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

Rayman.Chan said:
Jaz, please send me the words you want to forward to Demi, I can help to translate :)
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Thanks! I just sent you a PM.

EDIT: I also just sent you my 7 page back and forth emails with Givoe at AliExpress too.
(starting from August)
I figured all the multiple suggestions I gave might be interesting.
(a good read, but long!)
 
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Here's a detailed reply from Demi at eBay / e-prance. Hmmmm Comments?

"Dear Jon,

Nice Day:)

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.You really did me a favor. i am sorry I have to tell you a bad news, these days, we talk about the problems and the topic on the forum with the factury, and i reply your emails so late, and now they give me the answers as follows:

1, About the updating software, i know the TS version to MOV version updating software,because the previous mini 0801 has a TS video format,and we provided customers the upgrade to MOV format.while this is not necessary now,because all mini 0801 cameras are MOV format now.they said they never send any sellers the updating software of 20130922 and 20130924. So the 20130922 and 20130924 updating sofeware is not exist.

2, now maybe you are curious about why someone said their firmare version number is 20130922 or 20130924, right? i think it is the most important problems here, and it always mislead many customers/ the reason is: the factory always try to improve their items,and these days they have produced the items with firmware 20130922 or 20130924, while there is not just the different Firmware Version between these different items with different versions, they have many different parts, take the 20130922 and 20130924 for example, some parts of the dvr comes from different suppliers,as well as the procedure has some differences,

3, the most inportant thing i need to tell you is: we can't updating the dvr, becasue we don't have the updating software, or it is useless to update,except for the TS version updated to MOV version. we just received the problems these days, so the factury just get the information of the problem, they need to do test.they are researching the firmware upgrade these days, please believe me,if we have,I have no reason to refuse you.my dear Jon.as you help me a lot.

I'm very sorry,I don't mean to upset you,hope you are well.but once I have the newer firmware upgrade available,I would let you know..hope to hear from you.

Demi~

- e-pran"
 
Positioning a rear car cam

Has anyone found a discreet position for using an 0801 as a rear car cam? If it is obvious, I would need to remove it every time I got out of the car which I would rather not do if possible (OK, I can remove it at the end of the day but Murphy's law means a junkie looking to fund his next fix will spot it when I nip into the shops).

If you have a rear cam, have you discovered a good position?

Has anyone mounted a dash cam inside something unattractive to thieves to disguise it? That way, you would never need to remove it.
 
Keying a car

I saw a video on a dash cam website supposedly catching someone keying a bonnet. Surely dash cams are lousy at this because they power off when the ignition is off - OK, you can set the 0801 to run for up to 10 minutes on battery power but that won't protect your car after those 10 minutes. Most of all, people normally key the side of the car.

I suspect that dash cams are no good for catching someone keying the side of a car but I was just wondering if anyone knows otherwise.
 
JazJon:

I was told something similar too. this is copy & pasted from msg from E-Prance

20130924:this is the oldest mini 0801 firmware version,TS video format. (Edit: I think we can assume this is incorrect)
20130913:this is the newest firmware version for mini 0801(without internal 8G memory model,the model your purchased)
20130922:this is the newest firmware version for mini 0801(with internal 8G memory,with GPS Logger model)

Why use a later date 20130924 for older .TS file format firmware, doesn't make any sense at all...lol, so can dis-regard I think.

However, I do think they should make the current versions available for users to download, I sense they are worried lots of users could brick their camera's.

A 4 hour car journey yesterday went ok without any issues, so still okay on 20130913 firmware I might put in a 32gb class10, and leave in for a few days, just to see whether it remains good, as my much earlier testing with C10 cards was only for a few hours, I used the C6 cards purely because of the comments in the manual to avoid C10 cards. IOW nearly 2 wks now and I've not experienced any recycling problem.
 
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Lunar said:
Why use a later date 20130924 for older .TS file format firmware, doesn't make any sense at all...lol, so can dis-regard I think.
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some logic to the naming convention, the date of the file relates to when it was done, standard procedure, it is not indicative of the date of the hardware version though so while it may be a newer version by number it doesn't mean the features are different, I hope that's clear

unfortunately this hardware is very pushed for space which means maintaining multiple firmware version to cover the different hardware versions, I'm sure the engineers get annoyed with this also as they'd be doing stuff over all the time
 
No GPS, no internal memory.
I think that you got it wrong(or me? :)). Please read one page before, there are Rayman.Chan's comments. I understand from him that my camera is actually the oldest version and the firmware is the newest for it. So I got old version of hardware.
I bought it from JooVuu.
 
iahim said:
No GPS, no internal memory.
I think that you got it wrong(or me? :)). Please read one page before, there are Rayman.Chan's comments. I understand from him that my camera is actually the oldest version and the firmware is the newest for it. So I got old version of hardware.
I bought it from JooVuu.
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no, it is possible to order this spec right now built today, no GPS and no internal memory does not indicate anything about the age of the product
 
Hmm...but what about this:
"bro, and all the guys in DashCamTalk, i have to notice you, PLEASE DO NOT UPGRADE YOUR DEVICE UNLESS YOU CONFIRMED WITH YOUR RESELLER FIRST.
there are several 0801 hardware versioin, they are different on G-sensors, Nandflashes, and so on. the WRONG firmware may brick your device.
20130924 is NOT the LATEST firmware for all device, but for the 1'st hardware version which need to be repaired.
the latest firmware for latest hardware is 20130913. (nandflash updated)

PLEASE show your original firmware version number in device to your reseller to get the latest firmware!"

I understand from this that I have the first version :)
 
BTW -> my answer was for a post from Lunar that just disapeared from this topic. Next time I will use Reply button...
 
iahim said:
I have 20130924 and it is MOV, not TS.
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It would appear you and others with this firmware version have a different hardware version, which may perhaps have previously had .TS format files, but you state they are now .MOV so have obviouly been updated. You have the latest Firmware for oldest hardware, I have the latest firmware for MY hardware, everyone has the latest firmware for their hardware.

JazJon and others has the latest firmware for their Hardware too...lol everyone HAPPY ;-)

We all now full of happiness and joy, it's been explained fully. All camera's now work perfect...YES
 
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iahim said:
I understand from this that I have the first version :)
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I think that got lost in the translation somehow

if a reseller wants to order your hardware spec it's available right now, it is not an old version, just one of the alternate specifications on offer, there are multiple options offered but they all look the same, these are built to order as needed, there are no old ones sitting around in a warehouse somewhere

only your reseller and the factory would know which version they have and what the hardware spec is
 
Does anyone know if you can order a spare base to the 0801 so that I can transfer it to another car for occasional use? I've asked one Chinese seller but they don't sell them. I want to buy one camera and a spare base.
 
They would have had to order them at the time, I recall one seller was shipping with a standard base but if you ordered the GPS then you got both
 
iahim said:
BTW -> my answer was for a post from Lunar that just disapeared from this topic. Next time I will use Reply button...
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Yes.. sorry mate.. I was editing it and had one of those why bother moments..lol

One thing is perfectly becoming clear and is something that joklin has mentioned many times, that there are perhaps 4 or more Chinese companies who produce their own hardware version of the hardware, though all based on a stock design , they may have minor design changes or perhaps difference in components used. Hence the reason why the Firmware has to be carefully matched to the specific hardware in your camera.

Well that certainly makes it easier...lol
Seriously though, it's becoming obvious that sellers in China buy their camera's from different manufacturers, so I do understand why they cannot just issue firmware updates easity or even if any will be released at all, due to complications of always ensuring any firmware is matched to specific hardware.
 
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Anybody that has a TS firmware for a non 8Gb internal camera with higher bitrate then 10mbit?
I am now on 20130727 firmware and i want to stay on the TS file format
 
Squid said:
Does anyone know if you can order a spare base to the 0801 so that I can transfer it to another car for occasional use? I've asked one Chinese seller but they don't sell them. I want to buy one camera and a spare base.
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I have read in much earlier posts thats some users had ordered extra bases from Givoe, the poster said the prices were 5 dollers for the standard base and 15 dollers for the GPS version.

Like yourself I too thought a extra base would be useful for my wife car. I could'nt find them list separetely on their site anywhere and left a message, but they never got back to me. I noticed the seller in New Zealand where techmoan had purchased his from did have them listed separately to buy. Though they are 29 dollers for GPS version, I dont see the standard one listed.
Heres's the link anyway. http://offthenet.co.nz/index.php?route=product/category&path=59

I might attempt to knock a simple mount up myself, as I have a bench mounted Dremel with routing attachments so should be relatively easy to make one out of piece of suitable block of plastic, probably leaving the base a little larger for better adhesion to the windscreen. Should be faily easy to do. Main snag with that idea, is that I've noticed my 2 camera's tend to go into charging mode when powered up if plugged into the cameras own USB socket. So I will try and find someone selling the base separately, as thats obviously the better option.
 
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Squid said:
Does anyone know if you can order a spare base to the 0801 so that I can transfer it to another car for occasional use? I've asked one Chinese seller but they don't sell them. I want to buy one camera and a spare base.
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Hi,

Yes, I got a spare base when I purchased my basic 0801 from Givoe, worked out to a few £, for the same reason as you, to move to another car.
I have the basic 0801 no on board memory no GPS.

Currently testing a C4 Kingston 32GB

Running FW:0902 :(
 
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