Just a day before I went away on holiday I thought I had better check my dashcam. To my consternation it had not recorded anything since last December!
Tried another mini SD Memory card in it - still no recording. Rushed out to buy a replacement camera. When I got it home put the old memory chip in it and got an error message saying the chip was too slow, tried another chip, same thing, finally it accepted a third chip and all was well but that got me worried.
Turns out it was not the camera that was faulty but the chips, I can only surmise that the heat and constant recording had degraded them.
They were not cheap chips either - Sandisk Ultra 32Gb Class 10 etc.
Anyway, while I was away I ordered a couple of 128Gb chips to replace them, now I have two working dashcams I will probably fit the old one at the rear of my car but it was an expensive lesson to learn.
These chips do wear out so instead of buying a new camera try a new chip first. I should have known better but I just didn’t have the time to mess about.
Buy a decent one summer, don’t get one of those cheap ones they sell at some garages, depending on your budget, cameras from nextbase, viofo, blackvue ( expensive) , I would suggest you get one with parking mode ( usually needs hardwiring into the car, which can be done by halfords or a local auto electrician) , then it monitors your car when parked…
Interestingly the camera in either cheap or expensive ones are probably the same, they are only made by two manufacturers world wide apparently. I guess the rest of the device makes up the difference in price.
Mine are both Garmin, the old one a model 45 the new one model 57. I have had the old one several years. They both look exactly the same but do have slightly different features in the set up menu. They both complain if connected to a mains USB charger
I was using a nextbase dashcam and it was very good, however, the plug arc’ed until it became unreliable. I replaced it with a motorola, not quite as easy to use (I get confused easily) but it does the job. I managed to get the nextbase one working and it now records folk coming up the drive.
I have had trouble with SD cards in the past, and now I know why.
It lasted 18 months then the battery failed - not covered by warranty but Nextbase sent me instructions for soldering a replacement.
I bought an upgraded version later but the battery in that failed, too. NextBase wouldn’t accept responsibility so I binned their dashcam and bought another brand.
I’ve found ORSKEY front & rear dashcams to be very reliable and affordable. They use Sony components to give crisp and clear reproduction. They also arrive with a 32 gb card so are ready to go. The only mod I undertake is to connect via my OBD socket and not the usual 12v outlet/lighter socket for a more secure connection.
