Smoke...

[Kemik]

Under what circumstances would these things catch fire?

I installed my 0805 yesterday using a 12v to 5v converter that people recommend and the normal add-a-fuse installation. Worked great, tested with a drive, etc. Then went to drive today only to smell burning plastic. A few seconds later the device was smoking! I switched off the engine (powered when ignition on) and disconnected all of the fusing relates to it.

Is this likely to be a bad device or related to the wiring? Don't want to send it back and request a new one if it was likely the wiring.

Thanks

 

[jokiin]

What was burning? If you gave the camera 5v via USB then it shouldn't be wiring related

 

[Kemik]

The smoke was coming out of the dashcam. Smelt it as soon as I started reversing. When I started the car up I noticed the purple light come on but the screen didn't. When I previously turned off the car it didn't want to switch off, even by manually pressing the on/off button. I thought it had just crashed and left it for its internal battery to drain.

The wiring didn't feel warm to touch but the cam did. It was connected up to the 20A lighter fuse with another 20A fuse as I was told they must match. The hardwire kit I used come with the dashcam.

I had issues when I originally tested it earlier in the week were it didn't want to turn on. Red light was on but it wouldn't switch on. After I left it on charge for a few hours in a mains plug with phone charger it come on fine.

 

[SawMaster]

Since it's under warranty return it. And before trying the next one use a voltmeter to confirm that the USB adapter is regulating at 5V- it may have been damaged when the cam smoked too. Ditto for the cabling, but as cheap as they are I'd just replace that and bin the old one as the safest bet.

Smoking is bad for a dashcam's health too!
Phil

 

[PurpleMoon]

Under what circumstances would these things catch fire?
I installed my 0805 yesterday using a 12v to 5v converter that people recommend and the normal add-a-fuse installation. Worked great, tested with a drive, etc. Then went to drive today only to smell burning plastic. A few seconds later the device was smoking! I switched off the engine (powered when ignition on) and disconnected all of the fusing relates to it.
Is this likely to be a bad device or related to the wiring? Don't want to send it back and request a new one if it was likely the wiring.
Thanks

Never catch fire, as i dont see how 5V inside the cam could start a fire before blowing a fuse. Smoke, sure, if faulty cam, and that certainly requires replacement. It would be a good idea to test the voltage out of the 'hard wire kit', thats gonna be hard to do without stripping off some insulation to test.

I assume the 'hard wire kit' looks like this...

See what AMP fuse is installed in it. I would assume 1.5 AMP. I assume the 'add a curcuit/fuse tap' looks like this...

Original and new fuse do NOT need to be same AMP. If you have a 2 or 3 or 5 amp i'd use it.
There is every reason to put as low AMP as possible in your new fuse slot. No matter what amp you put into the add-a-circuit , the lowest amp fuse (hard wire kit OR fuse tap) will be the first to blow on a short.

 

[Nigel]

Under what circumstances would these things catch fire?

I installed my 0805 yesterday using a 12v to 5v converter that people recommend and the normal add-a-fuse installation. Worked great, tested with a drive, etc. Then went to drive today only to smell burning plastic. A few seconds later the device was smoking! I switched off the engine (powered when ignition on) and disconnected all of the fusing relates to it.

Is this likely to be a bad device or related to the wiring? Don't want to send it back and request a new one if it was likely the wiring.

Thanks

Sounds like a faulty battery, there have been several reports of new batteries being faulty recently, the power adaptor wont supply enough power to start a fire but the battery has enough to cause a fair amount of smoke, don't think it would ever actually catch fire though, it's too small. The problems you had previously with shutting down and starting up also suggest a battery fault.

It was connected up to the 20A lighter fuse with another 20A fuse as I was told they must match.

Should really be a 2 amp fuse in the top for the camera and the original 20A fuse in the bottom. 20A is enough to start a fire if the cabling accidently rubbed against a sharp piece of metal and eventually short circuited and hidden under the dash the fire might find some flammable materials and become serious.

If you can, check the output of the adaptor is between 4.8 and 5.3 volts before plugging something else in just to be sure it is OK.

 

[Kemik]

Thanks for all of your help guys. I'll change the fuse for a 2A and send the device back but it is reassuring to know it is likely not the wiring. I picked it up from eBay. Do you think I'm best sticking to more reliable sources such as Amazon?

 

[Joy]

Under what circumstances would these things catch fire?

I installed my 0805 yesterday using a 12v to 5v converter that people recommend and the normal add-a-fuse installation. Worked great, tested with a drive, etc. Then went to drive today only to smell burning plastic. A few seconds later the device was smoking! I switched off the engine (powered when ignition on) and disconnected all of the fusing relates to it.

Is this likely to be a bad device or related to the wiring? Don't want to send it back and request a new one if it was likely the wiring.


Hi Kemik, we original factory never test and never recommend hardware kit for Mini0805, Where did you buy it? Some quality of hardware hit is very bad . Please don't use hardware kit for it .

If use car charge and battery ,there will never cause fire.

 

[Joy]

Under what circumstances would these things catch fire?

I installed my 0805 yesterday using a 12v to 5v converter that people recommend and the normal add-a-fuse installation. Worked great, tested with a drive, etc. Then went to drive today only to smell burning plastic. A few seconds later the device was smoking! I switched off the engine (powered when ignition on) and disconnected all of the fusing relates to it.

Is this likely to be a bad device or related to the wiring? Don't want to send it back and request a new one if it was likely the wiring.

Thanks

Hi Kemik, we original factory never test and never recommend hardware kit for Mini0805, Where did you buy it? Some quality of hardware hit is very bad . Please don't use hardware kit for it .

If use car charge and battery ,there will never cause fire.

 

[Nigel]

Thanks for all of your help guys. I'll change the fuse for a 2A and send the device back but it is reassuring to know it is likely not the wiring. I picked it up from eBay. Do you think I'm best sticking to more reliable sources such as Amazon?

As long as you plugged the micro USB output of the converter into the camera then you can't really of wired it wrong, the convertor wouldn't provide power if you connected it's input wrong. It is possible for the converter to output the wrong voltage if it has an internal fault but very unlikely, I've not heard of that ever happening. The 0805 isn't actually too fussy on voltage, as long as you don't connect it directly to 12 volts but even then it doesn't catch fire, just stops working permanently.

 

[Kemik]

Hi Kemik, we original factory never test and never recommend hardware kit for Mini0805, Where did you buy it? Some quality of hardware hit is very bad . Please don't use hardware kit for it .

If use car charge and battery ,there will never cause fire.

The problem is that I need my charger for when I want to charge my phone and this seemed like the most hidden solution with a lot of people wiring this way. Do any of the other mini series dash cams support hard wiring? The kit itself come with the camera from the distributor on eBay.

 

[PurpleMoon]

The problem is that I need my charger for when I want to charge my phone and this seemed like the most hidden solution with a lot of people wiring this way. Do any of the other mini series dash cams support hard wiring? The kit itself come with the camera from the distributor on eBay.

I've never seen a poll taken , but i wouldnt be surprised that a large number use the hard wire kits that you can purchase when you buy the cam. I did too , but had second thoughts and wired it differently. I was going to need an extension from the power source to the cam and just a regular USB male to USB female (not micro but a regular USB) are easier to obtain and cheaper. So i looked at our store here (walmart) and for $7 i could get power instead of the $9 hard-wire, plus i could get it in 15 minutes today, and get started with installation while waiting for cam to arrive.
Here is what i did....

installed to fuse panel

which you already did.

purchased from walmart for $5 ( its like a extra cig lighter outlet), some sell with USB fixed inside it.

purchased if you dont have a spare laying around. 1 or 2 slots , dont matter. If 2 slot, you have a slot to put a charger cord into and leave the cord dangling somewhere easy to access, to charge other stuff

all 3 installed. the green circle is 3M lock tight tape but zip tie(s) would work fine. Now plug cam USB cable into the USB slot , purchase Male to Female extension cord if you need to reach further.

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

so the slot you added the add-a-circuit to was already empty, what was it labeled? Only powred with ign on or ?

 

[PurpleMoon]

so the slot you added the add-a-circuit to was already empty, what was it labeled? Only powred with ign on or ?

I removed the existing fuse in my fuse panel for WIPERS/HEATED SEATS , which for me , have power only when car is running.
Put the pulled fuse into bottom slot of the fuse tap, added a new fuse for the new power source into top slot and inserted the fuse tap back into where i had removed the fuse.
But i have a Corvette , your fuse panel will be different.

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

ok I thought you had an empty switched slot from the pic. thank you

 

[SolidEye]

I just don't know how reliable the Technical Support for the Mini dash cams are, so far I have not encountered any serious problem/s except for rare occasions where the unit freezes / gets stuck and I just let the battery drain. If their tech support is very much active and reliable, let them do their job and ask them later what went wrong. They'd replace your unit anyway as long as it's still under warranty (getting a knockoff device would be a different story).

 

[SawMaster]

Never catch fire, as i dont see how 5V inside the cam could start a fire before blowing a fuse.

The fuse should blow as you say, but 5V can start a fire given the right circumstances which are a very remote possibility. More likely is that the battery itself would cause a fire which it could do without any external power. Again this would take some rare circumstances as these batteries are so small in capacity that their ability to generate current will be gone before the critical temperature is reached to cause the LiPo cells to self-ignite.

There is every reason to put as low AMP as possible in your new fuse slot. No matter what amp you put into the add-a-circuit , the lowest amp fuse (hard wire kit OR fuse tap) will be the first to blow on a short.

It's amperage that causes fires, and 1V with enough amps can do that. This is why good engineering always calls for using the smallest fuse which will sustain normal operation. The fuse limits amperage flow at whatever voltage runs through it. There is an inherent relationship between voltage and amperage and current, but that can be ignored here. Just use the smallest fuse that works and you will be as safe as is possible 🙂

You are far more likely to have a fire caused by faulty factory installed car wiring than from a properly fused dash cam!

Phil