Mobius hardwire kit randomly stopped working?

[coffeefiendlol]

I have been enjoying my mobius with supercapacitor for at least 7-8 years now, and I've had it hardwired into my car. Randomly, the other day, the hardwire kit just stopped working. I was really hoping it would just be the mobius because that would be a simpler replacement for me, but after trying a different cable at home plugged into a USB outlet, the mobius started working again. This leads me to think that it is something in the hardwire kit that is problematic. Unfortunately, the place where I bought the hardwire kit from many years ago now appears to be defunct (Spytec). [This is the waybackmachine link https://web.archive.org/web/20180813194316/http://www.spytecinc.com/dash-camera-hard-wire-kit.html]

Anyway, I am not car/electronics savvy, so I want to be certain of the components I need before I go into the shop to have them fix or replace the hardwire kit.

I'm unsure whether the hardwire kit had a replaceable mini USB cable, because if so, then I could also easily test that with the spare mini USB cable to see if that was the failure. I suspect it's not going to be the cable that's problematic but something else in the hardwire kit.

It also now looks like most of the original mobius sellers and components are harder to come by? Do you know where I could buy a new hard wire kit for the original mobius? I see that there is a new Max model and perhaps most people have migrated over there. I am basically just wanting a very small and stealth type dashcam because it would be harder for people to spot. Plus mounting it and the car has been absolutely ideal the way that I currently have it. I'm not sure if I could replicate that with another dash Cam of a different size and shape.

EDIT: Perhaps it is a blown fuse? How would I know this?

EDIT 2: I would ideally want a hardwire kit that does not keep draining the car battery when the car is turned off and the Mobius is unplugged from the hardwire kit.

 

[Dashmellow]

DIT: Perhaps it is a blown fuse? How would I know this?

EDIT 2: I would ideally want a hardwire kit that does not keep draining the car battery when the car is turned off and the Mobius is unplugged from the hardwire kit.

Firstly, to see if the fuse has blown you would simply pull the fuse that the camera circuit was connected to and physically examine it. A blown fuse will be obvious. Of course, if it was a blown fuse you need to determine if there was a short circuit or other issue that caused it to blow.

As for a new hardwire kit, any decent quality kit on the market that puts out 5V and has a Mini-B USB plug should work fine. The Viofo kit should work and it is of high quality. It puts out 5V @ 2 amps. It has three wires to operate the parking mode function on Viofo cameras but you would only need to use two of the wires to simply power your Mobius. If you connect it to your ACC circuit it will shut off the camera when you turn off your ignition and won't drain the car battery.

There are many hardwire kits on the market but there are a lot of cheap ones that are poorly made. Some of them have very poor voltage regulation and have been know to fry cameras, so stay away from no-name generic ones from China.

Other members here may be able to recommend other decent brands of hard wire kits. Amazon has a large selection but I can't speak to their quality. One way or another you should be able to replace your old one with minimal trouble.

 

[coffeefiendlol]

Thanks for this!

I am pleased to report my hardwire kit just started working all of a sudden today. Not sure if it was because it was left out in the sun for a few hours or what but thing seem to have fixed themselves! Now the real test will be to see if it works again tomorrow!

 

[coffeefiendlol]

Well, the hardwire kit died again. So no clue how it came back to life but it's now gone. I'll definitely have to get it replaced.

EDIT: It came back to life about a month after. Been going strong after that.