Mobius 2 Action/Dash Cam support thread

[Dashmellow]

I suppose it really depends on where you are. Here, it would be no issue. I know for a fact of certain cases and the security systems used can only use specialized software for viewing. Again, depends on your area...

What do you mean by "specialized software", or "certain cases"? What "security systems" are you referring to exactly?

My feeling (and personal experience) suggest that wherever you may be, you need to create universally view-able files. If a court or law enforcement has a security issue, that is their problem and they will deal with it. Law enforcement will review whatever evidence is available in a case from the public. They are not going to tell the public they won't review or accept it if it doesn't meet some sort of stringent specialized security requirement.

 

[RippleTheRippler]

What do you mean by "specialized software", or "certain cases"? What "security systems" are you referring to exactly?

My feeling (and personal experience) suggest that wherever you may be, you need to create universally view-able files. If a court or law enforcement has a security issue, that is their problem and they will deal with it. Law enforcement will review whatever evidence is available in a case from the public. They are not going to tell the public they won't review or accept it if it doesn't meet some sort of stringent specialized security requirement.

Meaning I personally know of court cases that security footage is used in and the only way to view the footage is with proprietary software.

 

[SawMaster]

An individual Cop or their department may have a preference or restrictions, but a Court can't. You can always use your own equipment to show them a vid. Most Courts prefer the evidence be as close to the source as possible instead of re-encoding like YouTube does and proprietary software is about as close as you can get. All that really matters is the accuracy of the evidence.

Phil

 

[Dashmellow]

The one security issue I ran into with submitting files to law enforcement has to do with their concern regarding malware. They would not accept my submission of anything online or click on any links in email to any cloud based video such as Dropbox or Mega. I was required to submit all video files on "digital media" as they always referred to it, such as DVD so that they can be scanned before any files are loaded into their computers.

 

[kamkar]

Hehe.
Here the police servers is outsourced, and already been hacked at least one time, the same is the case with most public Danish databases, and believe me when i say nobody is handing their information over to the same degree Danes do.

I am not trusting any public IT system, and actually the guy i turned into the police made me think long and hard if it was worth it, not least getting my name into their system.
And parts of the Danish police records is so old it was actually once recompiled from punch cards to something a little newer, meaning they run systems that's about as old as i am

Not forgetting the latest messup
https://translate.google.dk/transla...data-havnede-hos-kinas-visumkontor&edit-text=

 

[richcam]

Did you pay extra for the capacitor but not get one? When I asked the seller they said they had them, even though I could not find one in their eBay shop.

No I didn't pay extra, when I placed the order for the M2 I requested an additional super-capacitor to be supplied with the order (as I had done previously with my order for the M1), unfortunately they must have overlooked my request on this occasion. Last time I just made an additional payment for the SC.

Will just have to contact them by email to request the SC in addition to a few other items that I'm after!

 

[TonyM]

M2 owners should be aware that during assembly some of the units were put together with the battery taped to the internal circuit board, rather than to the inside of the case.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=35557888&postcount=420
If you have an M2 it is recommended to check your battery, and replace the tape to its correct position against the inside face of the case.

I had a look at mine tonight and found that the battery was indeed taped to the chip.


Whilst I was in there I decided to fit the supercapacitor instead, also taped to the case.

 

[kamkar]

Mine was the same.

 

[Dashmellow]

It is definitely not good that the battery was initially taped to an IC on the circuit board but for the most part it shouldn't present a major problem for dash cam users. It seems to have been more of a problem when RC enthusiasts would have a crash with one of their drones or planes and the impact would yank the chip off the circuit board. Of course a bad car crash could do the same but you'd probably have other concerns than a broken camera at that point.

At least it's a very easy fix.

 

[TonyM]

It is definitely not good that the battery was initially taped to an IC on the circuit board but for the most part it shouldn't present a major problem for dash cam users. It seems to have been more of a problem when RC enthusiasts would have a crash with one of their drones or planes and the impact would yank the chip off the circuit board. Of course a bad car crash could do the same but you'd probably have other concerns than a broken camera at that point.

A dashcam is no good in a bad car crash if it breaks and does not save that last file. However I agree if it's really that bad there's probably more important things to worry about.

 

[TonyM]

My Mobius 2 became stuck in Video Mode 2 after setting power on default to mode 2. I am unable to reset the 'power on default' to video mode 1 by using the latest version of the mSetup GUI 4.0.4.1. I can set either the mode 1 or mode 2 radio buttons then save the settings, but both ways the camera always starts in mode 2. Strangely though the radio button always resets to Mode 1 when I plug in the camera.

After starting in mode 2, I can manually switch to mode 1 using the camera buttons. After than it correctly started in mode 1. However I have been able to repeat being stuck in mode 2 after setting that again in the GUI.

I suspect it's an issue with the GUI rather than the camera. Today was the first time I tried setting the camera to auto start in mode 2, as I find the flashing blue led is much easier to see than the yellow one in order to know that the camera is recording.

 

[kamkar]

Yeah the yellow LED is hard to see, i have noticed that when i have strapped the camera to the roof of my little RC truck ( 4 inches or so above the ground )
Even if we are in the shade under the trees its hard to see.
Off course i could change settings from inverted to normal so the LED would face upwards, but as i always use it inverted in the car and i also then would have to unscrew the brass mount thingy, that's not going to happen ( though when wee go driving we have a full toolkit in case the little trucks brake down.

Its also sort of the same in the car, not least when its sunny, but i have found that the buttons work so well i don't really have to see the LED color changing modes.

I boot in mode 1 and play with settings in mode 2, and i just found out that using the lower bitrate ( H.265 ) do contain blocking in areas with high levels of action, but that's also only 8 mbit so a 3 minute recording is like 90 MB.

 

[TonyM]

I find the buttons do work fairly well. Just need to get used to how long it takes to boot up or switch to the other mode. The rear red led indicator is useful, but (un)fortunately it's hidden behind my rear view mirror so no use while I'm driving.

 

[TonyM]

My Mobius 2 became stuck in Video Mode 2 after setting power on default to mode 2. I am unable to reset the 'power on default' to video mode 1 by using the latest version of the mSetup GUI 4.0.4.1. I can set either the mode 1 or mode 2 radio buttons then save the settings, but both ways the camera always starts in mode 2. Strangely though the radio button always resets to Mode 1 when I plug in the camera.

Tom Frank at RC Groups was able to replicate the camera becoming stuck in video mode 2, so it looks like it's a GUI issue rather than a camera fault.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=35765268&postcount=478

 

[TonyM]

Given the M2's principal user base in RC, which I figure is largely daytime activity, maybe they will not be so interested in developing low light performance than if they were developing a standalone dashcam? I can see the M2 becoming very good for daytime use but may always lag behind bespoke dashcam products for night time use, similar to the original mobius.

yeah I'm not sure, the type of WDR they are doing has some good ability to reveal detail in very bright conditions but that can come at the expense of clarity, right now it makes a huge mess of low light footage but that could well change as they develop the firmware further, the hardware is more capable than the M1 so the potential is there, it's up to them to realise the potential I guess, it's an interesting product but wouldn't be the right fit for a lot of people right now I would think.

I found this comment by Tom Frank on RC Groups earlier this year in relation to the M2's potential low light ability: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=34994347&postcount=18999

I've said all along, though, the M2 low light performance compared to the Mobius will be more incremental than evolutionary. If superior low light performance is your goal, the M2 will probably not meet your wants based on what I've seen during my beta testing.

Perhaps the M2 will struggle to compete with dedicated dashcams due to the choice of sensor, no matter how good they program the firmware. I'm finding that it is an improvement over the M1, but "more incremental than evolutionary" is a good way to describe it. I'll have to wait and see what the forthcoming Step2 firmware update brings in relation to image quality and user customisation. If only I could adjust the EV like I do on my M1 I think that would make a big difference. An underexposed frame with short exposure time will always reveal better detail than an overexposed long exposure frame with more motion blur.

 

[richcam]

I've been using the Mobius M2 in my car for several days now, is powered using an external power pack and initial results suggest that it is far more economic with it's consumption of power compared to the M1.

However, I've checked some video footage of the M2 and noticed that after being left in my car today recording with the temperature moderately hot that the footage seems a bit soft almost blurred compared to that recorded first thing in the morning when it is stone cold which leads me to wonder whether we are having lens distortion issues again!

I've taken a couple of screenshots to demonstrate the differences in quality between first thing in the morning and late afternoon. In both instances I was stopped in traffic.

Settings were 30fps HIGH.

 

[country_hick]

I had hoped this focus shift would not happen. This same problem that arrived after the mobius 1 C lens was introduced stopped me from buying 2 or 4 mobius for my rigs.

 

[TonyM]

I've been using the Mobius M2 in my car for several days now, is powered using an external power pack and initial results suggest that it is far more economic with it's consumption of power compared to the M1.

However, I've checked some video footage of the M2 and noticed that after being left in my car today recording with the temperature moderately hot that the footage seems a bit soft almost blurred compared to that recorded first thing in the morning when it is stone cold which leads me to wonder whether we are having lens distortion issues again!

I've taken a couple of screenshots to demonstrate the differences in quality between first thing in the morning and late afternoon. In both instances I was stopped in traffic.

Settings were 30fps HIGH.

View attachment 26284 View attachment 26285

That looks similar to the blurred results I had after leaving the M2 running for an hour in my car :

Here's the first screen grabs from my new M2 which arrived today.
I left the M2 running for an hour on a USB battery...
Before/after comparisons
View attachment 26051
View attachment 26052

 

[TonyM]

Did you get your bracket sorted to have the M1 and M2 running side by side? If so, have you looked at the M1 footage at the same moments as these screenshots?

 

[kamkar]

It do look like the M2 is prone to heat related focus shift.