Maxxter Bodycam ACT-BCAM-01 test (part 1) how to make its illogic work in some way demo & schematic

Please read the description first. This description will refer to 2 video’s that are/will be uploaded to YouTube on (around) 22 March 2024.

Part 2 is here    • Maxxter Bodycam ACT-BCAM-01 tests par...  

The idea is this: Can a Maxxter bodycam of (say) 5 Euro’s (I bought 3 of them in the summer of 2023 at the shop named “Action” in the Netherlands) work good as a surveillance camera?

Type number: Maxxter ACT-BCAM-01.

I have tested these cams over and over, during a few days, long times, testing if they switched on/off, on all their properties (photo, videocam, dark & night exposures) and my conclusion was: sorry, they act completely illogical.

In Dutch we say “er is geen touw aan vast te knopen”.
Translation: We cannot tie a rope to it....

I even found that 2 camera’s of the same type worked completely different.
Thus in the way that certain functions could be switched “on” or “off”. Kind of random actions. For a hobbyist like me that is very interesting, to find everything out, but for a consumer it is a pain....

BUT: finally there is 1 important (!) conclusion (1 lucky thing) regarding this camera (for hobbyists that want to work with this circuit): connect a Milli Amp. meter (0-300 mA) to that camera, in its power lead from 5 Volt giving out (say) 150 mA or perhaps even 500 mA (I could not see such a high current by the way...only used 150 mA) to the camera. And look if the circuit (the camera) takes current!

After that: after “poking and testing & tweaking” (with the help of the datasheet, it is on the www & on paper packed inside the cam) the kind of only guarantee that it is taking up video’s is this:

“after some poking & tweaking you see the blue LED inside the Camera flash 3 times, and after that all LEDS inside the camera are off”. But the blue LED in the supply line (watch the schematic) tells you that the bodycam takes current. Now it takes up video’s”

NB: Will it overwrite old files? Has to be tested... Or does it stop after x hours….

I now used it with the showed mains supply. I used a 12 Volt/500 mA DC power supply, to supply that camera, of course I had to use a 5 Volt stabilizer, because the camera works on exactly 5 Volt (tested, thus I used a 7805 Chip).

Please note: REMOVE the battery (LI-ION) completely out of the camera for this experiment. Do NOT charge LI-ION batteries with this power supply (the schematic that I show here) out of the mains. It is too simple for that, this is a disclaimer. For your safety (!).

Take these Li-Ion cells completely out of the camera. And after that, you can use the showed power supply, made with a 12 Volt Wall transformer and a blue LED to be visible that your camera takes up current and thus (in general) is recording files. In this case VGA files. Every 5 minutes the camera writes them to the Card, here 16 GB. As far as I could see for 75 minutes.

By the way: I am NOT sure whether that camera overwrites its first files.
They tell that in the datasheet (….True?). I could not get to clear conclusions.. So at minimum it can record video VGA files for 75 minutes.

Perhaps more about that issue in the future: does the overwriting work?, thus the “loop” function.

Could it have to do with a too low supply current? (150 mA now instead of the 500 mA or even 800 mA !! on its datasheet)? It is all experimental…. I have to try.........If so: you will be informed!

NB: I was very positive in an earlier video (I removed it from YT). But now I have to step back a few times, after this extensive testing of this bodycam.

By the way: I want to use it further, not only as a bodycam. In that bodycam application, with all its illogical knobs/settings etc. it can work, within that Li-Ion battery that is inside the 3 x 3 cm. box. Mini product of an extremely high electronic quality, by itself. Apart from the mentioned issues.

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