with cool but not at all cold temps, and now seems independent of temp (it never starts).

Temp - discounted
power interruption - discounted
bad power supply - discounted

Bad battery? Switch to cap? Junk the thing? Run a hot power lead and never turn it off?
 
mark82 said:
Mobius cam with battery (not cap).
Noticed this past year that after a cool night (maybe 50-60F) it wouldnt start. Problem has gotten much worse to where it wont start 99% of the time and takes several to many power off/on attempts before it will start. Sometimes just no lights at all, sometimes the initial blue light then nothing, most times it will give the blue, then three flashes and one following flash, then nothing. Lately it takes up to a few dozen attempts and isnt worth my time driving and messing with the plug. I have ruled out the momentary power interruption theory by pulling the plug before shutdown and plugging it in after engine start, so thats not the issue. Neither is the cold temps, being that it began with cool but not at all cold temps, and now seems independent of temp (it never starts).

Temp - discounted
power interruption - discounted
bad power supply - discounted

Bad battery? Switch to cap? Junk the thing? Run a hot power lead and never turn it off?
Click to expand...

I had a similar problem earlier on with my first Mobius. After months of intermittent start-up problems (and occasional random shut downs) I finally discovered a hairline crack in the plastic interior pin receptacle inside the mini-B USB port on the back of the camera. Sometimes it made contact and sometimes it didn't. I don't know if the camera was shipped to me that way or whether the problem was self inflicted by accidentally yanking on the cable too hard (as I suspect) but I finally found the explanation for the trouble. I believe that changes in ambient temperature were also causing the crack in the plastic to expand and contract and this too seems to have compounded the issue by changing when the contact problem would and wouldn't manifest.

I'm not necessarily suggesting you have the same issue but it is worth checking your camera and cable connections carefully to see if you can detect any unexpected hidden problems with the camera or cable plugs that might be right in front of your nose. Somebody else had a similar weird intermittent issue and based on his description I suggested he look inside the microSD slot with a flashlight for some contamination preventing it from seating properly and making a connection and sure enough he reported back that there was a piece of lint jammed down in there that he removed with a toothpick and all was good after that.

I found the hairline crack right about where the arrow is pointing.
mini.jpg
 
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I got the super cap installed and didn't get a cold start issue so far during these below zero degree days.
 
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