Lunar
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2013
- Messages
- 378
- Reaction score
- 117
- Location
- Herefordshire
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Dash Cam
- 3x Mini 0801 / Mio-368WDR+AGF
Just a few observations and small issues which I've experienced myself, having purchased 3 of these mini 0801 camera's.
Firstly, one must appreciate that lots of these dashcams are sold, and most people are reasonably happy with them, forums like this one will always be full of people having the odd problem, so forums can give the impression of being full of woes and moans about a product, when in reality the majority of users don't get any issues. (Something to bear in mind)
Okay then, this camera does give very good results, the daytime video is impressive and nightime clips are not too bad either. The other reason people buy this camera however is because it's one of the most discrete dashcams currently available.
All the issues I've personally had was with my first mini 0801, on delivery it had a faulty down button which did not work, though I found I could make it work sometimes if I applied some side pressure while pressing it. This I repaired myself by opening up the camera, the fault was simple to fix, as one side of the surface mount switch had not been soldered on one side of it. (I did realise this made the warranty void) but I did'nt fancy returning it to China. In fairness the seller did re-emberse a part refund, so I was quite satisfied with that.
The other issue I had with that first camera was much easier to fix. I am using this particular camera for home security, so it tends to run almost all the time 24/7 (Yes I realise it may not last long...lol) anyway after a few days use I noticed when I powered it up that it would stop recording after just a few seconds, I tried another card, with the same results, I then tried a different power supply and cable.. and 'Bingo' it then began working as it should with no stopping. It worked okay for about 2 days, and it did it again.
So I reverted back to the original power supply I had been using, which was already clipped in place, and I gave the contacts on both the plug and usb socket a good blast of isopropyl, I then squeezed in one side of the mini usb plug slightly so it was a much firmer fit when inserted in the socket, and it's continued to work great ever since. So something worth bearing in mind as the usb sockets used are not that brilliant IMO. Most likely due to camera drawing more current at power on, as it would record okay afterwards if I pressed the OK button.
My second camera is identical to the first, both have GPS but no 8GB built-in with both running on 20130913 firmware, this one has been in the front of my car for about 3 weeks or more, and has had no hicups at all, it's worked perfectly.
My third and most recent 0801 also has the GPS but has the 8GB too, this one has the 20130922 firmware, which according to E-Prance is the latest for these camera's, and I'm pleased to state that this one too is working 100% okay too, and like camera 2 this one has no bad pixels on the ccd either, my 1st one does have several, but are not noticable in normal use, unless it's plain white background, so no real concern.
I'm now going to talk a little about microSD cards types as this is often discussed.
In the camera's manual it does state to avoid using class 10 cards saying they are too fast..lol, now I don't know how much you know about microSD or SD cards in general, but it's worth knowing that all cards with a speed rating less than 10 all use what is known as the standard bus speed. However class 10 cards or UHS-1 use a faster bus speed, with UHS-2 standard using even faster bus speeds.
So what does this all mean, well in theory all the faster cards should be backwards compatable so should work... well yes they should, but in practice some devices not specifically designed to handle the faster bus cards can and do occasionally have issues, hence the reason why some manufacturer's advise not to use class 10 cards.
However I have tried 3 or 4 class 10 cards and they all seemed to work okay, though I only tested them for a few hours. In theory a class 4 card is plenty fast enough, all my camera's appear to write video's out with a bitrate of approx 17000kbps, which is equal to writing to the card at 2.1MBps, so in view of the fact that most good class 4 cards can write continously at approx 5MBps and possibly much more with some really good cards, means a class 4 is alright to use ? well again in theory yes, I ran tests for days with a couple of class 4 Samsung cards and they worked great.
My advice would be to use your class 4 cards if you already have some good quality class 4 cards, but if you need to purchase some new cards say from Amazon, and I mention Amazon because there are a lot of fakes and poor cards out there, especially on Ebay, I've not had a bad card from Amazon as yet. So when looking for new cards for your camera I would suggest you buy class 6 cards.
Speed tests with Samsung class 6 cards have produced some remarkable good results, but why choose class 6 when class 4 seems okay.. I hear you ask..lol.. Well.. though a class 4 seems to have a good 50% write speed headroom with these camera's, this will fall dramatically when the card is almost full and the camera starts to loop, (re-cycle) this is when it continually needs to delete it's oldest files to free up space for new recordings. This means while it's deleting it cannot record, so it's internal buffer fills and you may see a error msg. With a good quality class 4 this likely will not occur and you will be fine using them.
However, I do think it would be prudent if you need to order any new cards to opt for class 6 cards, which will give much more write speed headroom, more for assurance really, but in view of the fact prices are not much different then IMHO class 6 cards are the way to go when buying. They are noticably much faster, and importantly they still maintain maximum compatability.
My GPS + 8GB does not have any included software, but I believe they will supply a link where you can download it if you ask your seller. Personally, I've never used the supplied software that came with the first 2 camera's, as I use and recommend 'REGISTRATOR.EXE' which is freely available online, and works extremely well, just make sure you get the latest 5.3 version or later, or your GPS logs won't be recognized.
There is a Mini 0801 FAQ here http://dashcamtalk.com/mini-0801/
Firstly, one must appreciate that lots of these dashcams are sold, and most people are reasonably happy with them, forums like this one will always be full of people having the odd problem, so forums can give the impression of being full of woes and moans about a product, when in reality the majority of users don't get any issues. (Something to bear in mind)
Okay then, this camera does give very good results, the daytime video is impressive and nightime clips are not too bad either. The other reason people buy this camera however is because it's one of the most discrete dashcams currently available.
All the issues I've personally had was with my first mini 0801, on delivery it had a faulty down button which did not work, though I found I could make it work sometimes if I applied some side pressure while pressing it. This I repaired myself by opening up the camera, the fault was simple to fix, as one side of the surface mount switch had not been soldered on one side of it. (I did realise this made the warranty void) but I did'nt fancy returning it to China. In fairness the seller did re-emberse a part refund, so I was quite satisfied with that.
The other issue I had with that first camera was much easier to fix. I am using this particular camera for home security, so it tends to run almost all the time 24/7 (Yes I realise it may not last long...lol) anyway after a few days use I noticed when I powered it up that it would stop recording after just a few seconds, I tried another card, with the same results, I then tried a different power supply and cable.. and 'Bingo' it then began working as it should with no stopping. It worked okay for about 2 days, and it did it again.
So I reverted back to the original power supply I had been using, which was already clipped in place, and I gave the contacts on both the plug and usb socket a good blast of isopropyl, I then squeezed in one side of the mini usb plug slightly so it was a much firmer fit when inserted in the socket, and it's continued to work great ever since. So something worth bearing in mind as the usb sockets used are not that brilliant IMO. Most likely due to camera drawing more current at power on, as it would record okay afterwards if I pressed the OK button.
My second camera is identical to the first, both have GPS but no 8GB built-in with both running on 20130913 firmware, this one has been in the front of my car for about 3 weeks or more, and has had no hicups at all, it's worked perfectly.
My third and most recent 0801 also has the GPS but has the 8GB too, this one has the 20130922 firmware, which according to E-Prance is the latest for these camera's, and I'm pleased to state that this one too is working 100% okay too, and like camera 2 this one has no bad pixels on the ccd either, my 1st one does have several, but are not noticable in normal use, unless it's plain white background, so no real concern.
I'm now going to talk a little about microSD cards types as this is often discussed.
In the camera's manual it does state to avoid using class 10 cards saying they are too fast..lol, now I don't know how much you know about microSD or SD cards in general, but it's worth knowing that all cards with a speed rating less than 10 all use what is known as the standard bus speed. However class 10 cards or UHS-1 use a faster bus speed, with UHS-2 standard using even faster bus speeds.
So what does this all mean, well in theory all the faster cards should be backwards compatable so should work... well yes they should, but in practice some devices not specifically designed to handle the faster bus cards can and do occasionally have issues, hence the reason why some manufacturer's advise not to use class 10 cards.
However I have tried 3 or 4 class 10 cards and they all seemed to work okay, though I only tested them for a few hours. In theory a class 4 card is plenty fast enough, all my camera's appear to write video's out with a bitrate of approx 17000kbps, which is equal to writing to the card at 2.1MBps, so in view of the fact that most good class 4 cards can write continously at approx 5MBps and possibly much more with some really good cards, means a class 4 is alright to use ? well again in theory yes, I ran tests for days with a couple of class 4 Samsung cards and they worked great.
My advice would be to use your class 4 cards if you already have some good quality class 4 cards, but if you need to purchase some new cards say from Amazon, and I mention Amazon because there are a lot of fakes and poor cards out there, especially on Ebay, I've not had a bad card from Amazon as yet. So when looking for new cards for your camera I would suggest you buy class 6 cards.
Speed tests with Samsung class 6 cards have produced some remarkable good results, but why choose class 6 when class 4 seems okay.. I hear you ask..lol.. Well.. though a class 4 seems to have a good 50% write speed headroom with these camera's, this will fall dramatically when the card is almost full and the camera starts to loop, (re-cycle) this is when it continually needs to delete it's oldest files to free up space for new recordings. This means while it's deleting it cannot record, so it's internal buffer fills and you may see a error msg. With a good quality class 4 this likely will not occur and you will be fine using them.
However, I do think it would be prudent if you need to order any new cards to opt for class 6 cards, which will give much more write speed headroom, more for assurance really, but in view of the fact prices are not much different then IMHO class 6 cards are the way to go when buying. They are noticably much faster, and importantly they still maintain maximum compatability.
My GPS + 8GB does not have any included software, but I believe they will supply a link where you can download it if you ask your seller. Personally, I've never used the supplied software that came with the first 2 camera's, as I use and recommend 'REGISTRATOR.EXE' which is freely available online, and works extremely well, just make sure you get the latest 5.3 version or later, or your GPS logs won't be recognized.
There is a Mini 0801 FAQ here http://dashcamtalk.com/mini-0801/
Last edited:
mine is also showing both of them now... very strange, I must have missed it before, but yes your'e right it puts it up as 2 drives which is what I would have expected, duno why I didn't see it before...lol must get my specs changed. Thanks for that matey, I'll delete that bit from my 1st post as it's no longer true...lol
