How does the Mobius perform in cold weather

[Etnoy]

Hey all!

I've researched dashcams for a long time now and finally got one for Christmas, a Mobius with the C2 lens. Excellent camera, and I got everything to work quickly

However, I have a strange issue in that it sometimes does not record at all. The lights flash just as if the camera is recording, however nothing is written to the card.

Let me walk you through everything. Brand new Mobius C2, everything points to the camera being genuine, purchased here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/161577541220
Firmware 2.41. Sandisk Class 4 16GB microSDHC (has worked excellent in my phone for many years), card formatted in the camera.
Power supply: Brand new 12V-5V USB converter with 2.1A current delivery.
Settings: Loop recording, 1080p, auto power on from power.

The strangest thing is that the LED:s are blinking as they should (alternating green/yellow at 1Hz plus the red rear led flashing in unison). Still, sometimes recordings appear on the SD and sometimes they do not. This happens no matter if the card is just formatted or full with loop recording.

Anyway, from my extensive testing it seems to be related to temperature. The Swedish winter has had temperatures down to -20 degrees C, and the cam stays in the car overnight.

It only matters which temperature the cam has on startup. If I run the car, the cabin and camera of course heat up, but if the temperature was low at powerup, nothing will be recorded. If the cabin becomes warm and I disconnect power, wait for shutdown, and then reconnect the camera, recording will start again.

I even tried throwing the camera in the freezer for a few hours. Upon taking it out I had the same symptoms, blinking LED:s saying everything is right, but no recording shows up on the card. I repeat this every few minutes, and after a while the camera is warmer and everything starts working again.

This issue happens even around 0 degrees celsius, so it doesn't have to be very cold at all.

A brand new class 10 64gb sd card is on the way but I doubt that's the issue.

Any ideas? I want to have a camera permanently in the car, but this is really putting me off. Thanks for reading my long post, but I want to get everything down

 

[jokiin]

try another card first

 

[Etnoy]

Thanks for replying. I will try my new card as soon as I get it here! However, the supplier apparently has them on backlog, I've been waiting for two weeks now

 

[jokiin]

problem you describe has been traced back to the memory card previously so best to rule that out before going any further

 

[Etnoy]

The sd card has now been posted. I'll be back here in a week to update you with the results.

 

[Roger]

The sd card has now been posted. I'll be back here in a week to update you with the results.

I also live in a cold climate area (far East coast of Canada). I have 2 mobius cameras - one is "hard wired" into my car -
the other one is in our SUV & is plugged in to the cigaretter lighter with an appropriate adapter.
Both seem to record fine even with the cold weather.
The one in the car (hard wired) is flawless - the one in the SUV (temporary wiring) seems to have a mind of it's own
as to when it will "start" or not - oft times I have to pull the adapter & re-engage it to get it started.
I realize that this is not your exact problem (which I also believe is card related) but it's another consideration for you (i.e. wiring).
Cheers

 

[Etnoy]

I also live in a cold climate area (far East coast of Canada). I have 2 mobius cameras - one is "hard wired" into my car -
the other one is in our SUV & is plugged in to the cigaretter lighter with an appropriate adapter.
Both seem to record fine even with the cold weather.
The one in the car (hard wired) is flawless - the one in the SUV (temporary wiring) seems to have a mind of it's own
as to when it will "start" or not - oft times I have to pull the adapter & re-engage it to get it started.
I realize that this is not your exact problem (which I also believe is card related) but it's another consideration for you (i.e. wiring).
Cheers

Thanks for your input, it's appreciated! Now I know that the mobius should function in cold weather.

 

[Etnoy]

Update! I've received the new sd card and some preliminary testing shows that it works as it should. I need more testing over the next week to be completely sure.

My testing method: Put the camera in the freezer for a few hours to make it really cold. Then take it out, put in the memory card (does not need to be cold!) and connect it to power, camera starts recording. Camera blinks yellow, indicating recording, and then remove power after a minute, letting the camera power down gracefully.

When using the old 16gb card, nothing appears. With the new 64gb card, everything works.

So, to conclude, a cold mobius can't write to my old memory card! It actually doesn't matter if the card is warm or cold. This was an interesting and very quirky problem and I hope this post helps anyone having the same problem.

In a week I will get back and report with more testing.

 

[DarkFoxDK]

I'm experiencing similar issues as @Roger, with my rear Mobius, which I have Sandisk cards in. But not the front one with Kingston cards.
Perhaps I should try a Kingston in the rear cam, to see if that resolves the issue.

 

[garakawa]

I had a similar problem, and it was because of the card. Didn't matter if the camera was warm or cold, it wouldn't record. Replaced the Kingston with a Lexar card, now it records flawlessly even in -20C.

The card passed fakeflashtest, I can take pictures and record raw video with my DSLR, but the Mobius will just not work with it.

 

[Etnoy]

Yes, it seems that the Mobius is a little picky with the cards. My issue, however, is slightly different from yours as the card usually works, but not in low temps.

I've been testing the new Sandis 64gb class 10 card the last few days, and so far it's flawless.

 

[RippleTheRippler]

I switched to a Samsung EVO card as it is a little thicker. I have little issue with it.
I had 2 mobius. One was having issues in cold... I sent it back and the seller replaced it. the replacement works great in the cold.

 

[Alastair]

Hi there, I had exactly the same problem as Etnoy described. The Mobius worked fine with my old Sandisk micro SD cards ( Class 4 8GB) from an old mobile phone at room temperature but as soon as you tried to capture any "action" outside in the cold it didn't play ball. All the LED lights flashed as though something was recording but there was never anything recorded on the card. As soon as the camera warmed up again it recorded just fine. Having read Etnoy's account I conducted trials in and out of the freezer to confirm that temperature was the problem. So following the advice in this thread I went out and bought a new card. Its a Samsung EVO micro SDHC UHS-1 Card 16GB Class 10 and comes with a standard SD adapter. It cost £12 at Tesco in the UK. Plugged it in the Mobius (A) running latest firmware v2.41 and it works perfectly at both room temperature and straight out of the freezer at minus 20 Celsius. So problem solved. Hope this helps someone else.

 

[Etnoy]

I am glad to be able to help you out! I just want to confirm that the camera works flawlessly since the last few weeks with the new card. Thanks all who helped!