Mobius Action Camera - Cheap GoPro alternative/dashcam

[McGherkin]

It needed its own thread really as it doesn't just fit in as a dash camera - it's much more besides.

So what is it?
It's essentially a budget GoPro, but about half the size, and comes with a range of different features and ways to configure it which make it incredibly versatile.
It can do things like time lapses, looped and sectioned recording (for use as a dash cam), motion detection, use as a webcam, output to a TV/Monitor, and so on.

Whilst configuration can be done through the camera, it's far easier to do it with the windows config software. LINK

It can record in a max of 1080p/30fps, or 720p/60fps.

It's bloody tiny - the camera itself is not much bigger than a box of tictacs, making it very easy to hide if installed in a car, or mount in tight spaces.

And it's cheap - £43, plus a card of your choice (although I suggest you read the linked thread before ordering a class 10 all singing all dancing 29382gb card off ebay, link to a reliable one below.)

Some photos -

Some footage - Youtube decreases the quality of videos considerably, so the raw files from the camera are uploaded to see for yourself.
720p 60fps (camera wasn't quite mounted securely here - with a proper suction mount, or simply being less retarded, it's a lot smoother and more stable.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17905285/REC_0003.MOV
1080p 30fps
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17905285/REC_0013.MOV

Also check out this great review by Techmoan;


HAVE A LOOK AT THIS THREAD WHEN BUYING TOO;
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1904559

TO BUY
Camera - LINK
SD Card - LINK


So, there's a few people on CS using these, I believe Markcup has just bought two and some have been used as dashcams for quite a while, so I thought I'd give it its own thread as it works just as well as a gopro type camera.
Be good to see some youtube videos/footage from peoples' cameras and reviews

 

[Scrooge]

Nice thread. I may get one of these as a decent go pro alternative.

 

[JackD]

Camera Ebay link is dead?

 

[McGherkin]

I've just tried it again and it definitely works my end.
Try looking at the link via Techmoan's website, as that's where I grabbed the link from.
http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2013/7...e-do-it-all-mount-anywhere-1080p-micro-c.html
It's a couple of paragraphs down from the video.

 

[Moodyvr6]

Just be careful with these as I had two go pop as they don't like to be on for too long ! Möbius exchanged the first one and then after the second went changed to a different style of there cameras, they said 'they are designed as an outdoor action camera so air is meant to be flowing over the two silver triangle heatsinks to cool them', not sure if they have changed now, but I have had no problems with the different style they sent, cheers

 

[McGherkin]

I've never had a problem with that, so I'd say the newer version's OK.

 

[banther]

Good find. Will purchase.
Thanks McBargain.

 

[Addicted]

There are a LOT of clones, so buying from eBay is not wise.

If we're gonna have a proper thread on it, can we link the real sellers? http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1904559

Aka:


Direct Sellers:China: eletoponline365; digitalele889

Re-sellers:

China: HobbyKing (Hong Kong); BangGood;

Singapore: Drone Matters

U.S.: novotm (MA); Massive RC (FL); SPYTEC (NY); ReadyMadeRC (OH); BangGood (US warehouse)

Canada: Great Hobbies (PE, ON, AB)

Europe: BangGood (UK warehouse); Webbex (U.K.); JooVuu (U.K.); Pakatak (U.K.); ; Mobius-Cam (NL); Revotech (CZ); Car Black Box (PL); Mobiuscam (RU)

As above though, they are a fantastic camera for the money, they're not quite as good quality as the GoPro, but they're good enough for the money that's for sure.​

 

[McGherkin]

The eBay link is to Eletoponline, the official direct seller.

 

[Addicted]

The eBay link is to Eleptoonline, the official direct seller.

Good good, also just seen you've actually put the RCGroups link in - mybad, didn't see it before (unless it just got added? :smiley

Useful sellers above anyway, just for the UK-based ones (I got mine from JooVuu and it was QUICK!)

 

[McGherkin]

I'll get Joovuu added later actually, they sell plenty of accessories and bits, including a waterproof case.

P.S. You're blind

 

[charltjr]

I've got one, had it about a year to eighteen months now and no problems with it at all. I used to use it as a dashcam but my commute is less risky these days so now it's in the Clio for trackdays.

Footage from a recent trackday here, although even at 1080p settings YouTube still drops the quality a fair bit compared to the original video:


The sound drop outs are not the camera, I get a bit shouty behind the wheel sometimes

 

[McGherkin]

A much better example of incar footage
Considering it has no image stabilisation the footage does tend to come out pretty stable. When the camera's not swinging around on a bit of half-stuck velcro.

 

[dann2707]

I've had mine for nearly a year now and it's always been awesome and reliable. Very easy to use too.

 

[Jonnio]

Just got mine in the post today, all I've done up to now is harass guinea pigs with it but it seems great!

 

[McGherkin]

f**k me, I was about to type in this thread when someone else bumped it! Mindreaders at work methinks.

I set it recording earlier to test something and forgot to turn it off. I now have an hour and 10 minutes of video of a wall, at which point I noticed it was still on. It was running on battery power the whole time and never showed a single sign of giving up. Not bad.

 

[Jonnio]

Lasts a while then!

I've got a track day next week so will be getting it set up for that. The Punto has a fairly redundant SatNav in it, the GPS antennae sits behind the rearview mirror so I'm hoping to get the camera mounted up there tidily.

I assume if I was clever I could run it off the GPS wiring somehow lol...

 

[Jonnio]

Was in the garage til 2am last night, messing with my Mobius, lens cable extension and a spare GPS receiver from puntospares...

Driver's view

Behind the mirror

Exterior

It's not 100% yet, I could do with dremelling some more of the GPS case away to lift the lens up slightly and possibly move it back so that it's not in contact with the window. At the moment it captures the top of the dash and ideally I am going for just the bonnet with maybe a thin sliver of dash.

The GPS case literally just slides between the window and a small mount on the back of the mirror, which pushes it against the windscreen. The body of the camera is fixed with velcro to the mount, so it should all be easy to take out if the velcro stays put. I found a nice fitting grommet to fill the hole where the lens originally was and used the original GPS grommet where it runs into the GPS case.

There is wiring going to the GPS receiver so it might be possible to wire it in properly, but I have no real clue so I'll stick to batteries for the moment!

I think there might be enough room to fit the innards of the camera into the GPS case along with the lens, sorting the buttons and heat sink would be hard the hardest bit. Memory card could just stay in there and I guess the USB could be sorted with a short mini to female USB cable, would take more space up inside though unless I cut another hole into it.

For now I'll just get the lens pointing where i want and make sure everything is secure for Oulton Park next Friday!

 

[charltjr]

Nice job

 

[Addicted]

Interesting idea, but confused why you'd keep the case when you could move it all inside the GPS case :]

Out of interest, I presume you've removed the lipo battery too, so you just have it powered on from source?

 

[Jonnio]

Yeah it's a possibility, not 100% sure it will fit in the GPS case though and having access to the controls/ports might be a struggle. I'll get the lens fixed in the right spot and then look into all that.

The battery is still in there, don't know where to start with figuring out using the GPS wiring to power it at the moment. Guess I just start prodding stuff with a multimeter? lol

32GB cards just arrived (might get another cam for the rear). Shat myself last night when i put it all back together and the led was blinking at me, thought I'd broken something until I cleared the 1GB temporary card.

 

[Addicted]

Ahh, not sure about GPS wiring, but if you're using the usb connection still, as far as im aware you can just desolder the battery and it still runs (need to check this, but i think that's the case).

I'm not sure how the charging regulation is, but it can be a bit hit and miss, and you certainly don't want a fire from overcharging it (maybe that's a bit OTT, but happens easily).

 

[McGherkin]

Battery just unplugs, no need to de-solder anything AFAIK. You can get a capacitor kit which will provide enough juice to save your video after the power's switched off, which is more reliable and less heat sensitive than the standard lipo.

 

[Jonnio]

Managed to get another and set it up for the rear, went to a soaking wet Oulton on Friday and got some good footage with them. The rear camera died before lunch, tried to charge them both for an hour or so but it wasn't really long enough to get anything worthwhile after that, missed an Evo going into a tyre wall behind me which would have been fairly spectacular.

I'm thinking it might be good to get one of those battery charging packs to use with them instead of wiring them in.

Will get some vids up when I have chance, got a Clio 197 going sideways around Island Bend and then moments later it went straight across the grass at Foulstons. Can just about see a huge sheet of water fly up in the air when it does!

 

[McGherkin]

I use an Anker Astro E4 power pack, great piece of kit.

 

[f0xy]

Managed to get another and set it up for the rear, went to a soaking wet Oulton on Friday and got some good footage with them. The rear camera died before lunch, tried to charge them both for an hour or so but it wasn't really long enough to get anything worthwhile after that, missed an Evo going into a tyre wall behind me which would have been fairly spectacular.

I'm thinking it might be good to get one of those battery charging packs to use with them instead of wiring them in.

Will get some vids up when I have chance, got a Clio 197 going sideways around Island Bend and then moments later it went straight across the grass at Foulstons. Can just about see a huge sheet of water fly up in the air when it does!

I used one for a rear view on the same day too, good value for ~£40. I just added a second cigarette lighter into the boot on an ignition live, so can just plug in a power adaptor for it on track days. Turns on with the car and starts recording, etc.

 

[Jonnio]

I used one for a rear view on the same day too, good value for ~£40. I just added a second cigarette lighter into the boot on an ignition live, so can just plug in a power adaptor for it on track days. Turns on with the car and starts recording, etc.

Would be handy if they came on automatically! Syncing the videos up is a pain!
It turns out I did get the Evo going off into the barrier, found it last night!

Which car were you in to save me looking through your posts for a project thread lol?

 

[sburrell93]

Ordered myself one of these off the link in the OP last month and it's still not arrived. Tracking info says it's still at UK customs. Anyone else had any issues like this?

 

[MarkCup]

Syncing the videos up is a pain!

You need one of these...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapperboard

I don't use one as such but when recording anything I know I will want to synchronise later I give 3 loud claps once all cameras and audio devices are running...then when pulling it all together in my editing suite it's easy to line them all up when you have three pronounced spikes clearly visible on each track in the audio waveform of each file.

 

[McGherkin]

Would be handy if they came on automatically! Syncing the videos up is a pain!
It turns out I did get the Evo going off into the barrier, found it last night!

Which car were you in to save me looking through your posts for a project thread lol?

You can set the mobius to turn on automatically when external power is supplied.

 

[Jonnio]

You can set the mobius to turn on automatically when external power is supplied.

I meant it would be handy if they both turned on at the same time for syncing, Mark's post sorts that though! Slow clap ftw!

 

[f0xy]

Would be handy if they came on automatically! Syncing the videos up is a pain!
It turns out I did get the Evo going off into the barrier, found it last night!

Which car were you in to save me looking through your posts for a project thread lol?

Black E36
Think you appear in my video. Syncing isn't too bad, especially if you put one video to L and the other to R, then just match up the sound

 

[Jonnio]

Black E36
Think you appear in my video. Syncing isn't too bad, especially if you put one video to L and the other to R, then just match up the sound

Yeah that's me at the end getting left behind!
BM looks mean and interesting in the wet! :up:

 

[McGherkin]

Ordered myself one of these off the link in the OP last month and it's still not arrived. Tracking info says it's still at UK customs. Anyone else had any issues like this?

I never had any issues when I ordered mine from that link, possibly contact the seller?

 

[sburrell93]

I never had any issues when I ordered mine from that link, possibly contact the seller?

Think I'll need to now. Delivery date on eBay says tomorrow (21st) but it's still not moved from where it was 22 days ago, so I think it's probably time to do that.

Wonder if it's just a busy time for customs with Christmas coming up, or if there is actually an issue. I was worried it was going to get hit with import tax or something.

 

[McGherkin]

It may well turn up tomorrow, could just be the tracking status hasn't updated.

 

[f0xy]

I got it next day from this 'authorised' re-seller, using a discount code to bring it down to ~£44
http://www.banggood.com/Mobius-Full...-30FPS-720P-60FPS-For-Multirotor-p-90648.html

 

[banderson]

Are there any UK sellers for this? My girlfriend wants a dashcam for Christmas but I'm worried I wont receive this one in time.

 

[Addicted]

Are there any UK sellers for this? My girlfriend wants a dashcam for Christmas but I'm worried I wont receive this one in time.

Direct Sellers:China: eletoponline365; digitalele889Re-sellers:

China: HobbyKing (Hong Kong); BangGood;

Singapore: Drone Matters

U.S.: novotm (MA); Massive RC (FL); SPYTEC (NY); ReadyMadeRC (OH); BangGood (US warehouse)

Canada: Great Hobbies (PE, ON, AB)

Europe: BangGood (UK warehouse); Webbex (U.K.); JooVuu (U.K.); Pakatak (U.K.); ; Mobius-Cam (NL); Revotech (CZ); Car Black Box (PL); Mobiuscam (RU)

Check JooVuu, I got it from there, next day delivery!​

 

[McGherkin]

Yeah, joovuu will have a UK stock.