Mini 0806 bricked, is the 0805 any better?

[mollydog]

I think with both the 0806 and the 0805, its pot luck weather you get a good working one or one thats has issues

my first two 0805 had to be returned as they both were extremely out of focus, the 3rd one is great and I think it produces better results than my 0806 and is more reliable (for now)

the mount on my 0806 (and 0805) isn’t great and I think is one of it’s weaknesses. when I first got the 0806 the mount would rock up and down, when viewing the captured footage it was as if the car was rocking left to right, so I had to bodge that to stop the rocking, then the micro USB connection was very temperamental and would loose connection (power) to the 0806, so without notice the 0806 stopped working and only find out if or when the card was taken out to view

I don’t know where they get their designers from, but with in a few moments of holding the 0805 and the 0806 in my hands, I could tell just how flimsy the mount was, so surely someone from the manufacturers could of sorted the design out before it went to market,

they’ve spent time and money on things that don’t work or work badly, like twin memory card slots, G sensor,Lane Departure Warning System, Front Collision Warning System and Optional Parking Guard Mount, when they could of spent that money on better R&D

all this spec looks good on the side of the box but not much use once you get to use these DVR’s

All I and many other people want is a reliable DVR, looks like some (not all manufacturers) add half baked features just to make the spec look good. but with forums like DCT, people get to hear about the bad ones or ones with issues,

I truly believe the manufactures of these 08XX range of DVR’s have dropped the ball, as they have brought out a nice form factor DVR, now if only they'd spent their time and money making it better and more reliable they’s be selling them faster than they could make them, but instead they wast it on adding features that don’t work or work badly or aren’t needed.

Maybe they should let people who can design, (like people at Apple) design these DVR’s and for them just do what they are good at, producing/building low coast items, but well designed

OK I’ll step off my soap box now

 

[Froggyted]

Ugh.... is this the one you're talking about?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00S73FE8A
Just bought one, but haven't hooked it up yet.

Mine looks similar to this except that it hasn't got the long black cylindrical component (am not sure what that is). I would be tempted to take jokiin's advice if i were you, and hardwire using a female cigarette socket and a piggyback fuse connector into the relevant fuse on the fuse box. Both of these combined are cheaper than a hardwire kit and will utilise the supplied accessory aux connector lead, which seems to be reliable.

 

[Froggyted]

I think with both the 0806 and the 0805, its pot luck weather you get a good working one or one thats has issues

my first two 0805 had to be returned as they both were extremely out of focus, the 3rd one is great and I think it produces better results than my 0806 and is more reliable (for now)

the mount on my 0806 (and 0805) isn’t great and I think is one of it’s weaknesses. when I first got the 0806 the mount would rock up and down, when viewing the captured footage it was as if the car was rocking left to right, so I had to bodge that to stop the rocking, then the micro USB connection was very temperamental and would loose connection (power) to the 0806, so without notice the 0806 stopped working and only find out if or when the card was taken out to view

I don’t know where they get their designers from, but with in a few moments of holding the 0805 and the 0806 in my hands, I could tell just how flimsy the mount was, so surely someone from the manufacturers could of sorted the design out before it went to market,

they’ve spent time and money on things that don’t work or work badly, like twin memory card slots, G sensor,Lane Departure Warning System, Front Collision Warning System and Optional Parking Guard Mount, when they could of spent that money on better R&D

all this spec looks good on the side of the box but not much use once you get to use these DVR’s

All I and many other people want is a reliable DVR, looks like some (not all manufacturers) add half baked features just to make the spec look good. but with forums like DCT, people get to hear about the bad ones or ones with issues,

I truly believe the manufactures of these 08XX range of DVR’s have dropped the ball, as they have brought out a nice form factor DVR, now if only they'd spent their time and money making it better and more reliable they’s be selling them faster than they could make them, but instead they wast it on adding features that don’t work or work badly or aren’t needed.

Maybe they should let people who can design, (like people at Apple) design these DVR’s and for them just do what they are good at, producing/building low coast items, but well designed

OK I’ll step off my soap box now

I think you've made some great points. The form factor on the 0806 is excellent, far more discrete than most of the other dashcams out there, although i suspect that the small size might mean the heat sink isn't really adequate. If they could use the body of this camera and then actually make it work reliably they would have one of the best cameras on the market.

 

[Ray1968]

Mine looks similar to this except that it hasn't got the long black cylindrical component (am not sure what that is). I would be tempted to take jokiin's advice if i were you, and hardwire using a female cigarette socket and a piggyback fuse connector into the relevant fuse on the fuse box. Both of these combined are cheaper than a hardwire kit and will utilise the supplied accessory aux connector lead, which seems to be reliable.

The cylindrical component is an in-line fuse. Mine doesn't have it either. I emailed Spy Tec today and they said they no longer put the in-line fuse in them. Probably considered it redundant as most people are hooking these up with a piggyback fuse connector ('add-a-circuit' they call them here in the US) anyway.

The problem for me using the female cigarette socket method is that my plug that came with the cam (the male part) is super loose in the female socket. It just slides in and out with very little resistance. The cam would often lose power and I'd have to jiggle the plug around to get a power to the cam. It's like it's too small of a diameter. This is why I wanted to hard-wire.

Anyway, I installed the hard-wire kit about an hour ago. Everything is working fine for now. Have to wait and see I guess.

 

[mollydog]

@Froggyted

they go and add a twin card reader and by all accounts doesn’t work, in a day and age when you can pick up a 128 Gig card for around £55 (I got my Samsung 128gig card for about £55 +/-) is there really a need for twin cards. then all the other superfluous stuff they add that are badly implemented or downright don’t work as they should

the flimsy mini 0806 mount, showing my rocking motion




Not that I’m a fan of Blackvue, but this mount is well designed, and is purposely made to be mounted/unmounted as often as you like, (un like the 08XX range) as I own a Blackvue DR500GW I can assure you of all the faults the Blackvue has (images capturing), the whole DVR was well designed and put together



I’ve just knocked this up to show just what could of turned a bad and weak part of these 08XX DVR’s more practical and I’m sure would of been cheaper to make and implemented than all the superfluous stuff they went for, mind you, it must pull in first time buyers who don’t know better (and that includes me too as I have both the 0805 and the 0806)

here’s the bad/weak design, face on




this is what it could of been like if they took a leaf out of Blackvue



and side on, showing the weak design



and the side view with the Blackvue mount



there’s an old English saying “Don’t spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar”

in this case, the money was wasted (not saved) on trivial things


Of course all this is only my un educated opinion

 

[jokiin]

Of course all this is only my un educated opinion

you're right, the thing people like most about this design is also it's biggest weakness

 

[Froggyted]

The cylindrical component is an in-line fuse. Mine doesn't have it either. I emailed Spy Tec today and they said they no longer put the in-line fuse in them. Probably considered it redundant as most people are hooking these up with a piggyback fuse connector ('add-a-circuit' they call them here in the US) anyway.

The problem for me using the female cigarette socket method is that my plug that came with the cam (the male part) is super loose in the female socket. It just slides in and out with very little resistance. The cam would often lose power and I'd have to jiggle the plug around to get a power to the cam. It's like it's too small of a diameter. This is why I wanted to hard-wire.

Anyway, I installed the hard-wire kit about an hour ago. Everything is working fine for now. Have to wait and see I guess.

I would have thought that you could have twisted the metal springs out gently on the supplied connector with a screwdriver or similar, to give a tighter connection. Admittedly mine worked loose occasionally in the aux socket on the console, i assumed it had just been knocked, but if i was to use it as part of a hardwire arrangement i would probably solder it into the female connector and then cover with insulating tape, to avoid the hassle of having to remove trim if it worked loose. Good luck with the hardwire accessory you have just wired up. Both my 0806s worked ok with the supplied connector but failed within a week of using the hardwire kit. There have been some horror stories about melting plastic too. I still have to get around to removing the trim and inspecting my hardwire kit, which is currently still in place, to check that no damage has been done to other components.

 

[Froggyted]

@Froggyted

they go and add a twin card reader and by all accounts doesn’t work, in a day and age when you can pick up a 128 Gig card for around £55 (I got my Samsung 128gig card for about £55 +/-) is there really a need for twin cards. then all the other superfluous stuff they add that are badly implemented or downright don’t work as they should

the flimsy mini 0806 mount, showing my rocking motion




Not that I’m a fan of Blackvue, but this mount is well designed, and is purposely made to be mounted/unmounted as often as you like, (un like the 08XX range) as I own a Blackvue DR500GW I can assure you of all the faults the Blackvue has (images capturing), the whole DVR was well designed and put together



I’ve just knocked this up to show just what could of turned a bad and weak part of these 08XX DVR’s more practical and I’m sure would of been cheaper to make and implemented than all the superfluous stuff they went for, mind you, it must pull in first time buyers who don’t know better (and that includes me too as I have both the 0805 and the 0806)

here’s the bad/weak design, face on




this is what it could of been like if they took a leaf out of Blackvue



and side on, showing the weak design



and the side view with the Blackvue mount



there’s an old English saying “Don’t spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar”

in this case, the money was wasted (not saved) on trivial things


Of course all this is only my un educated opinion

Again, great points and i totally agree. Maybe the manufacturers on this forum (RayChan i think) should look at this BlackVue solution and take note. With regard to other features on the 0806, the gps fix is really good imo (i have no issue with it taking about 3 minutes to get a fix, when i viewed the footage the map showed a positioning on a junction, e.g. roundabout, that precisely matched the footage. The LDWS and Forward Collision Warning is very flaky but imo better than nothing; with a bit of tweaking you can minimise the false alarms. I have no experience of the G-Sensor, but given the overall reliability of the unit wouldn't expect this to work when i needed it. The Parking Guard was obviously very poorly thought out, part of the problem being, i feel, that manufacturers rush things out onto the market before they are fully researched in order to beat the competition, and the same can be said for the two card slots that don't switch.

I had a look in Halfords yesterday, because i really need a working dashcam soon for peace of mind. Nothing compares in size and discreteness with the 08xx, and there's nothing on the internet either for a similar price as far as i'm aware. I need something discrete because to my mind a dashcam that screams out to passers by is an invitation to vandalise the car. Therefore i might chance another 08 series camera as a stopgap, and hardwire it in. In the longer term, i think it's only a matter of time before a reputable manufacturer comes along and does what the 08 series does but better, and more reliably, and also with a written guarantee and a local return address added to the packaging, and at that moment i will snap it up and never go back to a device that hides behind anonymity again.

 

[raitchison]

Hey guys this is the hardwire kit I bought for my 0806:

Seems to be working fine so far (used a few months) but we aren't near summer yet.

Is this one (likely to be) OK? I will replace it if it's likely to fry my dash cam.

Thanks

 

[Ray1968]

Where did you get it?

 

[raitchison]

Where did you get it?

eBay from a local seller, bought the dashcam from the same seller.

Hardwire kit: https://www.ebay.com/itm/281910653478
dashcam: https://www.ebay.com/itm/281897496121

 

[jokiin]

Hey guys this is the hardwire kit I bought for my 0806:

Seems to be working fine so far (used a few months) but we aren't near summer yet.

Is this one (likely to be) OK? I will replace it if it's likely to fry my dash cam.

the cameras that have fried have done so due to poor power supply regulation rather than heat, if it's working fine now it will stay that way, better to leave it alone

 

[Rayman.Chan]

Maybe the manufacturers on this forum (RayChan i think) should look at this BlackVue solution and take note.

for the mini08* cameras with screen which can rotate to fit different windshield angels, we have to keep the GPS mount offset a lot from the camera body, to make sure the mount not appear in view range.
we are trying to make the GPS module at the middle line of camera, to make sure the camera steady when mounted, from 0903 (nanoQ).
and in the upgrading mini0806 models we will use a more stuggy connection for GPS mount.

for the hardwire kit, we have designed new hardwire kit ourself which is stable and high quality for dash cameras, but obviously the cost is much higher; most distributors will not accept it because many users are very concern about retail price. It is a paradox - performance and price.
anyway, we are doing our best to make things better.

 

[Froggyted]

for the mini08* cameras with screen which can rotate to fit different windshield angels, we have to keep the GPS mount offset a lot from the camera body, to make sure the mount not appear in view range.
we are trying to make the GPS module at the middle line of camera, to make sure the camera steady when mounted, from 0903 (nanoQ).
and in the upgrading mini0806 models we will use a more stuggy connection for GPS mount.

for the hardwire kit, we have designed new hardwire kit ourself which is stable and high quality for dash cameras, but obviously the cost is much higher; most distributors will not accept it because many users are very concern about retail price. It is a paradox - performance and price.
anyway, we are doing our best to make things better.

Thanks for the information, Rayman. Unfortunately, I've now moved on to another camera, the MieVue 618. You 'dropped the ball' with the mini 0806, i'm afraid: a fantastic looking camera, very discrete, and lots of great features. Unfortunately all of this was let down by poor quality control and i have wasted best part of £100 for the camera, hardwire kit and CPL filter, so am now unlikely to return to the mini series. Perhaps if quality is improved drastically it might restore the faith of others in the product.