The ADDKEY 7-inch 1080P Car DVR Double lens rearview mirror Video Recorder Dashcam Auto Blackbox Night Vision Dash Cam (US $45.82)
It's been quite awhile since I've taken a real hard look at VeeChai's DVR. To me, it is a very important part of the Car which, without it, would make it less important. Nowadays, the DVR comes as standard for every new car. Although it has not been made Law, thanks to those compensation-claiming bonnet-hugging scoundrels and those 'he said, I said' incidents, the DVR has become a very important. It not only protects both parties but gives you the potential to generate more likes and make it viral in SocMed.
How long was it again?
Thinking back, this was my first DVR. I reasoned that in the long run, it was much cheaper to get a real one. And it was a much more reliable solution than taping a Mobile Phone to the front of the car. Not only are the double-sided tapes are not weatherproof, you can get disconnected during a Bluetooth call (because your phone went bye-bye in the middle of the road).
Anyway, I got it sometime around December 2018 if I am not mistaken. But based on the Invoice Date, it was 12.11.2018 which makes it 7 Years, 9 Months (OK, and 7 Days, more or less.) If I remember correctly, its price was significantly reduced compared to other units. And so, I was very happy with the DVR.
The Short-lived Joy of Temporary Happiness
But very quickly, within the first few years, I noticed some degradation to the LCD screen. At first, I thought nothing of it since it was placed inside a rolling oven everyday. But later on, the degradation was apparent even on the saved footage. And the clock was always around the year 2017 every time I started VeeChai.
Over the years, I did open the unit on and off to check and diagnose the issue but it was always put on the back-burner since there was a lot happening in my Life such as The Pandemic, Moving Places, Work and Work after Work and more Work after the Work after Work. But one thing I can deduce from my exploration is that (apart from cheap faulty [imitation?] microSD cards), one, the 403040 Lithium Battery has failed and two, the lens on the CMOS sensor is clouded.
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| The two half shells for the DVR is secured with only 4 small screws and some internal clips. The cheapish plastic is quite brittle but then again, it was being cooked daily. |
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| Finally, I remembered to buy the replacement 403040 battery. |
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| I am not sure of the original lens spec but this 1/2.7 28mm version visually looked quite similar (heh) |
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| I forgot to take the picture of the AFTER but somehow, after seeing the original lens, somehow, it should have been wider. The only good thing is, I can now adjust the focal distance since its thread was not glued. |
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| Removing the original battery is not as easy as I thought because the glue is quite stubborn. Moreover, there is no proper window where I can throw it out of if things did go bad. Anyway, the spec is 3.7v 403040 with 1.48WH at 400mAh. |
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| Yeah, that old glue sure is good. It allows for the battery to move slightly but can be quite strong when I tried to pry it off. |
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A piece of 3M DST in place of the old glue. All I need to do here is solder the Li-Ion battery to the circuit board. They did not use any connectors, maybe it is not to save cost but to ensure power is still available in a vibrating environment. The new 3.7v 403040 battery has a lightly higher spec of 1.665WH at 450mAh. I think I can get an even bigger and slightly thicker battery but nah, its going to touch the metal of the LCD screen and that is not a good idea.
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Next is the camera. I need to remove the three bigger screws to the ring which holds the whole assembly.
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| This is also the same ring that keeps the camera in place when it is turned about. |
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| The two middle sized screws holds the lens. In the background is the old Li-Ion battery with its wires cut. |
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The new lens have the same screw location and also, the full-colour filter.
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This is the sensor, which needs not to be disturbed. After blowing at the sensor (not with your mouth), I quickly put on the new lens.
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After making sure the Li-Ion battery is secured and the lens put back in place, I powered the DVR with a Mobile Phone Power Pack. I figured since the DVR uses a very ancient USB connector, it must be using 5volts. Boy, I was lucky there.
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Inside the car, I slowly adjust the focusing distance, which is slightly beyond the gates. The DVR will automatically focus on the subjects during operation. Once I am satisfied, I wiped both the screen and the lens before closing everything up. Although the screws are accounted for, there are still small bits of plastic which means the the DVR is going to break soon.
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So far so good. The Li-Ion battery is working because it retained the current date & time plus all the settings I have entered.
A FeW DaYs LaTeR...The DVR was behaving itself for the past few days and there was not much issue. However, playing back the files was another problem. I am guessing that the 16GB Kingston microSD card could be the issue. 
 In Summary Yes, I am a doofus for not noticing something so obvious for years. The DVR is just in front of me when I am driving. Maybe its the reflective mirror which blocked the errors but man, that is just lame. Anyway, I would not recommend you to open yours just because you think there is a problem. Remember, my DVR is at least 8 years old and was on the bargain bin. I am not too sure about the repairability of the current 'modern' models. Basically, you have a circuit board that is connected to a 1080 camera, a LCD screen, a Li-Ion battery and a speaker. The rest such as buttons, connectors and a microSD card reader are all on the PCB. They could share the same construction notes but we would be talking about the compactness of the product. Heck, they might not even have screws but welded shut with ultrasonics or fragile internal clips. |
