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808 Car Keys Micro Camera Review
hope it can help your life safe and happiness

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Quick Summary. Operating Instructions. Each version of this camera has it's own page: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7. After reading this website, I welcome questions, comments or corrections about the 808 camera. Follow all the best practices and you will have fewer problems. This camera is not a consumer friendly product. If you are not technical, you might have trouble using it. I do not answer questions about how to use Windows. Before emailing me about any camera problem, search this review then try these things: Try a different USB cable. Run H2testw on the flash (see fake counterfeit flash memory). Format the flash. Reset the camera. Email: clohr@yahoo.com.

To avoid bandwidth problems from spiders and robots some files are protected. User: vault, Password: 943708

24 Nov 2009 - How to ID your camera from a video.

UPDATE 100616 - There are many versions of this camera. It's important to correctly identify the version to set the date time or diagnose a problem. Do not use the seller description or the documentation that came with your camera.

Video AVI Dimension	Date Time Stamp	Micro SD card	Camera Version
640x480	upper left white or none	No	#1
	lower right orange or white	Usually none	#2
	upper left white or none	Yes	#7
720x480	lower right, yellow	Yes	#3
	lower right orange or white	Yes	#5
	lower left, yellow	Yes	#6
1280x960	lower right orange, white, green or none	Yes	#4


Table of Contents
808 Car Keys Micro Camera with keychain
General Topics ● Quick Summary ● Best Practices ● Comparison of Camera Versions ● Overview ● Links to Other Web Sites ● Sunplus Technology and Codecs ● Duplicated Frames ● Video Date Time Removal ● Bootstrap Mode ● CMOS Camera Module ● List of Typical Problems ● Measuring AOV and Focal Length ● How to Take a Video or a Picture ● How to Set the Date and Time ● Notes About Video Resolution ● How to ID Your Camera From a Video ● Hacking the Gumpack Camera ● Gallery of Other Small Video Recorders ● Connector for External LiPo Charger ● Wide Angle Lens Adapters ● VID PID and Webcam Drivers ● Flash Performance Comparison ● Infrared (IR) Filter ● Camera Module Datasheet - Truly ● SanDisk Dethroned ● High Lead Content	● PC Virus, Camera Virus ● Swell Battery ● Bad Solder Joint, Dead Camera ● Strange Color ● 808 Double Happiness ● Battery Charging, External Power ● Resizing 720x480 ● 808SetClock ● Measuring Missing Frames ● VirtualDub Tutorial (English, PDF) ● Spying with the 808 ● Mercedes Key Fob - Like the #3 ● Using Logoaway ● External Battery Mod ● Helmet Cam Mod ● How to Recover a Zero Length AVI File ● No Composite Video in the 808 But ... ● #2 & #3, Tear Down ● Anyka Schematics ● #1 vs. #3, Comparison ● Bad Solder Joints ● Underwater Mod ● Syntek Tools ● Camera Mount and Battery Switch ● USB Cable Mod for External Charger	#1 Camera #2 Camera #3 Camera #4 Camera #5 Camera #6 Camera #7 Camera MD-80 Camera ● #3 / MD‑80 Camera Timestamp Remover Gumpack Camera ● Gumpack with Dual Resolution ● GumPack Removing the Time Stamp and External USB Power Supply
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Quick Summary

Q. Which 808 car keys micro camera should I buy, and from who?
Buy a #3 camera and a micro SD flash card (class 4 or faster recommended). The video and sound quality is good. The reliability is good. You will be amazed when you see the first video that you take with this camera. See the #3 Q&A for a list of sellers and other information.

Q. Do you have operating instructions, and how can I set the date time?
Links to operating instructions and how to set the date time.

Important things to know about the 808 camera.
● There are many versions of the 808 camera. The versions are enumerated as #1, #2, etc. The version is not indicated on the outside of the camera. Features of the video and photo files can used to identify the camera version.
● The processor is either Anyka (#1, #7), SunPlus (#3, #6) or Syntek (#2, #4, #5). SunPlus cameras have the best video quality.
● It is important to identify the camera version.
● The camera video format is AVI with an MJPEG codec for most cameras or XviD codec for the #7 camera. You might need to download a video codec to play some AVI files. The audio is PCM.
● The camera photo format is JPG.
● USB cables that come with cameras are often bad, resulting in battery charging or connectivity problems.
● Regardless of the pixel resolution of the AVI or JPG file, the internal camera resolution is 640x480.
● Missing video frames - All cameras produce some. A slow flash card can make the problem much worse. The rate can be from almost none to over 50%. The camera inserts a missing frame or a duplicate frame into the AVI file. When the video is played, the player will display a missing frame with a previous frame. So the played video stutters and periodically freezes.
● Buttons - Press the buttons hard. The cheap button switches don't make good contact when lightly pressed.
● Buttons - Short press the mode button to end a video. The camera closes the AVI video file and the LED comes on.
● Buttons - If you long press the mode button to end a video, the button is ignored, the camera continues to record video and the LED does not come on.
● When video recording, some cameras close the file at 4GB, some at 30 minutes, and some at 50 minutes. Some then continue recording a new video file.
● Flash - The camera produces video AVI files and photo JPG files that are stored in flash memory. Most cameras use a removable flash memory card. It can be a micro SD or micro SDHC card.
● Flash - The flash card format must be FAT32.
● Flash - A class 2 flash card that works fine in a cell phone, thumb drive or digital camera might not work well in the 808 camera. The camera must be able to write an uninterrupted high data rate to the flash card.
● Flash - A class 4 flash card or faster is recommended, but some class 2 cards work OK. A slow card can result in more missing video frames, or audio video sync problems.
● Flash - When formatting a flash card in the camera, some cameras don't size the card properly and the free space is reduced by 7.4%. This can cause problems if the used space approaches capacity. Use an external card reader to format the card.
● Battery - The internal battery charger can charge the internal rechargeable LiPo battery to about 70% of capacity. It is not a smart charger.
● Battery - Do not trust the LED to be an indicator of battery charge. It works on some cameras, not on others.
● Battery - It takes about one hour to charge a completely discharged battery. Don't connect the USB cable longer than that.
● Battery - Once the battery is fully charged via the USB cable, disconnect the cable. The connected and fully charged condition produces more heat. The heat over time can damage the battery.
● Battery - When the camera is off it is really in standby mode. The clock keeps ticking and the camera uses very little battery power. Over many days the battery will be discharged, the date time will be lost and the battery will need to be recharged. Reset the date time.
● Battery - To conserve battery, the camera shuts off automatically after 30 seconds of no activity. While on and not taking video, short pressing the power button will keep the camera on for another 30 seconds.
● All cameras produce a date time stamp on the video. It can be disabled on some cameras.
● The camera firmware can be reloaded or updated on the Anyka processor cameras.
● A Windows webcam driver is available for every camera. Reports: the #3 camera webcam driver works with XP, 7-32 and 7-64.
● No webcam driver for the Mac.
● Virus - Cameras have been bought new with a virus already in the flash memory. Any mass storage device, including the 808 camera, can be infected by a virus or can infect a PC. Run an anti-virus program to protect yourself.
● Lead - The plastic case has tested high for lead (Pb).
● When you power-up the camera , it takes a few seconds before it is ready. If there are many files on the flash card, it takes longer for the camera to "boot up" and become ready.

Best practices
● Always run H2TESTW on every micro SD card, at least once.
● Run Crystal Disk Mark on every micro SD card to benchmark the performance. If the card is fake, the performance can be terrible.
● Use a class 4 or faster micro SD flash card.
● Always suspect the USB cable. Many emails dialogs were ended when the camera owner tried a different USB cable.
● The battery is charged from the 5 Volts on the USB cable. To charge the battery, sometimes a 5V USB power device works better than a computer USB port.
● Before using the camera, remove any files on the micro SD card, or better yet, format the card.
● Format - Format the micro SD card in an external card reader, not the camera.
● Format - When formatting, do a full format, not a quick format.
● Format - If a flash card was used in another device, always format it before using it in an 808 camera.
● Don't connect the USB cable for more than one hour. If the battery is fully charged and the USB is connected the camera produces the most heat. Since the plastic case does not dissipate heat well, this heat buildup can damage the battery.
● Press the buttons hard. The buttons don't seem to make good contact if pressed lightly.
● After disconnecting the USB cable, turn the camera off or reset it.
● While recording video the only acceptable action is to stop the video by short pressing the mode button.
● While recording a video do not long press the mode button, do not press the power button and do not connect the USB cable.
● Remove or insert the flash card only when the USB cable is not connected and the camera is off.
● Do not press the reset button and the power button at the same time. On some cameras this can smoke some camera parts and permanently damage the camera.
● If a flash card has files, and one or more file has been deleted, reformat the card before recording video.
● Have a spare USB cable and flash card. Most problems involve these items so having another one to swap helps to diagnose the problem.
● Run an anti-virus program. Some 808 cameras have been delivered with a virus's installed in the flash memory.

Problems and how to fix them
● Follow all of the best practices.
● Reset - If the camera won't respond, press the reset switch.
● Cable - The USB cable that comes with the camera is often bad. If there are USB connection problems or battery charging problems, try a different USB cable.
● Mode button won't start a video (no 3 LED flash) - Long press the mode button hard to start a video. The button is flakey.
● Mode button didn't stop a video - Short-press the mode button to stop a video and then the LED comes on. A long-press will be ignored, the LED will not come on, then long pressing the power button briefly lights the LED, the video stops, the LED turns off and the camera turns off. Confusing.
● Reseat flash card - Remove it and re-insert it.
● Move file to the hard drive - If the video or audio is jumpy, choppy or stutters, this could be due to a flash write problem, or a playback problem. If a playback problem, move the file to the computer hard drive and play it there. If a flash write problem, see Flash below.
● Flash - Do not buy any flash memory product from eBay until you have searched the sellers name at SOSFakeFlash. To test for fake or bad flash, run H2testw on every flash card and flash chip, at least once. The easiest thing to do is reformat the card (try SD formatter) or try a different card. Some cameras normally produce a small rate of duplicate frames in the AVI file. A slow flash card can increase the duplicate frame rate and cause video out-of-sync with audio. A class 4 or faster flash card is recommended (A class 2 can increase duplicate frames and cause the date time stamp to flicker). The most important flash card metric is random write speed and it's usually not listed. You measure the random write speed by benchmarking the card and generally SanDisk is the best. So far, every benchmarked flash card has enough sequential write speed (class 2, 4, 6, ...). Flash can't be "defragmented" but removing all the files before using it can help. The flash can be out of spec (does not meet the sequential write speed specification).
● Zero Length AVI file - If the AVI file is zero length because the battery died while recording, don't plug the camera into the PC without turning the camera on. Press and hold the power button for a few seconds till the light comes on and THEN plug it into the PC. If that does not work try this.
● Green trees look white and other colors are off - The infrared (IR) blocking filter is missing from the internal camera module (Infrared (IR) Filter). Either replace the camera or glue a piece of IR blocking filter to the outside of the 808.
● Battery problem - battery will not take a charge or has swelled. Replace the camera.
● H2TEST fails - If a #1 camera, the internal flash chip might be fake and you might be able to correct the problem. If a flash card, try reformatting and testing the card again.
● Terrible flash card benchmark - If Crystal Disk Mark reports a random write speed less than 1 megabyte per second, the video quality will probably suffer. Use a faster flash card.
● Corrupted system files on #1 camera - reformat camera partitions and reinstall system files.
● Smoke coming from camera - Can be caused by a loose component inside the camera. Can be caused by pressing the reset and power buttons at the same time. Replace the camera.
● Strange colors in both video and photos - Usually a data path connection problem inside the camera. Replace the camera.
● Internal short circuit due to loose component and vibration - Replace the camera.
● Broken internal wire due to poor solder or vibration - Replace the camera.
● Bad internal solder joint - Replace the camera.
● Missing micro SD card - If the camera has a slot then there is no internal flash. Install a micro SD card for video, photos or webcam.
● Various problems - Reformat the flash card or try a different flash card.
● Camera only records for a few seconds or a few minutes - Flash card or battery problem. If battery, the battery is not getting charged through the USB. Can be caused by the USB cable or USB adapter, or the power source (computer port). Try a different cable, adapter or power source. Maybe a different computer port or a 5V USB charger.
● When the USB cable is connected, Windows wants to install a driver - Bad USB cable.
● LED flashes 15 or 35 times - The camera can't access the flash card. Possible problems could be an improperly inserted card, a defective card socket,
a defective flash card, a flash card that is not FAT32 format, a card that was used in another device and not formatted before use in the 808 camera.
● Camera is dead but works fine on the USB cable - Things to try: Press and hold the power button, connect the USB cable, release the power button. Press and hold the power button, disconnect the USB cable, release the power button. If those things did not work, try a hard reset. This will reset the battery module protection circuit. This happened to my #3 camera and restored it. To hard reset cut a battery wire, and re-solder and re-insulate the wire. I wish there was a simpler fix.
● When the USB cable is connected Windows wants to install a driver - This should never happen and is usually a USB cable problem. The problem could be the cable or the ports on either end of the cable. Try a different cable, different computer port or different computer.
● Two diagnostic tests. If the tests pass then suspect the micro SD card and try a different one, or reformat the card and try again. If either test fails then the camera is probably bad. If you are technically qualified you can open the plastic case and inspect the circuit board for a defect (a solder short, a solder open, an intermittent, or a piece of metallic debris) and correct it. If the defect shorted something, the camera might not be repairable.
Test 1 - Remove the micro SD card. Reset the camera. Connect the USB cable. The camera should install as a mass storage device (a drive letter) and show the drive as being empty.
Test 2 - Disconnect the USB cable. Remove the micro SD card. Reset the camera. Long press the power button. The LED should turn on, flash 15 or 35 times, and go out.


Comparison of the versions of this camera
	#1 #1A old firmware #1B new firmware	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7
Summary	Original. Must update firmware. Many fake flash chips. Low data rate. Removable date time stamp. Poor audio.	Toshiba CPU is good. Poor audio.	Overall the best camera. Annoying date time stamp. Great audio. High data rate.	Fake HD. Terrible duplicate frame rate. Good audio.	#2 variant. Confused with #3. Are there two versions of the #5? Poor audio.	#3 variant. Date time stamp in lower left corner. Files are MEDI., or SUNP..	#1 variant. Micro SD card slot. Different processor. AVI is XviD. Firmware updateable. Poor audio.
Processor	Anyka AK3631B14402	Syntek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. STK1262BLQG	Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd. SPCA1527A	Syntek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. STK1262BLQG	Syntek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. STK1262BLQG	Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd. SPCA1527A	Anyka AK3651B
		Two versions: Toshiba CPU. mTec CPU.	Shows micro SD slot
Native resolution of the internal camera module	640x480				?	640x480
Video AVI dimensions	640x480	640x480	720x480⁽¹⁾	1280x960	720x480	720x480	640x480
Photo JPG dimensions	1280x1024⁽²⁾	1280x960	1280x1024⁽²⁾	3264x2448	1600x1200 or 1280x1024	1280x1024	1600 x 1200 (1280x960 claimed)
Video aspect ratio is correct	✓	✓		✓	✓		✓
Photo aspect ratio is correct		✓		✓			✓
Flash memory. Internal flash chip or Micro SD/SDHC card.	Internal 2/4/8 GB chip	Internal card or external slot. New cameras have a slot.	External slot. Up to 16 GB.	Internal chip or external slot.	External slot.	External slot	External Slot
Flash Memory Partitions	Three partitions: firmware, camera files, one large partition for user files (AVI, JPG).	One partition. No system files on the internal flash card.	One partition. No system files on the micro SD flash card.	TBD	One partition. No system files on the micro SD flash card.		One partition. No system files on the micro SD flash card.
LED	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Blue and red	Blue, red, or blue and red	Yellow	Yellow Orange
Video Date time stamp is removeable	#1A No #1B Yes			✓	✓ some		Depends on firmware version.
Audio record mode				✓
Webcam ?	✓ 320x240	✓	✓ 640x480	✓	✓	✓	✓ 320x240
Webcam driver	USBANYKA	STK02N	SPCA1528	STK02N	STK02N	SPCA1528	USBANYKA
Record a long video⁽³⁾			✓ The new #3 cameras have 30 minute close-and-continue	✓ 50 minute close-and-continue
AVI file fps	#1A 25 #1B 15	about 29	30 to 30.999	about 31 TBD	30.000	One sample 29.728 One sample 29.634	30.000
Missing (Duplicate) frames per second (lower is better)	#1A Bad. More than 12. #1B Good. Less than one.	Toshiba version is excellent with no duplicates. mTec version is fair with 5. Burst of duplicates in the first 1/2 second.	Good. Less than 3.	Bad. Measured 21.		Measured samples: 5, 5, 2.8	Default bad: 12-16 Good: If FPS is configured 20 or less, and class 4 flash or faster, missing frames approach zero.
Motion blur	Severe	Very little	Very little	Severe
AOV (angle of view)	40 degrees	TBD	Depends on which lens you get. 36 to 44 degrees.	TBD
Video date time stamp	Upper left white text (Sample) #1B can be disabled	Lower right orange text (Sample)	Lower right yellow text (Sample)	Lower right orange text. Can be disabled.	Lower right white text or orange text	Lower left yellow text	Upper Left White Text
Photo date time stamp			lower right, yellow on black
Photo date time stamp						Lower right, yellow on black
Required orientation	My camera vertical. Others report horizontal.	Horizontal	Horizontal		Horizontal	Horizontal
Example seller who sold that version in the past	eBay	eBay, Amazon	#3 Sellers			eBay eBay BazaarLee	HobbyCity
Video Compression	AVI MJPG						AVI XviD
One hour of video, billion bytes	1.2 - 2.0	2.4 - 3.8	3.2 - 4.9	about 3.5			about 2.6
One minute of video, million bytes	20 -33	40 - 63	54 - 82	about 58		Measured sample: 72, 61, 81	Wide variation 12 - 44
Sample video	See my samples below	YouTube, Sample Video	YouTube	TBD
Audio PCM mono	16 bit, 8000 Hz, 128kbps.	8 bit, 8000 Hz, 64kbps	16 bit, 22050 Hz, 352kbps.	8 bit, 24000 Hz, 196kbps	8 bit, 8000 Hz, 64kbps	same as #3	16 bit, 8000 Hz, 128kbps.
Weight without keychain	15 grams. 10 grams without plastic case.
Size	50mm x 32m x 13mm 2” x 1.25” x 0.5”
Battery LiPo Internal Rechargeable	3.7V, 180 mAh						032030PL, 140 mAh
Battery life	Empirical about 50 minutes		1 hour of recording, 50-70 minutes.	TBD
date time file name, sample format	time.txt, 2009.05.13 15:10:00	time.txt or settime.txt, 2009.05.13 15:10:00	tag.txt 24 hour clock, [date] 2009/12/29 16:58:00	time.txt, 2009.05.13 15.10.00 Y	timerset.txt, 20100308155900 Y 20100221001100 N or tag.txt [date] 2010/06/09 13:47:20	tag.txt [date]2010/12/3101:00:00	"time.txt works"
Circuit board markings						CARDV_V1.1 2010/01/07	CX_311C_3.0 2010-02-26 CX_611C_2.0 2009-12-26
Firmware							Versions that pass sanity. 1.06, 1.07, 2.04
Other notes			Filenames are SUNP####.AVI/JPG.
⁽¹⁾ Camera #3 takes a 640x480 image and upconverts it to 720x480 in the AVI file. There is no PAR (pixel aspect ratio) property in an AVI file and pixels are assumed to be square. If you play this file with square pixels it will look distorted (a circle will look like a wide oval). To avoid this distortion force the player to 4:3 DAR (display aspect ratio) or re-encode the video to a 4:3 DAR. ⁽²⁾ Camera #3 takes a 640x480 image and upconverts it to 1280x1024 in the JPG file. This non proportional distortion makes a circle look like a tall oval. ⁽³⁾ I call this feature close-and-continue. After 30 minutes on the #3 camera or 50 minutes on the #4 camera the AVI file is closed, and another video recording starts. This allows the camera to avoid the 4GB file limit. Flash size and battery life limits still apply.

Overview

Minox A/IIIs, film "spy" camera, c. 1969, used by
James Bond in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service",
photos, no video, 82x28x16 mm, 70g, US$400 used

(The Minox and the 808 are shown at the same scale)

The 808 Car Keys Micro Camera is typically advertised as a "spy" camera. This review does not cover the suitability of this camera for spying or surveillance, and I have no expertise there. My career background is with embedded microprocessors, software and electronics.
See this comment.

808 car keys micro camera, "spy"
camera, c. 2010, never used by
James Bond, photos, video,
50x32x13 mm, 15g, US$20 new

This is a review of the 808 Car Keys Micro Camera from China. It weighs about 1/2 oz and can record photos, or video with audio for about one hour. Wow. It is so small, light weight, cheap and functional that it has been enthusiastically adopted by the model RC (radio controlled) airplane and helicopter community. In spite of a few serious flaws in some versions of this camera (like poor reliability, poor image quality, poor audio quaity, and a minimal human interface), this technology is amazing, and most people gladly put up with the quirks.

nerd

This camera is for you if ... This camera is an amazing, inexpensive, small, light weight, piece of technology. This camera is for you if you are a geek or giz wiz that loves gadgets, are an experienced PC or MAC user, have a lot of intuition, love to solve problems, are comfortable using Google search, know the difference between a drive and a driver, can figure out how to insert a micro SD card, know what a lithium ion or lithium polymer battery is, can work without an owners manual, have experience with USB devices including flash drives and webcams, have experience with video editing and codecs, have a set of small screw drivers and your program tool chest includes gspot.exe and virtualdub.exe.

This is not a consumer friendly product. This camera is an adventure, so expect fun and disappointment. A camera reboot (reset) is sometimes a normal part of the user experience. This is not a consumer friendly product, particularly for people who are not technically inclined. The camera comes with a poor instruction manual, or a wrong instruction manual, no video editing software and no video encoding software. The user interface is sparse. No manufacturer or reputable brand would put their name on a camera with this variable level of reliability.

Why are these cameras so cheap? Because some of the parts are not the best. The parent design is a cell phone with a camera, but the cell phone features (radio, keyboard, screen) have been removed. Evidence - ring tones and cell phone graphics have been found embedded in the camera firmware! Because China makes millions of cell phones, there are lots of rejected parts. These parts sometimes have the manufacturer name or part number removed, are cheap and are sometimes sold by the pound. Some of the reject parts, like flash memory chips, are reprogrammed to fake a larger size. Many rejected parts don't pass the parametric tests but are still functional. I believe that some rejected parts get used in these cameras.

Why isn't there a brand or manufacturer name on the outside or inside of the camera? A brand represents a level of quality. Without a brand there is no guaranteed quality level, and no reputation to protect. There are probably some shady goings on here, so it's probably best to lay low and not say too much, and not answer these questions: Does the camera manufacturer have the copyright to the original cell phone design and software? Have all the patent royalties been paid? Have all the FCC compliance test been done? How much lead is in that plastic clam shell design? Do all the pixels in that CMOS sensor work? Why do these parts have no manufacturer or part number on them?

Summary of Features:
►MANY VERSIONS - There are many versions of this camera: #1, #2, ...
►#1 - Has an internal flash chip (no flash card). Firmware can be reloaded and upgraded. OK if the firmware is upgraded with 15 FPS firmware that offers much better quality. Can optionally remove the video date time stamp. Original 25 FPS firmware had bad 50% duplicate frames. Many cameras, including mine, died because of a fake internal defective flash memory chip. I revived my dead camera with a firmware upgrade.
►#2 - is much better than the #1. It has an internal micro SD flash memory card.
►#3 - is the best camera. It uses an removable micro SD flash memory card and has the best quality audio.
►#4 - is a mix of bad and good. It claims to be HD but is not. It has some unique desirable features. Available with either internal flash chip or micro SD slot.
►#5 - has a micro SD card slot and 720x480 video like the #3 camera, but the #5 video is not aspect ratio distorted. The processor is different and the audio is worse. On eBay it is hard to distinguish it from a #3 camera.
►#6 - is a SunPlus processor camera. Like the #3 but more missing frames. Video date time stamp is in the lower left.
►#7 - is an Anyka processor camera that is very configurable. As delivered at 30 FPS the missing frame rate is terrible. Configured for 20 FPS and a fast flash card, the video quality is OK. The audio is terrible with low resolution and various noise artifacts. The FPS is adjustable and the video date time stamp can be disabled.
►MANUFACTURER - No manufacturer is shown on the camera or documentation. The manufacturer of the camera is unknown but the processors and the webcam drivers have these names on them: Anyka, SunPlus Technology and Syntek Semiconductors.
USB camera cable

►USB - The mini USB cable that comes with a camera is often unreliable, resulting in connection or battery charging problems.
►BATTERY - The camera is powered by an internal rechargeable LiPo battery (similar to a Li-Ion battery) that is recharged through the USB cable. The battery is not removable. The camera has two power modes: on and standby. When the camera seems off it is actually in standby, powering the circuit board and maintaining the date time clock. The battery will slowly loose charge in standby mode. There is no switch to completely disconnect the battery (some other micro cameras have a disconnect switch, but then the date time stamp is lost). Some batteries stop taking a charge. A charge lasts about 50 minutes at room temperature. Marcus from Finland says the battery lasts 8 minutes at -7C at open air and riding a moped at 40km/h.
►NO DRIVER - To use the camera as a mass storage device (a drive letter) no driver is required (exception Windows 98). If your computer will not install your camera as a mass storage device, then there is something wrong with the camera, the USB cable or the computer.
►WEBCAM MODE- Some cameras can be used as a USB webcam. This mode requires a webcam driver. Some video capture programs will support the webcam driver. As a webcam, the camera microphone is disabled.
►DATE TIME - The date time defaults to 1970 or 1980. The user can set it using the rules below. Only a dead battery will unset it. The date time is applied to each created file. Video images and some photos are date time stamped. The video stamp can be disabled on some cameras. The stamp can be "removed" in post processing.

►FLASH MEMORY - Do not buy any flash memory product from eBay until you have searched the sellers name at SOSFakeFlash. Always run H2testw at least once on all flash memory especially if it is generic. Reformatting can sometimes reduce these problems: lockups, duplicate frames, aborted video. The flash memory is FAT32 file system. NTFS can not be used. No single file can exceed 4GB (about 50 minutes on a #3 camera). Flash cards can be SD (up to 2GB) or SDHC (up to 32 GB).
►FLASH CHIP INTERNAL - The #1 camera is the only internal flash chip camera, and the flash is often fake. This chip holds both the firmware files and the AVI and JPG files. If the firmware gets corrupted, the camera will not work until the firmware is re-installed.
►FLASH CARD INTERNAL - Some #2 cameras come with an internal micro SD card. You need to disassemble the camera to remove or replace the flash card. See external flash card.
►FLASH CARD EXTERNAL - Most new cameras have an external micro SD card slot. It is important to use a micro SD flash card that has fast random write speed. Manufacturers don't publish the random write speed but it can be measured with Crystal Disk Mark. SanDisk usually performs great, and the generic brands can perform poor. Poor random write performance will cause increased duplicate frames, video/audio sync problems, and maybe truncated AVI files. "Class 2, 4 or 6" refers to the sequential write performance. Class 4 or faster is recommended. Some class 2 cards are too slow resulting in a high missing frame rate and a video date time stamp flicker.
►VIDEO CODEC - The camera produces AVI video using the MJPG or XviD codec. You might have to install a codec to play or edit the AVI file. For better playback performance, move the AVI file to a hard disk.
►AUDIO - The audio in all AVI or WAV files is mono PCM. The #3 and #4 have the best audio. The #1, #2, #5 and #7 have fair to poor audio with 8000 Hz sampling that sounds like you are talking into a big tin can.
►ASPECT RATIO (AR) - Some of the AVI and JPG files are slightly AR distorted due to upconverting ratio mismatch.
►MODES - All cameras record video with audio, or images. Some cameras also have a audio recorder mode.
►BUYING - Most cameras are bought on eBay and take 2 to 4 weeks for delivery from Hong Kong or mainland China. Most ads are full of misinformation and broken English. For faster delivery and often a better tested camera there are sellers in the USA but you will usually pay more.
►LEGAL - Your right to use, own, buy or sell a micro camera might be limited by the laws of your country, or the policy of a market maker like eBay.

Summary of Metrics:

Camera ->	#1	#2	#3	#4
Measured AVI File Data Rate, Million Bytes Per Minute	20 - 33	40 - 63	54 - 82	around 58
Audio Properties, Mono PCM	16 bit, 8000 Hz, 128kbps	8 bit, 8000 Hz, 64kbps	16 bit, 22050 Hz, 352kbps	8 bit, 24000 Hz, 192kbps
Native camera resolution	640x480	640x480	640x480	640x480
AVI file dimensions	640x480	640x480	720x480	1280x960

►RESOLUTION -The camera resolution is 640x480. The JPG and AVI files are upconverted to more pixels (720x480, 1280x1024, 1280x960, 3264x2448) but not more resolution.

Many Versions - There are many versions of this camera: #1, #2 ... Externally they all look very similar. All have a lens, microphone, USB connector, hole for the reset switch, two working buttons, two fake buttons, and an LED. Some have a slot for a micro SD card. They all have a similar plastic clam shell case, held together with two screws, and weigh about 15 grams without the key chain, or 10 grams without the plastic clam shell.

● #1 has an internal flash memory chip (usually 2GB, 4GB or 8GB). The video quality is fair to poor (4 Jan 2010 update - With new software bin files this camera works much better). The playback stutters because about half the frames are duplicates (the new software bin files fix this problem). The flash memory chip has three partitions: two small partitions for system files and one large partition for user files (AVI, JPG). If the system files are deleted or corrupted the camera will fail. This is a common failure because many of the #1 cameras have fake defective flash chips. The failure rate is high (YMMV) and if a #1 camera dies (many do) you can try this. Many people have reported that their camera stopped working after a few weeks, and so did mine. I have been able to fix the problem. There are some tricks to maybe access the flash and offload your files by using system mode. The date time stamp is white and in the upper left corner. With the latest software files this date time stamp can be optionally removed.

Camera #1, Date time stamp, upper left

● #2 has a micro SD Flash card sealed inside the camera. The card is not user accessible. The video quality is good. The camera and the AVI file are both 640x480 so there is no aspect ratio distortion. The frame rate is about 29 FPS. There is a burst of duplicate frames in the first second, then it depends on which CPU the camera has. The Toshiba CPU camera measured no duplicate frames. The Mtec CPU camera measured 5 duplicates per second. The USB interface is slow. The date time stamp is in the lower right corner and the font is either orange or white.

#2 camera, Date time stamp, lower right

● #3 has a slot for a removable micro SD Flash card and no internal flash. The video quality is very good. The best audio (352kbps). The failure rate is low (YMMV). The duplicate frame rate is low. The 720x480 video is AR (aspect ratio) distorted (camera AR 1.33 is up scaled to 1.50 in the AVI file). More than one lens AOV (angle of view) has been measured for this camera, 36° and 44° (54mm and 45mm equivalent respectively). The various lens coating colors (none, red, green and blue) do not seem to correlate to anything. The date time stamp is yellow and in the lower right corner.

As a mass storage device the device manager reports this:
     Disk Drives, General USB Device, GENDISK.
     USB Controllers, USB Mass Storage Device, Hardware ID 04FC 0171.

As a webcam the device manager reports this:
     Imaging Devices, General Still Camera, Hardware ID 04FC 1528.
     Imaging Devices, General Video Camera, Hardware ID 04FC 1528.
     USB Controllers, USB Composite Device, Hardware ID 04FC 1528.

#3 Camera Date time stamp, lower right

● #4 is available with either an internal flash chip, or a micro SD card slot. The video quality is like the #2 camera but with a very high (bad) duplicate frame rate. The #4 claims to be HD but seems to have a native resolution of 640x480 and upconverts it to 1280x960 in the AVI file. The photo mode seems to upconvert a 640x480 image to a ridiculous 3264x2448 in the JPG file.

In spite of this fakery, the camera has some desirable features. The date time stamp can be disabled. Long videos can be recorded because the camera does close-and-continue at 50 minutes to avoid the 4GB file limit. There is an audio recorder. The aspect ratio is not distorted. There is a webcam driver.
#4 date time stamp

#4 camera date time stamp, lower right

● #5 is a variant of the #2 camera. Like a #3 camera it takes 720x480 video and has a slot for a micro SD card. This makes it difficult to know what camera you will get from a seller on eBay. Unlike the #3 the #5 video is not aspect ratio distorted.

Unlike a #3 camera it has worse audio 8 bit 8000 Hz 64kbps, a blue or red LED, a white or orange video date time stamp, an AVI file that is exactly 30.000 FPS and the processor is a Syntek. The claim that the video date time stamp can be disabled has not been verified.

#5 Camera Date time stamp, lower right, white or orange text

● #6 (under construction) is a SunPlus processor camera. Like the #3 but more missing frames. Video date time stamp is yellow in the lower left.

● #7(under construction) is an Anyka processor camera that is very configurable. Configured for 20 FPS and with a fast flash card, the video quality is just OK. The audio is terrible with low resolution and various noise artifacts. The FPS is configurable and the video date time stamp can be disabled. As delivered at 30 FPS the missing frame rate is terrible.

The video quality of #2 and #3 seem to be similar, and better than #1. If you buy this camera online which version will you get? Some online sellers show sample videos that help you to make a better decision. See the comparison table.

My first camera was a version #1 (8GB) camera. I ordered it at an eBay auction from xprodeal and it was delivered from Hong Kong in 12 days for $23.25 with free shipping. The auction price for the 8GB camera has been $18 to $27. This camera creates a 25 fps AVI video file, but half of the frames are duplicates. This camera worked for about a month then it failed due to a defective fake flash memory chip. It has been partially revived.

xprodeal (xprodeal ad feedback) (sosfakeflash xprodeal) is on a list of eBay sellers that sell products with bad flash memory. Click here for more info.

My second camera is a version #3 camera. I ordered it from eBay seller joymyzone.. It was delivered from Hong Kong in 19 days for US$16.98, with free shipping. I am using an 8GB micro SDHC flash card. This camera creates a 30 fps AVI video file with only a few duplicate frames per second. The video quality is much better than my #1 camera. Here is a preliminary #3 camera report.

Bad USB cables - Some of these cameras have been delivered with a bad or intermittent mini USB cable. If you are having USB connection problems, try a different USB cable.+

Links
You might need Google Translate for some of these links.
The user and password for some of these links is listed at the top of this page.

FORUMS ENGLISH
● RCgroups.com Aerial Photography thread - My keychain 8gb camera came today
● Parallax.com thread about this Keychain DVR camera
● FlyQuiet.co.uk http://www.flyquiet.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2030.0
● HeliFreak Keychain camera
● FPV-Community (RC Flying from the Cockpit) http://fpv-community.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=269
● Essexbikers, UK, Motorcycle Forum, Cheap Onboard Cameras
● RSVZone, Aprilia RSV series of motorcycles, Onboard Camera
● Ireland, boards.ie - Key fob mini-cam - £8.39 delivered
● SlickDeals.net, Hot Deals, Car-Key Spy Video Camera $9 shipped - meritline

FORUMS GERMAN
● RCLineForum.de about Video camera in the car key format
● FPV-Community.de (Modellflug aus Pilotensicht) http://www.fpv-community.de/comm/forum/showthread.php?tid=602

FORUMS ITALIAN
● Videos: http://www.baronerosso.eu/forum/fpv-e-riprese-aeree/157052-video-da-16-grammi.html
● Technical thread: http://www.baronerosso.eu/forum/fpv-e-riprese-aeree/156432-key-chain-spy-camera-tread-tecnico.html
● Other stuff: http://www.baronerosso.eu/forum/fpv-e-riprese-aeree/152130-videocamera-da-16-grammi-e-11-euro.html

LIPO BATTERY MODULES (battery + protection circuit).
Any replacement battery module must have a protection circuit.
Make sure it will fit your camera. Length includes the protection circuit.
My #2 camera 382030 (3.8mm thick x 20mm x 30mm) barely fits.
My #3 camera 402030 (4.0mm thick x 20mm x 30mm) barely fits and 4.5mm does not fit (I added 0.5mm, 4 thicknesses of 20lb paper).
Any battery module over 4.0mm thick will probably not fit.
● 402025 with protection circuit, claims 150 mAh. Smaller than a 402030. eBay 220544906965.
● 402030. Claims 120 mAh. You must reuse your protection circuit. ALLeRC.com.
● This replacement LiPo 240 mAh battery has has been reported to work and fit: HobbyCity. Recycle the little circuit under the tape. This report says that the 240 mAh battery at 5.5 mm thick does not fit in the case.
● Here is a Pair of 200 mAh LiPo batteries on eBay that might fit. These batteries are 4.5mm thick so they won't fit the #3 camera.
● Rotozuk says that this ??? mAh LiPo battery fits.
● How to wire an external RC servo Battery and an external AA battery pack.

SAMPLE VIDEOS
● Bob from France has these great outdoor and indoor RC airplane videos.

FLASH MEMORY
● http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=918 is a nitric acid tear down discussion about the inside of various micro SD cards.
● SD formatter - See tools.
● H2testw - See tools.
● Crystal Disk Mark - See tools.

TOOLS
● Deshaker with VirtualDub can remove shake from AVI video. FR4Pilot YouTube examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ-qjRVbFi0n http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iabg9x_ITVw
● VirtualDub is an excellent free AVI tool. It can capture, edit and convert AVI files.
● logoaway.vdf is a VirtualDub filter to remove the on-screen video timestamp. Sample.
● timestamp.vdf is a VirtualDub filter to remove the on-screen video timestamp. Sample.
● Crystal Disk Mark is a free disk performance benchmarking tool, and can be used to benchmark the write speed of a flash memory drive.
● H2testw is a free program used to verify the integrity of flash memory. It writes check-summed records throughout the flash and then reads them back. It can detect fake flash memory.
● SD formatter is from the SD Association and might be a better SD formatter than Windows format.
● 808SetClock is a program to create the date time file for you. Source code is available at the website.
● gspot.exe is a free program that displays all the video and audio codecs installed on your computer. Also displays the properties of a video file.

SUNPLUS MANUALS
SunPlus makes the processor for the #3 and #6 cameras.
● SunPlus Manuals (808, flashlight, gumpack, key chain, MD80, mini DV, sunglasses) (4.2 MB): Torrent
● 808 #3 Camera in Word Format (800 KB)
● Gumpack Camera in Word Format (800 KB)
● MD80 Camera in Word Format (200 KB)

FIRMWARE - The user and password for some of these links is listed at the top of this page.
● #7 Camera Firmware - CX311. Version V2.04.
● #1 Camera Firmware Website - My English translation of the Chinese readerme.com website (might be out of date)
● #1 Camera Firmware Website (Chinese) - readerme.com. softdownload (readerme firmware)- Firmware for devices, including camera #1, that use the Anyka processor. The #1 camera is also called the 611. This site is often down. Wait a day and try again. (Reid m, Shenzhen Technology Co., Ltd.)
● #1 Camera Firmware - CX611 - 611_VGA_V1.XX (with time) 4_16sdrm.rar - Firmware and the burntool for the #1 camera with the AK3631B CPU (most #1 cameras use this), 15.000 FPS
● #1 Camera Firmware - CX611S - 30 611S_VGA_V1.XX (with time) (4_16sdrm) - Firmware and burntool for the #1 camera with the AK3671B CPU, 12.000 FPS, 640x480 photos.
● #1 Camera Disable Video Date Time Stamp - Blank font file for camera #1. BlankDynamicFont4_16.bin - Possible download sites: Openuas, Point808, RapidShare, Torrent. In my safe. The blank font file is 2359316 bytes and it holds a font that is blank. If you can't download it, email me a request (Email: clohr@yahoo.com) for the #1 camera blank font file. To disable the #1 camera video date time stamp, put the camera into system mode, rename BlankDynamicFont4_16.bin to DynamicFont4_16.bin and copy it to the camera bin partition (replaces the old file). Reset the camera and try it.
● I do not have firmware for any other camera.
● I do not have source code for any camera.

OTHER LINKS TO THIS WEBSITE
http://wiki.twit.tv/wiki/Daily_Giz_Wiz_1029
http://gizwizbiz.squarespace.com/inside-dgw/2010/3/1/episode-1036.html
http://www.electronics-related.com/usenet/design/show/169901-1.php
http://www.80sforever.net/Testing-Keychain-Camera-808__1sSx8HoLo78.html

COMPANIES THAT MAKE OR SELL CAMERA MODULES
● SZLLH - United Electronics Co. Ltd - Shenzhen Union Technology Co. Lihua - http://www.szllh.com/en/index.asp - Makes the LLH-7670 camera module with the OV7670 sensor used in some #5 cameras.
● Truly
● Sanmtech
● FPVHobby.com in Turkey
● SparkFun.com

MISC - The user and password for some of these links is listed at the top of this page.
HelmetCamCameraMod.rar - Photos of the Burns Hudson external microphone mod, 15 MB

DRIVERS - The user and password for some of these links is listed at the top of this page.
● Syntek STK02N webcam driver, Syntek webcam driver. 6MB, Hardware ID: 05E1 0B01 - For use with Syntek processor cameras, #2, #4, #5.
● SPCA1528.rar SunPlus webcam driver for the #3 and #6 camera - The download is very slow.
● alan-electronics.de SunPlus webcam driver for the #3 and #6 camera.
● M3USB driver - Anyka driver used when loading the firmware into the Anyka processor cameras, #1 and #7.

2010 Sep 03 - JEILIN Controller

Scott S. wrote me with a link to the JEILIN JL2008A Low-cost Mega Pixel Digital Still Camera Controller which, to my knowledge, is not used in the 808 camera. This part is interesting because the system functionality and the pin name functionally is similar to the controller shown in the Anyka schematics. The Anyka controller has more pins (145 pins are named on the 611s schematic). The JL2008A is a 128 pin part, just like the SunPlus and the Syntek processors. It is currently unknown if there is a connection between JEILIN and SunPlus, Syntek or Anyka.

The JL2008A is a system on a chip with an 8051 core, 12 M pixels per second encoding, 8 bit 64 Kbps audio encoder, camera interface, flash interface, USB, SD card, SDRAM interface and a 64KB mask ROM.

2010 Aug 31 - USB Cable Mod for External Charger

AF in the UK has modified a USB cable so that he can attach an external battery charger. But he points out that this will not work with all external smart chargers. In some cameras there is a diode and 4.7 ohm resistor in series with the USB power. The external charger might not work correctly with this arrangement.

I don't know if someone has already done this, but I made a charging lead from one of the USB leads that came with the #3 camera.

I cut the computer-end part of the lead off, and then determined which of the 4 wires were the positive and negative. In my case, the positive was red, the negative was brown ( the other 2 wires were blue and yellow). I have attached a couple of photos to show the cut-off end of the USB lead, and my charge lead.

I then soldered a JST plug on to the positive and negative wires so that I could charge from my Schultz Chamaleon Li-Po charger, set up for 1 cell Li-po and 100mA.

I found that the initial voltage shown on the charger was about 0.7V in the case of the #3 camera, and about 3.5V for the #7 camera. After a short while, however, the volts display appears to show the battery voltage, and it charges normally. From time to time, the voltage rises to about 4.6 volts and then return to battery volts again - could this be the camera battery protection circuit kicking in and out?

In any case, I can charge the cameras by this method, and know the amount of charge that the camera has taken, and the end voltage.

I can't see why this shouldn't work for the other camera numbers.

One note of caution - I tried the lead on one of my other chargers (Turnigy Accucell) and it switched itself off during the intitial transient voltage stage, so it may not work for all chargers.


2010 Aug 30 - Two Mods - Camera Mount and Battery Switch
Roger in the UK has made these two mods. One is a way to mount and hold the camera. The other hard resets the camera and battery protection circuit. I've recently modified my 808 key to include a manual switch which allows the hard reset of the battery. I read on your site that sometimes a hard reset (unsoldered battery then re-solder it back again) is required if the 808 completely stops working. I have noticed that during my time of charging the 808, if I forget that I've left it plugged into the charger for more than an hour, something holds the battery to below 3.1v. I measured this by touching the circuit board contacts with the battery still soldered onto the board. As soon as i unsolder the battery and measure it's voltage, it measures 4.1V. When i re-soldered it to the PCB and then measure by touching the PCB contacts, it measures 4.1V. The 808 is now able to be switched back on again. This is why I did the mod, I was fed up of having to keep on dismantling the unit and unsolder and re-solder the unit, hence why I added a manual switch which will basically cut off the battery supply to the board and reconnect it by opening and closing the switch :). I've also made an accessory. It's a hand held trigger mount. I made this because while away on holiday and taking recordings, the video jumps around a lot because of my unstable hand and my attempts at trying to keep my hand as well as my arm steady. What i have done is cut the end off a aerosol gun trigger, these are mainly used to assist in holding paint spray cans for spray painting your car. i purchased mine from a car accessory sales shop but you can also find them in DIY stores too. Mine has the name 'Spraymaster' imprinted into the plastic. The silver mount is from a mini camera tripod. I just unscrewed the top half from it's legs, drilled a 5mm hole in the plastic trigger and screwed the silver mount to the trigger. To hold the 808 in place I've used Velcro. It works a treat, now i can hold the 808 steady as well as using it as a good line of sight because of my hands and arms holding it like it was a small pistol.

2010 Aug 25 - Syntek Tools

Use These Syntek Tools at Your Own Risk

100825 - Here is a collection of system tools that can be used with the Syntek cameras (#2, #4, #5). I have not tested them (I don't have a Syntek camera) but Mark has a Syntek camera, found these tools and has run them. Comments from Mark:

I recently bought a key fob camera from DealExtreme sku.41643 ; I haven't popped it open yet, but externally it appears quite similar to 808 key fob #4. The LED is red/blue, the date stamp is orange with a white border in the lower right and it can't be turned off. The STK02N v2.3 drivers work great with that fob.)

The fob did not come with drivers and so in my search for a driver, I came across a great set of power user STK camera tools at
http://www.elecday.com/video/CAM-CLOCK-001/CD DRIVER. "STK02NC web camera view.exe" for instance is actually far more than a viewer; it has some deep engineering tools too! The options dialog has tabs to examine and/or modify all memory, all registers, send i2c commands, update the firmware and directly set the onboard clock. Similarly "STK02NS.exe" provides an engineering level tool to examine the imaging chip and adjust gamma and test for hot/dead pixels.

Hopefully tools like this in the hands of you and your dedicated readers will unlock more features in the STK line.

2010 Aug 25 - Misc

100825 I am starting a wish list of features for the 808 camera.

1. NO STAMP - Ability to disable the date time stamp from videos and photos.
2. WIDE - Wide angle lens.
3. LOW LIGHT - More low light capability.
3. DISTORTION FREE - Keep the AVI at 640x480. Stop distorting the AVI video at 720x480.
4. HARD RESET - Some way to hard reset. The reset button does not reset the protection circuit on the LiPo.
5. MOUNTING BRACKET - Provide a light weight aerodynamic mounting bracket that allows the camera to be mounted and pointed in different directions.
6. REMOVE PHOTO MODE - Simplify the user interface by removing the ability to take photos.
7. EXTERNAL POWER - Some way to externally power the camera. Maybe through the USB connector but still able to take video.
8. FEWER MISSING FRAMES
9. WEBCAM AUDIO - In webcam mode provide an audio driver.
10. SMART CHARGER - Ability to fully charge the internal LiPo battery, or a connector for an external smart charger.
11. DUMP/UPDATE TOOLS - Ways to dump and update the firmware.

100823 Lawrence Sheed from ComputerSolutions.cn is in Shanghai China and has this interesting blog about his Anyka 808 camera.
http://www.computersolutions.cn/blog/2010/08/firmware-hackery-on-keychain-spycams-ak36xx-based/

2010 Aug 20 - New Camera Version?

100828 - Duane successfully updated the firmware to version 1.15
(180-30-611S_VGA_V1.15-4_16sdrm.rar).

100820 - Duane in Texas bought a camera from dailysteals.com. This was a one day only sale. He sent me this information about the camera.

Like a #1 and #7 it has an Anyka processor, 640x480 video, burntool mode and webcam mode.

Like a #1 it has internal flash memory, no card slot, and system mode with multiple partitions.

Like a #7 it uses the XviD video codec.

Preliminary video, audio and photos seem better than the #1 and #7.

The camera seems to be a Anyka 611S.
The Anyka processor is labeled AK3671B14403 FS01D10

C8 Button Side

Here is a link to various versions of the firmware http://www.readerme.com/html/html/CX611S.html

To update the CX611S firmware follow the directions for the #1 camera.

This file contains schematics of many Anyka cameras including this one Related Products schematics, patch map
Based on the position of the parts this camera is the CX_DR611 parts map.
In the 611s folder the schematic seems to be in the pdf file named
汽车锁摄像机原理图1.0.pdf

I hope someone can identify who this camera can be bought from since dailysteals does not sell it anymore.

100810 - dailysteals.com has a one day sale on an 808 camera with 8GB card for US$25 with shipping. Because of the date time stamp in the upper left of the sample video (partly cropped in the YouTube sample), it is probably an Anyka processor and is similar to a #7 camera or might be a #7 camera. The audio in the sample video is much better than the typical #7 camera. Ships to the USA only and no returns.

Comments Not Cataloged Yet

100809 - Bonscha in Germany created this mod. He wanted to film a paint ball match with the cam. He used a tic tak box, cut holes for the lens and camera buttons, attached a wide angle jelly lens with hot melt glue and covered the box in Velcro pile. He inserted an 808 camera inside and now he can easily mount the camera to anything that has Velcro hook material.

The 18g tic tak box is being replaced by the 29g box in the USA. So, stock up!

There is also another, different, mod on YouTube by smithmodell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FceY7JgENRg

tic tak box with Velcro pile cover

Comparison of 808 camera and tic tak box, 18g and 29g size. The camera fits in either.

808 camera and an 18g tic tak box.

100807 - Basic instructions about how to use VirtualDub to compress an 808 video file. Assumes a 720x480 AVI MJPEG video from a #3 camera.

These instruction use the XviD video codec. XviD is one of many video codecs you could use. It is very good, widely used, encodes fast and is free.

Download the latest XviD video codec for Windows and download VirtualDub 1.9.9. Install the codec. Unzip VirtualDub.
http://www.koepi.info/xvid.htm    http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/

1. Run VirtualDub 1.9.9.

2. Open an AVI file.
     Menu/Video - Select Full Processing mode.
     Menu/Video/Compression
          choose XviD MPEG-4 Codec.
          Press the configure button.
          Profile @ level home.
          Target Quantizer 4.0. (press Target Quantizer button to see Target Bitrate).
          Target Bitrate kbps 1800 (very good quality). Makes video about 75% smaller.
     Menu/Audio - Select Direct Stream Copy. Audio remains unchanged at 353 kbps PCM.

3. Press F7 and choose an output filename. Press Save and encoding begins and ends.

4. Playback the output filename to test it. If desired, repeat the above steps with a higher target bitrate for higher quality and larger size, or lower target bitrate for lower quality and smaller size. If desired do the options below.

Optional additions to step 2.
     Menu/Video/Compression - Press the more button and set maximum i-frame interval to 60. During playback, this makes random access faster.
     Menu/Video/Filters. Press Add...   Choose resize. This will resize the #3 camera distorted 720x480 to undistorted 640x480.
          New Size Absolute 640 x 480
          Aspect Ratios Disabled
          Filter Mode Precise Bicubic A=0.75
          Do Not Letterbox or Crop
          Codec-Friendly Sizing Do Not Adjust
          Press OK, Press OK.
    Menu/Audio - Select full processing mode.   Menu/Audio/Compression - MPEG Layer-3 56 kbps. This makes the audio about 85% smaller.

100730 - Allan reported that his 16GB class 2 card works in his #3 camera.
The #3 definitely shoots better videos (specially in low light) compared to my other camera #6. So far I can say that the #3 takes pictures faster that #6. It also starts video recording faster by about 2 seconds. When charged via USB, #6 LED blinks when charging and stops blinking when charged. #3 LED stays on so quite difficult to tell if it's already charged. The LED opening in #3 is smaller so it's more discreet when you turn it on. #3 should be turned off when inserting to USB. If turned on, the SD card does not mount on my Mac.

100729 - Carlos reports:
I've successfully installed the SPCA1528 Webcam Driver on Windows 7 64Bits and 32Bits, and it works just great. Driver Link:
http://www.ziddu.com/download/8271466/SPCA1528.rar.html

100729 - Most 808 cameras probably have 4 processors.

Camera module image processor	On the same chip with the CMOS Bayer array sensor. Outputs 640 or 1280 bytes per line. Up to 24 megabytes of raw image data per second.
Core processor	Manages USB, I2C, user interface buttons, LED, samples audio to PCM, interleaves video and audio into AVI format. ARM or 8051 or equivalent.
Graphics processor	On the same chip as the core processor. Transforms the Bayer layer raw video data to pixels and applies MJPG compression. Outputs more than 1 megabyte per second.
Micro SD card controller	ARM or equivalent. Manages reading, writing and error detection and correction.

2010 August 04 - Ways to Recover Zero Length AVI Files

After recording a video you discover that some of your AVI files are zero length. An emailer told me that while the camera is recording, it creates two files: video/audio data file and index file. Normally when the AVI terminates these files get resolved into one file. When something goes wrong and these files don't get closed correctly the file system gets corrupted. These files can sometimes be recovered.

I know of two procedures that have successfully recovered AVI files. One procedure is (A) easy and one (B) difficult.

First copy anything off the card you want to save, just to be safe.

Run Windows "error-checking" on the flash card with "automatically fix file system errors" selected.

You must select "show hidden files and folders".
You must unselect "hide protected operating system files".
If there is anything recoverable, windows will have created some hidden system folders like found.000, found.001, etc. in the root.

There is another way to create these folders. Insert the micro SD card into your smartphone and the phone might create them for you automatically.

The hidden system folders will contain hidden system files like file0000.chk, file0001.chk, etc.

(A) Rename the file name extension from "chk" to "avi". Now try to play the files.

(B) If (A) does not work try this. This procedure is probably not exactly technically correct, but it worked for me, and allowed me to recover a 1.6 GB AVI file. You need to be a techno geek and have intuition to understand and try this. It requires binary editing and concatenating files. You will need a good hex file editor and VirtualDub. I recommend the excellent free Windows hex editor HxD. VirtualDub is free.

You are going to concatenate a good AVI header to a video/audio section. Then you will fix it (reconstructs the index table) by running it through VirtualDub.

100820 - Florian in Germany makes this comment: The good AVI file header must come from a file that is as big as the corrupt one, or, better, bigger, otherwise you get the following error in VirtualDub: "Invalid AVI file: The main 'movi' block is missing."

Where "...." is any 4 bytes, an AVI file has a header section, a video/audio section and an index section.
The header section begins RIFF....AVI LIST....hdr1
The video/audio section begins LIST....movi
The index section is don't-care because the index will be re-constructed in VirtualDub. Study the data below to get the idea.

Find A Video/Audio Section - Open chk files to find one that has a video/audio section. Some chk files don't have it.

Find and Prepend a Good Header - Copy the header section from any good AVI file that was created by your 808 camera and prepend it to the video/sound section. Write the concatenated sections to a test1.avi. It will probably not play.

Use VirtualDub to Fix - Open test1.avi in VirtualDub. If successful, VirtualDub will open test1.avi and reconstruct the index. Set video to "direct stream copy" and audio to "direct stream copy". Then SaveAs test2.avi. Then try playing test2.avi.

The AVI file header section looks something like this. It begins RIFF....AVI LIST....hdr1. In this example it ends at 0x2FFF (before the video/audio).

The AVI file video/audio section looks something like this. It begins LIST...movi, at 0x3000 in this example, and looks like random data. In this example everything from 0x3000 to the end of the file is the video/audio section (also contains index table).


2010 July 21 - Wide Angle Lens Adapters
2010 July 21 - Note that there seems to be a wide variation in the optical quality of the jelly lens, from OK to poor. The jelly lens used by Villamany below seems to be the better version. If you are serious about trying a wide angle then you are probably better off with the more expensive 0.67X lens.
2010 March 30 - Here is another wide angle lens that can be attached to the camera. It also functions as a macro lens. Seller description: For Phone Camera 0.67x Wide Angle + Macro Lens - Dimensions: 19 x 19 x 11 mm, Weight: 4 g Sample eBay seller	#3 camera sample video using the 0.67X wide angle adapter
#3 camera sample photo	#3 camera sample photo with 0.67 wide angle lens attached

Jelly Lens
The Jelly lens can be used to make a micro camera into a wide angle camera. It mounts with a sticky, washable, reusable jelly-like silicone adhesive to a flat surface around the lens. Because the 808 car keys micro camera does not have a flat surface, you would need to make that flat surface yourself. The Jelly lens is sold on eBay and Amazon, and elsewhere for about $3. There are various types of jelly lenses. Make sure you get the wide angle one.
Click for the YouTube Video. Features of the Jelly Lens (I have no affiliation with fommy.com).
Villamany from Spain mounted a Jelly Lens on his MD80 mini camera using mounting adhesive. He painted it with a black CD marker. Here are some photos he sent me:
Jelly Lens wide angle glued to an MD80 camera
Jelly Lens Wide Angle Photo	Jelly Lens Wide Angle Photo
#3 camera and jelly lens on an RC airplane, sample video

2010 July 20 - PC Virus, Camera Virus

2010 July 20 - Gaetano in Italy reports that he bought an 808 camera (maybe a #4) and it was delivered with a virus, and it infected his computer. Even though he was running the Avast! 5 anti-virus program his computer still got infected. The root of the camera flash memory had the virus file DCIM.EXE. He cleaned his pc with combofix, it found a rootkit and several issues.

"Before reconnecting the keycamera, I Googled for DCIM.EXE, and found a tool (flash disinfector) that apparently was able to access and clean my camera."

The eBay seller was fassionbollys. The camera has an internal 8GB flash and no card slot. The seller agreed to send Gaetano a new virus-free camera.

2010 April 21 - PC VIRUS - Like any mass storage device, a camera can be exploited by a virus infected PC to transfer a PC virus to the camera. The camera can then transfer the virus to another PC. People have reported buying a new 808 car keys micro camera with a PC virus on it. When they connected the USB cable, their anti-virus program detected the virus. To be safe, don't connect a camera to a PC without an anti-virus program. A virus infected PC could damage or destroy photo or video files on the camera.

CAMERA VIRUS - There is no known "camera virus", that is, a virus that runs on the 808 car keys micro camera and damages it.


2010 July 19 - Pen Video Camera Without the Case
An eBay seller (covert_stuff88) in China is selling the guts of a pen video micro camera. Its not the 808 and the processor is unknown and not shown. The seller does not have great eBay feedback so I'm not recommending anyone buy this, but its interesting that someone is parting out this video camera.

2010 July 16 - #3 vs #7 - Comparison

Al produced this video of his RC airplane comparing the #3 and #7 cameras.

The #7 camera (2.04 firmware) has been adjusted to operate at 20 FPS because the missing frame rate is best (lowest) there.


2010 July 15 - Underwater Camera Mod
George from Romania created an underwater enclosure for the 808 camera from a wide-mouth bottle and a watch crystal. He has these construction notes, construction photos and sample video. George used a #3 camera but any version could be used. Materials List: ● plastic (pet) bottle with large opening and the cap ( from juices or teas) ● drill bits, use the small one than medium and large for making a 10 mm hole into the cap ● watch glass with diameter less than 300 mm ,I used 297 and 298 mm ● silicone used for making aquariums ● abrasive paper will be used for making the inside of the cap more adherent to the silicone. ● zip tie. Zip tie is very important ! Has to be tight enough on the neck of the bottle but you have to be able to rotate it. After starting camera and putting it inside the bottle neck, I fix the end of the zip tie facing the front of the camera. This allows me to know when making the movie, the position of camera only by feeling this end with the finger. In this way I avoid making upside-down movies. ● polyethylene sponge used for fixing most of the electronics into the boxes when new. Cut 2 pieces of sponge the same shape as camera. Make a sandwich from the sponges with the camera in middle. The top of the sandwich must be trimmed at the buttons area. Otherwise when pressing the "sandwich" into the bottle neck,buttons could be pressed by force and could stop the movie. Any other kind of sponge can be used but this one is stronger. When finished make a "no load test" (without camera) with the "container" in order to check if water does not go in. Sample YouTube videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJqcl0NRw4k http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfeZp2sh45U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9ufvDGl_ks
Sample YouTube video from underwater camera	Video frame capture from underwater cam	Video frame capture from underwater cam
Video frame capture from underwater cam	Choose a wide mouth bottle that will fit the camera.	Watch crystal
Drill hole in bottle cap	Sand paper inside of cap so silicone glue will stick.	Bead of silicone glue inside cap.
Watch crystal glued inside.	Tie wrap attached. Indicates "up".	Foam cut to fit the shape of the camera.
Foam attached to camera to insure tight fit in bottle.	Camera inserted in bottle neck.	Bottle and camera assembled, watertight. Tie wrap rotated so that thumb on the tie wrap indicates video upright.

2010 July 11 - 5MP Micro Camera ?

I have received email asking me if I know of a 5 megapixel, light micro camera for use on RC airplanes or helicopters.

I do not. The problem is that a 5MP camera module produces 16 times more data than VGA 640x480, and would either require more RAM, a more powerful processor, or run much slower.

==========

The 808 micro cameras have a VGA (640x480) native resolution, and many of them upscale this to a higher resolution in the AVI or JPG file. The processor is barely able to keep up with the internal camera module video data throughput or 12 to 24 megabytes per second.

There are 5MP sensors like OmniVision OV5632, OV5630, and Samsung S5K3E2FX, but they are usually used in cell phones where the processor is much more powerful. The processor needs to be much more powerful to support the much larger data stream and that will increase the cost, battery requirements and weight.


2010 July 02 - Helmet Cam Mod - External Microphone
Burns Hudson modified his #3 camera to replace the internal microphone with an external microphone. This was done so that he could use the camera inside his helmet and have the microphone correctly positioned. The result is a driver-eye view and excellent audio. The full construction details and photos are here.
YouTube video, taken from the camera and microphone in the helmet.elmet.elmet.	Helmet Cam - Camera, connector and microphone assembly positioned in helmet.	Helmet Cam - Camera positioned in helmet.
Helmet Cam - Microphone removed and replaced with two wires.	Helmet Cam - 3.5mm audio connector connected through a hole (the wire flexes there) in the back of the camera case.	Helmet Cam - Camera, 3.5mm audio connector and microphone assembly.

2010 June 28 - External Battery Mod

Because this mod alters both the the camera and a lithium battery, it could be dangerous. I won't recommend anybody do it, but I would take that risk.

Ilias modified his 808 camera with an external battery. This battery has a required protection circuit.^* The buttons, USB connector, reset switch and card slot are still accessible.

I wasn't pleased with the performance of the internal battery. I couldn't record more than 6 min video each time without turning off. I wanted to record my motorcycle trips So this was not enough. So I opened it up, removed the original battery, and soldered a Nokia BP-5M Battery with 1000mah capacity. It wouldn't fit inside, so I glued it externally with fast-dry epoxy. I also had to drill a hole for the cables. Finally I added 2 "rare earth" neodymium magnets on the bottom with epoxy so that I can attach it and de-attach it fast on the handle-bar. Now the camera can stay on for hours. Unfortunately it fills the memory card after 1 hour of footage, but now I can at least put a fresh card in without having to recharge in the middle of nowhere.

Update 2010 July 01 - I asked Ilias these questions:

Did you parallel the internal battery or remove it?
I completely removed the internal battery and connected the BP-5M in its place.

How are you charging the external battery? With an external charger, or charging it through the USB connector?
It now charges through the USB connector normally.

How did you connect to the BP-5M battery. Did you solder directly to the battery recessed tabs, or did you dismantle the battery and connect to the internal wires?
The recessed tabs weren't helpful at all. There's no way to solder them without melting the plastic around them and making a mess. I nabbed the plastic top with pliers and removed it completely revealing the IC chip. I then removed the original contacts, and soldered directly on the chip. I then covered the chip and the connection with black insulation tape, and glued back the BP-5M wrap-around sticker for decoration.

^*Most protected battery modules like the battery module in the 808 camera, the Nokia BP-5M and the Canon NB-4L contain a lithium battery and a protection circuit. If you replace the internal 808 camera battery module and you plan to use the USB connector, then the replacement battery module must have a protection circuit. This is because the USB powered charging circuit in the camera will pull the battery module voltage above 4.2V. Without a protection circuit the battery will overheat and might catch fire and explode.


2010 June 22 - Anyka Schematic Jackpot! The first schematic of an 808 Camera!
Here is a link to schematics and component maps of the following cameras with Anyka processors: 308, 311, 320, 503s, 601s, 602s, 607, 609s, 611s, 615, 618. This list includes the 808 car keys micro camera versions #1 (CX611) and #7 camera (CX311).
http://www.readerme.com/html/software/相关产品原理图，贴片图/相关产品原理图，贴片图.rar
If you are doing a hardware mod on any versions of these 808 cameras, these schematics might give you some insight into some of the circuits. There is still no source code, but the #7 binary is in the firmware updates available at http://www.readerme.com/html/html/CX311.html. I hope someone tries to crack the binary and blank the video date time stamp font. The font is already disabled in some versions of the firmware. I don't have any schematics, firmware or source code for the SunPlus cameras (#3, #6) or the Syntek cameras (#2, #4, #5).
Here is a company name on the #1 camera (CX611s) schematic: http://www.superstring.com.cn SUPERSTRING ELECTRIC SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (Shenzhen Superstring Electronics Co., Ltd. - Shenzhen Professional Design Video Products) Address: Futian District, Shenzhen , Guangdong , Shenzhen Hongli West Road, Hua Maoxin Park Ginkgo Court 21E Zhan Xiaobu Address: Futian District , Shenzhen, Electronic Technology Building, Room 8092 , Block B Postcode Post Code: 518000 Tel Phone Number :0755-83683853 / 82974581 Fax Fax Number :0755-82974908 Contact Linkman: Mr. Jiang E-mail 1 Email1:cp1999@tom.com http://www.pc01.cn/Shop45/Sec485/U242441/index.htm
#7 Camera, CX311c v3, Schematic	#1 Camera, CX611s, Schematic Title
#7 camera, CX311c v3, top, button side	#7 camera, CX311c v3, bottom, processor / flash side.

2010 June 21 - Using LogoAway to Remove the Video Date Time Stamp - #3, #6, #7 Cameras

This YouTube video shows the result of using VirtualDub and the LogoAway filter to remove (effectively blur) the date time stamp from the corner of a video. This video shows 15 seconds with the date time stamp and 15 seconds without.

Update 100623 - Al sent me LogoAway properties for his #7 camera.

VirtualDub V1.9.9 is a free AVI video editor / converter.
http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net

LogoAway V4.01 is a free plug-in for VirtualDub. The logoaway.vdf file must be copied to the VirtualDub plugins folder.
http://voidon.republika.pl/virtualdub

In VirtualDub configure the LogoAway filter:

camera	logo border position	logo border size	remove mode	exponent power	border default sets	visible border
#3	343 x 448	343 x 31	UGLARM	maximum +	over video or over bottom & right letterbox	no
#6	0 x 448	343 x 31	UGLARM	maximum +	over bottom & left letterbox	no
#7	10 x 10	320 x 20	UGLARM	maximum +	over video	no

For the #3 and #6 camera the resize filter is configured for
aspect ratio: disabled,
absolute pixels: 640x480,
filter mode: precise bicubic A=0.75.

NOTE -- LogoAway will not work if the logo border position and logo border size are not within the dimensions of the video. Use the preview and the visible border to make adjustments.

2010 June 19 - Spying with the 808

Someone in the surveillance business approves of the 808 as a spying device. He has these comments:

The 808 Camera is great for Spying or Surveillance, at least in the manner that I use it. My co-workers have used it as well, and we love it so far. It is obviously not the best quality device, but I have used devices that cost much more, require wireless transmitters/receivers, separate portable DVRS. All of those device add too many complications, and setup. I have wasted hundreds of dollars in the past trying to find "the answer" to the problem I end up with at work occasionally...

I do workers' comp surveillance, and have been using the 808 camera at work for about a month now, and have used it to film a "subject" unknowingly while in an elevator with her (and her husband who is three times my size!), inside of supermarkets, courthouses, county medical facilities, office buildings, restaurants, and it all comes out great most of the time. (And that is WITH a time/date stamp, many of the other alternatives do not have that, and it is needed in my profession.)

Keeping all of this in mind, the $10.00 to get this shipped from Hong Kong in 10 days, it is by far the best value for the dollar. It is even the best performance, even taking into account what some would consider to be poor quality video. The device allows much more video to be obtained at a closer range than many other "spy" methods, and that makes up for a lot.

Just to give you an example of my "second best" method, is an example at a Target Supercenter, you might find me hiding behind a clothing rack with a Sony DV Camera...not very discrete, but if kept a distance from the "subject" you can be safe...however I know co-workers who have been chased by gang-bangers when caught doing that....

I have tried the "MP3 SPY CAMERA 618" and it worked great, actually better quality video (but not the unwanted sound that they all have.) The problem is with that device, that TWO devices failed on me in one month.....so the 808 seems to be more reliable, however I plan to carry two at a time for safe measure.

A note about the audio, in my profession as a "spy" it is best to not have any audio. I have accomplished this in two ways: It can be removed with a free program "MPEG STREAMCLIP." (this results in a larger file size, which I did not expect) The second method is a bit brute, but I opened the camera, pinched the microphone with my fingers and pulled. (Fortunately in this case, the cheap soldering job allowed the wires to pull right out of the solder, leaving no trace of any modificatons.) The cheap screws would not stay in any longer, so two drops of superglue replaced them. The camera works GREAT without the sound.


2010 June 18 - Mercedes Key Fob - Like the #3 Camera
Victor from Moscow reports that his Mercedes micro camera takes video just like a #3. Similar to this eBay listing . "Casing looks very very close to original MB key. Camera is much lighter then MB key. Tried disassemble it - failed. Case is very nice quality."
Mercedes camera	Mercedes camera	Mercedes camera	Mercedes camera - video frame


2010 June 15 - No Composite Video in the 808, But ...
	The 808 car keys micro does not have a composite video signal. The internal camera module data is processed as parallel bytes. If you need a tiny camera with a composite video output, they do exist. They are mostly used as 12 volt "automobile backup cameras". Some camera modules have an image sensor that has a composite video output signal. The Omnivision OV7950 is a CMOS sensor chip and video processor with NTSC composite video 75 ohm output. Here is a datasheet. You could look for a camera module using that chip and proceed from there. There is also a PAL version.
OmniVision OV7950 NTSC Composite Video Signal Output
Links to some OV7950 cameras (Google search "+OV7950 micro camera") Some of these links are dead. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280479662228 http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320507095709 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390167823201 http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001M6MAPY/ref=olp_product_details/279-5582149-5745031?ie=UTF8&me=&seller= http://cgi.ebay.com.hk/Car-Rear-view-Color-Wide-angle-night-Camera-Waterproof-/270505350568 http://www.tobeeasy.com/nightvision-cmos-car-rearview-camera_p1086.html http://www.007spycamera.com/wireless-car-rearview-system.html http://www.tradevv.com/chinasuppliers/Topccd2008_p_21655/china-Car-CCTV-CMD-camera-OV-7950-sensor-fixed-len-from-Korea-waterproof-resistance-IP67-68.html http://www.tradevv.com/chinasuppliers/Topccd2008_p_21634/china-Car-rear-view-CMD-Camera-OV-7950-PC1030-sensor-optional-IP67-68-waterproof-resistance.html http://shop.omejo.com/productsshow.php?id=239 http://suzhoumeinuo.en.made-in-china.com/product/yMambrHOgpUL/China-MN1890-Mini-PC-Camera-VGA-.html

2010 June 07 - Misc

Camera #6 contains a 6-pin 25Q80scp chip. This is probably a 1 megabyte serial flash chip where the firmware is stored.
Note that the second line on that part has been removed. Probably a second rate part.

2010 June 04 - Measuring Missing AVI Frames

The camera creates missing AVI frames either when the flash is too slow or the camera can't process frames fast enough. These missing frames show up as duplicate frames in the playback, which looks like video stuttering or jittering.

Some technical details:
The SunPlus and Anyka cameras (#1, #3, #6, #7) insert a missing frame into the AVI file as a 6 byte frame.
The Syntek cameras (#2, #4, #5) insert a missing frame into the AVI file as a full size duplicate of the last good frame.
So VirtualDub and some players might handle these missing frames in different ways.
Note that the #7 camera uses XviD AVI, not MJPG AVI. The #7 camera has a keyframe every 90 frames.

Many ways to measure missing frames.

1. VirtualDub - Step frame by frame.
2. VirtualDub - HEX editor, RIFF chunk list.
3. VidTrace - DOS program that outputs a listing of the AVI format.
4. VirtualDub - Difference between frame count and key frame count (thanks Tom)

1. Open an AVI file in VirtualDub and step through one frame at a time. When the frame image does not change, that is a missing frame.

2. Run VirtualDub. Go to MENU / TOOLS / HEX Editor. In the HEX editor open an AVI file. Press ctrl-R. The RIFF chunk list widow displays. Expand this line: [LIST:movi...

Lines with 00dc are stream 00 video frames with the size in bytes indicated. Lines with 01wb are stream 01 audio data and can be ignored. For example frame (chunk) 12, 14 and 15 are missing frames (size is 6):

VirtualDub RIFF chunk list

3. VidTrace (by John McGowan) is a DOS program. It outputs a listing of the contents of the AVI file including the frames (chunks). Here is a command example that puts the results in a file called sunp0005.txt:

C:\>vidtrace sunp0005.avi > sunp0005.txt

Lines with 00dc are video frames with the size in bytes indicated. Lines with 01wb are audio data and can be ignored. For example the frames of size 6 are missing frames:

00dc (11424)
00dc (6)
01wb (8192)
00dc (12004)
00dc (6)
00dc (6)
00dc (10706)
00dc (7034)

4. If you have a new version of VirtualDub (i.e. 1.9.9) and an AVI from a SunPlus or Anyka camera (#1, #3 or #6) then this will measure the total number of missing frames in the AVI file. (Does not work with very old versions of VirtualDub)

1. Open VirtualDub and load in a video.
2. Go to the "file/file information" menu.
3. The "length" field lists the total number of frames.
4. The "key frames" field lists the total number of key frames.
5. Subtract 4 from 3 above and you have the number of missing frames.

2010 May 27 - #3 Camera, Another Solder Problem Fixed

Willy from Italy sent me this photo of his not working #3 camera, which he fixed by re-soldering.

"I saw that there were signs of a hand soldering on the edge of SAMSUNG component (lower part in picture). So I decided to redo soldering of all pins on this side of component and... NOW IT WORKS :-)))"

Camera 3, RAM chip, lower pins needing re-solder

2010 May 26 - #3 Camera, Card Reader Bug, Full Flash Card

Thomas notified me that when using the 808 camera as a card reader it reports the device size wrong.

It is not OK to format the micro SD card in the 808 camera because it will "shrink" the device with each new partitioning.

Summary: The implementation of the card reader functionality of the 808 mini camera is defective. If the card is fully written one needs to unplug the card from the 808 camera and read it with a different (non-buggy) card-reader.

The 808 camera reports the device size wrongly. It somehow calculates the device size (cylinders/heads/sectors) of the SD card from the partition size. This approach is wrong. It always reports too less bytes. This leads to a problem with operating system. There can be files written by the 808 camera that are not accessible once you use it as USB-storage.

I have had the problem, that always I couldn't read the last video that was recorded. I investigated and I saw that the operating system complained about the partition being larger than the device size. So I repartitioned my SD card inside the 808 camera. At the next disconnect/reconnect cycle the operation system again complained, showing now even smaller device size for the SD card. Also unplug the card from the 808 camera didn't help.

When I connected the SD card with a different reader the original device size was reported.

2010 May 26 - Possible Recovery for #3 Camera, Bad USB Cable

Cosmin sent me this note about a bad USB cable and about how he revived his "dead" #3 camera. Emphasis mine.

On the second day of my camera experience I have downloaded all that I had filmed the previous day and let the camera recharge for about 1 hour. When I disconnected the camera from the PC the indicator light went off. Any attempt to make it turn on were futile. The behavior was as if the battery was dead. It would work fine in both mass storage and webcam mode when connected to a pc but would appear dead when disconnected. Several resets and long/short key presses later I had declared it useless.
While reading a few forum pages on this topic I have identified a few other users with the very same issue and one of them was successful on reviving it by plugging it into the PC without a TF card and then pulling it out after a few seconds. I tried that to no avail. What did help me, though, was trying the same procedure but unplugging it while keeping the ON/OFF button pressed. That kept the camera on while disconnected, the led started blinking asking for a card, I put the card in and now it works.

I have recently bought a version 3 camera from www.buyincoins.com. I can confirm that this seller also ships it with a defective USB cable, quite a dangerous one in fact as it got extremely hot in a very short time just by being plugged into the computer. I have assumed it has a short-circuit somewhere and tossed it in the trash. I would advise anyone to just throw the included USB cable as soon as they get it to avoid computer/camera or more serious damage. I considered it a real fire hazard.

2010 May 21 - Resizing the 720x480 AVI file of the #3 Camera

The oval graphic demonstrates the distortion in the 720x480 AVI file of the #3 camera. A circle will look like a wide oval when the AVI file is played with square pixels (the default). The camera module takes a 640x480 AR 1.333 (Aspect Ratio) image and distorts it to 720x480 AR=1.500 in the AVI file. (1.5 / 1.333) = 9 / 8 = 1.125. The original circle is 12.5% too wide in the AVI format.

It is ridiculous that the 808 camera upscales the video to 720x480, and it is probably done for marketing purposes. But if you intend to convert the video to DVD MPG2, there is no need to rescale. 720x480 AR=1.5 is a compliant NTSC DVD dimension. Make sure that the MPG2 display aspect ratio (DAR) property is 4/3.

Many people re-encode the AVI file just to crop the date time stamp. The date time stamp of the #3 camera is located in the lower right corner and is 30 pixels high.

The table below is designed to show the optional ways to resize the AVI format.

Goal	Action (might require VirtuaDub or a video editor)	Display Image Distortion	Display 4/3=1.333 16/9=1.7788 DVD=1.5	Display Dimension^*
Archive.	None	Distorted	1.5	720x480
4/3 Post on YouTube, no distortion.	Upload 720x480 file to YouTube with tag “yt:stretch=4:3”		1.333	640x480
4/3 640x480, no distortion.	Re-scale to 640x480 (H multiplied by 8/9).		1.333	640x480
4/3 640x480, distorted.	Crop 40 left pixels. Crop 40 right pixels. Result 640x480.	Distorted	1.33	640x480
16/9 Crop date time stamp, distorted	Crop 38 pixels from bottom. Crop 37 pixels from top. Result 720x405.	Distorted	1.778	720x405
4/3 Crop date time stamp, distorted	Crop 30 bottom pixels. Crop 60 left pixels. Crop 60 right pixels. Result is 600x450.	Distorted	1.333	600x450
1.5 Crop date time stamp, distorted	Crop 30 bottom pixels. Crop 22 left pixels. Crop 22 right pixels. Result is 676x450.	Distorted	1.500	676x450
4/3, Crop date time stamp, no distortion.	Crop 30 bottom pixels. Crop 22 left pixels. Crop 22 right pixels. 676x450 re-scale to 600x450 (to preserve horizontal lines) or 640x480.		1.333	600x450 or 640x480
16/9 Crop date time stamp, no distortion.	Crop 60 bottom pixels. Crop 60 top pixels. 720x360 rescale to 640x360.		1.778	640x360

^* If the encoding is AVI then the DAR (display aspect ratio) will be 1:1. If the encoding is MPG1/2/4 then the DAR is embedded in the MPG file and can be anything you want.


2010 May 13 - 808SetClock
Martin Schlosser from Germany has written 808SetClock, a program to create the date time file for you. Source code available. You specify the type of camera you have (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, I'm not sure) and it creates the file with the correct file name and data. The "hide date/time" checkbox will add the Y or N to the format if your camera supports that. If you select "I'm not sure" then all the file names are created on you camera, and your camera will use the one it wants.
808SetClock	808SetClock - Windows Explorer showing the files that get created if you specify Model "I'm not sure".

2010 May 11 - Batteries, Charging and External Power

I am going to make some comments about batteries and chargers. I am no expert, so use your own judgment and proceed at your own risk.. The battery can be a dangerous thing. If charged or discharged incorrectly the battery can be rendered useless. It can, explode, get very hot, or shower you with sparks and poison gas. So be careful.

Camera #3, Battery Module, Discharge and Charge - The #3 camera battery module (battery and protection circuit) was charged using an external LiPi battery charger before this test. The battery is labeled HT402030PL, 3.7V IL12 (4.05mm thick). The micro SD card is a SanDisk 8GB class 2. The camera was turned on, the video mode started, the battery module voltage was monitored and the voltage slowly dropped. Note that the battery is on the other side of the protection circuit and I did not monitor that. Between 3.0V and 4.2V the battery module voltage and the battery voltage should be the same. The camera was stationary and continued to take video until the camera detected low voltage at 3.59V. The camera closed the current AVI file. Without the video load the battery slightly recovered to 3.73V. The USB cable was connected and the voltage immediately increased to 3.85V. The camera began charging. At 4.33V the USB cable was disconnected and the voltage dropped to 4.20V. The voltage rose slightly to 4.22V and the camera was turned off.

The protection circuit on the battery module.

The #3 camera has close-and-continue, which limits each AVI file to 30 minutes. Three AVI files were created totaling 4101179720 bytes (4.101E9 or 3.820*(2**30)), 62 minutes 20 seconds. "Motor boating" (a 15 Hz noise) can be heard superimposed on the audio in the last minute of the last AVI file.
2004628984, 30:00.
1941255688, 30:00.
0155295048, 2:20.

Preliminary conclusions, comments -
● I am very surprised that the camera does not operate below 3.6V. The usable charge (power) from 3.0V to 3.6V goes unused, however, the "knee" would be expected at about 3.5V, so operation below 3.5V might not be desireable.
● The audio motor boating seems to be an artifact of low voltage. I have received emails about cameras that continuously motor boat, or have low audio or no audio, so maybe low voltage is related.
● Once the battery module voltage goes above 4.2V, I assume the the protection circuit is limiting the voltage at the battery to 4.2V.
●62 minute video discharge to video termination at 3.6V. Normally my longest video has been 50 minutes (about 20% less). My guess is that the external LiPo charger put more charge into the battery than the camera USB charger. More research is needed.
● 35 minute USB charge from video termination to 4.2V. To correctly charge a LiPo battery the voltage need to be held at 4.2V until the current drops 90%. If the USB cable is kept connected that might happen, but what terminates the charge cycle? Continuously charging the battery at 4.2V might not be good.

I get this question: Q. Is there a way to power the camera externally through the USB connector, like from a 12V vehicle battery, so that I can take a very long video? A. There are two problems with this. The 12V would have to be converted to a lower voltage. Recording video while supplying USB voltage (5V) at the USB connector does not work with the 808 camera. Some other small cameras, like the MD-80, can record while the USB is connected. The USB voltage will charge the battery, but while connected the 808 camera will not permit video or pictures to be taken. It might be possible to use a LiPo battery charger that runs on 12V connected to the camera battery. I am collecting some data to try to answer this question better. Here is some preliminary charge and discharge data. Battery - From a #2 808 car keys micro camera, PL382030 (3.8mm x 20mm x 30mm dimensions include the protection circuit, measured 3.78mm thick). Probably a 120 mAh battery. Charger - SG-IC032 LiIon/LiPo battery charger. This charger is available on eBay and is designed to charge a single sell Li Ion Canon NB-4L battery. This charger is cheap (less than US$5) and takes 100-240VAC 50/60Hz, and 12VDC, and some have a 12V car adapter. This charger is not UL ITE certified. The charger only connects to the + and - battery terminals. By contrast the Canon charger and battery has three terminals. The third (center) terminal is probably for a battery temperature sensor (thermistor, nominal 10K ohm). Load - A 25 ohm resistor (measured 26.4 ohm) was used as a load to simulate the camera taking video. A 25 ohm load was selected because Philippe measured the battery load at 145 mA while recording video. So (3.7V/0.145A) is about 25 ohms. In the following tests the battery is not in the camera. Volts vs. minutes.

*Charging - Charged to Charged* Initial unloaded voltage?, Final voltage off the charger 4.20V.	*Discharging - Charged to Discharged, 26.4 ohm* Initial unloaded voltage 4.02V. Load 26.4 ohm (25 ohm resistor 10%). Load removed at 3.0V. Final no-load 3.28V. This is consistent with the 50 minutes of video recording I got from my #3 camera.
	SG-IC032 Li Ion Battery Charger for Canon NB-4L Battery. Takes 100-240 VAC or 12VDC.
*Charging - Discharged to Charged* Initial unconnected battery 3.40V. At 0:40 minutes the charger LED went from red to yellow. At 0:43 minutes the charger LED went to green. Final unconnected battery 4.20V. The charger should hold the voltage at 4.2V until the current drops 90%, and that seems to have happened.

2010 May 06 - Why 808?

There is no technical or business reason, that I know of, for naming this camera the 808. But the Chinese character for happiness looks like an 8, and double happiness looks like 88. Eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture. Why the zero in between? I don't know. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Chinese_culture#Eight


Happiness	Double Happiness	Double Happiness	Double Happiness


2010 May 05 - Strange Color Problem
Pavel sent me this image from his #3 camera. I split the channels (RGB, HSL and CMYK) in order to attempt to diagnose the problem. This is not the raw data coming off the internal camera module. The JPG compression has been applied. So the problem is more difficult to diagnose. The analysis photo shows the RGB (red green blue), HSL (hue saturation brightness) and CMYK (cyan magenta yellow black) separations. Observations: The histogram shows that there is a very large number of pixels with a yellow-green color at RGB 188,208,74. The saturation (of HSL) is 100% for a large part of the image, but not all of the image. The blue (of RGB) is 0% for a large part of the image, but not all of the image.
Still image with strange color, #3 camera	Analysis photo. RGB, HSL and CMYK Channel Split, Camera #3, Click for full size
YouTube video by keppscrossing of similar strange colors.


2010 May 05 - Bad Solder Joint, Dead Camera
I am getting more reports of bad solder joints in cameras. The camera works for a while, then dies. When the power button is long pressed either the LED comes on shortly, or nothing happens. When the USB cable is connected either nothing happens or Windows wants to load a driver. Most of the diagnosed problems have been bad hand soldered parts like the crystals (silver cans). There have also been some bad surface mount reflow solder problems. Even if re-soldered, the camera might not work if the solder short damaged something else. Solving these problems require very keen solder skills and tiny tools. Since the battery voltage is live on the circuit board, even when the camera is off, avoid shorting anything. Cut a battery wire before trying to re-solder something.
Darrell found this bad surface mount solder joint on his #3 camera.	Darrell found this solder short from a bad hand soldered joint at the crystal leads, #3 camera.

2010 April 26 - Swell Battery

Rick sent me this photo of his camera LiPo battery with this note:

"After transferring videos off the camera I forgot the camera plugged into the computer for 10 hours. This is what the battery looks like now. The battery ballooned up and the case can't fit anymore. It's not leaking or anything but at the same time I don't want the battery to explode while in my pocket!"

808 Camera battery Swolen

2010 April 23 - High Lead Content

The lead content in the plastic clam shell case of the 808 car keys micro camera is high. Nathan measured his #3 camera with an Innovative XRF Technologies handheld XRF scanner. Nathan reported "It has about 1500+ ppm of lead, well over the acceptable limit".

Everybody has to decide this issue for themselves. The 1500+ ppm number came from a camera owner (thank you), not a government agency or a lab. Without regular testing on every batch of products from China there is no way to know if the next batch of camera is 150 ppm or 15000 ppm.

There are some micro cameras (not the 808) in a painted metal, not plastic case, like the MD-80. But then you would need to test the paint. You can buy a lead test kit at a hardware store.. Are there any plastic case micro cameras with low lead? I don't know.

The ppm lead levels are set for children under 12 years old. I would not let kids handle the camera. In most cases, the allowable levels for adults are not regulated. As I understand it, the concern is ingested lead, where stomach acid will dissolve it, an it gets into the body. Kids put their hands, toys and other things in their mouth.

I have used solder throughout most of my adult life. Lead solder is about 400000 ppm lead, so occasionally handling a 1500 ppm micro camera is no big deal to me. I wash my hands.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports this:

By February 10, 2009, products designed or intended primarily for children 12 and younger may not contain more than 600 ppm of lead. Children’s products that contain more lead than 600 ppm are banned in the U.S. after February 10, 2009, and the sale of those products can result in significant civil and criminal liability. The statute provides that paint, coatings or electroplating may not be considered a barrier that would make the lead content of a product inaccessible to a child. After 1 year from enactment, or August 14, 2009, products designed or intended primarily for children 12 and younger cannot contain more than 300 ppm of lead. The limit goes down to 100 ppm after three years, or August 14, 2011, unless the Commission determines that it is not technologically feasible to have this lower limit.

2010 April 10 - Camera Module Datasheets

Inside the 808 car keys micro camera is a camera module (CCM-Compact Camera Module). Truly is a company that makes CCMs . They publishes datasheets for their CCMs and the CMOS chips used inside the CCM. It is difficult to get datasheets for these CMOS chips. If you want a good education about the capabilities of these cameras, read some of these CMOS chip datasheets.

Millions of these CCMs are made for cell phones, laptops and webcams. The CCM usually consists of a CMOS chip, a lens mounted in a lens barrel screw so that it can be focused, an infrared blocking filter, a housing, and a multi-pin connector like a flat cable or plug. The CMOS chip is usually a Bayer filter (Red Green Blue) over an array of sensels, and an image processor.

camera module explosion

OV is OmniVision. OV5 is 5MP (QSXGA). OV3 is 3MP (QXGA). OV9 is 1.3MP (SXGA). OV7 is 0.3MP (VGA). S5K is Samsung. MC is MagnaChip. S1V is SET.

S5KA3DFX, MC501CB, S1V100B, OV7725, OV7950, OV7680 and OV7670 are 640x480 camera modules of the type that might be used in the 808 car keys micro camera.

2010 April 09 - SanDisk Dethroned

I no longer recommend SanDisk over any other brand. Their random write speed is unpredictable just like every other card.

The class of an SD card is the sequential write speed. The 808 car keys micro camera requires fast random write speed to avoid problems like flashing date time stamp, long strings of duplicate frames, and audio video/sync problems. SanDisk random speed performance has been great. In general they were better that the rest. But not any more. Some recent SanDisk micro SD card have just mediocre random speed. So I can't recommend them over any other brand.

The profit margins in the flash card market have been cut to the bone, and SanDisk has probably been putting slow (cheap) controllers in their cards, to be cost competitive with all the competition.

Anders from Sweden has a #3 camera with a strange shifting date time stamp problem. The camera is using an 8GB SanDisk micro SD card. A Crystal Disk Mark benchmark of the card shows a slow 512K random write speed (1.054 MB/s, and less on subsequent benchmarks).

Anders contacted SanDisk vie email to verify that the card was authentic and ask about the slow random write speed. SanDisk recommended the ATTO bench32 program to benchmark the card. Bench32 does not measure random speed. SanDisk said the card is compliant based on the bench32 measurement.

2010 April 07 - Connector for External LiPo Charger

Gerhard from Germany has modified his #3 camera with a connector to the internal battery. This lets him fully charge the battery with an external LiPo battery charger he usually uses for his helicopter battery. With the USB cable the camera was charging the battery to 3.8V. A full charge is 4.2V.

"After the charging on USB stopped I plugged the #3 to the external charger. I was able to put about 100mAh into the battery, so the running time will be much higher than with charging on USB. I checked the capacity after 30 minutes filming, my charger had put 65mAh into the battery."

#3 camera with connector for external LiPo charger

2010 Mar 31 - Solution for the #3 Camera Zero Length AVI File Problem

Problem - When recording and the battery dies, sometimes there are AVI files with zero length, and sometime the micro SD card appears full.
Solution - Jaco emailed me this solution which he tried twice, and both times it worked: The problem with blank files occur when you plug the camera into the PC without turning the camera on. To resolve this just press and hold the power button for a few seconds till the light comes on (using whatever remaining power is in the battery) and THEN plug it into the PC.


2010 Mar 31 - Gallery of 808 Camera Mounts
Mounted under the nose cone, under the headlight, Velcro and safety string, RSV motorcycle, by samgoon, Wales 100428	RSVZone Aprilia RSV series motorcycle, fabricated bracket, by IanG, Wales 100428

BobFlyman from Devon UK. (100413) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqGvZMypgrE
Brian from Norfolk England. Slot car mount.	Blayde bought a gorillapod ($4 dealextreme), removed the camera screw and used 3M double stick tape to attach the camera to the shoe. (100422)
Link - cisc0box - A $12 Ebay keychain camera + Velcro + a free hat = a cheap way to record decent quality video of your flights. I can then remove the cam and place it on my plane via Velcro for aerial video as well.	Link - Franko73 - I have another one ordered so Ill try that first as Im happy with my mic holder mount for the keychain cam. I found another use for this cam if it is caused by a dodgy connection due to vibration, I can use it as a line of sight camera. I used the small plastic case that comes with the micro sd card and just cut two slots for the arm of my specs, works quite well.....
Link - Chophop - Here's my camera plane and how I mount it. A 1/2 inch balsa block padded with 1/8 inch DuBro 514 foam and held on with aviation straps (rubber bands). ...	Link - nerdc0re79 - here's the pics on my eye glasses or sunglasses keychain cam mount. better than sticking the cam on your hat.so the cam's focus is lined up with your eye's focal point(plane) IMHO
Link - Kenpilot - Hat Cam. Some pics of my simple yet versatile keychain cam mounting system.	Link - Hunter850 - A couple pics using the eye glass camera mod. Excellent idea took about 1 min to make. Works great. ...


2010 Mar 18 - Gallery of Other Small or Hidden Video Recorders
All of these are video recorders. The 808 car keys micro camera and these video recorders often use the same or similar electronics. Sorry, but I don't have the time to review these. Much of the 808 car keys micro camera review applies to these cameras.

Mini SPY CAMERA BMW Car DVR Hidden Video 1280960 B1*
F999-2	Night Vision Video Recorder	Calculator Spy Camera
Mini DV RD52 Camera	100714 RD52 Photos from L.S. MD-80-like-cam. video 720x480 MJPG FPS: 30.988336 Audio: 353 kbps. Removable 200 mAh battery. Motion activated mode. RD52	RD52

2010 Mar 14 - MD‑80 / #3 Camera Timestamp Remover

George from "Air Command Rockets" has written a VirtualDub filter "timestamp.vdf" to remove the video timestamp from the AVI file of the MD‑80 and #3 camera. The filter properties can be modified to remove the timestamp from other cameras based on color and location. It seems to be better than the Logoaway filter. Here is the link to the filter, and a comment about how to drill out the camera to make the LED easier to see.

http://home.people.net.au/~aircommand/md80clone.htm

YouTube Example of timestamp.vdf

2009 Nov 06 - Removing the Date Time Stamp by Blurring it Out

Nobody has been able to figure out how to get the camera to disable the date time stamp in the video corner.

VirtualDub and Logoaway do a pretty good job of removing that annoying date time stamp in the lower right corner of the AVI video file of my #3 camera. Actually it does a smart blur, but it is very effective. Logoaway is a plugin for VirtualDub. The Logoaway properties are in the YouTube comments. You can adjust the Logoaway properties if your video date time stamp is in a different place or size. This plugin is VERY CPU intensive and might take a long time to encode. Which is worse, the annoying time stamp or the blur? The video aspect ratio was also corrected to 640x480 in VirtualDub.

Fifteen seconds with the time stamp, and fifteen seconds without


2010 Mar 12 - #3 Camera with Cross Threaded Lens
Bob from Brixham UK sent me this interesting story about a #3 camera that he recently bought. Only the lower right corner of the image was in focus. Bob disassembled the camera. The camera module lens tube had been cross threaded. He corrected that problem and refocused the lens. "I also noticed before fitting the lens that somehow I'd got a speck of dust on the CCD. My puffer wouldn't move it, so I just left it. I put a couple of tiny blobs of superglue on the lens thread so I wouldn't be tempted to take it off again, and it won't move.. (Quit while you're ahead!) At least it is usably focused now! It has left a small blur on the image, but not very noticeable."
#3 camera with cross threaded lens tube. The lower right corner is in focus. The thread pitch is 0.35 mm.	#3 camera after fixing the cross threaded lens.

2010 Mar 04 - Flash Performance Comparison (updated 100620)

Kingston 2GB class 2 etched micro SD cards

Kingston 2GB class 2 micro SD flash cards. Acid etched. Each has
two flash die and one controller. Showing variety of controllers.
See bunnie's blog.

Have you used more than one flash card in your camera and can testify that one card works better than the other?
If they pass h2testw, please benchmark them with Crystal Disk Mark and send me the results.

The SD Association minimum write speed is 2 MBps (million bytes per second). That is a class 2 card. The size of the blocks being written to the card has a huge impact on the write performance. Sequential write is the fastest way to write a flash card. On some cards, sequential write is 5X faster than writing random 5KB blocks, and 500X faster than writing random 4KB blocks. I don't know if the 808 car keys micro camera (808CKMC) writes sequentially.

I believe that some 808CKMC problems are due to flash that is either bad, or the write performance is too slow. Sometimes reformatting the card will temporarily correct the problem. Here are some problems that have been caused by a slow flash card: video out-of-sync with audio and excessive duplicate frames.

What speed is too slow to work in an 808CKMC? I don't know yet, and it probably depends on which camera you have. Some cameras have much higher data rates than others. AVI data rates from 0.3 to 1.3 MBps have been measured . A #3 camera has a maximum data rate of 1.3 MBps (80 megabytes per minute).

Here you can read more about a tear down of micro SD cards: bunnie's blog.
The Kingston flash card you buy today and a month from now, can be a completely different card.

Crystal Disk Mark is a disk performance benchmarking tools. It also measures the suitability of flash for Microsoft ReadyBoost (minimum 1.75 512KB Write, 2.5 4KB Read).

This is not a flash benchmarking site. This information is shown for reference only. I have standardized on the crystal disk mark program. Other benchmark programs will give different results. If I use two readers, I usually list the better results.

Flash is difficult to benchmark for a number of reasons. The age of the card, how many write cycles it has had, the format age, the format, the brand, the internal controller, the benchmark tool, the reader, the block size, the sequential or random method.

Flash write speed, Crystal Disk Mark. Sorted by random write speed. More is better.


2010 Mar 02 - Be Suspicious of Generic Flash Cards
MD emailed me about problems with his new #2 camera that was delivered with a generic 4GB micro SD card. He reformatted it and it passed the h2testw test. The AVI had a strange problem where the sound was out of sync with the video. He replaced the generic card with a locally bought Sandisk 4GB class 2 card, and the problems went away. Here you can read more about a tear down of micro SD cards: http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=918 MD tried both the generic card and the SanDisk card in his #3 camera. The generic card caused a series of duplicate frames, but no sync problem with the video/audio. This long string of duplicate frames at the end of the generic video probably indicates that the camera is taking a long time, nearly a second, to close the file. I think this problem might be related to some reports of corrupted AVI files when the battery dies during a video. The camera probably does not have enough time to close the file properly, because the time to write the final blocks to the flash can't complete while the battery dies. Here are the duplicate frame maps for two sample videos. "." is a frame, and "D" is a duplicate frame. I used VirtualDub to measure this. Generic card,30.725FPS,227 frames, 7.38 seconds ...............................DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD.D................... ............................D......................D............................ D.............................D...................DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD SanDisk card, 30.763FPS, 155 frames, 5.038 seconds .......................................................................D........ ......................D................................D...................
Crystal Disk Mark Benchmark of Generic micro SD card. MBps. Poor random write performance.
Generic Micro SD Card	Before the sticker was scratched off	After the sticker was scratched off

2010 Feb 28 - #2 Camera Native Resolution might be 320x480

The CMOS sensor is probably made up of 640 sensels (sensor elements) per line. It probably uses a Bayer Array of 25% red, 50% green and 25% blue sensels. So far, testing has shown that a camera module (lens and the CMOS sensor) outputs 640 or 1280 bytes per line, and 480 lines per frame. The exact format of these bytes is unknown, and how they are interpreted by the processor is unknown.

The #2 camera module outputs 640 bytes per line. This might be one byte per sensel that the processor interpolates into pixels. Each byte is probably not one pixel.

The #3 camera module outputs 1280 bytes per line. This might be sensel data with two bytes per sensel that the processor interpolates into pixels. Another possibility is that the CMOS processor is interpolating the sensels and outputting pixel data in RGB555 format (each 2 byte word is 5 red bits, 5 green bits, 5 blue bits). Each two bytes might represent one pixel. The #3 camera also has the highest AVI data rate.

I am not sure if the following analysis is correct.

The native resolution of the #2 camera is probably 320x480, not 640x480.

Based on #2 camera oscilloscope data take by Dimitri, the camera module is outputting 640 bytes per line. 640 bytes per line is not enough data to represent 640 pixels per line. Each pixel is probably represented by two bytes, maybe in RGB555 format. This means that only 320 pixels are output per line.

This can be confirmed by this simple test: Capture a 640x480 video frame. In a graphics program, resize the frame to 320x480, and then resize it back to 640x480. Does the new frame look different than the original video frame? If not, then the original resolution was probably 320x480.

We will have to do this analysis for the the other types of cameras to see if they are really 640x480 resolution.

2010 Feb 27 - #2 Camera, More Technical Information

Thank you to Dimitri who provided me with this detailed technical information about his #2 camera. The camera has an internal microSD card, a Syntek STK1262BLQG processor, an 8 MB SDRAM and the firmware is in the 25L8005M2C 1 megabyte SPI serial flash chip.

#2 camera top, 8 MB SDRAM, camera module, camera module compression connector, LED, buttons

#2 camera bottom, Syntek processor, microSD flash card, mini USB connector, microphone, camera module, reset switch, SPI serial flash chip.

#2 Camera, the 25L8005M2C 1 MB SPI serial flash chip. 86 MHz, 6 to 20 second program time.

Dimitri reports these signals on the camera module 24 pin flat cable

#2 Camera, Camera Module
Pin #	Description
1	data sync 11.9MHz (T = 84ns) back to CPU (half the f of #9)
2	line sync
3	no connection found
4	connected to CPU, permanently LOW
5	+3.3VDC
6	connected to CPU, permanently LOW
7	frame sync
8	+3.3VDC
9	CLOCK 23.8MHz (T = 42ns) from CPU
10	+1.8VDC
11	no connection found
12	GROUND
13	connected to CPU, permanently LOW
14	I2C SDA pullup 10k at +3.3V (sporadic data flow)
15	DATA
16	DATA
17	DATA
18	I2C SCL pullup 10k a +3.3V (sporadic data flow)
19	DATA
20	20 (reset?) pullup 100k at +3.3V, stays HIGH after the start
21	DATA
22	DATA
23	DATA
24	DATA

The following scope images were taken from the 24 gold pins of the internal camera module. The camera module is outputting 640 bytes per line at 11.9 million bytes per second. Each frame is 480 lines.

Pin 1 - Data Sync (84 ns)

Pin 2 - Line Sync (about 65.5 us)

Pin 18 - I2C Interface

Pin 7 - Frame Sync ( about 33.3 ms)

Pin 2a - Line Sync for a Frame

Pin 9 - clk from CPU (42 ns)

2010 Feb 22 - #1 Camera - Another Software - Different, Not Better

Here is another #1 camera update that works with my #1 camera. My #1 camera has a AK3631B CPU, so the AK3671B might perform better.
AK3671B Platform Software 30 611S_VGA_V1.02 (with time) (4_16sdrm)

AVI data rate	17.9E6 bytes per minute (very low) 55.8 minutes per 1E9 bytes (lots of minutes)
FPS	12.000
Duplicate frame per second rate	2 to 4
JPG file	640x480 (not upconverted to 1280x1024).


2010 Feb 14 - Laboratory Removal of the Video Date Time Stamp
A laboratory method of removing the video date time stamp from the gumpack (#3 camera) has been discovered! But there is no user ready fix yet. Philippe, with the help of Bill W. and spinner, have been able to locate the font in the memory dump from the internal serial flash chip.

Images recovered from the memory dump by Bill W. and spinner Philippe remove the "2" from the font. As a test Philippe removed the 2 from the font, and wrote the memory dump back into the serial flash memory chip. It worked. With the font blanked, the modified memory dump was written back into the serial flash chip. A test video confirms the removal. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xc8e15_no-timestamp-at-all-from-my-gumpack_tech Here is Philippe's website with some details of what happened. This research has been done on a gumpack camera, that is very similar to the #3 camera. However each of these two cameras have a different CPU. This discover would have to be repeated on the #3 camera to dump the memory map, find the font, remove it, and write the memory map back. Also, there might be various revisions of the #3 camera software resulting is different memory maps. So the font could be located in different locations of the map and a different solution for each revision. At this time there is physically no easy way to do this fix. It requires the serial flash memory to be de-soldered from the camera, read, modified and re-written with specialized tools, and then the chip re-soldered back into the camera.

2010 Feb 12 - Hacking the Gumpack Camera (like the #3 Camera)

At Philippe's website there are more images, the raw dump file, and much more information:

Philippe from France has done some great hacking of his gumpack camera, with the intent of modifying the software to remove the video date time stamp. The gumpack has the same characteristics (720x480, 30FPS) as the #3 Camera. Once connected as a mass storage device (hardware ID 04FC 0171), a short press of the power button will put the camera into webcam mode (hardware ID 04FC 1528) if the SPCA1528 webcam driver is installed.

Like the #2, #3 and #4 cameras, this gumpack has an 8 pin serial flash chip. This chip is 2 megabytes. I speculate that it contains part of the camera software, loaded into RAM at boot time.. Philippe removed the 2 megabyte chip and dumped the memory to a file, and has been analyzing it. Surprisingly there are 16 JPG images embedded in the flash (see his site).

Philippe has determined from the dump that the processor is not an ARM processor but is a clone of a 6502 processor (like used in the Apple I, Apple II and the Commodore 64 computers). So, maybe using a 6502 disassembler will reveal some code.

Here is an example of some strings in the raw file, as displayed by the free HxD Hex Editor

00093B20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................................
00093B40 09 7B 30 78 30 62 2C 20 22 53 74 72 69 6E 67 2E 73 73 74 22 2C 20 30 78 30 30 2C 20 30 78 35 30 .{0x0b, "String.sst", 0x00, 0x50
00093B60 30 30 7D 2C 55 53 42 5F 56 45 4E 44 4F 52 5F 49 44 20 3D 20 22 30 78 30 34 46 43 22 0D 0A 55 53 00},USB_VENDOR_ID = "0x04FC"..US
00093B80 42 5F 50 43 43 41 4D 5F 50 52 4F 44 55 43 54 5F 49 44 20 3D 20 22 30 78 31 35 32 38 22 0D 0A 55 B_PCCAM_PRODUCT_ID = "0x1528"..U
00093BA0 53 42 5F 4D 53 44 43 5F 50 52 4F 44 55 43 54 5F 49 44 20 3D 20 22 30 78 30 31 37 31 22 0D 0A 55 SB_MSDC_PRODUCT_ID = "0x0171"..U
00093BC0 53 42 5F 53 49 44 43 5F 50 52 4F 44 55 43 54 5F 49 44 20 3D 20 22 30 78 30 31 37 32 22 0D 0A 55 SB_SIDC_PRODUCT_ID = "0x0172"..U
00093BE0 53 42 5F 4D 41 4E 55 46 41 43 54 55 52 45 52 5F 4E 41 4D 45 20 3D 20 22 53 75 6E 70 6C 75 73 20 SB_MANUFACTURER_NAME = "Sunplus
00093C00 43 6F 20 4C 74 64 20 22 0D 0A 55 53 42 5F 50 52 4F 44 55 43 54 5F 4E 41 4D 45 20 3D 20 22 47 65 Co Ltd "..USB_PRODUCT_NAME = "Ge
00093C20 6E 65 72 61 6C 20 49 6D 61 67 65 20 44 65 76 69 63 65 22 0D 0A 55 53 42 5F 53 45 52 49 41 4C 5F neral Image Device"..USB_SERIAL_
00093C40 4E 55 4D 42 45 52 20 3D 20 22 30 31 2E 30 30 2E 30 30 22 0D 0A 4D 53 44 43 5F 56 45 4E 44 4F 52 NUMBER = "01.00.00"..MSDC_VENDOR
00093C60 5F 49 44 20 3D 20 22 22 0D 0A 4D 53 44 43 5F 50 52 4F 44 55 43 54 5F 49 44 20 3D 20 22 47 65 6E _ID = ""..MSDC_PRODUCT_ID = "Gen
00093C80 65 72 61 6C 22 0D 0A 4D 53 44 43 5F 52 45 56 49 53 49 4F 4E 5F 49 44 20 3D 20 22 31 2E 30 30 22 eral"..MSDC_REVISION_ID = "1.00"
00093CA0 0D 0A 53 49 44 43 5F 4D 41 4E 55 46 41 43 54 55 52 45 52 20 3D 20 22 53 75 6E 70 6C 75 73 6D 6D ..SIDC_MANUFACTURER = "Sunplusmm
00093CC0 22 0D 0A 53 49 44 43 5F 4D 4F 44 45 4C 20 3D 20 22 47 65 6E 65 72 61 6C 22 0D 0A 53 49 44 43 5F "..SIDC_MODEL = "General"..SIDC_
00093CE0 44 45 56 49 43 45 5F 56 45 52 53 49 4F 4E 20 3D 20 22 30 31 2E 30 30 20 22 0D 0A 53 49 44 43 5F DEVICE_VERSION = "01.00 "..SIDC_
00093D00 53 45 52 49 41 4C 4E 55 4D 42 45 52 20 3D 20 22 30 30 20 20 20 20 20 20 22 0D 0A 53 49 44 43 5F SERIALNUMBER = "00 "..SIDC_
00093D20 56 45 4E 44 4F 52 45 58 54 5F 44 45 53 43 20 3D 20 22 53 75 6E 70 6C 75 73 6D 6D 22 0D 0A 0D 0A VENDOREXT_DESC = "Sunplusmm"....
00093D40 0D 0A FF D8 FF E0 00 10 4A 46 49 46 00 01 01 01 00 60 00 60 00 00 FF DB 00 43 00 08 06 06 07 06 ..Ã¿Ã˜Ã¿Ã ..JFIF.....`.`..Ã¿Ã›.C......
00093D60 05 08 07 07 07 09 09 08 0A 0C 14 0D 0C 0B 0B 0C 19 12 13 0F 14 1D 1A 1F 1E 1D 1A 1C 1C 20 24 2E ............................. $.

Philippe also measured current consumption in the gumpack camera. "I measured the battery capacity at 270mAh (discharge current of 200mA, down to 3.0V). So I expect it to be able to last a bit more that one hour".

Current mA	Switch	Description
zero	Off	This gumpack camera does not have a reset button. Off disconnects the battery.
0.02	On	Sleep
115	On	Green LED on. The current waveform shows a frequency around 15 KHz, hello RTC clock !
145	On	During video recording. There are some spikes at 220 mA every 64ms. It’s probably when the SD card is written.

2010 Feb 07 - Hardware ID (VID PID) and Webcam Drivers

Some cameras support a webcam driver, some don't. To find a webcam driver for your camera, you need to know the Hardware ID of your camera's webcam mode, then you can look for a webcam driver to match the Hardware ID. Here is how to do that.

(The mass storage device mode of your camera has nothing to do with the webcam Hardware ID)

The Hardware ID consists of a Vendor ID and Product ID (VID and PID).

	Hardware ID (VID PID)	Worked with Windows
#3 camera mass storage device	04FC 0171 Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd.	XP
#3 camera webcam driver SPCA1528	04FC 1528 Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd.	XP 32
Webcam driver (STK02N 2.3) for #2 Camera and #4 Camera and My Gumpack camera with external micro SD	05E1 0B01 Syntek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.	XP 32
#1 Camera Driver for the Anyka burntool.	0471 0666 Anyka Philips	XP SP3
#1 Camera webcam driver USBANYKA	04D6 065E Anyka Mentor Graphics	XP SP3

#1 camera webcam driver USBANYKA http://www.readerme.com /html/html/AK36361B平台PC%20Camera驱动.html.

How to determine the Hardware ID of your camera.
Try to put your camera in webcam mode. If you can't, your camera might not support webcam mode. For best results, connect the USB cable directly to a USB port, not through a hub.

Enter webcam mode, Not the #1 camera - There are two ways:
1. Connect the USB cable. Once connected as a mass storage device a quick press of the power button will switch to webcam mode. Quick press again to switch back to mass storage mode.
2. Press and hold the mode button, then connect the USB cable. When the camera LED comes on, release the mode button.
Enter webcam mode, #1 camera - Connect USB cable. Once Windows installs the mass storage device, press the camera power button for 2 seconds.
Gumpack camera - Put the camera switch on and the audio switch on. Hold the power button down for 10 seconds, connect the USB cable, then release the power button. You might have to do this twice.

If there is no installed webcam driver, Windows will display "Found new device" and open a a popup window "Welcome to the Found New Hardware Wizard". Don't close the popup window.

? USB device in yellow Open the Device Manager. Double click the yellow "? ! USB Device".

Select the detail tab. Under "hardware IDs" the VID and PID of the webcam in you camera is shown. In this example the Hardware ID is 05e1 0b01. You can close the Windows popup, and the Device Manager.

2010 Feb 02 - Possible Manufacturer

TGF Group in china is one of the possible manufactures of the 808 car keys micro camera.
Company Name :TGF Group Co. Limited
Company Address :No12 ZhongXin Road, BuJi Town, LongGang District Shenzhen, Guangdong, China 518114

Here is the webpage of their TMP808 camera. None of the cameras that I have reviewed take 1024x768 photos.

TGF claims: Format: AVI/VGA video format, 640x480 pixel; JPEG photo format 1024x768 pixels.

2010 Jan 28 - The Best Version of the #2 Camera - Toshiba CPU

Conclusion - The #2 camera with the Toshiba CPU (about 0 duplicate frames per second) is the best #2 camera. The #2 camera also comes with an mTec CPU (about 5 duplicate frames per second).

See duplicate frames.

Matt has had two #2 cameras; A Toshiba CPU version and an mTec CPU version. The Toshiba version was damaged in an RC crash.
Matt disassembled both cameras and moved the Toshiba camera flash card to the mTec camera. He took a test video with the mTec camera to see if the better performance followed the flash card. It did not. The test video averaged 5 duplicates per second. I don't know the size and speed rating of the flash cards. From this experiment I conclude that the flash card from the Toshiba CPU #2 camera did not improve the performance of the mTec CPU #2 camera.

2010 Jan 22 - Cool. Silent. Winter. UK. RC Glider. #3 Camera.

Here is a very cool quiet RC video taken with a #3 camera at Richmond Park by JonyEpsilon. See this DLG (Discus Launched Glider) thread FlyQuiet.co.uk. "It is possible to achieve launch heights of greater than 140 feet (43 m), with the top fliers exceeding 200-foot (61 m) high launches".

Click Photo for the YouTube Video

2010 Jan 21 - Speculating about Software Architecture

Here is my speculation about the software architecture of the 808 car keys micro cameras. This is controversial because at this point nobody knows for sure what the architecture is. This is pure speculation, and I expect some differing opinions. If you know the software architecture, or have documentation including engineering drawings or specifications, please contact me by email.

From the tear down photos, I know that the #2, #3 and #4 cameras have an 8-pin chip, unlabeled in many cameras.

In the #2 camera this chip is a 1/2 megabyte serial flash memory chip with a SPI interface.
In the #3 camera this chip is a 2 megabyte serial flash memory chip with a SPI interface.

The other 8-pin parts are probably the same. This is a lot of non-volatile non-executable memory to put in the camera. The system software BIN files of the #1 camera are about 15 megabytes, so all of the system software would probably not fit in the serial flash chip. I speculate that this serial flash chip part holds part of the system software in the #2, #3 and #4 cameras .Every CPU has some internal executable RAM. Every camera has an external 8 megabyte executable SDRAM. The RAM is used to buffer the video frames from the camera assembly, buffer the microphone ADC audio, and buffer the writing of video frames to the AVI file in the flash memory file system, at a rate of 0.4 to 1.3 megabytes per second.

The software consists of a number of subsystems:

	Software Subsystems	Description	Camera #1	Cameras #2 #3 #4
OS	Operating System	These are common for all varieties of micro cameras (808 car keys, pen, gum pack, watch …).	The internal flash memory chip is FAT32 with three partitions. The first partition contains the four system software BIN files: ●AkResData.Bin ●DynamicFont4_16.bin ●LangCodepage.bin ●Spring.bin These files are loaded into executable RAM at boot time.	The CPU ROM is used to hold the OS, drivers and functions. Executable.
Drivers	real time clock
	camera assembly
	USB protocol
	flash memory file system access
Functions	JPG compression algorithm
	MJPG compression algorithm
	audio video multiplexer for the AVI file
	applying the date time stamp

Application		The application is custom and specific to the functions of the 808 car keys micro camera.		The serial flash chip is used to hold the application software. Not executable. Loaded into executable RAM at boot time.

Camera #1 Software Architecture

Factory - The factory connects the USB cable and initiates system mode. The BIN files are loaded into the BIN partition of the internal flash memory chip. The camera user should never need to use system mode.

User - Pressing the power button initiates the bootstrap loader, a small executable program in the CPU. The bootstrap loader loads the 15 megabytes of system files from the BIN partition into external RAM.

Camera #2 #3 #4 Software Architecture

Factory Scenario 1 – Before the camera is assembled, the application software is loaded into the serial flash memory chip. The camera is assembled. There is no system software to install.

Factory Scenario 2 – The camera is assembled. The factory hooks up a USB cable and enters a currently undefined “system mode”. The application is programmed into the serial flash memory chip. The camera user should never need to use system mode.

User - Pressing the power button initiates the operating system which is resident on the CPU. The operating system bootstrap loader loads the application from the serial flash chip to part of the executable RAM.

2010 Jan 14 - Test Video Comparison of the #1 and #3 camera

Jamie took side-by-side videos from a #1 and #3 camera and combined them side-by-side in this video.

My experience has been that the #1 camera automatic exposure is is very washed out in bright outdoor light. Sometimes with indoor light the exposure is much better. With post processing you can adjust the brightness, contrast, and gamma to eliminate some of this exposure problem.

Click for the YouTube Video

2010 Jan 11 - Speculating about chips and software

I would like to know about the #3 camera chips including the camera processor.

The #3 camera processor is marked mm "SPCA1527A-HL091, WQOT 959.1, 0937". mm is the logo of Sunplus mmedia

.

"evgen26" from Russian website RCDesign.ru has reported that this chip is a 32 bit ARM926EJ, 168 MHz. This site claims the same.

The #1 camera has a ANYKA AK3631B14402 processor. In 2007 ANYKA licensed ARM926EJ technology.

So is the #3 processor also an ANYKA processor?
Does anyone have any more information? Please send it to me.

The #2, #3 and #4 cameras have an 8 pin SOP-8 package chip.
Pm25LV040 Photo

On the #2 it is labeled Pm25LV040, which is a 512K byte SPI serial flash memory.
On the #3 camera it is sometimes labeled cFeon (Eon Silicon Solutions) and F16-100HIP, which is a 2 megabyte SPI serial flash memory.
This is not executable memory since it is serial. What is the purpose of this much non-volatile memory?

Hypothesis - This serial flash memory contains the camera software, or part of it.
The bootstrap loader loads the software from the serial flash chip into part of the 8 megabyte SDRAM chip where it is executed.
Most of the SDRAM is used as a video buffer.
The video data rate is about 800 K bytes per second and needs to be buffered in the SDRAM before it is written into the flash memory card.

What do you think?


2010 Jan 08 - Tear Down Photos of a New #2 and #3
Matt supplied these tear down photos of his #2 and #3 cameras. His RC videos are at http://www.youtube.com/user/mdamttc199. Matt has had two #2 cameras. The first #2 had a Toshiba processor and died in a horrible RC crash. It does not work well because some internal parts are damaged. He bought a second #2 from a different seller (ezmobileshop) in China that showed a sample video with a green time stamp in the lower right. The camera he received has the normal orange time stamp, but the processor is an Mtec and the the internal micro SD card holder is flimsy. Also, the new #2 camera flash memory came with a virus (? viruscleaner ?), that his anti virus program caught. The new #3 camera came from Singapore and it has a Samsung SDRAM chip, and seems decent so far. ---------- A sample video from this Mtec #2 camera measured 28.821 FPS, and 5 duplicate frames per second. Matt's original Toshiba #2 camera had no duplicate frames after the first second. A photo was used to measure the AOV (angle of view) to be 40.7 degrees. The photo has a date time stamp on it.
#2 Camera. Internal micro SD card with flimsy card holder, Mtec processor, microphone, USB connector. Foam in the upper right corner to stabilize the camera. The 8 pin chip in the SOP-8 package is a Pm25LV040 chip which is a 512K byte serial flash memory.	#2 Camera. Socketed camera assembly, power button, mode button, RAM chip, LED.
#3 Camera, 8 megabyte SDRAM, the 8 pin SOP-8 package marked cFeon (Eon Silicon Solutions) is probably a EN25F40 512K Byte serial flash memory.	#3 Camera, soldered camera assembly, power button, mode button, processor, LED.

2010 Jan 04 - FYI Some engineering drawing of the #1 camera

Here are a couple of component maps for the #1 Camera. Click for full size. I don't have a schematic, bill of materials or artwork.


28 Dec 2009 - Notes about the CMOS camera module
Sanmtech camera assembly	I have been searching for more information about the camera module used in the 808 micro camera. I found this China company Sanmtech that makes a number of CMOS camera modules including this one that looks very much like the one used in the 808 micro camera. Their description: FPC + Golden finger, VGA/1.3M This model can avoid camera module radiation influence signal by brushing silver ink on FPC, and connected with mobile phone mainboard by golden finger. If someone has a spec sheet for this camera assembly, or the camera assembly in their 808 micro camera, please send it to me, so that I can share it with everyone.
Toshiba TCM8230MD 640x480 color camera assembly	For those of you contemplating a project with a micro camera module, you might want to consider this Toshiba TCM8230MD 640x480 camera. It uses an I2C interface,has a spec sheet, and is affordable ($10). This and other higher resolution camera assemblies are available at sparkfun.com. Here is a technical note about interfacing to this camera assembly.


16 Dec 2009 - #3 Tear Down, V2 and V4. Internal Short Circuit Problem.
Photos and comments from Michael503. He provides these interesting tear down photos of two variations of the #3 camera. The two different circuit boards are marked V2 and V4 respectively. The older V2 camera died due to a short circuit as noted on the photo. Click images for full size.

Back side of two #3 cameras: 0006 V2 and 0006 V4. Shows two different component layouts.	Front side (the button side) of two #3 cameras, 0006 V4 and 0006 V2.
My first camera was a #3, red tinted lens, although the tint changed once you got it out of the case. It died after about 10 mins of video. I suspect the battery wire, which were attached close together and directly behind the camera shorted out on the metal back of the camera due to the vibrations it encountered mounted on my Trex 500. They were soldered haphazardly. It had a 200ma battery inside, the battery was labeled. I ordered another one from a different vendor and the lens has a blue tint. As you can see, the components on the board have been rearranged. The number codes on the boards would seem to indicate production dates. Audio quality seems a tad better with the new one, which has a plastic cover on the mic. The camera came with a generic charger. The battery has some stock numbers, but is the same size as the 200ma battery in the other camera. I pointed out the flaws I saw when I opened the second one up. I have since corrected those. The cameras are not secured to the circuit board. A small dab of hot glue holds them in place so you can get it into the case, but once there, they are free to rattle around a bit. There are indexing standoffs cast into the case that hold the camera, but its still loose. I added a very small amount of foam packing to secure it better. This should help with areal videography a bit. ---------- The coating on the lens may appear as different colors when viewed at different angles. Its possible that the lens position in the lens housing has something to do with this. When charging via computer, the LED never flashes (even when transferring files) and the LED never goes out. There is no way to tell if its fully charged or not, at least none that I have found. When charging via the supplied charger (there seem to be a number of these so I can only speak for the one I have) the charge light on the camera never goes out, but the charger has 2 LEDs, one that indicates it has power and one that indicates charging. I assume it registers current flow. My charger is rated at 5V +/- 5% and 300-400ma. After a bit, the charge LED goes suddenly very dim, indicating a cutoff of some sort in the camera, probably fully charged. Oddly, when using this charger, if you touch, or get a finger very very close to the dummy buttons on the camera, the light will go off on the camera and the charge light will dim a slight amount. I attribute this to some sort of RF shielding/capacitance thing. It does not do this when its connected to a computer. The power is probably cleaner from a computer power supply. This charger doesn't have much inside it.

07 Dec 2009 - Gumpack Camera

John R. sent me these comments about his gumpack camera. It is similar to the #3 camera. The drivers for the camera are the same. The supplied disk was corrupt. The drivers from the Thai website were used with Vista. Both the English and the multilanguage were tried. They are the same but multi gives the choice between English and Chinese. Webcam operation: with the camera off, connect the USB, one quick push on the mode button gets it working as a cam. As a webcam it doesn't show as a disc drive. Lipo batteries... are used for r/c..they will die when discharged below a certain voltage and its not recoverable..they will damage if overcharged too much.. and prolonged storage when fully charged also gives problems.. So the main problem is the discharge ..don't run them flat.. Date and time problems: John can set the date time for one video, but it resets to 2008 after each video.

02 Dec 2009 - Micro SD Card Speed

UPDATE (100605) - Use a class 4 or faster micro SD card. Most class 2 cards will work, but the video date time stamp might flicker and the missing frame rate might be higher.

Any micro SD card that complies with the SD Association specifications will work in a #3 camera. If you buy a card that does not comply, then you might have some problems. Buy a reputable brand from a reputable source.

The slowest SD card is a class 2 which has a write speed of 2 million bytes per second.
The highest data rate that I have seen in a #3 camera AVI file is 1.37 million bytes per second.

You can use an SD card faster than a class 2. If you're going to remove the card from the camera and use it for a faster application then you might want to buy a faster card.

I have measured the AVI data rate (video+audio) of many files from my #3 camera. The data rate of every AVI file is different, but the maximum has been 82 million bytes per minute (1.37 million bytes per second). The data rate depends on the average spacial complexity of all frames in the video. The MJPG codec uses JPG encoding which is is spacial, not temporal, so frame to frame complexity does not matter.

29 Nov 2009 - Hungarian Website and Video

Here is an interesting look at a site in Hungary selling RC planes and micro cameras. Also some RC videos about micro cameras.
They have a number of YouTube videos.
http://smodell.atw.hu/
Camera page with Google Hungarian-to-English translation: http://tinyurl.com/yhbw9a

27 November 2009 - Request for #2 Camera Answers.

If you have a #2 camera (has an internal micro SD flash card) I have some questions for you. I get email asking me to help with #2 camera problems. These are my questions:

1. Have you ever reformatted the flash card while it is in your #2 camera? Did the reformatting fix something or make the camera work better?

2. Have you ever removed the flash card and inspected it in an external micro SD card reader? Is there more than one partition? You might have more than one partition if the micro SD card reader opens more than one Windows explorer window. Did you see system files in any of the partions?

3. Have you ever removed the card and reformatted it in an external reader? If you saw multiple partitions did you format all the partitions?

4. If the flash card is removed from the camera, what happens when you press the power button? Do any lights come on, etc.?

Thanks for you help.


24 Nov 2009 - Many eBay Sellers, But One Source?
Crash One pointed out that eBay sellers myzone50 and joymyzone both have the same return address.
Li Gang Room 305, 3/F Block A Sun Fung Centre, 88 Kwok Shui RD, Kwai Chung HONGKONG	Both of these sellers have good feedback. This raises a number of possibilities and questions. Is Li Gang a fulfillment house for many eBay sellers? Is Li Gang a person with one or more eBay names? This might be a strategy to leverage feedback, i.e. a method to allow a seller with poor feedback to drop that eBay name and continue to sell under a different eBay name. What other eBay sellers are using this address?

22 Nov 2009 - Lens Coating Color and AOV - No Correlation

At this time, based on comments from a larger population of #3 camera users (emails and forum comments), there is no definitive correlation between lens color and AOV (angle of view). Cameras are available with lens coatings of red, green, blue, and no color.

The #3 camera is available in more than one AOV. 36° and 44° have been measured.

Is there any definitive way to tell the AOV of a camera, without taking a test image?
Does the lens shape tell anything definitive about the camera?

21 Nov 2009 - #3b (blue lens) AOV 36 degrees, same AOV as #3g

AOV test photo from Crash One's #3b camera

Crash One emailed me with this note:

"I've bought 3 cameras from Myzone50, each slightly different. The first was a 3Red, second was a 3Green...guess what...third is a 3Blue."

Crash One emailed me a test photo from the #3b which has
these properties: W 1280, X 36, Y 11, Z 598.

The AOV (Angle of View) is 36.2 degrees, which is about the same as the #3g.

What else is different about a #3b ?

Three #3 cameras with different lenses: Blue, Red and Green.


18 Nov 2009 - Joel's comparison of a #2 and #3 camera
#2 camera with blue lens	Under constructions ...


Update 15/17 Nov 2009 - There are Two Optically Different Versions of the #3 Camera
#3g Camera #3r Camera Butane Lighter Camera Pen Camera	Joel contacted me with great information about his four micro cameras. The AOV (Angle of View) is different on each one. Two of them are #3 cameras but they differ. I am calling them #3r (red) and #3g (green). The date time stamps are the identical yellow size and font, but the AOV are different. If you look into the lens you can see that the lens looks red or green. This is probably just the anti-reflective coating on the lens, but for now, it distinguishes the two cameras. The #3r camera has a red lens. The seller was eBay myzone50. 44.0 degree AOV (45mm equivalent lens). The #3g camera has a green lens. The seller was eBay eletoponline365. 36.6 degree AOV (54mm equivalent lens) and more light sensitive. eletoponline365 sells both the #3g and #3r camera. Ronsjunk bought a #3r from eletoponline365. Does eletoponline365or any seller know which one is which? I don't know, and if it matters to you, ask before you buy. More info to come ...


Update 15 Nov 2009 - Tear down photos of #1 and #2
Matt supplied these great tear down photos or his #1 and #2 cameras. "#2 is SO much better than #1. #2 is better built and works better". Click the photo for full size.
Camera #1 bottom. ANYKA CPU. Internal flash memory chip.	Camera #1 top. Socketed camera assembly. 8 megabyte SDRAM chip.
Camera #2 bottom. Internal micro SD card. Toshiba CPU.	Camera #2 top. Socketed camera assembly. 8 megabyte SDRAM.

2009 Nov 06 - Sunplus, Sunplus mmedia,codecs, Removing Date Time Stamp

Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd - This is the company, or one of the companies, responsible for the software / hardware. This explains why each AVI and JPG file on my version #3 camera begins with SUNP. They are a big electronics company in Taiwan with many subsidiaries in China, Hong Kong, etc.

Sunplus mmedia is a subsidiary of Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd. Sunplus mmedia offer "cost-effective SoC (System on a Chip) solutions". "Sunplus mmedia has expertise in imaging technologies". The #3 camera webcam driver VID (Vendor ID) is 4FC. 4FC is Sunplusmm. The CPU in the #3 camera has the mm logo.

Here are some other PIDs (product IDs) from Sunplus Technology

0003 CM1092 Optical Scroller Mouse, 0013 ViewMate Desktop Mouse CC2201, 0015 ViewMate Desktop Mouse CC2201, 0232 Fingerprint,
0561 Flexcam 100,
0C25 SATALink SPIF225A,

1533 Mass Storage,
500C CA500C Digital Camera
504A Aiptek Mini PenCam 1.3,
504B Aiptek Mega PockerCam 1.3/Maxell MaxPocket LE 1.3,
5330 Digitrex 2110,

5331 Vivitar Vivicam 10,
5360 Sunplus Generic Digital Camera,
5720 Card Reader Driver,
7333 Finet Technology Palmpix DC-85,
757A Aiptek, MP315 MP3 Player,
FFFF PureDigital Ritz Disposable

How I discovered this - On my version #3 camera, if I hold the mode switch down and connect the USB, Windows will try to load a "general image device". Windows is trying to load a driver for device VID_04FC PID_1528 (vendor id and product id). The vendor id is Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd. I can't find any reference to product id 1528. I contacted the seller and he said there is no driver for a webcam or image device.

2009 Nov 06 - Codecs

Two computers could render a MJPG AVI in different ways depending on the video player and decoding codec. A video player could use an internal or external video codec. On my computer there are two MJPG external codec's: ffdshow video decoder ffdshow.ax, and MJPEG decompressor quartz.dll (according to GSpot http://gspot.headbands.com/). On my computer the selected external codec is ffdshow.

2009 Nov 05 - Duplicated Frames
2010 Mar 9 - Duplicate frames can be caused by a problem flash card. Duplicate frames are a problem with all versions of the camera, except the #2 camera with the Toshiba processor. These duplicates reduce the temporal video quality by causing the playback to stutter or jitter. When the camera can't deliver unique video frames fast enough (an under run), a duplicate frame gets inserted into the AVI file. What effect does the write speed of the flash memory have on the duplicate frames rate? I don't know the answer yet. The duplicate frame rate for each of the camera variations: #1 - low to high. There are two software versions of this camera. The original software (bin files) generates more than 50% duplicate frames and an AVI FPS of 25. The new software generates less than one duplicate frame per second and an AVI FPS of 15. #2 - low to medium. There is a burst of duplicate frames in the first 1/2 second. There are at least two CPU versions of this camera: a Toshiba CPU and an Mtec CPU. In the Toshiba version I looked at the frames of a 23.5 second 29.686 FPS video with 754 frames, and there are no duplicates, except for 4 duplicate frames in the first 9 frames. The Mtec version has about 5 duplicates per second. #3 - low. Less than 3 frames per second are duplicates. The AVI FPS is 30 to 31. #4 - high. A test video measured 66% duplicate frames. The AVI FPS was about 32.VirtualDub was used, frame by frame, to inspect for duplicate frames. Frame stepping will either display every frame or skip over duplicate frames. This depends on your video player and MJPG codec. Here are duplicate frame maps for test videos. For example in the first map, frames 26 and 27 are duplicates of frame 25. VirtualDub identified the duplicates.
	Each "." or "D" is a frame. "D" is a duplicate frame.
#1 camera, one second of frames, frames 25 to 49, 25.000 fps	.DD.D.DD.D.DD..DD.DD..DD.
#2 camera, mTec CPU version, 187 frames from start. 28.15 FPS. 6307464 bytes. About 5 duplicates per second.	..DDD.D.D.....D......DDD.D..D.D...D............... D...D.D............D.D.D........D...D....D.......D .D........D..D.D........D........D.D...D...D.....D .....................................
#2 camera, Toshiba CPU version, 213 frames from start, 28.935 FPS, 4880368 bytes. Almost no duplicates.	...DDD....D.D..................................... .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .............
#3 camera, two seconds of frames, frames 25 to 86, 30.999 fps	.........D..............D...............D......... .....D......


Great YouTube videos (#2 camera) that demonstrate the use of this video camera technology
Wild Hawk RC Plane Aerial Camera footage *http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo2p_7tx9lQ*	Art-Tech F18 with on board camera *http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUBPOfi7jz8*


Instructions - How to Operate the Camera
#3 camera operating instructions	#3 camera Micro SD card, how to insert and removetd>
Original Chinese English Instructions (just for reference)	My Interpreted Instructions
1. Enter the video mode in turn off status , long time press OFF/ON button till yellow light on , long time press (video/camera button) still yellow light flash three times, light off enter into the video mode, then click (video/camera button) yellow light on for stop and saved, long time press OFF/ON switch off. Camera mode: Enter the camera mode in turned off status long time press (OFF / ON button) till yellow light on, click (video/camera button) the yellow light flash one time then take one photo and again and again. Long time press OFF/ON turn off. lights work Status indication Charge: charging yellow light on long time, when full lights off USB file reading and writing: yellow light slow flash Lights in Manual mode indication: Standby status: yellow light long time on Card is full: yellow light on low battery power : yellow light slow flash.	HOW TO TAKE A VIDEO 1. Start with the camera off (or press the reset button to turn it off). 2. Press the power (on/off) button. This turns the LED and the camera on. 3. Press and hold the mode (video/image) button. The LED flashes 3 times then the LED goes off. The camera is recording video and audio. 4. Very quickly press the mode button to stop video recording. The video recording stops, the video is written to a AVI Flash memory file, and the LED turns on. Repeat step three to take another video. 5. Press and hold the power button. The camera and the LED turn off. HOW TO TAKE A PHOTO 1. Start with the camera off. 2. Press the power button. This turns the LED and the camera on. 3. Very quickly press the mode button. The LED briefly goes off, then on. The camera took a photo and wrote it to a JPG Flash memory file. Repeat step three to take another photo. 4. Press and hold the power button. The camera and the LED turn off.


How to Set the Date Time
Original Chinese English Instructions	My Interpreted Instructions
	NOTE - If you are using Windows you can run the 808SetClock program. This will put the correct file on your camera. Then turn your camera off and on and the date time will be set. If you don't set the date time, 1970 or 1980 will be used. Also, some camera problems seem to have been fixed by setting the date time. Once you set the date time you should not have to set it again, unless the battery dies or the time drifts. The date time is stamped on the video and can be disabled in some cameras. The camera date time is also used in the date time file property of all AVI and JPG files. NOTE - Windows hides file extensions by default. A file name with two extensions will not work (for example time.txt.txt).
The product video recording same time with time display function, can adjust the time according to their own. First create a new TXT file by root of the storage TF card and change the file name in SetTime. Open SetTime file, inside edit year, month, day, hour, minutes and seconds format, for example, 2009.05.13 15:10:00 and save the file before exit time created and modifications completed, when next time you start the machine, the time will be recorded simultaneously.	Camera #1 For example, to set the date time to May 13 2009 at 3:10pm: Connect the USB cable. Create a time.txt file in the flash root with one line inside in this format: 2009.05.13 15:10:00 Disconnect the USB. The camera will read the file, change the camera date time, and delete the file.
	Camera #2 Michael has reported that the #1 camera "time.txt" date time technique works for his #2 camera. Rob has reported that the #1 camera technique works except that the actual file name needs to be “SetTime.txt” (case matters) and placed in root.
	Camera #3 Right-click this tag.txt file (32 bytes) and download it. The tag.txt file has three parts: header, date and time. The exact required format is discussed here. The word "date" must be lower case. [date] 2009/12/29 16:58:00 or [date] 2009/12/29 16:58:00 Modify the tag.txt file with your date time. Use a text editor (like Windows notepad or equivalent) that will not corrupt the file. If you corrupt the file, the date time will not be set. To be accurate, the time in the files should be the future time when you will turn the camera on. 1. Connect the USB cable. 2. Copy the tag.txt file to the root of the camera drive. For example if you camera is "E:", then the root would be "E:\". The root is not in a folder. 3. Disconnect the USB cable. 4. Turn the camera off. 5. Turn the camera on. The camera reads tag.txt, sets the date time, and deletes the file. 6. Take a photo. 7. Connect the USB cable. Verify the date time on the JPG file.
	Camera #4 For example, to set the date time to May 13 2009 at 3:10pm, and enable the video date time stamp: Connect the USB. Create a time.txt file with the following line in it. To disable the video date time stamp replace the Y with N. To be accurate, the time in the file should be the future time when you will turn the camera on. Copy the file to the root of the flash memory. 2009.05.13 15.10.00 Y Disconnect the USB. Turn the camera off. Turn the camera on. The camera will read the file, change the camera date time, and delete the file. Take a photo. Connect the USB cable. Verify the date time on the JPG file.
	Camera #5 For example, to set the date time to 2010 Mar 08 at 15:59, and enable the video date time stamp, create a file called timerset.txt with one line in the following format. To disable the video date time stamp replace the Y with N. 20100308155900 Y 1. Connect the USB cable. 2. Copy the timerset.txt file to the root of the camera drive. 3. Disconnect the USB cable. 4. Turn the camera off. 5. Turn the camera on. The camera reads timerset.txt, sets the date time, and deletes the file. 6. Take a photo. 7. Connect the USB cable. Verify the date time on the JPG file.
	Camera #6 Variant of the #3 camera. File: tag.txt Format: [date]2010/12/3101:00:00 Reports are that the tag.txt file name is not case sensitive. Oliver from Germany says this tag.txt file works. Willy reports that this tag.txt file works. Jirka reports that this tag.txt file works. Update 100612 - Zimodro from Russia says that you can create an empty "TIME.txt" file in the camera root, and the camera will set the date time from the file date time. A programmer with a #6 camera who understands parsing needs to do a study to identify the exact required tag.txt file format. For example, here is the parsing description of the #3 camera tag.txt file that I researched and wrote. People have reported different required formats for the #6 camera tag.txt file. Someone reported that the tag.txt file name was case sensitive (it isn't) and that a = was required at the file end (it isn't). Do not go by any documentation that comes with the camera.
	Camera #7 Variant of the #1 camera. File: time.txt Format: 2009.05.13 15:10:00
	Camera Gumpack The following does not apply to the 808 car keys micro camera. How to avoid losing the date time in the gumpack camera. Testimonial - I could set the time ok but every time I switched off the camera using the on/off switch on the side of the camera it reverted back to 2008. If you leave the side switch left to the on position permanently you can turn off the camera using the middle function button. After you press the button to stop video recording if you hold it down again for about 3 seconds both LEDs will flash and it will turn off. To turn the camera back on just hold middle function button for about 3 seconds and use it as normal. Leaving the side switch set to on does not run the battery down and time and date are always correct, I have left the camera for over a week like this and battery is always ok.

Notes about Camera Video Resolution

QUESTION: This #1 camera claims to have a video resolution of 640x480. So how could this be measured?

ANSWER: My #1 camera can resolve a checkerboard at 170 squares per horizontal width but not 240. That average is 205. (205 * 3) = 615 which is close to 640. So I would say that the video camera pixel resolution really is a 640 x 480.

RESEARCH: I decided to research this question by printing up a checkerboard of black-and-white squares on a letter size paper. I took photos and video of that pattern at different distances. I used my Canon SD200 2048x1536 camera in image mode and my #1 808 car keys camera in video mode.

Photo of Checkerboard on letter paper
Video frame from my #1 camera, cropped video image, checkerboard of 80x60 squares

With my SD200 camera the pattern can no longer be distinguished as a checkerboard with more than 700 checkerboard squares per frame width. (2048 / 700) is about 3. That's about 3 horizontal pixels per checkerboard square.

I hypothesized a rule:

There must be at least 3 horizontal pixels per square to resolve a checkerboard image.

At the point where the checkerboard can't be resolved, the horizontal pixel resolution of the camera is about 3 times the checkerboard resolution.

Checkerboard resolved. My #1 camera in video mode, 170 square per frame width. Some of the distortion is due to the MJPG compression. (more than 3 pixels per square)
Checkerboard not resolved. Moiré pattern. My #1 camera in video mode, 240 squares per frame width (less than three pixels per square)

How to measure the AOV (Angle of View) and focal length of the lens (35mm-film equivalent)

1. Take a landscape photo of a landscape piece of letter or A4 paper from 3 feet or 1 meter. Center the paper best you can. To do the calculations you need to know the width of the paper in inches (Y), the distance from the paper in inches (X), the pixel width of the photo (W) and the pixel width of the paper (Z).

36 inches = 3 feet
39.37 inch = 1 meter
11 inch = width of ANSI letter paper
11.7 inch = width of ISO A4 paper

AOV test image

Sample test photo used to calculate AOV and focal length.

2. Use a graphics program to edit the photo. Measure the horizontal pixel width of the paper in the photo.
3. Calculate K inches - the horizontal field of view in inches.
4. Calculate FOV degrees - the horizontal angle of view in degrees (my math)
5. Calculate the equivalent 35mm film focal length from the AOV .
3. Calculate the equivalent 35mm-film focal length using W, X, Y and Z in the last formula below.

Formula (I'm showing my work)	Math for my #3 camera	Math for my #1 Camera
W = the horizontal width of the whole photo in pixels	1280 pixels	640
X = the lens to paper distance in inches	36 inches	12
Y = the paper width in inches	11 inches	4.906
Z = the paper width in pixels, measured in a graphics editor	492 pixels	310

K = Field of view inches = (WY) / Z	K = (1280*11) / 492 = 28.62 inches
tan(AOV/2) = K/(2X)
AOV = angle of view degrees AAOV = arctan(K/2X) * 2 AOV = arctan(WY/2XZ) * 2	AOV = arctan(28.62 / 72) * 2 = 21.68 * 2 = 43.36 degrees	AOV = arctan((6404.906)/(212310)) 2 = 40.16 degrees

The following formulas calculate the focal length from AOV. They are from Bob Atkins.
For a rectilinear lens. The frame size for 35mm film horizontal width is 36mm. frame size = 36.
AOV = 2 * arctan(frame size / (focal length * 2))
AOV / 2 = arctan(18 / focal length)
tan(AOV)/2) = 18 / focal length
focal length = 18 / tan(AOV /2)	focal length = 18 / tan(43.36 / 2) = 45.28mm

TTo calculate focal length from W, X, Y and Z, the tan and arctan cancel out, resulting in this simple formula with no trigonometry.
focal length = 18 / tan(arctan(WY/2XZ))
focal length = 18 / (WY/2XZ)
Equivalent 35mm-film focal length = (36XZ) / WY	focal length = (36 * 36 * 492) / (1280 * 11) = 45.28mm

2010 April 13 - #3 Camera, IR Filter Removed

BobFlyman from the green rolling hill of South Devon, UK attached a wide angle jelly lens to his #3 camera and removed the internal IR filter. This YouTube video show the strange colors you get. The lush green grass looks brown.

2010 Mar 20 - #3 Camera, IR (Infrared) Experiment

Bert's IR photo with an SLR

Bert from Canada disassembled his #3 camera and removed the IR blocking filter located on the back of the internal camera module lens tube. He then rotated the lens tube to re-focus the camera and then made a video. Bert tried two external pass filters: 760 nm and 950 nm. The video is on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zRmMdbcbNw

Bert's IR photographs on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bertreimer/sets/72157601372141236/

Comments from Bert:
==========

The filters I have are 52mm to fit my Nikon D40 which I had modified with a 720nm plate in place of the infrared blocking plate(hot plate). The conversion is similar to what Lifepixel does. I got the filters on eBay from a USA seller that had lots of recommendations from IR photography sites, but I couldn't find him on eBay now. Of course I will have to cut one down in size to fit correctly on a keychain camera.

As far as things to photograph in infrared, the camera sensors only pick up out to about 1200nm and "heat" is way longer than that. There are special sensors to read longer wavelengths(see http://www.flir.com/CA/).
My favourite infrared subjects are green foliage which because it reflects most of the infrared, appears white( see my Flickr infrared pics) .
Then of course there's the X-ray see-through-clothing claims, which really doesn't work unless under ideal (read set-up) circumstances.

Its just great fun to be able to experiment on something so inexpensive! I still can hardly believe that you can buy a miniature camcorder for $12! Amazing.

==========
Here are some frame grabs from the YouTube video above. Press the buttons below to see the effect. V e r y I n t e r e s t i n g.

The charts below shows the RGB sensitivity of a typical CMOS sensor (OV7950) and the sensitivity of the eye. The sensor is sensitive from about 400 to 1050 nm and the eye from 400 to 700 nm. The sensor is sensitive above 700 nm, so to be eye color accurate, the camera IR filter must block 700 nm and above.
Color sensitivity - Sensor and Eye

OV7950 sensor sensitivity graph. Eye sensitivity chart.

2010 Mar 07 - Infrared Filter in the Camera Lens

Dimitri has discovered that the glass plate shown here on the back of the #3 camera lens tube is an infrared (IR) blocking filter. If removed, the camera gets more light sensitive. In the same time, you'll get weird colors.

Dimitri removed this glass and it made his cam infrared light sensitive. Each and every camcorder has some kind of such a filter in its optic.
Otherwise, the picture gets blurry with some rosa cast. In case of this cam, the cast is rather blue-purple. Point a remote control into the lens. If the IR filter is not in place, the LED should be well visible.

==========

Another camera user said that his video images had a strange blue-purple color cast. Probably a related problem.

Camera #3, lens tube, glass plate glued to the back of the lens tube, back, IR blocking filter

Video frame from a #2 camera, Blue-Purple cast might be due to a missing IR blocking filter


History
2009 Sep 22	Original
2009 Sep 24	Sensor resolution probably 640x480
2009 Sep 25	Add sample images and video
2009 Sep 29	Add sample audio and more images
2009 Oct 4	Add link to YouTube video
2009 Oct 5	Add SDRAM. Notes about two versions Add links to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/mdamttc199 mdamttc199 videos.
2009 Oct 11	Add camera #3 and comparison table.
2009 Oct 15	Report bad USB cables
2009 Oct 16	My interpreted instructions. Add comment about 720x480 PAR DAR Add Micro SD camera time setting
2009 Oct 17	AdAdd links RCgroups and Parallax. Add #1 some are horizontal. Add #2 have internal micro SD.
2009 Oct 19	Add Notes about Camera Video Resolution
2009 Oct 22	Add Bob's time instructions for camera #3
2009 Oct 29	Change Li Ion to LiPo.
2009 Oct 31	Add Table of Contents
2009 Nov 2	Received my type #3 micro camera from Hong Kong.
2009 Nov 4	Note that #3 camera FPS varies from 30.856 to 30.999. Add serious note about bootstrap mode. Add System Mode Button Trick. Add reference to replacement LiPo battery.
2009 Nov 5	Add duplicate frame tables
2009 Nov 6	Add discovery of company Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd Add about different codecs. Add removing the video date time stamp

2009 Nov 7	Add images of date time stamps under Overview.
2009 Nov 12	Add summary
2009 Nov 13	Adding How to Measure the Focal Length
2009 Nov 14	Change the focal length formula to simplify. focal length = (36XZ) / WY
2009 Nov 15	Add tear down photos of #1 and #2 from Matt
2009 Nov 17	Add link to http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com SOSFakeFlash website and comments about xprodeal selling bad flash
2009 Nov 17	Add Update 17 Nov 2009 - My #1 camera failed because of fake flash memory (SOSFakeFlash). Uploaded these files found during system mode so that people could download them. windows 1 - AkResData.Bin, DynamicFont4_16.bin, LangCodepage.bin, Spring.bin windows 2 - SYSTEM\default.alt, SYSTEM\default.vlt, SYSTEM\profile.dat Update description of two #3 cameras.
2009 Nov 18	Notes about #3r and #3g
2009 Nov 19	Update the duplicated frames table. The #2 does not have duplicate frames.
2009 Nov 21	Adding Crash One's note about #3b camera. Dropping the term FOV from calculations. Replaced with AOV. Adding AOV to table comparison of versions. Adding #3r #3g #3b table to Overview table. Add notes about #3 webcam driver.
2009 Nov 22	Add comment that lens color and AOV do not correlate. Add instructions about how to revive a dead #1 camera. Now that my #1 camera is working again add AOV for camera #1 40.17 to the comparison table and focal length.
2009 Nov 24	Add known webcam problems Add #2 date time white example Add question about Li Gang sourcing cameras. Add video to camera type.
2009 Nov 27	Add Request for #2 Camera Answers.
2009 Nov 29	Add Hungary video and links
2009 Dec 02	Add What Micro SD Card Speed is Required in a #3 Camera?
2009 Dec 04	Add André comment about setting date time.
2009 Dec 07	test, correcting reset counter Add John gumpack camera
2009 Dec 16	Added Michael503 comments: Tear Down, #3 V2 and #3 V4. Internal Short Circuit Problem.
2009 Dec 17	Add List of reported failure modes
2009 Dec 27	Add comments about space character in setting the date time
2009 Dec 28	Add Notes about the CMOS camera assembly
2009 Dec 29	Add tag.txt to "how to set the date time"
2009 30 Dec	Add Q&A About Problems with Camera #3
2009 Dec 31	Add QA Local Area Connection 2, Microsoft TV/Video Connection
2010 Jan 01	Add #1 failure mode to summary of key features Add to #3 QA - what to buy and who to buy from Add updating the video and audio data rates for #1, #2 and #3. Add #3 Camera Notes About Setting the Date Time Stamp
2010 Jan 02	Modify description of setting date time
2010 Jan 03	Add Camera #1, Date Time Stamp Removed, New Bin Files, Low Duplicate Frame Rate
2010 Jan 04	Add FYI Some engineering drawing of the #1 camera
2010 Jan 05	Remove references to key cam.zip (old bin files)
2010 Jan 06	Add camera #4 HD, add frame grab images, photos, and tear down photos.
2010 Jan 09	Add #4 Camera Instruction Manual
2010 Jan 10	Add Tear down photos of new #2 and #4 cameras from Matt
2010 Jan 11	Add How to set the date time for Camera #2 Add Speculating about chips and software. Change the link to the correct thickness battery ALLeRC.com Update #2 in comparison table
2010 Jan 12	Add ezmobileshop as a #2 camera seller Add Note about losing the date in the gumpack camera Add Rob note to use SetTime.txt for the camera #2 set date time. Add link to Chinese software website.
2010 Jan 14	Add Test Video Comparison of the #1 and #3 camera Add How to insert a micro SD card. Matts new #2 camera with mTec processor, video about 5 duplicate frames per second. 28.821 fps. AOV=40.7 degrees.
2010 Jan 16	Updated the Duplicate Frames description for the #2 and #4 cameras. Update the photos in 15 Nov 2009 - Tear down photos of #1 and #2
2010 Jan 18	Add: A charge lasts about 50 minutes, or 20 minutes in cold weather. Add: For faster delivery and higher price, there are sellers in the USA.
2010 Jan 20	Note that webcam link http://www.upload-thai.com/download.php?id=a4e8abb85ada9c57ce61bfda47ea87f5 is a dead link. Add disclaimer about spying and legal.
2010 Jan 21	Add "Speculating about Software Architecture"
2010 Jan 22	Add link to http://www.ziddu.com/download/8271466/SPCA1528.rar.html Add 2010 Jan 22 - Cool. Silent. Winter. UK. RC Soaring. #3 Camera. Add quick summary Update the Sunplus mM logo and information
2010 Jan 25	Move the instruction sheet that camera with the #3 camera to another page.
2010 Jan 28	Add The Best Version of the #2 Camera - Toshiba CPU
2010 Jan 29	Add info about Camera #3 uses an F16-100HIP which is a 2 megabyte SPI serial flash memory
2010 Jan 30	Add visiting cities
2010 Feb 01	Add how to adjust the focus.
2010 Feb 02	Correcting f from 0.9mm to 3.14mm. Note about one possible manufacturer TGF Group.
2010 Feb 03	Add note about failed #2 camera flash socket pin Add How to Open the Internal Flash Card Socket, #2 Camera
2010 Feb 04	Note that NTFS can not be used. Added comment about repair attempt and conclusion, #2 camera broken pin problem.
2010 Feb 05	Add This camera is for you if
2010 Feb 07	Add VID PID and Webcam Drivers Updated bootstrap mode
2010 Feb 08	add #4 camera hardware id is 05E1 0B01 Add reference to 4D6 65E ANYKA driver
2010 Feb 11	Add #3 Camera - Date Time File Format Change the description of setting the date time for the #3 camera - spaces not required.
2010 Feb 16	Add Jelly Lens
2010 Feb 18	Update flash type for #2 camera to new camera have the slot. Add "Windows hides file extensions by default. Do not create a file called time.txt.txt because it won't work." Update #2 camera hardware ID is 5E1 B01, same as #4 camera.
2010 Feb 19	Add audio comments about big tin can. Add Why are these cameras so cheap? and Why doesn't the manufacturer put their name on the camera?
2010 Feb 22	Add information about the M3USB driver for hardware ID 0471 0666. Consolidate with bootstrap mode.
2010 Feb 23	Add #1 and #2 camera webcam check to table Add link to Daily Giz Wiz episode 1029 about the #3 camera.
2010 Feb 24	Update LiPo battery sources Move "links" higher up on the page Add For better playback performance, move the AVI file to a hard disk.
2010 Feb 27	Add note about YouTube yt:stretch=4:3 Add #2 Camera, More Technical Information
2010 Feb 28	Removing links to my #1 camera bin files. Replaced with link to readerme RAR file. Add note to use burntool to update #1 camera if using a Windows computer. Add #2 Camera Native Resolution 320x480
2010 Mar 02	Add There are cameras that have a larger battery and record up to 4 hours: Add The newer #3 cameras never hit the 4GB limit because they have a close-and-continue feature, so when an AVI file gets to 30 minutes, the camera closes the AVI file, and starts another AVI file. Add Be Suspicious of Generic Flash Cards
2010 Mar 04	Add new information about #2 #4 variant camera Add Flash Performance Comparison Add comment about Bayer Array
2010 Mar 05	Add link to RCLineForum.de
2010 Mar 07	Add link to bunniestudios.com micro SD flash tear down.
2010 Mar 08	Remove website dynamic web template Add #5 camera instruction manual Add #5 to comparison table
2010 Mar 09	Add duplicate frame map for SanDisk and generic used in #3 camera.
2010 Mar 10	Removed Information about Teclast C430T Video Viewer because of problems playing OTG video. Add SunPlus Word Manuals for 808, Gum and MD80
2010 Mar 12	Add instructions for setting the date time for the #5 camera.
2010 Mar 14	Add logoaway and timestamp to the list of tools. Add timestamp.vdf - Timestamp Remover.
2010 Mar 17	Add update to flash comparison.
2010 Mar 18	Add gallery of other similar video recorders. As of Mar 17 Readerme.com does not respond. Add self hosted firmware for #1 camera, until readerme.com comes back. Move all firmware links to the links page.
2010 Mar 19	Add picture of USB cable. Change micro SD "type" to "class". readerme.com is up.
2010 Mar 20	Add #3 Camera, IR Experiment photos from Bert
2010 Mar 23	Add #3 camera oscilloscope images.
2010 Mar 24	Add comments to the #3 Q&A about the webcam oval, the requirement to quick press the mode button, and video freeze due to poor random write speed.
2010 Mar 25	Add note that 240 mAh battery at 5.5 mm thick does not fit the case. Add Bert's comments to the IR filter page, and link to his Flickr IR photographs. Add Camera #5 - Upside Down Image - Button Press Smokes Camera Add summary row to comparison chart
2010 Mar 28	Stop hosting the 5 megabyte 611_VGA_V1.06 (with time) 4_16sdrm.rar file. Stop hosting BlankDynamicFont4_16.bin. 2359316 bytes.
2010 Mar 29	Replace Silverlight video with YouTube video. Too many problems with Silverlight. Add 0.67X wide angle lens with images and YouTube video. Add sample YouTube video to jell lens page.
2010 Mar 31	Add Solution for the #3 Camera Zero Length AVI File Problem Add Ways to Use Your 808 Camera
2010 April 03	Add OV7950 and Eye sensitivity chart.
2010 April 04	Add Operating Instructions video. Add Micro SD card, insert and remove video. Add links to forums fpv-community.com and FPV-Community.de
2010 April 06	Change counter to PHPJunkYard.com
2010 April 07	Add Slot car mount Add Connector for External LiPo Charger
2010 Arp 09	Add SanDisk Dethroned. Restore Google Analytics.
2010 April 10	Add image of M3USB device manager Add camera module datasheets
2010 April 12	Update flash comparison chart Add BlankDynamicFont4_16.bin.torrent
2010 April 13	Add BobFlyman IR video and Orion camera mounts.
2010 April 18	Add RapidShare: BlankDynamicFont4_16.bin
2010 April 20	Add "For example if you camera is "E:", then the root would be "E:\". The root is not in a folder."
2010 April 21	Add under quick summary: Don't long-press the mode button to end a video Add PC Virus, Camera Virus
2010 April 22	Replace "To disable the #1 camera video date time stamp, use system mode ..." with "To disable the #1 camera video date time stamp, put the camera into system mode ..."
2010 April 23	Add gorillapod mod
2010 April 26	Add swell battery Add "Do not buy any flash memory product from eBay until you have searched the sellers name at SOSFakeFlash. " Add comment that #3 camera webcam mode can be started by a a quick press of the power button in mass storage device mode.
2010 April 27	Adding essexbikers and rsvzone to links.
2010 April 30	Create MD-80 page
2010 May 04	Documenting the two ways to get into webcam mode on the #3 camera. One way causes the image oval.

2010 May 05	Add bad solder joint, dead camera. Add comment that "off" is actually standby. Add strange color problem. Add SunPlus manual torrent.
2010 May 06	Add 808 Double Happiness
2010 May 10	Update high lead
2010 May 11	Add batteries, charging and external power
2010 May 13	Add link to date time file program by Martin Schlosser
2010 May 21	Update CX611 link. Add CX311 link. Add Resizing the #3 Camera 720x480 AVI file
2010 May 26	Not OK to format the micro SD card in the 808 camera. Add #3 Camera, Card Reader Bug, Full Flash Card Add New camera - #6 Camera Add Possible Recovery for #3 Camera, Bad USB Cable
2010 May 27	Add #3 Camera, Another Solder Problem Fixed Add comment about #6 camera audio pitch problem Add more #6 camera info from sample AVI files.
2010 May 28	Add #7 camera, like #1 with external flash card and different processor (hobbycity) Add Ways to Recover Zero Length AVI Files
2010 May 29	Note no carriage-returns in the #6 tag.txt file.
2010 June 01	More #7 info CX311C
2010 June 03	More #7 info CX611C
2010 June 04	Add openuas and point808 links for the camera #1 blank font file Add Second LED on Camera #3 Add Measuring Missing AVI Frames
2010 June 05	Add bazaarlee as seller of #3 camera Update recommendation to use class 4 or faster micro SD card.
2010 June 07	Add Bazaarlee #6 link Add #6 and #7 to the how to set the date time table.
2010 June 09	Add #5 orange date time stamp Add #5 flood Add #5 tag.txt
2010 June 10	Add #6 Cameras - New Battery Shapes Add Toms VirtualDub missing frame tip.
2010 June 16	Adding #5, distorted video, distorted images Update how to ID your camera. Add forums Italian
2010 June 17	Add #6 tag.txt Oliver and Willy format. Add link to RCGroups Bob Skinner selling #3.
2010 June 18	Add C6 willy tag.txt
2010 June 19	Add Where to buy a #3.
2010 June 21	Add #3 Camera - Camera Module Short Circuit Add Using LogoAway to Remove the Video Date Time Stamp - #3 and #6 Camera
2010 June 23	All LogoAway properties for #7 camera Add Jirka tag.txt
2010 June 25	Add #7 How to Configure
2010 June 28	Add external battery mod Nokia Add updating the #7 camera firmware
2010 July 02	Add helmet mod with external microphone
2010 July 03	Add important things to know, and best practices
2010 July 04	Update #7 userconfig.txt and m3usb information.
2010 July 05	Correct 880 to 808
2010 July 08	Report #3 from e-store-family
2010 July 10	Add boards.ie forum Update #6, #7 comparison information. Update #7 missing frame rate vs flash card.
2010 July 11	TrulyDisplays.com domain is gone. Added 5MP micro camera ?
2010 July 12	Add #3 seller eBay marktech101 Add eletoponline365as eBay seller of the #3. Now describing camera as #3.
2010 July 15	Add mystery camera with removable battery Add underwater camera mod
2010 July 16	Add #3 #7 Video Comparison
2010 July 17	Add these best practices: After disconnecting the USB cable, turn the camera off or reset it. While recording video the ONLY acceptable action is to stop the video by short pressing the mode button. While recording video DO NOT long press the mode button, DO NOT press the power button and DO NOT connect the USB cable.
2010 July 18	Consolidate problems in quick summary
2010 July 19	Add Pen camera without the case
2010 July 20	Update PC Virus, Camera Virus
2010 July 21	Note that the jelly lens quality varies from ok to poor.
2010 July 23	Add F999-2. Update the flash card comparison chart. Full format, not quick format.
2010 July 27	Moving #7 to its own page
2010 July 29	Moving #1 and #2 to its own page. Add 4 processor comment.
2010 July 30	Add Sven's time lapse #3 mod
2010 July 31	Add Sven project to a separate page
2010 Aug 01	Add Car-Key Spy Video Camera $9 shipped - meritline
2010 Aug 02	Add #3 Camera auto shuts off after 30 seconds. Short pressing the power button extends on time by 30 seconds.
2010 Aug 04	Add You must unselect "hide protected operating system files".
2010 Aug 07	Add Basic instructions about how to use VirtualDub to compress an 808 video file.
2010 Aug 08	Add Google translate Update to Microsoft Expression Web 4
2010 Aug 11	Move all #3 content to the #3 page.
2010 Aug 15	Add #3 special cases
2010 Aug 16	Add #3 comment that #3 format reduces free space by 7.4%.
2010 Aug 18	Add #3 power supply research
2010 Aug 19	Add 4 camera received, one DOA. Add report about #3 camera battery protection circuit problem.
2010 Aug 20	Add eBay 402025 battery link Add New camera version?
2010 Aug 21	Add C3 camera module tear down
2010 Aug 25	Add wish list.

2010 Aug 28	Move all #6 content to #6 page. Add Syntek Tools.
2010 Aug 30	Add Isoprop GumPack mods.
2010 Sep 01	Add camera mount and battery switch Add USB cable mod for external charger
2010 Sep 03	JEILIN Controller
2010 Sep 06	Note that video recording while USB connected can't be done with the 808 camera, but the MD80 can do this.


2010 XXX XX - XXXXXXXX

This work by Charles E Lohr is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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IIS 6.0 There is no politically correct content on this web site. I have never owned an SUV.