G1W-C powercycles every 30 seconds after 20 minutes on

[David Chesler]

I've had my G1W-C from GearBest for a couple of months. (They sent me a replacement at "cost" because the first was eating memory cards, same cost to me as mailing mine to China and I have a spare.) It generally works, but it seems that after it has been on for about 20 minutes (longer than my typical commute) it goes into a power cycle where every minute or 30 seconds it turns off and cycles back on, playing those chimes. I haven't checked (should!) if there are short video clips for those times.
This happens when my defroster is not on, so it's not overheating from external causes (and ambient temperature if low.)

Is this a known failure mode? Anything I can do about it?

I've been happy with the quality of recording etc. but as we know a dashcam has to be reliable, otherwise Murphy's Law says when you need it it won't be working (already happened with the last one.) I like having it. Is there another model at up to twice the price that is as good and is rock-solid reliable?

 

[jokiin]

Check your memory card first

 

[reverend]

I've had similar problems in the past which were power related - if the card checks out it might be worth trying it with another power source - the Scosche cigarette lighter adapters are usually good for dashcams.

 

[David Chesler]

Thanks Reverend, it sometimes seems worse when the car voltage is funky; but mostly when it's running a while. I'm using the power adapter it came with, which has been high quality as regards not putting out FM interference (my GPS traffic works.)
Jokiin, I swapped in a different memory card (hence the delay in following up, until it arrived.) The behavior is the same.
It feels like some sort of internal overheating (or something else progressive, like a memory leak?). Here's why:
If I leave the camera on, no screen-saver, no recording, it can be well behaved for days.
If I use the screen-saver (blanks display), it doesn't get into this mode very much at all, even when constantly recording.
But if I record and no screen-saver, it starts doing this after 20 minutes.
Ambient temperature doesn't make much difference.

 

[mel]

Thanks Reverend, it sometimes seems worse when the car voltage is funky; but mostly when it's running a while. I'm using the power adapter it came with, which has been high quality as regards not putting out FM interference (my GPS traffic works.)
Jokiin, I swapped in a different memory card (hence the delay in following up, until it arrived.) The behavior is the same.
It feels like some sort of internal overheating (or something else progressive, like a memory leak?). Here's why:
If I leave the camera on, no screen-saver, no recording, it can be well behaved for days.
If I use the screen-saver (blanks display), it doesn't get into this mode very much at all, even when constantly recording.
But if I record and no screen-saver, it starts doing this after 20 minutes.
Ambient temperature doesn't make much difference.

Both recording and having the display on would likely add to the power usage, and also to the heat generated. Have you tried another power supply in case the supplied power adaptor isn't up to sustaining the current required

 

[David Chesler]

Now that warmer weather is here, it's feeling more like a heat issue.
If I keep the camera in the refrigerator and then plug it in it behaves better than when it sits in the car all afternoon; if I can get it to stay on long enough for the screen saver to kick in, it tends to keep going.
This is disappointing because I thought the whole point of the -C is that the capacitor can handle temperature better than a battery. If the rest of the unit can't, it doesn't much matter. (Granted, shutting off isn't as bad as a battery bursting.)

A new power supply is on order just in case, but that doesn't seem to be the issue. This is a factory adapter. (What's the typical draw -- I want to make sure any power supply is properly rated?)

 

[jokiin]

5V 1A supply is fine, sounds more like you have a dud though

 

[David Chesler]

5V 1A supply is fine, sounds more like you have a dud though

I bought a hard-wired power supply.
Then I got frustrated, so I bought the whole kit from estore009: hard-wired, another cigarette lighter adapter, and a G1W-B (black bezel, battery model.)
And I think I have gremlins.
First it worked great for a while.
Then it didn't. Lots of resets, formatting cards, swapping cards. Vicky swapped it out for a new camera. (She very patiently talked me through a lot of "try this".)
And I'm running it on a 120vac->12vdc cigarette socket, and it's consistently working only a few 3-minute loops, then locking up.
About to give up, but I got one of the hard-wired converters (it claims 1.5A at 5v) connected to a fuse-tap onto something powered on Acc, and I plugged its mini-USB into the new G1W-B. And it's all working.
Then I brought it inside, and ran it with the other hard-wired converter connected to a jumpstart battery, and it worked overnight. And I ran it again with the cigarette lighter adapter plugged into the socket on the jumpstart battery, and that worked too. And I brought in the G1W-C and it's working with the other micro SD card. And it's working with the 120vac->12vdc->5vdc setup too.
And it's been working in the car, but I haven't taken a trip longer than 40 minutes. I left the car on Accessory for about 3 hours (drained the battery) and the G1W-B was still running.
So I have no idea why it was not working; I have no idea why it's working now; and I have no idea how long it will keep working.
(Here are some of the test setups, and a directory from a time when it locked up.)