September 26, 201015 yr I am one of life's fortunates; I have NEVER used or owned a PC. Well, almost; we had one at work which I didn't get involved with, used for accounts, but even SHE switched to a Mac in later years. I started on Macs in the late 80s (graphic design company) and when I retired about 12 years back I took my Mac home with me, later replacing it with an iMac. So, no Windows round this way! A
October 1, 201015 yr Word of warning regarding these cheap cameras, make sure you delete your vids from the SD card. I've found that the vid that uses up the last space available on the card is not playable afterwards. IE I had 3 good vids on the card and I forgot to copy them off, space available was 3GB...so when there was no more capacity left my vid from yesterday terminated at 3GB but was not playable afterwards.
October 1, 201015 yr ...space available was 3GB...so when there was no more capacity left my vid from yesterday terminated at 3GB but was not playable afterwards.From that I would imagine that if you let the camera fill an SD card with just one video you will lose the whole thing if you excede the card limit. For example, at 1gb per 10 minutes: if you try to film for 50 minutes on a 4gb card you will get nothing. Or, do you only lose it if there is more than one file on the card? Colin
October 1, 201015 yr No the file was there, all 3GB of it but it would not play...the other 3 vids played OK.
October 1, 201015 yr From that I would imagine that if you let the camera fill an SD card with just one video you will lose the whole thing if you excede the card limit. For example, at 1gb per 10 minutes: if you try to film for 50 minutes on a 4gb card you will get nothing. Or, do you only lose it if there is more than one file on the card? Colin The video clip that gets abruptly interrupted due to lack of room on the memory card probably isn't "closed" properly by the recording software, resulting in an unreadable AVI/MJPEG file. The other video clips present on the Micro-SD card should remain unaffected.
October 1, 201015 yr The video clip that gets abruptly interrupted due to lack of room on the memory card probably isn't "closed" properly by the recording software, resulting in an unreadable AVI/MJPEG file. The other video clips present on the Micro-SD card should remain unaffected.Thanks, the closure issue of the file makes complete sense to me; pity I didn't think of that. :o Therefore it may be possible to recover it (especially as it seems to retain its size rather than show as 0kb), if it is really important - but best to heed the warning now that it has been given. Colin
October 1, 201015 yr You might want to try opening it in a program called Virtualdub - it's free and is very good at fixing truncated video files as long as you have a codec to suit.
October 1, 201015 yr i got one...but i am waiting for memory card....pity because yesterday winding around the country roads of Pendle hill, i was being careful...25mph in case a car came around a corner....guess what....a woman on the wrong side of the road !!!! Two feet from a major pile up....Who said they can't drive.....and ride !!! .If only i'd had a working cam
October 1, 201015 yr What are these cheap ones like for sound, or is that asking too much? And if they DO do sound, how do you get round the inevitable wind noise? Allen.
October 12, 201015 yr http://www.aircommandrockets.com/images/day88/Day88_03_s.jpg http://www.aircommandrockets.com/images/day88/Day88_04_s.jpg Found here: Air Command Water Rockets MD-80 camera clone Via here: MD80instructions.co.uk | All the information you need about the MD80 mini camcorder.
October 12, 201015 yr Increase battery capacity using external USB power source This trick works perfectly for me, when plugged into the USB charger, not the computer (on the road, I just need to use a small AA-powered USB "backup" pack): " I’m surprised that this isn’t mentioned much on the internet, but on my MD80 clone, I can use an external usb battery pack to record if I hold down the record/stop button while plugging the usb cable in (camera has to be OFF first). " Found here: Tear down and hacking around gumpack camera
October 12, 201015 yr This trick works perfectly for me, when plugged into the USB charger, not the computer (on the road, I just need to use a small AA-powered USB "backup" pack): " I’m surprised that this isn’t mentioned much on the internet, but on my MD80 clone, I can use an external usb battery pack to record if I hold down the record/stop button while plugging the usb cable in (camera has to be OFF first). " Found here: Tear down and hacking around gumpack camera Interesting. Next level of sophistication would be to derive USB power from your 36V ebike battery...
October 13, 201015 yr How long's the battery last in the £12.99 camera (i.e. the one mentioned in the original post)? I've bought one, but seem to run out of battery very quickly... A
October 13, 201015 yr How long's the battery last in the £12.99 camera (i.e. the one mentioned in the original post)? I've bought one, but seem to run out of battery very quickly... A 60 mins or so if you are lucky, not the two hours I was expecting
October 13, 201015 yr How long's the battery last in the £12.99 camera (i.e. the one mentioned in the original post)? I've bought one, but seem to run out of battery very quickly... About 1h runtime, but make sure to set the recording mode to "manual" (as opposed to "activated by sound detection"), otherwise the recording stops when the environment is silent (it happened to me a few times).
October 13, 201015 yr Thanks. Which charging method seems best, mains plug or USB from computer? A The main charger is an AC/DC converter that feeds 5V through the mini USB plug. Your computer motherboard delivers the same voltage but probably fewer milliamperes, so in theory the main charger charges quicker.
October 13, 201015 yr Interesting. Next level of sophistication would be to derive USB power from your 36V ebike battery... Already been done using among other things a Hyperion Bec, a battery eliminator used for r/c models. Search DC- DC covertors on ebay you'll need one capable of around 40v down to 5v. They can be pricey, the Hyperion is one of the cheapest options at around £18.00.
October 15, 201015 yr I must admit, in cold weather my MD-80 video-camera tends to behave erratically: it stops filming for no reason whilst riding, and the video file sometimes isn't even saved on the memory card (it is not a reproducible pattern though, pretty random). I would attribute this to a weak battery, as it happened to me in the past with another portable device. I can live with a USB external battery, but for those wanting to mount the camera on an helmet...it kind of defies the point of a tiny device in the first place. To be fair, I'm not disappointed because I got what I paid for, no less, no more.
October 15, 201015 yr I must admit, in cold weather my MD-80 video-camera tends to behave erratically: it stops filming for no reason whilst riding, and the video file sometimes isn't even saved on the memory card (it is not a reproducible pattern though, pretty random). I would attribute this to a weak battery, as it happened to me in the past with another portable device. Mine does the same Dan, strange but the really really cheap one I have....cheaper than cheap and cheaper than my not so cheap one works quite well and is more consistent...
October 15, 201015 yr As you say, for £12.99 you really can't moan much. I'm chuffed to bits with mine - although I've just had one delivered for my brother-in-law, and checking it over it seems to be built better than mine! The buttons all 'click' nicely, unlike my one. Oh well... A
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