New 0806 owner (well, soon anyway...)

[Del]

Good (checks watch) morning all!

I'd never really taken much notice of dashcams until a piece in the news about a guy whose Aston Martin suffered £9000 of damage, and the miscreant was caught on a dashcam (not that I have an Aston Martin...).

Anyway, having thought about that, and some of the idiotic driving I've seen recently, and having been reversed into by a van while in a queue of traffic, I thought I'd get one and have spent most of my night shifts this week researching various cameras.

With the amount of positive reviews it has received I've ordered an 0806 from eBay (from a UK seller) and look forward to installing it next week. Our work IT is rubbish, and had real issues displaying this forum, so I was not able to take heed of the great advice here before I ordered it, but that seems to be sorted now and reading through various threads I'm wondering if I've made a terrible mistake!

There seem to be many tales of woe about cameras failing, not recording, shutting themselves down and various other issues. I know bad news travels faster than good, so I'm hoping that this is the case here and that there are hundreds (thousands?) of satisfied 0806 users that love these cameras.

In the meantime, I'm wondering if you guys can just confirm a few things for me. I've bought a Philips 32Gb class 10 MicroSDHC card (from a reputable retailer) so I'm hoping there's no issues there, but I understand it's best to format it in the camera?
I have a permanently live 12V socket in my car, so was going to leave the camera in the car permanently, and use the Motion Detect function to record anything that might happen while parked, but it seems it doesn't work that way? The camera detects motion OF itself, not motion AROUND itself? It's not a major issue if it doesn't, it was more of a 'nice to have' feature. But if this is the case, is there any point to leaving the camera in the car?
I wasn't too fussed about GPS either, but it seemed to be difficult to find the non-GPS mount in a bundle, so I might as well have it.

I think I've probably blathered on for long enough. Hope to pick up lots of useful tips and info!

 

[jokiin]

any camera can have issues, no manufacturer is exempt from that, buying locally with support will minimise the chances of that being a problem

motion detect doesn't work great on these, ok but not great, most are much the same in this respect

card should be ok as long as it's genuine

 

[Deleted member 46308]

Welcome Del

 

[kilgetty]

I know bad news travels faster than good,

Hi Del, Just to let you know that I have had my 0806 since June and it has worked perfectly well in that time. The only disappointment is that it does not automatically switch SDcards when one is full, as advertised. I hope you are as lucky.

 

[Del]

Just arrived and charging it up now. First impressions are good, it looks and feels like a quality product. The instructions are clear, and even the packaging has a quality feel.
Once the SD card arrives, I can have a proper play!

 

[porjay]

Yeah i've been really happy with my mini 0806. Caught something good a few weeks back:

 

[erkme73]

Del,

I've had dash cameras in my cars since 2004. I've probably gone through a dozen makes and models since then. They all have shortcomings. But without a doubt, the 0806 is (so far) may favorite, most-reliable, and best quality camera I've owned. In fact, I now have 9 of them - 4 for each car, and one for my RV. Of those, one suffered a problem with the gps-equipped mount, where one of the pins wouldn't extend and make contact. The seller, a no-name Chinese distributor on AliExpress, sent me a replacement mount, no questions asked. 10 days later, that camera worked just fine on the new mount.

There are apparently 3 generations of the 0806, and mine are most likely the latest (having bought them only about 6 weeks ago). So, unless you happen to get a dud, I think you'll be very pleased with the capability, quality, and reliability of this camera.

 

[Del]

So, the SD card has arrived, it's fitted and formatted. The camera is fitted to the car and we're ready to go.
Still debating whether to keep it in the car, with Motion Detect not being designed to detect motion around the car I'm not sure it's worthwhile, especially as I don't live in the best area! If the elusive Parking Guard mount had actually existed, I would probably have got one.
First journey tomorrow, I'll report back then!

 

[Del]

First journey done, and it all seems to be working perfectly.
And I caught my first idiot after about twenty minutes

 

[Nigel]

First journey done, and it all seems to be working perfectly.
And I caught my first idiot after about twenty minutes
...

Not sure idiot is the correct description, that one needs taking off the road, this is not the USA where you can pass any side you wish!

I would point your camera one step lower so that the sky doesn't make the whole image darker. If you have the CPL fitted then it needs adjusting, should work better than that.

 

[Del]

Thanks Nigel, I'll try that. No CPL, so I'll rotate it (the camera) slightly.

 

[Del]

I asked this in the 'Where did you mount your camera?' thread, but I think it really belongs here.
Is it really important to use the supplied charger for the Mini 0806? It's taking power from a 12V socket into a 5V USB socket, but I have a number of much smaller chargers that fit, that I already use for charging my phone and iPod. So what does the supplied charger do that one of these others won't?

 

[Nigel]

I asked this in the 'Where did you mount your camera?' thread, but I think it really belongs here.
Is it really important to use the supplied charger for the Mini 0806? It's taking power from a 12V socket into a 5V USB socket, but I have a number of much smaller chargers that fit, that I already use for charging my phone and iPod. So what does the supplied charger do that one of these others won't?

It just needs a 5V USB supply that does not contain data, so nearly any charger or power bank will work, a standard car USB socket may also work but if the camera detects a data link then it will go into computer mode and act as a memory card reader.

There have been a few issues with some chargers when starting the engine as the voltage can drop in strange ways and in some situations the camera can get confused.

 

[aniceberg]

First journey done, and it all seems to be working perfectly.
And I caught my first idiot after about twenty minutes

Nice!

Here's one I captured today- a boom-crane truck driver just barrelled over some traffic barrels and kept going even after one went into the wheel well, and I glanced back he kept on going knocking many of them down-- just wish I had a back-facing dash cam to show you that.

 

[Rajagra]

First journey done, and it all seems to be working perfectly.
And I caught my first idiot after about twenty minutes

Can you read the reg in the original file? That was dangerous driving and should be reported to the police.

 

[Del]

Can you read the reg in the original file? That was dangerous driving and should be reported to the police.

No, the angle when he's in the inside lane mean it's not quite clear, and when he's in the outside lane he's too far away. I got most of it but I can't be sure.

 

[Del]

So...first problem has come to light.
It didn't record *anything* today on two journeys. It's the first time it's been plugged into an extension, which I'm sure is working because I heard the camera 'power-up' jingle, and the LEDs were on, but that's the only difference to Thursday.
I had Motion Detect and G-Sensor on, so I'm going to switch them off in case they're just *too* sensitive, and try again tomorrow.

 

[jokiin]

G-Sensor is fine, turn motion detect off though, you'll miss stuff if you leave it on

 

[Del]

Hmm, everything fine driving to work this morning. Odd.