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

smitty69 said:
Memory.
Im not that well up on it tbh.TF,SD,SDHC - whats the difference?
Able to wrire the speed - lets say a camera (any cam really not just the 0801) has a "bit rate" of 9mb/s - then is it true to say that the memory card MUST have a minimum write speed of 9mb/s (9 million bits? per second)?

So if a camera is recording at 9mb/s - then would a "class 4" be fast enough - ever?

Its all velly confusicus.
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Of course it is, in theory anyway. A class 4 card is supposedly rated to write 4MB a second, a camera that writes its video files at a bitrate of 17000kbps approx will be writing 2.1 MB per second, so one may think that if the card can write 4MBps we should be able to write our 2.1MBps quite easily ? Well while its not looping, I'm sure it's plenty fast enough.

However, when it starts to loop, and starts to delete older files, in order to record continually, The time taken to delete files continually has a massive impact on the write speeds... What this means is that some class4 cards are now not fast enough, and write errors may appear.

The class 4 cards I have tried all write around 5MBps and appear to work fine, but I have 1 Class 4 card which only writes around 3.5MBps, so I never use that one. Good quality Class 4 cards do work okay, poor or mediocre class4 cards don't.
As stated in the FAQ, users are advised to buy class 6 cards just to give that extra write speed headroom. If your current class 4 cards work when looping then that's great, but if buying new cards then class 6 is the wise option.
 
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Greetings from norway
I stumbeld over Techmoan blog by accident, then I got very interessed in dash cams. So I order a, mini 0801 GPS, no internal memory, been useing it for a week now, it came with 20130913 firmware, I use a Sandisk 32gb class 10 microsd card, but I have allso bought a Samsung 32gb class 6 since I got the impression after reading this forum that it was a better choice, and actually the Samsung card was half the price compared to the Sandisk, I havent tried the samsung card yet, its still in shipping, I bought it here in Norway, so far I havent had any issues with the cam. The only thing I find a bit strange is that led down right of the screen blinks blue red the first few minutts after start I drive. I bought it from e-prance, the sales person I was in contact with at e-prance was Angel, I asked her about eprance if that was the same company or another one, she told me that she get a lot of that question. She told me it was a partner of her, and she was having this small bussnies e-prance
 
smitty69 said:
JazJon - are you using a 32GB Class 4 "Ultra" or "Extreme" or "Other" in your 0801? And I am sorry - has it got GPS or not?
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/B004G7D0EGI'm pretty sure it rated HIGHER than class 4 when I tested it, I'll test it again and post results.

Jez said:
Thanks for the tip, any idea where to look for the old software? This page has old software http://dashcamtalk.com/mini-0801/#Previous_Versions , but it's unclear whether it's for an 0801 with no GPS and no internal memory (which is the model I have).
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None of those are the .TS and none of those were stable for me. 20130924 is the first one that's been stable for me with .MOV My old e-prance camera originally arrived with a July firmware and recorded in .TS I've since returned it due to dead pixels and am waiting the replacement. I'm probably going to install it in my general contractor friends Truck.
 
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kalibang said:
Greetings from norway
.... The only thing I find a bit strange is that led down right of the screen blinks blue red the first few minutts after start I drive.
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Welcome to the forum, when the led is flashing blue and red it just means its charging the battery while its recording, obviously flashing just blue means its recording but not charging.
Good to hear your class 10 card is working okay, my class 10 cards seemed to work okay too.
20130913 firmware is very stable, I've been using it on 2 cameras for 4 weeks, and its fine.
 
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Speed test of my Class 4 Sandisk card...

h2_zpsb9386b63.png
 
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What do you reckon I should do?

I could try a Class 6 card (tried Class 4 and Class 10) for £12 but it might all be in vain
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B00CNVT4BU
JazJon is currently having no problems and he has the same Class 4 card as me, and h2testw shows my card speed is more than capable.

Maybe I just have a defective unit, and the errors are generic and independant of the actual fault?
 
@Jez, I'd maybe try the Samsung Class 6 card if it's not too hard on your wallet. It sounds like you've ruled out everything and we have the same exact card. We obviously don't have the same exact hardware though since my g-sensor doesn't calibrate and I think you said yours does.

If you don't want to buy the new card, I'd probably send it back for a refund, and buy a new one from either e-prance or givoe.
I'd also think about maybe giving up on the 0801 and buying the new WDR model once it's out.
Hopefully you're good at re-selling old things on eBay like me.

Everything is a never ending Beta test it seems. :-/ I'm all out of suggestions
 
Thanks for the response Jon.

Yes, my g sensor apparently calibrates, whether it works or not I don't know.

Do you think it's worth flashing my camera with any of the other 20130924 software, such as the one that is meant for GPS? (I have no 8gb, no gps)

What's your experience sending stuff back to China? It'll cost about £15 with royal mail, but then it's only tracked within the UK which is pretty risky. Good chance I never get the refund, the seller (eprance) hasn't replied to any of my emails. Maybe ebay will force the refund through if I have proof of postage from the UK? I'm not sure what happens in this situation if a defective item gets "lost" on its way back to the vendor.

WDR version sounds nice, but with this one already being so buggy I can't imagine it will be much better!
 
It cost me $11 USD to ship back my older e-prance 0801 to china. (with tracking!) Demi said she would be sending be a refund check for the return cost once they send me back the replacement. Maybe you could sweet talk your own refund as well. I have a feeling the shipping refund is not a standard policy and is a courtesy since I'm so vocal in the forums etc. In the past I flashed firmware meant for internal 8gb on my older 0801 with-out the 8gb and it worked. I don't' see how adding GPS is such a bad thing since my camera works fine with out the GPS base connected. (so worth a try! go for it) The WDR one will use the same shape/housing as the 0801 but is a different set of electrics all together from what I'm told. (so bugs should not follow along)
 
JazJon said:
Look what just arrived in the mail today :)
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Ironically I had another 2 of those arrive yesterday. Only ordered them day before, so very fast service by Amazon UK thanks to their Prime member next day delivery service.
 
Everything's cheaper in the US than over here!

But on another note...I think it's (kind of) fixed!!

I tried different resolution settings and that didn't affect the errors at all, they kept appearing every time I turned it off and back on.

Then...I was playing around with the settings and changed "Recording Mode" to "Video" instead of "Video and audio".

I have now turned it on and off several time swith no errors. It's been going for 15 minutes now without an error, whereas it previously produced errors after about 30 seconds. I don't care about audio, if this works then it's good enough for me.

I'll let it run overnight and then in the car tomorrow and let you know. Fingers crossed...

I'll let you dashcam gurus discuss why the audio setting is causing errors to appear because to me it makes no sense!
 
Good idea! Glad that worked for now. I'll remember to let Lia from Givoe know about it next time we exchange communications. I'm using the audio of my WF1 so can turn my 0801 audio off in the future as well if I need to. I'll leave it on for now though since it makes it easier to auto-sync up video tracks when I do picture in picture.
http://dashcamtalk.com/forum/thread...t-mini-0801-in-the-back-dual-cam-action.2838/
 
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Jez said:
Everything's cheaper in the US than over here!

But on another note...I think it's (kind of) fixed!!

I tried different resolution settings and that didn't affect the errors at all, they kept appearing every time I turned it off and back on.

Then...I was playing around with the settings and changed "Recording Mode" to "Video" instead of "Video and audio".

I have now turned it on and off several time swith no errors. It's been going for 15 minutes now without an error, whereas it previously produced errors after about 30 seconds. I don't care about audio, if this works then it's good enough for me.

I'll let it run overnight and then in the car tomorrow and let you know. Fingers crossed...

I'll let you dashcam gurus discuss why the audio setting is causing errors to appear because to me it makes no sense!
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Well...that's telling me that its unable to write both the video and audio fast enough, but its fast enough to write the video only.
 
Little update...still recording fine, but I just checked the memory card and there is 3.5gb remaining.

So the big test comes when the card is full and the recycling begins.

I'll be asleep when this happens so will either be waking up in a good or bad mood!

See you tomorrow.
 
Lunar said:
Well...that's telling me that its unable to write both the video and audio fast enough, but its fast enough to write the video only.
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Ha, I thought you would say that. However...

1)I tried 720p and still had errors. Wouldn't there be a bigger difference in required write speed between Full HD and 720p, compared to Full HD and Full HD + audio?
2) h2testw gives a write speed of 5Mb/s
 
Lunar said:
Well...that's telling me that its unable to write both the video and audio fast enough, but its fast enough to write the video only.
Click to expand...

or is it telling you that encoding video is ok but encoding audio and video is a struggle, is it tripping up in the write process, or earlier than that?

just been thinking about it and I'm wondering if variable bit rate encoding is part of their problem
 
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