consequences of a dead battery inside the unit?

[bugelrex]

As you know, batteries have a finite life, especially cheap ones.

What happens the unit once the battery can no longer hold a charge? Is the unit unusable? high risk of corrupting the SD card in the middle of write when the turn off the car?

 

[Lunar]

I suspect this camera does need a functional internal battery to work properly.

As someone who has opened up this camera to fix a faulty up switch, I can confirm the battery is fairly easy to replace, it's held in place by a double sided adhesive pad, and is under the bottom board immediately above the speaker. You will of course need to open up the unit, by removing the end blanking cover disc and removing 4 screws, when you withdraw the ratchet collar be careful you don't lose the small ball bearing that may pop out, but if you withdraw it slowly, you can prevent it from shooting out, just hold your finger on it, or let it drop into your hand.

I covered this dismantling with more info on the procedure on page 57 of main thread.
http://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/smallest-ambarella-car-dvr-a-k-a-mini-0801.1001/page-57

 

[bugelrex]

I suspect this camera does need a functional internal battery to work properly.

As someone who has opened up this camera to fix a faulty up switch, I can confirm the battery is fairly easy to replace, it's held in place by a double sided adhesive pad, and is under the bottom board immediately above the speaker. You will of course need to open up the unit, by removing the end blanking cover disc and removing 4 screws, when you withdraw the ratchet collar be careful you don't lose the small ball bearing that may pop out, but if you withdraw it slowly, you can prevent it from shooting out, just hold your finger on it, or let it drop into your hand.

I covered this dismantling with more info on the procedure on page 57 of main thread.
http://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/smallest-ambarella-car-dvr-a-k-a-mini-0801.1001/page-57

Thanks so much! I read somewhere the battery is from a Nokia phone, so replacements shouldn't be too hard to come by.

 

[jokiin]

Thanks so much! I read somewhere the battery is from a Nokia phone, so replacements shouldn't be too hard to come by.

no, battery is nothing like a phone battery, much smaller

 

[CheckYourLights]

Thanks so much! I read somewhere the battery is from a Nokia phone, so replacements shouldn't be too hard to come by.

That is for a real DVR-027 you can use a Nokia BL-5C Battery and it is a direct replacement i believe, but most cameras are not like that

 

[Lunar]

From memory it looked about 1.25" long and about 1" wide and maybe just under 1/4" thick, as joklin stated it is quite small and certainly smaller than most phone batteries I've seen. If I open it up again at any point I'll take a good look, and put up the battery type and specs.