Mobius Not Turning On With Car Ignition - Volts/Amps Study

[Grimm]

Please note I am not an electrician. I know how to use a multimeter. I've wired 2 chandeliers in my home, wired switches, and wired 3 outlets from my breaker box to places in my basement. Simple stuff.

When I was a kid I took my Uncles cool red light from his car, cut off the wires, attached those wires to a household plug and plugged it in. Yes I was punished. Yes my bottom still hurts.

I also use to "shoot" capacitors around my room and sometimes through walls by heating them up with a train transformer. 1 landed in my brother's arm. Yes he cried. No he didnt tell because I threatened to kill him in his sleep.

What I am trying to say is my understanding of electronics and electricity is very, very small. Almost non-existent.

I do, however, know how to read a digital display and write those numbers down on a scrap of paper.

This post is nothing more then that scrap.

With a lot of **** added on.


As recommend my Dashmellow in another thread I bought a Charger Doctor. It tests USB voltage and amps and is a lot easier then trying to stick in probes from a multimeter. As my multimeter is not digital, the digital display of the Charger Doctor comes in handy. It's range is 3.5v-7.0, 0A-3A. It was less then $7.00 with shipping and I plan to get a few more. I recommend getting one if you wish to play along.

I only received the package a few days ago but right after I opened it I immediately started plugging it into things. One of the things I plugged it into was my car charger to Mobius (surprise!).

First, Tests of the individual chargers:

Most Voltage fluctuated between 5.10-5.16. Computer 4.75-4.80.

The car charger is a dual Anker and can deliver 24W/4.8A total and was tested with various things (iPad2, iPhone 4, iPhone 5, Anker E5) and the reading the Charger Doctor gave fell within what was expected of the device.

Wall charger (apple 5.1v/2.3A) my iPhone 4 was pulling .95-.98A, which is what is expected.

Computer- iPhone 4 pulled .95A, again expected.

Anker E5 - External Battery (16000mah 5V / 3A total-2A&1A) dual USB. iPhone 4 .97-.98A. Works.

So, all chargers working well, Charger Doctor giving accurate readings.

Mobius

I have a front B lens Mobius and a rear A lens Mobius, both bought within the last month or so. Both currently still have their original batteries installed. I will be switching to Supercaps in the next month.

I first tested the front & back Mobius with the Anker Car charger and the Charger Doctor.
Both set to turn on and start recording when given power or power button pressed--Both did.

Both gave fluctuating readings of 5.10-5.15 Volts.

Front Mobius -First the Amps started around .02-.04 then rose to .17-and higher but stopped and fluctuated between .35A-.39!

Back Mobius- Same start but "settled" between .42A-.46A!

Well below the 1A "requirement".

What going on? Hmmmm. Maybe the long USB extension cables lowering the Amps? Well cords do, but more then .50A? No way. Still I switched the front Mobius cable with a 3 foot cable. Same results.

Why such low Amps?

I though it somehow was my car, since its haunted so I tried my house (which is not haunted anymore since The Priest). I tested the Mobius on all above chargers that are listed...Not surprisingly similar results.

I then thought that since I am always charging the battery it must be pulling such low Amps because the battery is full! So I drained the battery on the front Mobius buy putting it on (recording) in my refrigerator. When that was discovered by The Wife it was relocated to the bathroom. Discovered again (Yes, The Wife again!), relocated to the cats litter box were it stayed till the battery was depleted. I am currently debating watching the video, erasing the video, or getting a new Wife.

I then tested charging it inside. Video on .43-.46A. Charging only .13-.14A! On a depleted battery? What the hell?

I had not suspected that both Mobius' would be pulling such low Amps but thought I should post about my findings. Now on to the real reason I started testing at all...

Mobius Not Turning On With Car Ignition

Both my front and back Mobius' sometimes do not turn back on when the ignition is started. When this happens it happens to both mobius' simultaneously. Never has this happened to one and not the other. This happens when the Mobius' are already powered through their internal battery. This also happens when the Mobius' are running off the Anker E5 external battery that is plugged into the car lighter (the Anker supports pass through--charge a device while you use it). Why this happens with the Anker I do not know.

I have not yet had a problem with turning the ignition on and the Mobius' not coming on when they are off. But I may just be lucky so far. My typical dashcam day begins with the car starting and the Mobius' going on and when I stop somewhere they are powered by the Anker external. They only get completely turned off when I return home. I suspect that if not for the Anker I would experience problems when first starting the car and Mobius'.

Many restarts later and the 9th restart of my car did it! The Charge Doctor showed NOTHING! No Amps, no Volts, dead screen. Then a few seconds later was at 5.10-5.16V but Amps hovered between .02-.04A and would not raise above that! The only way to fix this was to pull the USB ports and replug them in.

The experiment was duplicated with and without the Anker E5 involved and in both cases when the Mobius did not go back on I got the same .02-.04A result.

Conclusions

Well, I don't have any. I do have questions...

Why are both my Mobius' pulling such low Amps when charged and recording (.35-.46A)?

Why do both pull such low Amps charging (.13-.14A)?

Why is the Mobius getting "stuck" at only pulling .02-.o4A sometimes? Why does pulling the USB and plugging them back in remedy this?

Do I have 2 bad batteries? Am I that lucky?

Or is all of this normal? And if so why the 1A requirement?

Please, if you have a Charger Doctor, play along and post your results.



https://www.ebay.com/itm/271429051607 Random ebay link for Charger Doctor.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2451375 Charger Doctor How To

 

[sail]

Or is all of this normal?

I bet your Hand Brake (The wife) doesn't think so.

Oops, pardon! You meant the batteries didn't you?

In that case I don't know. Still waiting for my first Mobius to arrive.

And if so why the 1A requirement?

Good point!

Please, if you have a Charge Doctor, play along and post your results.

No Charge Doctor but would appreciate a link to check one out please.

 

[Grimm]

Ebay link added. Charger Doctor How To link added.

 

[sail]

Ebay link added. Charger Doctor How To link added.

Thanks for that.

"A Business Doing Pleasure With You"

 

[GJHS]

Great job.

I'm guessing you were testing it recording while charging/powering it? I can only guess the 1 A has something to due with, having an higher number to allow for variable draw rates and charging a battery while powering a camera. Another guess would be startup is low for the first few seconds, when it's doing all those checks and startups.

To take your test further, maybe remove the battery and power the camera exclusively on external power.

To answer your wife problem let me share with you some idioms: "put your foot down", "wear the pants in the house" or maybe "when mommas happy" is easier.

 

[Grimm]

1A to me is way too high a recommendation if your only going to draw 1/2 that at most.

I may pull the battery and test that next, maybe before I do the Supercap switch.

The start up being slow for the checks is interesting as that's when it hangs sometimes and then the Mobius powers off but still continues to draw the .02-.04A

But why such a slow Amp draw when just charging off a 2.3A Apple charger? Or any charger for that matter?

Is the 1A thing a non-issue then?

 

[russ331]

I wouldn't attach too much credibility to data from a $7 device. My recollection of Posts at RCGroups is that current draw while recording is around 0.53A rising to nearer 1A when writing data to the memory card, i.e. once every 3 or 5 minutes when in loop-record mode.

The recommendation for a 1A USB adapter reflects the fact that cheap ones frequently deliver less than they claim, so the sensible approach is to use one from a respected brand that can deliver more than Mobius will draw.

 

[Grimm]

@russ331 I would say the same thing about a $7 device, if it wasn't so accurate. But it is! Same readings that a multimeter gets.
I'll have to check how much it draws when specifically writing to a card (good old stopwatch time) but for draw during video its under <.46 on one, <.39 on the other.

The real point of the post however is not the current draw (I had thought not to add it since it takes away from the subject but thought others would be interested), but that both Mobius' stop at the same time when they are already on and I turn the engine on at times. I'm just trying to work that out and perhaps a solution as well. It may not be a Mobius thing. I have yet to repeat the phenomenon by having the Mobius on and plugging a wall charger in and out of a socket. But it's easily replicated in my car. So perhaps its a car ignition issue, that for some reason the car sends power to the car charger then stops for a split second (for some unknow reason) and causes the Mobius to fail at boot. If so I want to know why this happens only sometimes and if I can prevent it.

Basically this is all just information that I have gathered during one of my obsessive bouts. At least it's on topic. I could have just posted my data from tracking House Finches with mycoplasmal conjunctivitis. I was hoping that putting it out there for others to mull over we could come to some sort of reason behind this annoying behavior & hopefully a remedy.

 

[sail]

@russ331 I would say the same thing about a $7 device, if it wasn't so accurate. But it is! Same readings that a multimeter gets.
I'll have to check how much it draws when specifically writing to a card (good old stopwatch time) but for draw during video its under <.46 on one, <.39 on the other.

LOL
Lashed out and bought a Charger Doctor for the fun of it.

Worth a play with @ AU$3.40 delivered. (Long delivery time though)

USB Power Current and Voltage Tester USB Mobile Power Current Test TR ( item: 310757302154 transaction: 45507395000 )


Paid on 31-Mar-14 AU $1.40 AU $2.00 1 AU $1.40
Posted on 31-Mar-14
Economy delivery from outside AU
Estimated delivery: Wed. 16 Apr. - Fri. 2 May.

 

[Grimm]

@sail - Yes it takes awhile to get it

 

[leftlanehog]

"Charging only .13-.14A!"

no answers, only a guess.....
Maybe the mobius only allows for a soft charge rate due to the size of the battery.
I should look at the specs but I am guessin the battery is 150mah? maybe up to 300mah? (i am basing this off of the Mobius being the size of a tic tac box..never seen one in real life).

I think the general rule of thumb is to only charge at "1C" for lithium ion(or is this for li poly only?)
1C for a 150mah batt is .15amps (i think).
300mah batt is .30amps.(i think).


My info might be way off....just guessing here.