Firefly 8s as dash cam

fuzzbutton

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I'm trying to use my Firefly 8s as a dash cam powered from the car's USB, but every time I start the engine the camera gives me a choice of "Mass Storage, Charge, Remote Power" and won't record anything until I choose Remote Power. Is there a way to stop this and just make the camera record automatically? (it's already in CAR DVR mode)
 
Hmmm, USB is the power source that I have available in my car...

Maybe one of those data-blocking USB cables would do it?
 
Aha, I've found some more power options lurking inside the centre console, including a 12V lighter socket :)

The 8s makes a great dash cam by the way (provided you don't want to use it at night, of course). My old Mio Mivue 538 was getting unreliable in its old age and needed replacing. My biggest criticism of this dash cam was that, due to having only HD resolution spread over a wide 140 degree field of view, it was impossible to read the number plates of oncoming vehicles - by the time they were close enough to see, the motion blur was too bad to read them. With the 8s higher 4k resolution spread over a relatively narrow 90 degree field of view, I can read number plates easily now and see all kinds of details that weren't visible before.
 
No, it is not a good dash cam.

Because of overheating issue when charging the battery and recording at the same time, Hawkeye has decided not to charge the the battery when the cam is recording. But in the car drive mode, the cam is always recording and the battery will never be charged.

So, after a certain time, the battery will run empty. The cam records when ignition is set to on, but when you set ignition to off, the cam has not enough power to stay the 30 sec. on, save the file and shut down correctly.
This results to a faulty saved file, and the next time you start your car, the cam asks for repairing this file (but you can't) and is NOT recording.

You can use the 8S as a dashcam, even without the battery, but you have to stop the recording manualy before switching the ignition to off.

For me it's unusable this way.

If Hawkeye would publish a firmware version that allows the cam to charge the battery for 1-2 minutes although it is recording, the problem would be solved. 1-2 minutes would'nt cause overheating and after that there would be enough power for the 30-seconds-recording, the saving of the last file and the shutdown.
 
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