Innovv C3 warning

Haxel

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I bought 2 Innovv C3 cameras for my motorcycle about a year ago.

Well after some recording issues I just noticed (lines and weird artifacts in the device), I swapped them around; memory cards and the second unit works fine on both lenses. After taking the problematic one apart, i found a completely swollen and about to explode battery. That would have been great to leak acid all over my wiring harness and ABS system.
BATTERY VS CAPACITOR IS A VERY BIG DEAL IN A STATE WITH 100F+ TEMPS.

Good:
  • Does record acceptably well images.
  • Case is metal and the soldering/PCB of the device is very well done.
  • Lenses are water resistant enough for long term riding in rain.
  • Decent cable lengths for the cameras to snake from the front to middle of my bike.
Bad aspects for warning:
  • Horrible configuration/settings management, you need to copy the config "bin" files to the SD card, AND make sure the config "bin" files are named "c1config.bin" instead of "c3config.bin", to get it to accept the time/date and settings. You have to look at the SD card to make sure it "ate" the file (deleted when finished), in order to confirm it took the settings.
  • No information whatsoever on the "L" vs "HT" video file name formats. For that matter, in-depth instructions are limited for this device.
  • The device MUST be hooked to the camera in order to read files to the computer.
  • Fickle on formatting of the SD Card, it's best to let the device format it FAT32 instead of your computer
  • I can't find a direct way to purchase. So forget easy warranties or product questions.
  • No product numbers to determine which model, which can be disastrous... You can't tell if you received the product you ordered (cap vs bat). The instructions and box is generic for both (which I'd have been find with if a P/N or label was on the device casing).
  • If the unit goes bad, no way to just order another unit without camera.
I have to say as far as labeling goes, it's a horribly labeled product. There is no part numbers or product numbers you can refer to make sure you have the correct version/product. I specifically ordered the capacitor version from a vendor I thought was Innovv on Amazon, and suspected I received the battery version (had a charge already on arrival). I realized, when debating on returning, that the vendor wasn't INNOV. I assumed maybe I was being paranoid and it was a capacitor model. Boy was that a mistake.

So for warning, the product isn't horrible, it does what's advertised. Buyer beware.
 

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I'd have to look at my mom's amazon cart to find whether it was bought a year or more ago, it couldn't be more than a year and half. I bought the bike 2 years ago and had someone rear end me two months after buying it. (which spurred the purchase).

My mistake either way on thinking it was an active product currently, the C3 still shows up on the website as a current product. When I click "buy now" it only shows the K1 for purchase. Makes me all the more wary of the next product. I was actually tempted to buy the K1 a while back, but thought the C3s would last me another year or so.
 
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Amazon can be tricky to order from when there are several sellers offering the same product. When you see the first page, one seller may be listed but as you go through more pages to complete the purchase the seller name will change without anything else warning you of that :mad: If you're not watching for this you won't know it's happening :( With Amazon you need to know the seller (and check to be certain you're actually buying from them) or see that it is going to be "fulfilled by Amazon" to have any assurances that you will receive what you expected and have a quick and easy recourse if it isn't.

You're not the only one who has been caught in that trap- shame on you Amazon!

Phil
 
I cant remember if my Innovv C3 is battery or capacitor, but it is rock steady in my car with the odd magenta flash now and then.
Not sure when i find a replacement for it ( cover my right side of the car ) but i am planning on putting a winder FOV lens on it to replace the 90 degree lens.

Do hope Rockthinking from innovv have a new spiffy product for us soon, perhaps a little more polished this time ( was quite happy with my C1 camera too until the day the battery went up in smoke taking the camera with it )
 
Amazon vendor is partly at fault there, but seriously NO product # or type designation anywhere on the product or packaging is why I hold Innovv ultimately responsible for the mistake. I've dealt with overseas aftermarket replacement stuff before, but even the older PCTech boards and others had a product # somewhere for this very reason. It tells me a lot about the maturity of the company/group if little oversights like that are ignored. It was/is a nice product with some rough edges, and was price satisfactory. Hence the "buyer beware" instead of just a bashing.

Personally, I'm not sure if I feel confident in buying another product from Innovv because of the bad situation it was about to put me in if they leaked. Which would have been avoided had there been a designation or product # on the packaging, if not the casing/device itself.

Kamkar1, if you live anywhere that gets over 90F make sure to check. That battery will eventually swell and leak. Other people doom and gloom worse (which isn't far off, such as fire or acidic gas venting), but the leaking acid on wiring really is bad juju.
 
Amazon vendor is partly at fault there, but seriously NO product # or type designation anywhere on the product or packaging is why I hold Innovv ultimately responsible for the mistake. .

they originally did when Innovv did this product, when they stopped it there was someone else that continued selling this product that was not Innovv, if you got one in plain packaging then likely it was not from Innovv at all, unfortunately as a buyer that's not something you can know, good chance the seller was aware the product was not from the correct source though
 
It was not plain packaging, it has/had all the documentation along with all the accessories ( everything looked as pictured in reviews), and was a very professional looking package.

I doubt it was fake, but will conceed anything is possible. Unlikely in this case though.

I still have the boxes and manuals, I can post pictures later if desired.
 
not saying it was fake as such, when Innovv stopped this model one of the people that was involved in the tooling decided they hadn't made enough money out of the project and continued selling the product even though they had no rights to it, this went on for some months afterwards, if it wasn't purchased from Innovv directly or one of their resellers in another country then it's possible you have one of those versions
 
Amazon can be tricky to order from when there are several sellers offering the same product. When you see the first page, one seller may be listed but as you go through more pages to complete the purchase the seller name will change without anything else warning you of that :mad: If you're not watching for this you won't know it's happening :( With Amazon you need to know the seller (and check to be certain you're actually buying from them) or see that it is going to be "fulfilled by Amazon" to have any assurances that you will receive what you expected and have a quick and easy recourse if it isn't.

You're not the only one who has been caught in that trap- shame on you Amazon!

Phil
+1
 
not saying it was fake as such, when Innovv stopped this model one of the people that was involved in the tooling decided they hadn't made enough money out of the project and continued selling the product even though they had no rights to it, this went on for some months afterwards, if it wasn't purchased from Innovv directly or one of their resellers in another country then it's possible you have one of those versions

That's slightly confusing, but ok. The box and contents looks exactly what was in two reviews. I've spent enough time on this, and I leave with this last comment just so there isn't any confusion if/when someone randomly googles this.

http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-video-camera-reviews/innovv-action-cam-review/
 
Thats how the box looked i got my for sure Innovv C3 camera, i still have the box too as its good to have for bits and pieces.
 
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