#11 Keychain Camera Problems

Tony

Tony

Staff member
As some of you know, I have purchased the #11 HD Key Chain Camera. And, when it takes video, it does quite well. But, mine is overheating and shutting off after about 3-4 minutes of video. I'm not sure why, but it is.

There are a couple things that I can do to stop this, and I'm going to try them in order. The first is to try to load the version 1 firmware back into the camera. This can cause some problems, and actually kill the video size and quality. The second is drilling holes in the case. I do not think that this will work because yesterday I had it out of the case, in a room that was 67*F and it still over heated. The third thing is to actually glue a heatsink to the chips that are getting hot.

So, when I get it done, I will let you know how it all turns out. If you have gotten a keychain camera like this, let me know if you have any problems like this.
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
I tried to reinstall the version 1 firmware, and as I suspected, I had problems. It installed just fine, but for some reason, after you started recording, it wouldn't stop. If you force it to stop, then you lose your video. So, I'm trying other firmware settings....
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
After trying all the firmware versions, the result is still the same. So, I have done the first case mod to see if I can get a little airflow over the chips and cool them down. We will find out later today after I get to work. I'm going to try to record my 15 minute drive all the way there. I have not been able to do this yet...
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
The two small holes thatbi put in the case seem to have helped, but not enough. Anything over 5 minutes and it overheats and shuts off. The only thing left to do other than throwing it in the trash is installing a heatsink. So that will be the next thing that I do.
 
R

Ron RC

New Member
The only problem I had so far related to heat was I had it in my pocket. Apparently it triggered the on button and the video button. I felt something real warm in my pocket, actually hot. I realized it was the cam. I pulled it out and held the off button to shut it off. I let it cool down for awhile. I then connected it to the computer to see if it still worked and if it actually had taken videos. I have a 4gig card in mine and it had four .9 gig videos on it and all obviously black vids as was taken in my pocket. I did a recharge and don't see any apparent problems from that mishap. One thing I did notice from day one with this cam is when you view the vids in their native .mov format, I notice a "jogging" or "jerking" of the motion in the vids. I thought it may have come from my memory card even though I have the Class 4 card, but that was not the case. When I converted the vids to .avi format using mp4cam2avi the jogging or jerking went away. I might just try a class 6 card and see if the native .mov stabilizes. The video quality is fantastic, but the converting is a pain in the butt, but the mp4cam2avi converter program at least does not degrade the video quality.

Ron
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
Ron, have you gotten rid of the time stamp? I'm thinking that the new firmware is to blame. And I'm running a class 4 card as well and it's working great. I actually have video of almost hitting a huge owl in my way home last night lol. It was night, so the quality was not that great.
 
R

Ron RC

New Member
No Tony, I have not removed the date/time stamp. I may do that in the future. I noticed when I ran the converted video (.avi) in Windows Movie Maker, it actually degraded the video quality and caused some artifacts in the time stamp. Kinda looks weird when you look at it. I sure wish that they would have designed it to produce .avi instead of .mov video outputs. BTW I had to add a 264vfw codec to get WMM to accept the converted .avi file.

Ron
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
I may purchase another one to do some more testing. And I will look into the .mov-.avi
 
Tony

Tony

Staff member
Well it seems that I'm the only one with this problem. Ron isn't having this issue. But, I'm still checking everything out.
 
Keith

Keith

Member
Mine gets warm but not as hot as the #3... I've kept the date stamp but have corrected it to the right date/time...

The only prob with mine is will not take photos, as soon as I press the vid button it goes straight into vid mode with 3 flashes... It's not a problem though cos I don't use it for stills anyway...
 
zapster

zapster

Member
I have had problems with every freaking keychain cam i have bought witch at this point is four.
I will never buy another one.But do want to buy a good quality HD camera any suggestions ?
 
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