Off topic: possible to reboot/ format toy camera..?

Hello!

Sorry for not asking a Win10- question, but im confused about this:

I have a 13 year old simple camera called "AirCamOne", its supposed to be strapped on RC airplanes:
http://www.wizards.de/~frank/images/...ssembled_1.jpg

I wanted to give it a try again, but it will not work... Battery is (surprisingly) fresh at 4,15 volt, I can make a few picture with the built in memory, but when I insert the SD- card, the camera shuts down with a beep...

When I insert the USB- camera in my PC, I can see the picture files in the last folder:
ICATCH V (F:) --> DCIM --> 100MEDIA

When I insert the camera with the SD- card inside, I get an error message on PC: "one of the drives doesn't work", and the camera does not pop up in the file explorer.

I did format the SD- card with no different results. What could the problem be, and what to do?

Would it be possible to format the F: drive or will that delete all drivers completely and make the camera useless? Drivers are not available online any longer.

Thanx.
BRG/ Örjan.

Slowandlow said:

...when I insert the SD- card, the camera shuts down with a beep...
...When I insert the camera with the SD- card inside, I get an error message on PC: "one of the drives doesn't work", and the camera does not pop up in the file explorer.
I did format the SD- card with no different results. What could the problem be, and what to do?

Sounds to me as if the SD card is the problem, either the card itself or it is not seating correctly in the camera and shorting out the connections. The SD slot in the camera may be at fault rather than the card.

Drivers are not available online any longer....

In situations like this where a company and its website has disappeared from the Web I find the Internet Archive Wayback Machine an invaluable resource. Not only the web pages but also the downloads have often been archived for posterity.

Try here: Wayback Machine | www.flycamone2.com

bro67 said:

Those devices do not have drivers built into them. You should be able to pull the SD card and read it from the computer.

The problem is not reading the card, it's actually taking the photos in the first place:

when I insert the SD- card, the camera shuts down with a beep...

Exactly Bree, SD card is fine, it does work in other cameras, but when I insert it in the AirCam the entire camera shuts down, i.e. the camera doesn't work when the SD is inserted, but comes alive again when I pull the SD out..! Some hardware problems, connector faults as suggested..? Would it be safe/ make any sense to try to reboot/ format the AirCam drive?
/ Örjan.

Slowandlow said:

Would it be safe/ make any sense to try to reboot/ format the AirCam drive?

I wouldn't have thought trying to format it would do any good. This seems to be a hardware fault, possibly in the SD connector on the camera, but it may be the card itself. Have you tried another SD card in the camera?

I have found a manual for your version of FlyCamOne, but there doesn't seem to much help there. It does suggest that It is only designed to use SD cards up to 4GB. How large is the SD card you are trying to use? If it is larger than 4GB that might explain the camera shutting down - it doesn't know how to handle a larger card! I suspect this may be the root cause of your troubles.

http://www.offroad-rc.info/pdf/flycam-manual.pdf


What may help if it is a software glitch is a hard reset. Is that a photo of your own camera dismantled? If so, can you disconnect the battery for a while? Reconnect it and it may reset something.

You manual It also says it is usb 1.1 and a resolution of 320x249 pixels. You may be better off replacing it with a modern one capable of HD. FlyCamOne is now a registered trademark of CamOneTec and their lowest spec model is 720p. The do have software downloads, but they don't seem to support your older model.

CamOneTec | CamOneTec Treiber & Software

Thanx for reply, problem is fixed! I got the same tip from an RC- forum, and then I suddenly realized why I had the problems: the camera is old and doesn't support SDHC- cards, only the slow old ones! So I put my old (and at that time VERY expensive...) 128 MB Lexar SD- card in the camera- and wupti, the camera came back to life again!

I know its an old crappy camera, I just wanted to try to use it again, will probably give It away to a friends child as a toy.

Thanx for taking your time! Learning by doing...

BRG/ Örjan.