F800 installed

nicktang

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Dear all,

Just replaced F750 to F800. Found the app is very annoying in the hotspot connection (iOS 10.3.2). Anyone have similar issue?

Regards,
Nick from Hong Kong
 
Dear all,

Just replaced F750 to F800. Found the app is very annoying in the hotspot connection (iOS 10.3.2). Anyone have similar issue?

Regards,
Nick from Hong Kong

I had the same problem. I used two different F800 cameras and two different iPhones. Could never make a hotspot connection. I also worked with customer support for 3 to 4 days and they couldn't figure it out...The bad thing is, that you can't access the camera setting without a hotspot connection. I have an email in to support now asking for an up date on a fix..
 
I just installed mine and got the hotspot working on an iPhone 6. The trick is, when you get to the iPhones hotspot setting screen. if is already on. turn it off and turn it back on. the camera takes like 30 seconds to connect. you will see the wifi light blink blue. once is solid you can leave the settings page on the phone and go back to the app. the phone might not show the blue bar right away but it should be connected if the light stopped blinking on the camera.
 
I just installed mine and got the hotspot working on an iPhone 6. The trick is, when you get to the iPhones hotspot setting screen. if is already on. turn it off and turn it back on. the camera takes like 30 seconds to connect. you will see the wifi light blink blue. once is solid you can leave the settings page on the phone and go back to the app. the phone might not show the blue bar right away but it should be connected if the light stopped blinking on the camera.
I just installed mine and got the hotspot working on an iPhone 6. The trick is, when you get to the iPhones hotspot setting screen. if is already on. turn it off and turn it back on. the camera takes like 30 seconds to connect. you will see the wifi light blink blue. once is solid you can leave the settings page on the phone and go back to the app. the phone might not show the blue bar right away but it should be connected if the light stopped blinking on the camera.
 
Finally got mine to working (with support help) and you are right, there is a trick to it via hot spot on/off. Now I'm wondering what is the purpose of connecting to the internet? Couldn't find anything under settings ? It appears to me that you connect to the camera first via wifi ( as with the F750) then when you connect to the hot spot, it disconnects from wifi ? Am I right? It sure seems complicated ?
So far I've found where you can download and install updates for camera and app by way of the iPhone. Has anyone heard when rear camera will be available ?
 
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Yeah that's what it does. It releases the wifi when the hotspot connects.
I have the feeling that this feature is what they're going to use on the F800 air to connect to the internet. But according to thinkware. They're 2 separate cameras. I think is just a software upgrade thing. But it doesn't sound like they're going to be offering to owners of the F800. And that's is just wrong.
I guess we'll find out for sure in a couple of months.
 
I've got this cam recently thinking that it's the F800 air that they had been promoting and alas, it wasn't the cloud version and I am very disappointed with their lack of publicity creating much confusion! I so regretted buying something different from what I expected and wasted my time waiting for this! If it's just a software fix I hope Thinkware would wake up and update it as well or else I am gonna tell everyone of my friends not to buy F800 or even buy another brand to boycott Thinkware! Try me!
 
The 'Air' should be added Free of charge to the existing models later in the year. That's what they are telling us in the UK anyway!
 
The 'Air' should be added Free of charge to the existing models later in the year. That's what they are telling us in the UK anyway!

Let's hope so, mate! But seriously they should improve on their publicity skills!
 
F750-F800_Front.jpg F750-F800_Side.jpg Just purchased the F800 to replace my F750. Some observations:

  1. As others have noted, Thinkware has moved to an even more complicated mode of connectivity between your phone and the camera for initial setup, configuration, live video monitoring, and downloading of recordings.
    1. It now requires that the user's phone be put into personal hotspot mode (wireless tethering) such that the camera connects as a wifi client to the phone, which also gives the camera Internet connectivity if the phone has a mobile data connection.
    2. I believe this is a HUGE mistake on the part of Thinkware. Not all service providers and/or plans allow the personal hotspot/tethering feature to be activated. For those that do, typically this connection is limited to a small amount of Internet data or an additional service charge. It is unclear at this point what Thinkware intends to use this connectivity for, but it is obvious that they are at least sending/receiving some data to their servers because it announces a successful Internet connection.
    3. This means that just to configure the F800 you MUST have a mobile phone AND active personal hotspot data sharing (tethering) turned on. You also need these to take advantage of wireless downloading of recordings and live viewing for camera positioning. This is not smart on Thinkware's part.
    4. The walkthrough to establish this hotspot connection is poorly executed, confusing, prone to user error, and seemingly unstable.
    5. After making any configuration changes, I had to physically power off the camera to get the changes to "stick" even though they were stated as saved in the mobile app. If I did't power off the camera and instead just continued to other app functions or disconnected the mobile app, the changes reverted to previous.
  2. The unit is slightly smaller than the F750, but essentially the same form factor.
    1. Pictures attached. F800 mounted, F750 held for comparison.
    2. The unit is about 10% thinner.
    3. The mount is changed and more flush to the windshield.
    4. The hardwired power cable can be re-used from a F750 installation.
    5. The 3M tape is (finally) black rather than white, making for a more stealth appearance from the outside.
  3. It appears that the lower "WiFi" LED, which faces into the interior of the car, continuously flashes bright blue when not connected to the phone's hotspot (normal daily operation) and cannot be turned off.
  4. The rear-facing camera for the F800 is not yet available, and the previous version from the F750 is not compatible (although the cable is).
  5. I will report back after some recording time with comparisons of video quality both during the day and at night.
 
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Thanks for that detailed report.
I'll be sticking with my F750 (with F770 Firmware), that's for sure.

RodeoGeorge
 
IMG_1023.JPG IMG_1026.JPG I like mine. If they give the air update as I've been reading.
 
I like mine. If they give the air update as I've been reading.

I believe that the new requirement for mobile phone personal hotspot connectivity is in preparation for cloud-based uploading and/or configuration of the camera, but I’m curious as to how it will work. The camera does not have a cellular receiver or SIM card of its own, so it will always need to rely on tethering for Internet connectivity. Thus, it will only connect to the cloud when your phone is near (and has hotspot tethering turned on), or perhaps for those few that have one it could connect through a dedicated mobile hotspot (with additional mobile data account). Seems limited to me, and potentially costly since most mobile providers put data caps on tethering and/or charge a premium for usage.
 
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The 'Air' should be added Free of charge to the existing models later in the year. That's what they are telling us in the UK anyway!
View attachment 32631 View attachment 32632 Just purchased the F800 to replace my F750. Some observations:

  1. As others have noted, Thinkware has moved to an even more complicated mode of connectivity between your phone and the camera for initial setup, configuration, live video monitoring, and downloading of recordings.
    1. It now requires that the user's phone be put into personal hotspot mode (wireless tethering) such that the camera connects as a wifi client to the phone, which also gives the camera Internet connectivity if the phone has a mobile data connection.
    2. I believe this is a HUGE mistake on the part of Thinkware. Not all service providers and/or plans allow the personal hotspot/tethering feature to be activated. For those that do, typically this connection is limited to a small amount of Internet data or an additional service charge. It is unclear at this point what Thinkware intends to use this connectivity for, but it is obvious that they are at least sending/receiving some data to their servers because it announces a successful Internet connection.
    3. This means that just to configure the F800 you MUST have a mobile phone AND active personal hotspot data sharing (tethering) turned on. You also need these to take advantage of wireless downloading of recordings and live viewing for camera positioning. This is not smart on Thinkware's part.
    4. The walkthrough to establish this hotspot connection is poorly executed, confusing, prone to user error, and seemingly unstable.
    5. After making any configuration changes, I had to physically power off the camera to get the changes to "stick" even though they were stated as saved in the mobile app. If I did't power off the camera and instead just continued to other app functions or disconnected the mobile app, the changes reverted to previous.
  2. The unit is slightly smaller than the F750, but essentially the same form factor.
    1. Pictures attached. F800 mounted, F750 held for comparison.
    2. The unit is about 10% thinner.
    3. The mount is changed and more flush to the windshield.
    4. The hardwired power cable can be re-used from a F750 installation.
    5. The 3M tape is (finally) black rather than white, making for a more stealth appearance from the outside.
  3. It appears that the lower "WiFi" LED, which faces into the interior of the car, continuously flashes bright blue when not connected to the phone's hotspot (normal daily operation) and cannot be turned off.
  4. The rear-facing camera for the F800 is not yet available, and the previous version from the F750 is not compatible (although the cable is).
  5. I will report back after some recording time with comparisons of video quality both during the day and at night.


That explains why I couldn't get the time/parking settings to "take"..The indications were the adjustments were "saved" but didn't. Do you have any idea what the Green wifi indicates?
 
From what I quickly read above, F800 does not have an SD card and relies on internet connectivity, in my circumstances it would appear this dash cam will not be of use to me as I do not have data, I have not had the need for it, if that is the case it could rule out many prospective sales.
I note there's a USER GUIDE listed below so I will have a browse.

Just noted in the instructions and illustration it does have an SD card.
Max.
 
From what I quickly read above, F800 does not have an SD card and relies on internet connectivity

It does have an SD card slot, and it comes packaged with a 16GB card. However, to configure the camera’s options you must use your phone in tethered hotspot mode, and this is also the only way to view live video or to download wirelessly without removing the card. The F750/770 did this using a traditional WiFi setup, where the camera was the host (“hotspot”) and the phone connected as a client. This was much easier and did not require tethering mode to be activated/paid for on the phone.
 
Do you have any idea what the Green wifi indicates?

It flashes when it is not tethered to your phone, which is 99% of the time. It goes solid blue when tethered and it recognizes a connection to the Internet via your phone.
 
View attachment 32631 View attachment 32632 Just purchased the F800 to replace my F750. Some observations:

  1. As others have noted, Thinkware has moved to an even more complicated mode of connectivity between your phone and the camera for initial setup, configuration, live video monitoring, and downloading of recordings.
    1. It now requires that the user's phone be put into personal hotspot mode (wireless tethering) such that the camera connects as a wifi client to the phone, which also gives the camera Internet connectivity if the phone has a mobile data connection.
    2. I believe this is a HUGE mistake on the part of Thinkware. Not all service providers and/or plans allow the personal hotspot/tethering feature to be activated. For those that do, typically this connection is limited to a small amount of Internet data or an additional service charge. It is unclear at this point what Thinkware intends to use this connectivity for, but it is obvious that they are at least sending/receiving some data to their servers because it announces a successful Internet connection.
    3. This means that just to configure the F800 you MUST have a mobile phone AND active personal hotspot data sharing (tethering) turned on. You also need these to take advantage of wireless downloading of recordings and live viewing for camera positioning. This is not smart on Thinkware's part.
    4. The walkthrough to establish this hotspot connection is poorly executed, confusing, prone to user error, and seemingly unstable.
    5. After making any configuration changes, I had to physically power off the camera to get the changes to "stick" even though they were stated as saved in the mobile app. If I did't power off the camera and instead just continued to other app functions or disconnected the mobile app, the changes reverted to previous.
  2. The unit is slightly smaller than the F750, but essentially the same form factor.
    1. Pictures attached. F800 mounted, F750 held for comparison.
    2. The unit is about 10% thinner.
    3. The mount is changed and more flush to the windshield.
    4. The hardwired power cable can be re-used from a F750 installation.
    5. The 3M tape is (finally) black rather than white, making for a more stealth appearance from the outside.
  3. It appears that the lower "WiFi" LED, which faces into the interior of the car, continuously flashes bright blue when not connected to the phone's hotspot (normal daily operation) and cannot be turned off.
  4. The rear-facing camera for the F800 is not yet available, and the previous version from the F750 is not compatible (although the cable is).
  5. I will report back after some recording time with comparisons of video quality both during the day and at night.

I'm having same problem as 1(5) above...When do you need to turn power off? Before leaving the adjustment page?
 
I'm having same problem as 1(5) above...When do you need to turn power off? Before leaving the adjustment page?
Make the adjustment, then tap the ‘back’ arrow to produce the “setup changes have been saved” message. Then hold down the power button on the camera for 2 seconds and release. Close the app and restart. When you reconnect the settings will have been saved.

THINKWARE released a new version of the app late yesterday (8/11/17) which on first test appears to have fixed the problem, so try that if you haven’t already.
 
I also had problems getting the time/parking settings to "take" and because the software/firmware doesn't work, it probably didn't help by doing resets and formats that kept putting the unit back to default. Anyway, I was so frustrated with my F800 yesterday on that issue that I returned it to Best Buy and got a brand new replacement thinking that my dash cam was defective.

So, I tried to setup the new replacement F800 dash cam and had the same problem and frustrations with the settings for at least 3 hours. It seemed that turning the dash cam off after saving the settings and not existing the app may have resolved the problem, but I really have no idea because all I can tell you that the whole ordeal drained all my energy. I did uninstall and reinstalled the Android app yesterday..it said it was updated on Aug 10th, not Aug 11th. The Aug 10th version didn't do diddly squat in my opinion to fix the issue.

My plan is to return the F800 dash cam to Best Buy again before my next 14 days run out if the app and firmware are not fixed.
 
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