Do these things actually work?

[LankyLegoHead]

I'll start with the simple question... do any of these Chinese DashCams ACTUALLY work?

I bought a G1WC earlier in the year, and it was useless. Never recorded properly, had a mountain of corrupt files and would randomly turn on and off. I got my refund, and threw it in the bin.

Last month I decided I'd give these dodgy Chinese things another go, and ordered an A118 from "FoxOffer". I did this as the fear was my last camera was a fake, and FoxOffer seem to be a reputable seller of non-fake chinese cameras.

I've been using it a couple of days, and I have even more problems than my first camera! Not only are the last recorded files nearly all corrupt, but 2 Whole days of driving are corrupt now. I drove down to bournemouth and back (and around bournemouth) and every single file is useless.

As well as this, mine is apparently a "Battery" Version. But if it's not plugged in, it runs for about 3 seconds then displays a "Battery Low" warning and powers off.

The Camera is using the most up to date firmware, according to this site. It's also using a Class 6 Samsung 32GB card.

Any solutions? I'm probably just going to get ANOTHER refund and drop kick it as far as I can see. I'd rather pay 3x as much for a reputable brand, from a shop that actually works!

 

[jokiin]

Buying out of China is a lottery, they don't do any independent QC

To be fair anyone can get faulty products, we get them too but we filter out a lot of the possibilities and when things do go wrong we back it up, we can't sell at China prices though

 

[reverend]

Have you checked the microSD card with h2testw as if you're using the same card and it's had problems in both cameras that could be your root cause.

 

[LankyLegoHead]

Have you checked the microSD card with h2testw as if you're using the same card and it's had problems in both cameras that could be your root cause.

Hi there, thanks for the speedy reply!

I'm using a Mac, and the DiskUtility on here shows up no problems. I have got another card that I've tried (also Class 6) with similar results on the last camera, I'll give it a go on this one.

What class MicroSD is the best for these?

 

[reverend]

For OSX you should be able to use F3 which is basically the OSX equivalent of h2testw.

https://github.com/insidegui/F3X

If you format the card and then run the tool it will fill the card with data and then read it all back - from your symptoms it could be a bad card.

They do usually say class 10 cards minimum these days but in all honesty I've got a class 4 card that works fine at the bitrates the A118 and G1W would create video at - microSD cards aren't all created equal though and there are way too many fakes out there these days.

 

[TheRookie]

I am using Kingston Class 10 cards in all of my cameras and never had any issues with it.
Just don't buy one from eBay - get it from reputable seller such as Amazon.

 

[Gibson99]

I'll start with the simple question... do any of these Chinese DashCams ACTUALLY work?

Well I've got two A118, an f70, and a couple Chinese action cameras with no issues other than one I caused when I wasn't careful when I took it apart.

I agree that this does sound an awful lot like a bad SD card. Not ruling out a bad camera though. Can't hurt to reset it using the button on the side.

 

[LankyLegoHead]

Thanks for all your replies!

According to the F3X diagnoses... fake cake. Bloody annoying! Last time I use ebay for anything lol. I haven't tested the other card thats in the camera, but I'll just get another card while I'm off today from an actual shop rather than online. Still doesn't solve the Battery issue, mind you.

 

[Gibson99]

The capacitor version (which is actually the better of the two) does indeed shut down after a few seconds when you cut power. Only way to know for sure though is to crack it open. It's only 4 little Phillips screws - very easy. Just be careful when separating the back cover as the speaker is sometimes attached. That's what I did wrong and ended up ripping the wires from the speaker itself, so now my a118c has no sound.

Too bad it's a bit too late to recover the first g1w from the bin... It may have been just fine!

 

[LankyLegoHead]

It does shutdown similar to the G1WC that I had, so maybe I do have a free upgrade?

 

[DT MI]

...I'm using a Mac, ...

It's been discussed in other threads here that Mac users should format the SD cards 'in camera' whenever it's been used in the computer. Apparently Macs write some extraneous system files on the card that the F/W in many dash cams trip over. I don't use a Mac myself so this is just echoing what others have reported.

 

[SawMaster]

Yes, they actually work and given the cost they work very well for the money being spent if you get a good one.

All of the cheaper cams are made in China so you can't avoid that with a limited budget. Many of the components in all cams will be made in China regardless of where it's assembled so you can't totally avoid China. Both your cams are at the bottom level of those recommended, both are generics, and both have known build quality issues. It's the luck of the draw with these cams but most are OK. You may have luck like mine though and got 2 duds in a row too.

Do test your cards and always format in-cam with all dashcams. Even then some cams are picky about the SD cards used. Even some recommended ones may not work as well for you as they do for others and there's no way to know until you try. But best to stick with only recommended cards bought from recommended sellers, same as with the cams, to avoid fakes, then the rest is back to your luck.

If you want a better chance of getting a good cam you have to spend more. You don't get what you don't pay for and the good things in life are never cheap. I hope your issues are card-related and fixable, shipping into China for a warranty return isn't feasible at this price level; that's why we also recommend buying locally. Don't give up with dashcams even if yours is a dud, the odds of 3 duds in a row is infinitesimal (unless you are me! )

Phil

 

[M---]

All my dashcams have been Chinese cameras... Here are my experiences:

My first dashcam a couple/few years ago was a "Blackview" generic knockoff, horrible audio, skippy video, low-resolution sensor that looked like it had been poorly upscaled. Horrible. I have nothing positive to say about it.

Next cam was a Shadowtec GT550WS. The video quality was pretty good, the audio was acceptable, the build quality seemed fine... Until the USB connector broke off the mainboard. I opened it up to see what was inside, and the traces for the USB data and power had pulled off the board. The fault was that the board hadn't been properly cleaned, so solder didn't hold down the attachment points on the connector.

My current camera is an A118C from Foxoffer. No complaints so far. It just works. Video's pretty good, audio's excellent (I'm really quite impressed at the audio quality!) and no other issues. My old laptop's USB 2 ports didn't provide quite enough power to run the capacitor-powered dashcam, so the dashcam would sometimes drop out of Windows while I was copying files (grrrr!) But no data was lost/corrupted, thankfully. It seemed fine in the USB 3 port. My current laptop doesn't have any such problems-- the A118C just works with it. I really like this camera, so I'm hopeful that it will continue to work without fault.

I can't remember which brand of memory card I've got in the camera-- I was running a 16GB card that came with my first knockoff Blackview camera (amazing that it still works without problem!), but a couple months ago I upgraded to a 64GB card that I bought from an NCIX store for CAD$25.

 

[jokiin]

better to use a card reader

 

[M---]

better to use a card reader

Yep, that's probably the best option. I think I found a TF->SD adapter in a box yesterday. Should probably just use that.