Smallest Ambarella Car DVR a.k.a. Mini 0801

just buy the female sockets and wire them in behind the existing lighter socket, your lighter circuit will be 10 or 15 amp rated or thereabouts, running a couple of cameras and a GPS is no issue, you'll still have your lighter socket free then to charge a phone or whatever, auto parts shops sell the sockets, I've bought them previously from dx.com for about USD $3 each delivered from memory, heaps of other places to get them as well
 
jokiin said:
likewise it's great to get end user feedback, it works both ways, I get a lot of ideas from end users here about what features and functionality to include when we do updates and for hardware ideas

we do have dual card models coming although what you suggest is possibly more relevant if the cards weren't located together, remotely writing to another card would be tricky, we do have models coming that can support external hard drives though, would be possible to hide one away in some installations I suppose, when we get to that though we will do a remote dual cam DVR later on so the DVR could be hidden away (can go up to 5m from each camera) and make it harder for that to happen, I'm not sure how big an issue this might be, I'd think if anywhere it would be the type of thing that would happen in Russia before anywhere else, no offence to any Russians but the road rage there seems particularly brutal sometimes
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Thanks & I've thanked you. This reminds me of this video where the person seems to have had a bad experience and has really gone to town. He has installed a hard drive, and mentions the risk of someone popping the SD card out (which is why I'd like an obvious SD card as a decoy - better than no card)
 
jokiin said:
just buy the female sockets and wire them in behind the existing lighter socket, your lighter circuit will be 10 or 15 amp rated or thereabouts, running a couple of cameras and a GPS is no issue, you'll still have your lighter socket free then to charge a phone or whatever, auto parts shops sell the sockets, I've bought them previously from dx.com for about USD $3 each delivered from memory, heaps of other places to get them as well
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Do you mean just hide the female lighter socket behind the dash, out of sight, in the cavity behind the factory fitted lighter socket, soldering them in in a parallel circuit? I hadn't thought of that. Thanks
 
Jokiin,

How easy is it to access the SD card slot inside the 8Gb SD card model to replace it with a larger memory card? Would I need a special tool or it is just a case of unscrewing it?

If you lose power for any reason, even for a moment (e.g. my lighter socket can momentarily lose power if knocked - or perhaps if you have a bad accident) does that mean you lose the entire current file? I believe I read that the new format (.MOV) would cause you to lose it whereas the old format (.TS) would not. I appreciate that the internal battery should prevent that happening but batteries die in time, so in theory an old battery may be as good as no battery.

Thanks
 
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Squid said:
Jokiin,

How easy is it to access the SD card slot inside the 8Gb SD card model to replace it with a larger memory card? Would I need a special tool or it is just a case of unscrewing it? I read something earlier in the thread which mentioned a word I did not recognise - I assumed it was a special tool.

Thanks
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there's a cover on the end cap that is just stuck on with double sided tape, bit of heat from a hairdryer and some gentle persuasion would see it come off quite easily, four screws underneath and you're in, a few minutes job once you've done it before, open it up with a towel around it so you don't lose the ball that will pop out of the ratchet mechanism when you open it up
 
jokiin said:
there's a cover on the end cap that is just stuck on with double sided tape, bit of heat from a hairdryer and some gentle persuasion would see it come off quite easily, four screws underneath and you're in, a few minutes job once you've done it before, open it up with a towel around it so you don't lose the ball that will pop out of the ratchet mechanism when you open it up
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Thanks & thanked.

As I want to buy this (I am only hesitating as I may wait for the next version), would you please tell me if your company is "eprance" (which is one of the sellers of this camera)?
 
I'm in the same boat, buy or wait. With all new products, especially overseas (not easy to exchange) the first iterations will have issues that get tweaked in manufacturing. It could be several months before its stable enough for overseas buyers.

Also newer may not guarantee better, tweaks could include cost cutting for higher profits.

From what I read, the TS version was quite stable in terms of cycling. Worst case, can we downgrade to the TS version if we buy a unit now?


Squid said:
Thanks & thanked.

As I want to buy this (I am only hesitating as I may wait for the next version), would you please tell me if your company is "eprance" (which is one of the sellers of this camera)?
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bugelrex said:
I'm in the same boat, buy or wait. With all new products, especially overseas (not easy to exchange) the first iterations will have issues that get tweaked in manufacturing. It could be several months before its stable enough for overseas buyers.

Also newer may not guarantee better, tweaks could include cost cutting for higher profits...
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Good point, especially reading the earlier posts on here with the problems people had.

bugelrex said:
...From what I read, the TS version was quite stable in terms of cycling. Worst case, can we downgrade to the TS version if we buy a unit now?
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Can anyone out there answer that for us, please?
 
Jim said:
Ive been reading this forum and the Techmoan comments and obviously watched the video review. Im sure you all have too.

I just want a car camera that I can leave in the car and forget about. But is this still a bit glitchy? Seems to have a lot of problems. i wonder if I should hold off for a few months? I cant bare the thought of having an accident and the thing not working?
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Jim, considering your avatar (or rather your photo in place of an avatar), you really should've had a dashcam to record how you got up there!
 
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Lunar, you asked this question:

Lunar said:
Does anyone know the best way to remove the circular end cap (the on-off button in centre of it) which covers the 4 screws you need to remove to dismantle this camera.

I read that it just pops off, but my endevours to remove it using strong double sided tape to try and lift it has met with no success, and I obviously don't want to damage the camera in any way whilst doing it.

So any suggestions getting it off, I suspect it may be glued on ? despite my searches, I've found very little information on dismantling it.
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Earlier today, in reply to a different question from me, the very helpful Jokiin said:

jokiin said:
there's a cover on the end cap that is just stuck on with double sided tape, bit of heat from a hairdryer and some gentle persuasion would see it come off quite easily, four screws underneath and you're in, a few minutes job once you've done it before, open it up with a towel around it so you don't lose the ball that will pop out of the ratchet mechanism when you open it up
Click to expand...
 
Does anyone know if the model sold without an internal 8Gb micro SD card has an internal slot, so you can simply put one in yourself? I doubt it but thought I'd ask.

I ask as I am considering buying an 8Gb one and replacing the 8Gb card with a larger one, which begs the question why buy the 8Gb version in the first place? I guess that the slot is only present and enabled in the 8Gb version.
 
I believe when they say 8GB version, it has 8GB of internal storage in case you don't want to use the microSD card. For example, I bought one with 8GB internal memory, GPS and 16GB microSD card (came with class 10).
 
im thinking about getting this mini 0801 cam, ali express is advertising FW 0604, i dont understand all this fw versions lol sorry so i will need some help, can you guys tell me wich seller to buy from.



EDIT : just brought one off seller GIVOE, ive seen a member on here how he updated his fw and seems easy so ill what fw i have when it arrives
 
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Squid said:
Does anyone know if the model sold without an internal 8Gb micro SD card has an internal slot, so you can simply put one in yourself? I doubt it but thought I'd ask.

I ask as I am considering buying an 8Gb one and replacing the 8Gb card with a larger one, which begs the question why buy the 8Gb version in the first place? I guess that the slot is only present and enabled in the 8Gb version.
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I can confirm there is no card slot in the standard version, I know this for definate because I dis-mantled my own mini 0801 to repair a faulty switch as the UP button did not work when it arrived. Rather than post it back I decided to repair it myself which I did, in about 1-hr, it's great now. I did a lengthy post how to dis-mantle this camera and about the fix I did. It's on Page 57

In my case the SM switch had only been soldered to the PCB on one side, the other side had not been soldered at all.. hence why it did'nt work....lol easy fix, I don't mind simple jobs like this.
 
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I also have this cam and i am still on the 27072013 firmware so with the .TS files.
It is working perfect but i would like a higher bitrate
Is it possible to get a firmware with TS files but higher bitrate? Maybe somebody could ask because the .TS firmware has not had any problems with recycling files.
 
jokiin said:
I would reasonably think the updated model will be in the market before Christmas, engineering samples are a week or so away last I heard
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cool... thanks for that info. :)

on second thought.... a new version may have it's own problems... :)


I just noticed a problem.... my 0801 doesn't seem to like hot weather very much. (as in cars parked under the sun)

Is the 0801 supposed to be able to be left inside the car 24/7/365, regardless of hot or freezing weather?

Has anyone experience problem with the 0801 because of temperatures inside the car?

Thanks!
 
Riconl said:
I also have this cam and i am still on the 27072013 firmware so with the .TS files.
It is working perfect but i would like a higher bitrate
Is it possible to get a firmware with TS files but higher bitrate? Maybe somebody could ask because the .TS firmware has not had any problems with recycling files.
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yeah I have the TS version at 15mbit and recycling is no issue at all, I couldn't assure you it would work on yours though as the hardware spec may not be identical even if they look the same

they are not really made for high temp use but should fare ok as long as the weather doesn't get too hot, I had them in cars all through summer in China without any issue but it only got into the mid 30c temps at the time
 
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