GW1-C Good & Bad

[photon]

So I bought one. And the video quality is excellent. Good.
The software and operational instructions... Bad.
OK button turns out to be the Rec button, but no mention of that in the book or device, frustratingly... Bad.
Device bought was Monkton, device that arrived was itself unbranded, but came in a box labeled, erm.. Black Box.. Bad.

But I have a more serious problem. The device stops recording, randomly, despite being set on loop recording. Have to hit the record button manually to start recording again. Really Bad. Pretty much defeats the whole idea if your device decides to stop recording just before an accident happens, huh?

Any ideas why? 16gb class 10 card, formatted inside the device. Also, the software refuses to input a license plate number, just the first letter then back to menu... Bad.

 

[DashCamMan]

Is motion detection on? If so, turn it off.

 

[DT MI]

...The device stops recording, randomly, despite being set on loop recording. Have to hit the record button manually to start recording again. Really Bad. Pretty much defeats the whole idea if your device decides to stop recording just before an accident happens, huh?

Any ideas why? ...

Do you have motion detection turned on? If so, turn it off. Common cause of this behavior.

Edit: DashCamMan types faster than I do.

 

[Dashmellow]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by the "OK" button but it sounds like you are referring to the "Record", button which has multiple functions according to which menu you are in. It works in concert with the up and down buttons on the left side rear of the camera for selecting options.

Also, I was just about to ask if you had motion detection set to "ON" but DashCamMan and DT MI beat me to it.

 

[photon]

The book refers to an OK button, but there isn't one. Trial and error lead me to work out the Menu. Motion detection is set to off.

 

[Dashmellow]

Forget the book. The instruction manuals coming out of China are notoriously poor.

Here is an illustration from Spytec showing what the buttons do.

And here is a video review with brief instructions from Techmoan that may help you better understand the settings on the camera. Note that the "Record" button should say "REC" but is also used to select items in the menu when in the menu tree.

 

[photon]

Thanks for that, but through trial and error I had already worked out the functions. Still non the wiser as to why it should stop recording. When driving, I noticed the red LED power button had started to flash in rapid three flash sequence, the recording dot on-screen remained alight, but on checking later, no video had been recorded. I guess I might just have a duff device, will see how it performs tomorrow after a re-format and re-set. Thanks again.

 

[Dashmellow]

As you may have guessed from the various comments here usually when people report this issue they find that motion detection is on and the video stops randomly when the camera doesn't detect movement. The next thing to troubleshoot would be the power supply to the camera to rule out an intermittent connection problem.

 

[photon]

Yeah, but unfortunately not in this case. Power source is fine, although the battery charge sign bottom right of the screen, never stops flashing? Today the cam decided to stop recording for no apparent reason four times. (Once after nearly three hours when I thought maybe the problem had gone away) Once when I noticed the power LED was flashing not in its normal steady pulsing state, but in rapid three pulse mode. Three times when I noticed it had simply turned itself off recording mode. Pressing Rec again resumed recording without problem. One other problem I've found is that the device causes radio interference, probably because my antenna is windscreen based where the power cord runs. All in all, I think this has to go back. Any suggestions as to a suitable alternative dash cam?

 

[Dashmellow]

Perhaps you should indeed send the camera back but just because the power source appears to be fine doesn't mean that all is well. For example, on one of my cameras that had a similar intermittent issue quite some time ago it took a lot of work to track down the problem which was a faulty miniUSB port on the camera. (a hairline crack) Also, the power adapter may well be putting out power but it may have an issue that is causing radio interference.