Gearbest Mini 0803 with GPS

[CheckYourLights]

I'd like to take a shot at another review. This is only my second review so bear with me a little. I just got a hold of a Mini 0803. At the time was looking to get a 0803 at glance there seemed to be a lot of talk about it with not much of a review going on. By the time I had decided to pull the trigger and got a hold of mine Hilts has started a great review on both the 0803 and new G90 with GPS that you can read here.

I hope to expand on the information that he provided and help others on the fence about buying a Mini 0803

Supplier Information
Supplier: Gearbest
Product Page: Forum Contact: GearBest
Email: alta@gearbest.com

Spec Shortlist
Chipset : Ambarella A7LA50
Internal Memory : 8GB ( The manual and box say it can include up to 32GB internal, but mine has 8)
Field of Vision:135 degree wide angle
Image Sensor: 3.5MP CMOS
Mount Type: Old style with GPS.(All new orders should ship with new style)
USB Connection:Micro

Firmware version history
Shipped With:20140511 v1.0
Tested:20140826
Tested:20140812
Tested:Procam_CX4_v3_fw_20140728 Texet-570(5GP)
Tested::Procam_CX4_v3_fw_20140728 TV-Q5NV
Current:20140804 iTracker branded (Preferred 0803 Firmware)

Current Stable Card:Transcend 32GB Class 10 (TS32GUSDU1E)
Current Testing Card:Samsung 64GB Class 10 (MB-MP64DB/AM)(Runs great so far)
(SmartDisk Format tool for it to work here)


As soon as I revived my camera I noticed my GPS mount was what seems to be the older style mount. I got a hold of Gearbest right away and brought it to their attention. They said they had talked to their supplier and all future orders will be shipped with the newer more sturdy mount.

Box Shots.

 

[CheckYourLights]

Accessories and Camera

Above and left are stick mounts for other cameras.

This last picture provided by GearBest when I asked to make sure they had the new heat sink in their 0803

 

[CheckYourLights]

An 0803 becomes next door neighbors with....

A G1W

A Marcus 3

A WF1

This thing really is more tiny then what I am used to. I can't wait to give it a try this week.
It stacks up with a WF1 in size and has a screen
It doesn't showoff like the Marcus 3
It is smaller then the G1W.

 

[Sila]

Better rotated by 90 degrees IMHO

 

[CheckYourLights]

Alright. So this one is a little new to me. I was able to drive around with it for about two days to get the ball rolling here.
First my favorite test shot

This shot was taken with the photo button.
(Stop recording Long press record button)

This is a screen shot from VLC.
It's not a deal breaker, but it would be nice if there was a time stamp on both.

The video screen shot seems to be wider then what the camera's picture mode is because in all my videos I can see part of a 3M mount for my Vico cameras and where my windcreen needs cleaned and I can't see the mount in any of the picture mode shots.

The GPS found signal rather quickly so that was nice. I remember my GS8000 would take forever.

 

[Nigel]

Almost looks like you have a CPR on there - how did you manage zero reflections off the glass?

I think that mount you can see is probably the Mini 0803 mount, it's normal to have it pointed down one click further than that or the exposure isn't always ideal.

Are you also going to test with latest firmware, or do all testing with the oldest? The exposure and operation of WDR are quite different...

 

[Hilts]

Almost looks like you have a CPR on there - how did you manage zero reflections off the glass?

Looks like he's parked in some shade!

 

[CheckYourLights]

Almost looks like you have a CPR on there - how did you manage zero reflections off the glass?

Looks like he's parked in some shade!

I believe it was this. It was not very sunny out at the time. The glare from the camera picture I think was my other camera not adjusting to light correctly. I'm not running any kind of CPL or anything on my Mini.

Are you also going to test with latest firmware, or do all testing with the oldest? The exposure and operation of WDR are quite different...

I was planning on updating, but this camera is still new to me, and I was a little confused.

I have the 8GB internal with GPS and was not sure what firmware to use for my camera. I was looking at the Custom firmware Procam CX4 revision 3.0 a few threads below, but I am unsure which to use there is
one written in Russian
Then
Procam_CX4_v3_fw_20140728_Constant_Bitrate_18-20-24Mbit_Contrast_34-40-30_Sharpness_04-05-03_Expo_Texet-570(5GP).bin
and
Procam_CX4_v3_fw_20140728_Constant_Bitrate_18-20-24Mbit_Contrast_34-40-30_Sharpness_04-05-03_Expo_TV-Q5NV.bin

 

[Nigel]

I have the 8GB internal with GPS and was not sure what firmware to use for my camera. I was looking at the Custom firmware Procam CX4 revision 3.0 a few threads below...

I suspect they are external card only, so you would loose use of your internal card, although I'm not sure.

I'm using the August 12th firmware as the WDR setting does what I expect while with the original firmwares the WDR didn't seem to do anything useful. http://dc.p-mc.eu/0803/firmware

 

[CheckYourLights]

I suspect they are external card only, so you would loose use of your internal card, although I'm not sure.

I don't really use the internal storage so it's not a big deal. I just wanted to make sure that GPS and of course the camera would still work.

I posted in the other thread as well. I'd love to try the reduced sharpness out, but again I don't want to brick the camera or loose GPS by flashing the wrong one of three files.

I'll check out the link you posted thanks.

EDIT
Just updated with 20140812 GPS + 2CARDS
At quick glance everything looks okay. I'll try to give it a run tomorrow.

Also bought a second mount and hard wiring kit.

Here is my mount mess with everything removed

I just took it out for an evening spin. Unfortunately I must have forgot to fix the sharpness setting because the text on some road signs was sort of invisible.

My second Doh! that i did not notice until I got home was I wanted to test the BL950 and 0803 together and did not notice the cord for the 950 was in front of the 0803 lens.

You live and lean I guess. I'll try to fix everything and give it a spin tomorrow.

 

[Nigel]

I just took it out for an evening spin. Unfortunately I must have forgot to fix the sharpness setting because the text on some road signs was sort of invisible.

The only sensible setting for sharpness and contrast is "Standard", the next setting down is effectively "Off" which is useless!

 

[CheckYourLights]

The only sensible setting for sharpness and contrast is "Standard", the next setting down is effectively "Off" which is useless!

Thanks for letting me know. I'm still getting used to how this camera works.
I took it out today and I think i pointed it a little too low.
It got a lot of Dash in the shot and feels kind of weird to watch the video back.

0803

BL950

(I just realized the time is an hour off)
WDR on

 

[CheckYourLights]

ProCam CX4 revision 3 (20140728)

Flashed Procam_CX4_v3_fw_20140728_Constant_Bitrate_18-20-24Mbit_Contrast_34-40-30_Sharpness_04-05-03_Expo_Texet-570(5GP).bin to my GearBest 0803.

GPS works. and displays on video, but (understandably)only in KMH.
There was a selection for inner and outer card, but I only tested outer.
I remember it being a little brighter out then what it is in the video, but it wasn't sunny.


20140812 v1.0

Procam_CX4_v3_fw_20140728_Constant_Bitrate_18-20-24Mbit_Contrast_34-40-30_Sharpness_04-05-03_Expo_Texet-570(5GP)

Procam_CX4_v3_fw_20140728_Constant_Bitrate_18-20-24Mbit_Contrast_34-40-30_Sharpness_04-05-03_Expo_TV-Q5NV.bin

(I know I forgot to fix the time again.)

20140804 iTracker branded

I turned the Speed Stamp on and set it to 80KMH. I thought that meant the camera would beep when I went over 80. The Speed Limit on this road is 88 (55MPH) So I did the Speed Limit and nothing happened. When I got back I noticed that the camera would not display above 80KMH even though I was doing 88 or so.

When I flashed Expo_TV-Q5NV
It rebooted and started recording. I hit the button to stop and go through the settings. While trying to stop the camera froze so I let the battery die.

I formatted the memory card in the computer and then in the camera. I went through the settings and noticed sharpness was soft and contrast was hard. I don't know if this was intentional so I set them back to standard.

Anyone else looking to flash their 0803 to this ProCam firmware when you flash it it defaults in Russian.
To change it to English you need to go into the menu and it is 5 clicks up from the first menu choice karg posted in the other thread that the menu choice is язык

 

[CheckYourLights]

Went for a drive today. Still running Procam_CX4_v3_fw_20140728 TV-Q5NV.
The upside is the GPS is working okay. It's on my video in KMH and when I just drag a video only over to my desktop and play it in Registrator Viewer it seems to retain the GPS map data and seems to display the correct location.

The downside to the firmware is that I have rest the date and time a few times on my camera and the time always seems off. Today it was so far off it was 0300 the next day. Also things keep seeming to look darker out there it really is. It was getting like dusk out, but not as dark as the video makes it seem.

I might flash back to 20140812 v1.0 and take it out tomorrow.
First shot was around 16:47 WDR is on.

Also for anyone keeping track of the numbers Air temp was about 76 and as you can see it was parked in the shade. It was actually a bit chilly out when you put the windows down while going and the camera still got up to 126 deg F. I turned the defrosted on with cold air full blast and got it down to 105 deg F.

 

[CheckYourLights]

Flashed back to 20140812 v1.0 and did a little evening driving. So no GPS stamp on video. Time seems correct though.

The red dot in some shots is the light from the 0803 plug reflecting.
WDR is on everything is default.

 

[CheckYourLights]

In the name of science just updated to 20140826 and the camera frozen after trying to stop the auto recording. As soon as it dies and I get it reset look for some 20140826 footage this afternoon.

Quick room test shows my 64GB Samsung card working okay.
Formatted it with SmartDisk FAT32 Tool
You can read about and download it here

I'll have it with me for today's drive and hope for the best.

 

[CheckYourLights]

Bump for some shots.
This is with 20140826 that Progeria provided. It was a little over cast, but again things look a little darker then they are. I am probably going to switch back to the iTracker firmware, but all testing is good testing.

Driver who didn't yield for a round-a-bout.
I keep having issues with time. I manually set my time correctly before I put the camera in the car and every time it is off by hours. I just looked at it again. I think I had my timezone set incorrectly hopefully i dialed it in right this time.

I locked a few files today and was a little confused when they were not in their own folder. I then opened up RegistratorViewer and they were in the list and shown as locked so that was nice.

Wanted to crop this last one because there was a lot of local road signs in the image, but here is one of those Why it's good to have a DashCam moments.

The lighter car ran the red light and almost hit the darker car that had a green turn arrow.

Ran my Samsung 64GB card for the past few days. It has not looped yet, but is almost there at about 52GB out of a real capacity of 58GB