Green light on constantly after new battery (fault found)

[waigy]

The mobius is still working ok, but the green light stays on constantly when it is not connected by the usb cable.
I've tried re-fitting the old battery, reset, using msetup to make the same settings as before the battery change.

I know there's a similar thread on this forum, but that mobius wasn't working.

 

[SawMaster]

Can you change modes with the "M" button on the cam?

Phil

 

[waigy]

The M button doesn't seem to change anything with the lights, so I assume it isn't changing mode.
It is still staying constant green.
It records fine with the record button.

 

[SawMaster]

Have you tried a firmware reload?

Phil

 

[waigy]

I just did that and it's still the same.

 

[SawMaster]

Then it's a hardware problem, and might get worse. I'd watch it carefully or replace the PC board- pretty easy to do that with Mobius.

Phil

 

[waigy]

Where's the cheapest source for the board?
I'm in UK.

 

[SawMaster]

I think they're available from Banggood still. Search "Mobius" there as I be;ieve it's hard to find the parts listings otherwise. They aren't an official seller but they've always offered genuine parts and quite cheaply too. Last I remember the board was still under $50 US.

Phil

 

[waigy]

£33, getting on for the price of a decent dashcam at that.
Is it fixable? I'm handy with a soldering iron.

 

[SawMaster]

No soldering involved, just tiny phillips screws, a ribbon cable to the lens module, and a plug for the battery or supercaps. The lens uses a ZIF connector and there's tutorials on how to work with it. That does require care but is pretty easy once you understand what to do. Ten minutes on the workbench total.

Whether you should just buy another cam is your call as the board does cost a bit, but it's still cheaper than a complete cam. And only Mobius makes boards available like this which makes this cam unique.

Phil

 

[waigy]

No, I meant is the fault fixable?
The components are pretty small though.

 

[SawMaster]

I'd say not unless you're really deep into electronics and working with SMD components which takes special equipment at this level. And diagnosing what needs replacing could be darn near impossible if the fault is in a chip. Same as with PC failures, you just replace the board in toto as the best course to take.

It's not impossible, just not worth the effort.

Phil

 

[waigy]

Ok cheers for the advice.

 

[waigy]

I just found the damage.
There's a small rectangular component near the power input which had some fine white powder on it.
I gently wiped the powder off and found out the component has fried and half of it has turned to dust.
There's also signs of heat damage on more small connections near the power input.
So it looks like the damage could have been caused when I plugged in the new battery.
But I have used this as a dashcam in the rear of my car for a couple of years so maybe that has caused it.



The far left arrow above is pointing to the + and - power connections.

Time for a dashcam upgrade I think.
I've got 5 years out of this mobius so I suppose that's not bad.

 

[jmdlcar]

You may have plug the battery the wrong way. I read some where test the battery plug to make sure the red wire was the + with a volt meter.

 

[waigy]

The red wire is + on both my batteries, I checked their voltage soon after fitting the new battery.
It doesn't look possible to fit the battery connector the wrong way round without forcing it in, but it might fit into the connector just far enough to touch the pins, so it might have been that, but I'm sure I fitted it the correct way round each time I changed the batteries.

 

[Tony lovelock]

For mobius spares try www. Minis cameras.co.uk