I went thru 3 brand new AA batteries just to find out it didnt do nothing...

BTW...If anyone bought a HD cam from elepontline I was be interested to know what your video bit rate is...Ive got 3 cams thru this seller and all have been between 6448-6554...does that sound real low?

Originally Posted by Tom Frank

Well if you can't recover it, it's lost, isn't it? The header is the very FIRST portion of the file, you shouldn't have to search for it. BUT, the header fix that Chuck talks about is specific to an .AVI file format, NOT a .MOV file format like the HD key cam writes to the card. So the identification procedure he talks about will not work, and is the reason you couldn't find it.

When you say you get a zero length file, does it leave any icon that shows up as a regular file, but with zero bytes? Or, are you saying you recover some file fragments that are totally hidden with no visible indication there unless you run a file repair program? I've not bothered even trying because I dont' know what the .MOV file structure looks like. Maybe when I get my replacement camera back, I'll run a test to see if anything is there when the battery dies.

Yea I agree I was not clear. With the #3, I would have a file with zero length (directly after recording without doing anything). After I error checked I was able to recover a hidden folder with two files and was able to Hex it together. With the #11 (the hd) nothing is shown until you error check. And when you do error check it is just 1 file recovered instead of 2 like with the #3.

I didn't think the change in format would make such a difference :X.

Originally Posted by finster

I went thru 3 brand new AA batteries just to find out it didnt do nothing...

BTW...If anyone bought a HD cam from elepontline I was be interested to know what your video bit rate is...Ive got 3 cams thru this seller and all have been between 6448-6554...does that sound real low?

That sounds normal, and more than enough for the video this camera outputs. My video bit rate is about the same, with total bit rate (including audio) just over 7000 kbps normally.

Back to your charger. What is the output voltage? Probably 0 if it does nothing?

I didnt check voltage from charger...Im sure its little or nothing...I will check and see...

I just checked one of mine. 5.1v

Originally Posted by lostheli

I just checked one of mine. 5.1v

OK, thanks. That's a quad voltage step up, so available current will be less than 1/4 normal after efficiency losses. With a 2000 mAH AA cell, that makes it not quite equivalent to a 500 mAH battery, so it should easily charge the internal battery. If the USB plug is terminated like the car charger, allowing it to both power the camera and charge the internal battery, that should give not quite three times the normal recording time (120 minutes) if you start with a fully charged internal battery. All hypothetical, of course.

But you say yours does nothing, which is interesting. I guess you know the red LED does not come on to indicate charging is taking place with the car charger (and, I assume would be the case with the emergency charger as well if it's similarly terminated). I don't know why the camera would not accept the charge if the voltage and current are available on the USB plug pins! How long did you leave it plugged in when charging a dead battery?

Originally Posted by Tom Frank

OK, thanks. That's a quad voltage step up, so available current will be less than 1/4 normal after efficiency losses. With a 2000 mAH AA cell, that makes it not quite equivalent to a 500 mAH battery, so it should easily charge the internal battery. If the USB plug is terminated like the car charger, allowing it to both power the camera and charge the internal battery, that should give not quite three times the normal recording time (120 minutes) if you start with a fully charged internal battery. All hypothetical, of course.

But you say yours does nothing, which is interesting. I guess you know the red LED does not come on to indicate charging is taking place with the car charger (and, I assume would be the case with the emergency charger as well if it's similarly terminated). I don't know why the camera would not accept the charge if the voltage and current are available on the USB plug pins! How long did you leave it plugged in when charging a dead battery?

Sorry, I jumped in before finster could answer and created some confusion, I think.

No, mine do charge the camera but they do not power it. Today, I ran the camera until it died and would not turn on, I then plugged in the charger and tried to record and it would record a few seconds and quit, the longer that I would wait before starting the recording, the longer it would record before quitting. So, it can only charge the camera, but it can't charge it quick enough to keep up with recording.
In the normal 40 minutes that the lipo takes to run down, this charger will put enough back in to record another 20 some minutes, of course I only see the 20 min. clip and not whatever it was recording after that because the camera doesn't save/ shut down properly.

I'm going to test how many full charges I can get from the AA and then I think I'm done messing with this thing, unless someone wants me to check something specific.

I wanted to throw a new AA battery in to test voltage on charger and I noticed something that may be the prob...lostheli knows what Im talking about but for others...if you take off the clear cap and look at bottom of circuit board theres a silver solder ring that runs around the border which when you tighten the clear cap it pushes that ring against a thin lip inside charger housing...which is negitive side from battery...its possible the cap wasnt tight enough to make a good connection...I do get 5.36v now with fresh battery but dont know what voltage was before I tightened the cap...sorry for the long delay...Im testing it rite now...you can see the ring on circuit board here...bottom pic

Originally Posted by airmob

Hmmm, I too parked my plane head first into a muddy field today also filling up the lens with mud. What's the preferred cleaning method for these cams? A damp Q-tip?

At the time of the crash I wanted to clean camera off, quickly. I just grabbed a paper towel, wet it, and twisted it to a point and went round & round. I changed the area on the towel a few times. I did not want to scratch the lens. I was just wanted to get it out before it dried in there.

I lucked out. It seems to record just like before the crash. I have now made a foam rubber case for future protection.

E-charger update...After I took out the battery and twisted the clear end cap making it tighter the E-charger does work now...I got 3- 20min clips just as lostheli said...guess it aint junk after all...LOL

Hi,

As I said many times:
SIMPLE IS THE BEST

Box: TIC TAC
Front glass: cut from Ferrero candy box or any other non scratched
transparent plastic (glued with epoxy two components glue,...)

For underwater use must be sealed with flexible "electric" tape.
20 Meters tested !

Enjoy.

Originally Posted by ptg

Hi,

As I said many times:
SIMPLE IS THE BEST

Box: TIC TAC
Front glass: cut from Ferrero candy box or any other non scratched
transparent plastic (glued with epoxy two components glue,...)

For underwater use must be sealed with flexible "electric" tape.
20 Meters tested !

Enjoy.

20 meters, haha that's AWESOME! :-)

Rick NR417

Thanks Tom,

I hadn't tried setting a custom preset. That's the best set up I've gotten yet!!

Joe

Originally Posted by Tom Frank

Tom, since I had not tried that one, I gave it a quick test. For what it can do, it seems to do it very well. But if you haven't done so, you should make a custom preset setting for the HD key cam or your video will be degraded horribly.

When you output your video to .AVI format, you are presented with a window to select a "preset" setting. If you select "same as source", the output video bit rate is only 3283 kbps on my test video, when the source bit rate was actually 7060 kbps. If you want to retain as much quality and detail as your original, you need to jack up the bit rate to be the same as your original. You can see what that is by right-clicking on the video file icon, then click on "properties/detail" and you'll see the total bit rate for that video. That's what you want to match when using Freemake.

So when the preset screen appears, click on the small blue gear "edit" icon under the default "same as source" preset selection (see attached picture). That will pop open another small "Preset editor" window where you can make changes to the settings (see the second attached picture). Select "Custom" for the bit rate and change the rate to match your clip. Chances are, most of your clips will all be about the same, so you can just give that profile a new name like I did (e.g. "HD Key Cam") and save it. The next time you do a conversion, just pick that profile name and you'll be all set to start the conversion.

FWIW, I also lowered the audio parameters in my profile since high quality audio of my motor sounds and stereo when the camera only records mono is just adding unnecessary length to the file. If you are recording for a doppler fly-by to convert later for speed calcs, you might want to leave the sound settings at their defaults. Too bad the program doesn't convert audio out to .WAV format... you'd be all set!

Originally Posted by ApexAero

Hi guys, Question, I have XP pro, quick time, windows media player, windows movie maker. What program is out there, free, and an idiot like me can simply import the .mov, edit the .mov to shorten it or grab a section for Doppler speed that I have to make a .wav file by grabbing the audio off the .mov file and save it to a format that keeps the HQ quality?
your time and effort would be greatly apperciated
Tom J

I use Super for file conversions, it can take a MOV file and convert direct to WAV, just select WAV as output container.

But here's an easier way, play the file using GOM. You can start and end while watching the flyby on the screen. Just need to select Advanced Audio Capture (it's not advanced, pretty simple..)

My camera arrived yesterday and definitely seems to have the uneven focus issue that has cropped up in the thread from time to time. While focus at centre and the top seems OK, the bottom and left of the picture are noticeably out of focus.

Is this becoming a broad-based issue with these cameras? I've had a #3 808 since they were released, and followed the general keyfob thread throughout, but don't recall anyone raising uneven focus as a problem.

Second, did we ever determine whether this was a lens or chip issue? I've seen both suggested.

Dave