Rat
Well-known member
Last year I bought a drone and an action camera. I had fun playing with it for a year or so, but a few months ago the camera went kaput and I sold the drone. It was too hard to fly it with all the public suspicion and official entities banning them, etc. I tossed the camera in the electronic recycling where it sat for months because we're just too lazy to take the stuff anywhere.
The camera is an SJ1000, a cheap Chinese knockoff of a GoPro. It cost me about $70 (compared to $300 - $500 for a GoPro). The camera itself did not actually go bad. The special USB cable that came with it is what went bad. It got extremely hot and burned my hand. I thought it must have fried the camera electronics. The computer wouldn't recognize the camera any longer. I could no longer transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer and I couldn't charge the camera either. It doesn't have removable batteries. You have to charge through the USB cable. There is a memory card that is removable, but it's a mini-SD card and my computer doesn't have a port for that. I could buy a special adapter for that, but I still couldn't charge the camera, so I didn't bother. Besides, the card is quite hard to get in and out.
The other day as I was looking for an SD card to replace the one that went bad in my wife's camera I discovered I had tucked away an adapter for the mini-SD card that allows it to plug into a regular SD slot; it probably came with my camera. I decided to see what was left on my camera. I fished it from the recycling box and extracted the mini card. Lo and behold, it worked fine in the adapter. I had some old video on the card. I transferred that to my computer. I decided to see if the camera still worked okay, so I put the card back in and made some video. It worked! I even uploaded it to YouTube (Rag Pickin). But the problem was still that I couldn't charge the camera. Its battery was down to its last bar. I tried using the defective USB cord just to charge the camera, but it wouldn't work for that. I went to the manufacturer site, to Amazon, and eventually eBay to try to find a replacement USB cord. I couldn't find one, but what I did see was a replacement for the power cord that came with the camera to run it as a dashcam off the port in the car. I realized that one of those came with the camera, so I dug through the recycling and found I had thrown that in there, too. I pulled it out and plugged into the Leaf, turned the Leaf on (accessories only), and the camera began to recharge! 45 min. later I had a fully charged camera. I suppose I could have done this with my Acura, too, but I would have worried about draining the battery (not from the camera, but from all the other stuff that turns on when you put it in accessory mode). Anyway, thanks to the Leaf, I once again have a working action camera.
The camera is an SJ1000, a cheap Chinese knockoff of a GoPro. It cost me about $70 (compared to $300 - $500 for a GoPro). The camera itself did not actually go bad. The special USB cable that came with it is what went bad. It got extremely hot and burned my hand. I thought it must have fried the camera electronics. The computer wouldn't recognize the camera any longer. I could no longer transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer and I couldn't charge the camera either. It doesn't have removable batteries. You have to charge through the USB cable. There is a memory card that is removable, but it's a mini-SD card and my computer doesn't have a port for that. I could buy a special adapter for that, but I still couldn't charge the camera, so I didn't bother. Besides, the card is quite hard to get in and out.
The other day as I was looking for an SD card to replace the one that went bad in my wife's camera I discovered I had tucked away an adapter for the mini-SD card that allows it to plug into a regular SD slot; it probably came with my camera. I decided to see what was left on my camera. I fished it from the recycling box and extracted the mini card. Lo and behold, it worked fine in the adapter. I had some old video on the card. I transferred that to my computer. I decided to see if the camera still worked okay, so I put the card back in and made some video. It worked! I even uploaded it to YouTube (Rag Pickin). But the problem was still that I couldn't charge the camera. Its battery was down to its last bar. I tried using the defective USB cord just to charge the camera, but it wouldn't work for that. I went to the manufacturer site, to Amazon, and eventually eBay to try to find a replacement USB cord. I couldn't find one, but what I did see was a replacement for the power cord that came with the camera to run it as a dashcam off the port in the car. I realized that one of those came with the camera, so I dug through the recycling and found I had thrown that in there, too. I pulled it out and plugged into the Leaf, turned the Leaf on (accessories only), and the camera began to recharge! 45 min. later I had a fully charged camera. I suppose I could have done this with my Acura, too, but I would have worried about draining the battery (not from the camera, but from all the other stuff that turns on when you put it in accessory mode). Anyway, thanks to the Leaf, I once again have a working action camera.
