My New Mobius Dashcam

[catch]

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner.

You most likely know I'm running a two cam independently hard wired Mobius setup.

First I bought the A lense Mobius from manufacture via eBay, coupled with a 32GB Kingston card. Been running that since 12th August with no issues. Firmware 1.7 shipped with, then upgraded to 2.10 , and now on the latest 2.18 it works on them all, so I reckon you can discount a problem with the firmware.

Now not long after getting my second Mobius, B lense via Banggood, married to a 64GB Kingston I noticed it would revert to a date 01/01/2012 at times. On the day I set off on a touring holiday, it did not start recording at all, so I pulled up and swopped the A lense from the rear to the front windscreen. Got down to Wales charged the Mobius B lense on a mains charger, but was still having problems with it, in that you could not rely on it, date changes missed clips, would start on ignition or not in some cases.

Anyaway long story shortish, during that two week trip I swopped the cams on to each others charging converter cables, swopped the min SD cards between cams. The only constants was the A lens cam worked flawlessly with whatever you married it to, and the B lense cam was unreliable on whatever it was married to. That said supprising thing was driving up home to North Yorkshire from Gloucester on the Saturday about 3.5 hours of driving, and a stop at the services, both cams worked with no problems.Got home updated firmware, no differance, on the Tuesday B lense cam recorded all the journey but the date stamp was wrong again as I found out when I checked it on the Thursday.

Then I got a blue light followed by an altenate red light and so on, it would not button record or switch off and the only way to get the flashing lights to stop would be to reset the Mobius. Anyway on resetting it that last time I noticed it woud not charge on the mains charger, though the light on the mains charge was indicating it was fully charged when it was obvoius it was not charging nor was it charged at all.

Have since been runnig the B lense Mobius on the A Mobius battery no problems.

And today I tested the suspect battery and it initialy showed a voltage of 0.45 volt for a second or two then ZERO. The yellow film covering the soldered contacts came of the battery casing easily and the battery casing itself had the same look you get from near melted plastic ie: uneven surface, and the soldered contacts were both black. As against the A lense battery, its contacts where of a good clean silver appearance and I was unable to remove the film as it still had its adhesive qualities. Obviously the only conclusion I can draw from those facts is, due to low quality soldered joints the battery heated up and failed.

The Mobius resetting to a date of 01/01/2012 is an indication that the battery is not charging and holding said charge as it should. Try recording a bit of video on a charged Mobius, then disconnect and reconnect the battery and record few seconds of video. The latter video will show 01/01/2012.

Hope the above helps with your problem, I reckon its your battery though.

I have sent an email to Banggood today, explaining the problem with supporting photo's and await a reply from them.

Edited October 6, 2014 by catch

[Phil 87]

I've found a lazy way to route the cable for the Mobius. In a MK7 Fiesta, with the camera mounted just to the left of the rear view mirror, a 3m USB cable will reach around the mount then through the hinge of the passenger's sun visor, along the left edge of the ceiling, around the clothes hook thing, behind the passenger seat and just reaches the front 12V port lol :)

I'll try and get a photo tomorrow, that's if it doesn't all fall apart on the way to work.

[jeebowhite]

I did it slightly differently for my cam, ran the cable to the front of the roof lining, tucked it in, ran it down the a pillar, through the dash panel under the glove box, down the centre console and under the gear shifter where it's plugged into a spare 12v Port

[Phil 87]

Yeah I'll have to try something like that, but at the moment I'm a bit reluctant to pull any trim off until I know exactly how I'm going to do it. Still need to try out that hidden USB port and see if that's the best place to connect it.

[Stoney871]

My camera arrived today and fitted it immediately, first impressions are good.

You get good video quality, reasonably simple to use once you get around the typical chinese to english tanslation hilarity.

Night mode causes no problems, the infra-red lights produces no reflective glare whatsoever and video quality up to 1080P is available.

There is a zoom mode when using the menu arrows and will go up to x4 magnification without distortion.

You also gain a nice wide rearview mirror too which gives good blind spot coverage.

A quick 2 minute sample of a night shot for your consideration.-

Only a couple of downsides I see-

To easily remove/refit the Micro SD card you either need to remove the camera or (as I will do when I get a 32gb card instead of a spare 4gb one I had lying about) add a strip of duct tape or something similar to get the card out without dropping it between the camera and original mirror.

The fact that the camera lens is off to one side can result in the image being off centre, however as the image has a wide angle of view this does not detract from the coverage of the road ahead.

[Micro]

Yeah I'll have to try something like that, but at the moment I'm a bit reluctant to pull any trim off until I know exactly how I'm going to do it. Still need to try out that hidden USB port and see if that's the best place to connect it.

The USB port for your radio?

If the Möbius detects any "proper" USB traffic on the data pins it will go into mass storage mode and not record (unless you use the video out cable).

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Ford OC mobile app

[jeebowhite]

did you go for the mobius in the end Clive?

[Stoney871]

I went for this-

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=301323407839&alt=web

It's handy that I have the switch panel USB fitted as the supplied interface cable reaches just right for now.

I will be running a permanent cable later which will make everything nice and tidy.

It came with a 12v socket charger too but I find cables draped over the console and past the gearstick unappealing.

[Phil 87]

The USB port for your radio?

If the Möbius detects any "proper" USB traffic on the data pins it will go into mass storage mode and not record (unless you use the video out cable).

It's the secondary USB port on the Sync module I'm talking about, and you may be right about it sending the Mobius into storage mode. If that's the case there are USB cables which transmit power only.

[jeebowhite]

Very nice find Clive, more discrete still! Hefty price tag though but if it's An in you could stick a parking cam unto it as a monitor...

[sonic113]

I went for this-

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=301323407839&alt=web

It's handy that I have the switch panel USB fitted as the supplied interface cable reaches just right for now.

I will be running a permanent cable later which will make everything nice and tidy.

It came with a 12v socket charger too but I find cables draped over the console and past the gearstick unappealing.

nice camera. I think the mirror version cams like these are nice when fitted as they are very discreet, but like James says hefty price tag. The price of the mobius was what drew me to purchase it and I think its still a super wee camera, But as far as rear view mirror cams that one looks like a neat piece of kit. :)

[jeebowhite]

Must admit I'm being drawn towards the Mobius for If and when I replace mine.

[sonic113]

Must admit I'm being drawn towards the Mobius for If and when I replace mine.

James

honestly its a great wee camera. I have had mine now for a few months and its fantastic. I upgraded mine to the new firmware as well and its such an asy to use camera. Im going to invest in another for the rear window at some point. Its a simple camera that does the job. :)

[jeebowhite]

Couldn't agree more. I went for my gs at the time based on screen, quality and coat, but now with the Mobius taking a 64gb card and the almost quarterly updates it really is becoming my favourite. I would still recommend the gs as an alternative but I think the Mobius is just nudging the lead for me.

[Micro]

Been looking at getting a reverse camera - with the Möbius able to record and output video at the same time it's a win win!

Won't be long before I've got two!

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Ford OC mobile app

[Marks12]

so i got my mobius camera today but still waiting for the mount to show up but of course i done a test vid to test it out and its pretty good im quite happy with it now hoping mount comes tomorrow when i get mount ill do a proper test and will upload that vid to youtube

[bettz]

Still no luck getting my cam to work.

I get issues with the cam not being detected in my pc until its had a 5 min charge

I'm thinking it could be the battery as the camera works fine when its been on charge for a while starts up & shuts down fine.

I've also left it 2-3 hours until the green light goes out 4-5 times now but again the cam seems to go dead after a few hours in the car sat doing nothing

I've ordered a replacement sd card & ive gone for a super capacitor hoping that sorts out my problem

Here's a vid of the camera in the 12v socket

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByuUU6BIywUXaFFBVnZlajFsWVE/view?usp=sharing

[dezwez]

sorry to highjack this post but ive one of these dash cams

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371110438769?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

what I would like to no is what supper Capapacitor I would need if anyone has a link that would be great

thanks in adv.

[SeanW]

Dez, I have a very similar camera. However, I notice in the listing that it records on AVI. The dashcam Talk forum describe that as a "Fake F70". Many of them don't last all that long apparently. Make sure it's properly fused too!!

I don't think there is a capacitor mod available for these cameras.

[dezwez]

Dez, I have a very similar camera. However, I notice in the listing that it records on AVI. The Dashcam Talk forum describe that as a "Fake F70". Many of them don't last all that long apparently. Make sure it's properly fused too!!

I don't think there is a capacitor mod available for these cameras.

what size fuse would that be

[Phil 87]

I've noticed something funny about the Mobius, not really a problem but if you don't quite push the SD card in properly it won't work. It's quite a challenge getting the card in and out just after I cut my nails, had to use a knife to push it in properly lol. Before I did that it would just have a solid light instead of the usual flashing light when it's recording. Even though the card clicked it obviously wasn't attached properly.

[bettz]

Thought i'd post an update sent my mobius back & exchanged it new one worked straight away once i'd changed the settings.Strange

[Phil 87]

Maybe some are just faulty or get damaged in the post. Mine seems to have a lopsided lens, it's dead on straight when I watch videos back but the camera is aimed slightly to the left lol.

[SeanW]

Tried opening it up and physically moving the lens?

[catch]

Thought i'd post an update sent my mobius back & exchanged it new one worked straight away once i'd changed the settings.Strange

Now't strange about it David, you had a faulty battery in the first Mobius.

I'm still awaiting a warranty replacement battery for my B Lense Mobious [it's on it's way] I did not return the Mobius as I did not want to pay shipping to China. Plus I'd drilled two holes in the back of the Mobius, and filed out the rear of the carriage to allow it to be removed from it's carriage from the back as well as the front. Just in case I wanted to fit it up close to the windscreen, thus making front extraction from the carriage impossible.

My B lense Mobius is running with no problems on the battery from my A lense Mobius, proving the point it was a battery issue and not a camera of charger issue. When the replacement battery comes, the A lense Mobius will be going in the back.