Will not record. Yellow light stays on :(

kenmtb

kenmtb

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My 3 year old Mobius suddenly stopped recording right after I removed my Kingston 8mb sd card and replaced it. When I power up, the blue light flashes for a split second then the yellow stays on. After pressing record, the yellow light flashes then stays on. No video is recorded. I can take pictures, record audio and the webcam works.

I tried:
*cleaning the sd slot
*reformatting the card
*another card (Sandisk 16mb)
*upgrading the firmware to latest
*make sure battery is charged
*googled and found no answer

I'm ready to toss the camera :(
Is there a solution for this?
Thanks
 
Welcome to DCT. Is the battery 3 years old? Flaky performance is often due to a dying battery.

I suggest that you remove the battery, & power Mobius via phone or tablet charger or power bank. When removing the battery, also check that the lens module ribbon cable is properly seated.

If the camera records ok, buy a new battery.
 
Thank you for the reply. The battery is a good idea, I didn't think to check it. It seems like the camera was not holding a charge quite like it did when it was new.
So If I power the camera from a usb "power bank" can I record? I have run the cam from usb and was able to see a video.
Ken
 
K, Ill try that. I have a small airplane lipo that looks like it will fit the camera. I may have to use that because I am not sure I am using the correct usb cable. The lens connection looks fine. I do not think that would be trouble as the problems started right after I removed and replaced the orig. SD card.
 
Which card are you trying to use,now? (Not that replacing the battery isn't a good idea after 3 years)
 
Yeah Im ordering a new battery. The on in there does not seem to ever stop charging. The card is a ScanDisk 16mb #4 card.
Now the camera is not being recognized as a drive. Before that it, it failed at parameter updates from Msetup. It also did not retain any successful
updates. The thing is acting worse by the hour. If the battery does not fix it then Ill get a different kind of camera. This type of issue seems to be common.
 
It may be the card. (sandisk)

I've eliminated 95% of my mobius problems by being more careful and selective with memory cards.
 
dash riposki said:
It may be the card. (sandisk)

I've eliminated 95% of my mobius problems by being more careful and selective with memory cards.
Click to expand...

That is a good idea. I got one of the most recommended cards. The killer is, my original card worked fine for years until I put it in my junk
dumb phone to transfer data. I couldn't even write to the card so I put it back in the camera and all heck broke loose. Even after doing a writeover format.
 
Worst case scenario:

Replace the board in the Mobius and you're going again for half the cost of a new cam. See the first eight posts of the Mobius support thread to learn how to handle the CMOS cable properly. The rest is easy-peasy. Just another thing that makes Mobius such a wonderful cam :D

Phil
 
Try pressing reset on the Mobius to see if fault will clear up.
 
SawMaster said:
Worst case scenario:

Replace the board in the Mobius and you're going again for half the cost of a new cam. See the first eight posts of the Mobius support thread to learn how to handle the CMOS cable properly. The rest is easy-peasy. Just another thing that makes Mobius such a wonderful cam :D

Phil
Click to expand...
Yup tried the reset many times. At this point It looks like the main batter and/or main board is a fail.
I ordered a battery. If that doesn't fix things then I may just get a Runcam.
 
If you do get another cam PM me and I'll make you an offer on your Mobius as-is.

Phil
 
kenmtb said:
Yup tried the reset many times. At this point It looks like the main batter and/or main board is a fail.
I ordered a battery. If that doesn't fix things then I may just get a Runcam.
Click to expand...
Runcam become very hot and were not designed for dashcam use. They apparently also have a serious audio problem and their GUI still doesn't work reliably after more than eight months after release.
There are also problems with the date and time resetting and other problems too. The many issues may be acceptable for RC use but for a dashcam you should have a reliable camera. See the RCGroups thread here.

Are you aware of the Mobius 2? It uses much less power (= less heat) than all similar cameras, is about the same size as the Mobius and was also designed to be used as a dashcam.

If you use a battery in your camera as opposed to a supercap you should be aware that the hotter the camera runs, the shorter the battery life. Batteries don't like excessive heat.

Have you tried using your Mobius without the battery connected? You'll lose the date and time but the camera should then operate correctly. Connect to USB power (2-wire) not to your PC. Don't use Sandisk cards. They are well known for failing or not working correctly.
 
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Tried a new battery, same results. In fact the camera is running very hot so something is wrong internally. The old battery was not holding a charge and it was very puffy. I didn't know until I got the new battery.
I think I may look into the Mobius 2 as there seem to be few alternatives.
Thanks for the help.
Ken
 
Too bad the new battery didn't revive your Mobius.
Are you sure your power supply is within specification? It's a known fact that a bad power supply can destroy both the Mobius and the battery if it can't supply the necessary current.

If you want a replacement camera that has the same size and functionality as the Mobius then you don't have any choice other than buy another Mobius or the M2. There are others, but they are either larger and/or are not designed for dashcam use.
The new Mobius Mini is also not a choice, IMO. It may seem tempting because of it's tiny size but it gets much too hot for prolonged dashcam use. The DSP used in the Mini is not nearly as efficient as the DSP used in the M2 and it's battery is so small that it won't last more than about 30 minutes while recording. I don't believe there will ever be a supercap that will fit, but I may be wrong. No other camera will offer such a large number of parameter settings the M2 will have in the upcoming major firmware release.
 
Isoprop said:
Too bad the new battery didn't revive your Mobius.
Are you sure your power supply is within specification? It's a known fact that a bad power supply can destroy both the Mobius and the battery if it can't supply the necessary current.

If you want a replacement camera that has the same size and functionality as the Mobius then you don't have any choice other than buy another Mobius or the M2. There are others, but they are either larger and/or are not designed for dashcam use.
The new Mobius Mini is also not a choice, IMO. It may seem tempting because of it's tiny size but it gets much too hot for prolonged dashcam use. The DSP used in the Mini is not nearly as efficient as the DSP used in the M2 and it's battery is so small that it won't last more than about 30 minutes while recording. I don't believe there will ever be a supercap that will fit, but I may be wrong. No other camera will offer such a large number of parameter settings the M2 will have in the upcoming major firmware release.
Click to expand...

There are some very tiny coin style super-caps available. Maybe it could be done?

coincaps.png
 
Dashmellow said:
There are some very tiny coin style super-caps available. Maybe it could be done?
Click to expand...

from the comments I suspect the lack of capacitor support is primarily about physical space, from the other comments I guess that's not really the major concern anyway

Isoprop said:
It may seem tempting because of it's tiny size but it gets much too hot for prolonged dashcam use. The DSP used in the Mini is not nearly as efficient as the DSP used in the M2 ming major firmware release.
Click to expand...
 
jokiin said:
from the comments I suspect the lack of capacitor support is primarily about physical space, from the other comments I guess that's not really the major concern anyway
Click to expand...

What kind of self respecting Mobius aficionado wouldn't want to push the limits of what this camera might be able to do? :)
 
Dashmellow said:
What kind of self respecting Mobius aficionado wouldn't want to push the limits of what this camera might be able to do? :)
Click to expand...

yeah I have no doubt they'll get used for all sorts of things that the developers don't always consider, such is the nature of the enthusiast user
 
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