Have you bought one of these Mini Digital Video Recording Cameras?

 

Are you having trouble getting it to work?

 

Read On :---

 

Having bought one of these, I think they are marvellous pieces of kit for the price.

Once you get them to work they are simple to use, functioning as a Webcam or Digital Video Recorder, which also has VOX operation.

 

There are many of this type of Camera advertised on various sites, Amazon, EBay etc. but they all seem to suffer from the same problem, difficulty making them work.

 

The Chinese/Engrish instructions are very misleading especially when they refer to Green and Yellow Lights, which are not present. Substitue Red and Blue for the lights.

 

So, to start - Put the mini disc in the computer, but don't let it Autorun as most of the software on the disc is not needed.

 

What you will need is a file called SPCA 1528

This is a file with the extension .rar which needs to be unzipped before it will install.

You can use any unzip program, I use 7-ZIP, it's easy to use and it's free.

 

Extract the file and install it to a suitable directory.This is the only file on the disc that you will need. The other files are the Chinese English Manual and a Video Player program that made my computer hang.

 

There is also a file called TAG.TXT, ignore that for now.

 

Before doing anything else, the device needs to be charged. Plug the USB lead into the device and into the computer.

This is where the instructions start to get confusing.

A Blue and a Red light will come on - The Blue light is steady, the Red light is Flashing. This shows the device is charging. When fully charged, the Red light stays on.

 

To Record :-

 

Please note - You can not normally record when the USB lead is plugged into the camera - BUT - Some WILL record with the USB lead plugged in.

 

Try Yours :-

Plug the USB lead into the computer, Hold down the grey record button on the top of the unit, then plug in the other end of the USB lead into the camera. You may or may not then have to press the power button, it seems to vary with the unit, Try it.

 

Longer recording times are available with the power supplied from the USB port, together with an 8 Gig Micro SD card in the camera......BUT........

it appears that the MD80 will only record to 4 Gig at any one time, so therefore it has to be stopped and restarted again when it will then use the other 4 Gig.

I haven't tried it with a 16 Gig card, but don't see any reason why it will not work.

Let me know if you find different.

 

 

To continue (with USB lead unplugged)

 

Press the POWER button on the side of the device, the Blue light will come on and the Red light will flash momentarily. To start recording, press the GREY button on the top of the device. The Red light will flash, you are now recording. To stop, press the GREY button again.

 

When in record mode, press the MODE button on the other side of the device, you should now have VOX operation, i.e. the camera records when there is a sound of sufficient level.

 

To Playback :-

 

Plug the USB lead into the device and into the computer, wait a little while and the playback should start. If it doesn't, go to 'My Computer' and look for the device, it will show as an extra drive, double click and it will open, probably with a file name of SUNP0001 or something similar.

You will notice that the Date and Time stamps imprinted across the bottom of the recording are WRONG. There doesn't appear to be any way to get rid of these, but you can get it to display the correct Date and Time.

 

Date and Time Correction :-

 

With the device connected to the computer, open up 'NOTEPAD'

(All programs - Accessories - Notepad)

You may now open the file TAG.TXT on the disk and amend it, or make a new file.

Personally I find it easier to make a new file :-

 

Type in as follows, noting the Brackets and separate line for each command,

BUT, do type in the current Date and Time,

(note the way the date is displayed, yyyy/mm/dd)

 

[date]
2010/12/31
13:02:00

 

 

Name the file TAG,

 

If you have used Notepad, it will add the .txt extension to the file.

 

Now use 'Save As' to save it to the device drive letter as shown in 'My Computer'.

 

The next time you record anything, it will play back with the date and time the recording was made.

 

 

To use as a Webcam :-

 

Plug the USB lead into the camera and computer, press the MODE button, it should now function as a webcam for whichever program you use.

 

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