G1W - Replace battery with capacitor

[pacmyc]

Hi.
I own the G1W dashcam from estore009 purchased abour a year ago.
It has been working fine since but now some videos have started to get corrupt.
I think its because of the battery giving up. When ignition is shut off the camera hasn't got time enough to finish recoring and saving all data to the sd-card.
The corrupted videos often seem to be the first and the last one each time I turn on the engine.

So I started browsing around for a replacement battery but then I found and ordered this;

So what do you think? It should work? No risk of explosions?

 

[Sabe]

It will not work,
or better, it will work just fine as long you keep camera powered, but every time you cut power the last video file is corrupted because this capacitor cannot hold power long enough to close camera properly.
This works on mobius because mobius don't have display and it's small in every way, G1W has display and that camera needs more power.
I can tell this for sure because i have tried this capacitor with my G300W.

However, i just ordered two capacitors, 2,7 volts and 35 farads, when i put these in series it will be (i hope) 5,4 volts and 17 farads.
Personally i don't know yet is 17 farads enough, but i will see that in the close future.
If anyone has info how many farads is enough that would be nice to hear.

 

[jokiin]

Mobius works because there's an instant shutdown option in the menu

 

[pacmyc]

It will not work,
or better, it will work just fine as long you keep camera powered, but every time you cut power the last video file is corrupted because this capacitor cannot hold power long enough to close camera properly.
This works on mobius because mobius don't have display and it's small in every way, G1W has display and that camera needs more power.
I can tell this for sure because i have tried this capacitor with my G300W.

However, i just ordered two capacitors, 2,7 volts and 35 farads, when i put these in series it will be (i hope) 5,4 volts and 17 farads.
Personally i don't know yet is 17 farads enough, but i will see that in the close future.
If anyone has info how many farads is enough that would be nice to hear.

OK i See, thanks.
Are you going to use those capacitors for a G1W?
The internal battery is only on 3.7 V.
It shouldn't be hard to measure the current the camera draws (mA) and for how long after power has been shut off it takes for the camera to save the file and shut down.
When you know the current and the time, there should be some formula to calculate how many farads are needed.

 

[Sabe]

I will use it in similar camera, GT300W or G90, i'm not sure does it fit inside camera though, it can be modified as external if necessary.
There is no that 3,7 voltage capacitors, usually you must use two 2,7 v in series, there might be capacitor in higher voltages but i suspect that then it will be big as your...thumb
There is always balance with size and capacity, i would like to use as small as possible, but there must be enough power to keep camera settings after shutdown too.
I'm sure all calculations can be made, but i like to do experiments like i did with mobius capacitor, that result was that i bought a mobius camera afterwards to my capacitor pack.

 

[pacmyc]

I will use it in similar camera, GT300W or G90, i'm not sure does it fit inside camera though, it can be modified as external if necessary.
There is no that 3,7 voltage capacitors, usually you must use two 2,7 v in series, there might be capacitor in higher voltages but i suspect that then it will be big as your...thumb
There is always balance with size and capacity, i would like to use as small as possible, but there must be enough power to keep camera settings after shutdown too.
I'm sure all calculations can be made, but i like to do experiments like i did with mobius capacitor, that result was that i bought a mobius camera afterwards to my capacitor pack.

Hmm,, power consumption to keep clock and settings should be rather small though.. Take in consideration how many years a RTC battery will work in a computer for example.. 10 years? Of course it is highly dependent on the hardware. You could also measure power consumption when the camera is shut off.
I like experimenting as well; but the biggest reward is when you have calculated something and then you do the experiment, and then you find out that your calculation and assumptions were correct
Also I'm little bit afraid of rebuilding / replacing batteries with capacitors because of the risk of explosion. Especially in a dashcam as you have it close to your head while driving it could end up quite ugly if something goes wrong. I would test the setup for a few days outside the car, or at least in the rear of the car before putting it in my windshield

 

[pacmyc]

I've ordered his one now instead; https://www.ebay.com/itm/271631717682Probably I will order a secondary dashcam as well, with already a capacitor built-in. https://www.ebay.com/itm/131324065157

 

[Sabe]

According to this thread G1W use 2 capacitors, that packet is 5,5 volt 1,5 farads, so i think that it is actually 2 x 2,7v 3F. My capacitor will be 15F so it should be enough...
Main board looks different than in battery version but i have no idea why, i don't know is charging circuit same or is it modified.
In some information site they recommend to use resistor with capacitor, but i have no idea of that, i just put capacitor in and see what will happen.

 

[pacmyc]

According to this thread G1W use 2 capacitors, that packet is 5,5 volt 1,5 farads, so i think that it is actually 2 x 2,7v 3F. My capacitor will be 15F so it should be enough...
Main board looks different than in battery version but i have no idea why, i don't know is charging circuit same or is it modified.
In some information site they recommend to use resistor with capacitor, but i have no idea of that, i just put capacitor in and see what will happen.

I'd be careful doing that. Charging a capacitor probably differs from charging a Lipo battery. Also I think there are some components soldered directly to the battery. As you said, pictures of the mainboard with the capacitor-version differs from the battery-version. I doubt that this setup is going to work.

 

[sism3477]

After having this same issue with my G1W I decided to attempt this change over myself. After looking at the board and the battery I found it to be as I expected. The board simply provides 4 volts to the battery and the charging circuit is integrated into the small lipo battery. For this conversion I chose a 5.5 volt 1F super cap (see below for part info). I removed the battery and soldered new leads onto the cap then covered it in heat shrink to protect the exposed ends. I then soldered the new caps wires onto the board and closed the unit back up, I have included a picture of the completed hardware upgrade. The final step of this process was to upgrade the firmware to a G1W-C version. This forces the camera into an instant off an saves the file when the power is cut. The only issue I am having is that the language reverts to Chinese after power is cycled. Though this is not much of an issue as once you set the options once you shouldn't need to touch it again, also finding and changing the language is very easy to do. I believe this is a firmware issue as the date is stored and the RTC is staying synced.


Capacitor used - http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/EDLSG105V5R5C/338-3569-ND/1929278

 

[sism3477]

I did not include the firmware in my last post.

"It is available here: G1W Firmware estore009. 2014.0108 (S1088_M_Ver1.0).zip

Firmware Update Instructions

1. Download the firmware file to your computer
2. Unzip the file
3. Format your memory card in your computer
4. Copy the bin file to your memory card
5. Put card into camera
6. With a super-capacitor powered G1W-C you will need to run the camera from an external power supply in order to do a firmware update.
7. Power camera on (make sure the camera is plugged in)
8. The camera will update automatically
9. After updating, remove the memory card and test with another memory card."

Credit to User dashmellow for the firmware link and instructions.

 

[sism3477]

Ok so I found a new firmware that seems to fix most of the issues I was having, Link below. Only thing to keep in mind is that after changing the settings manually power off the camera while its still plugged in. This will allow for it to store the new settings. After this is done you can power cycle the unit and it will retain the settings you set before the manual power cycle.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B90I_Yu3gbxGNDQ3NGg0Mi1xamM/view

 

[zero10]

Is there any chance of this working on the G1W-H? I've got one with a bad battery and it sounds like a neat upgrade to play around with. I know the G1W/G1W-H firmwares are different, but can you put the G1WC firmware on a G1WH?

 

[jokiin]

Unlikely but if it's currently dead you don't have much to lose

 

[cr4zyg047]

Ordered the 5.5V 1F super cap - seems easy enough.

 

[jokiin]

Wrong size

 

[cr4zyg047]

Wrong size

The only difference between this and the G1W-C's cap is .5 farad (which should be plenty large for shutting down power after the FW update) - and there's definitely room inside for this cap.

So how is it the "wrong size?"

 

[jokiin]

1F is too small

 

[cr4zyg047]

We shall see! The user above appears to be using it successfully.


Worst case, I'll get a bigger cap and/or another battery.

 

[cr4zyg047]

For what its worth - the 5.5V 1F super cap appears to working exactly as expected.

My settings and time are now saved between uses - and I only lose about the last 2-3 seconds of footage when my cam shuts down (which might actually be normal). No corrupt files that I've seen!

Thanks Sism!