Connecting 808 camera to Mac?

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ThirstyBarbarian

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I've got an 808 #16 camera that I am trying to use for the first time. It is charged and the micro SD card is installed. I've gone though the steps of taking two test videos. Now I am unsuccessfully trying to connect the camera to my iMac to copy and view the videos.

Here are the instructions I have:

How to Connect with Computer / Removable Disk Mode

1. The camera is Plug and Play and will work on most computer systems. There is no need to install any drivers.
2. Connect the camera, with memory card inserted, to your computer using a standard USB cable. Press and hold the power button for around 2 seconds. The camera will be recognized by the computer as a Removable Disk.
3. It is recommended to move or copy the files from the camera onto the hard drive for editing, viewing etc.
Note: The red LED will flash during data transfer.
4. If the camera is already turned on and in standby mode, it will enter into removable disk mode when connected to the computer.
5. If the camera is already turned on and is recording video, it will continue to record using USB power and at the same time will also charge the battery.

I have tried the method in which the camera is turned off, and I plug it in using the USB cable. I do not see the camera appear in the Finder as a removable disk, like I would expect. The red light comes on as soon as I plug in the camera. A few seconds later it switches to yellow. Then switches back to red. When I press and hold the power button for two seconds as instructed, all the lights turn off. At no point do I see any indication in the Finder of a Device being connected.

I've also tried the method in which I switch the camera into standby mode (yellow light is on), and then plug the camera in with the USB. After a couple seconds of being plugged in, the light switches from yellow to red. No new Devices appear in the Finder. If I hold down the power button for 2 seconds the red light turns green, which I think is charging mode, then shortly turns off, which is what is supposed to happen when done charging. (Actually, I think the green charging mode happened the first time I tried it using the other method too, but by the time I was writing this up, it worked the way I described above. In both cases, holding down the power button seems to switch it to charging mode, only with the first method, it goes straight to Off, because it is fully charged.)

Anyone have any ideas? First, does this thing work with a Mac? I would assume it does. We do have a Windows laptop around here somewhere, but I'd rather not have to dig it out or do the video download in two steps. Is there anything else that could be going wrong? Am I right in assuming it should show up as a Device in the Finder?
 
My Micro SD card came with a "SD" Card that it could be inserted into that could plug directly into any regular SD slot. Might that work for you? I know it's not as easy as plug and play...
 
My Micro SD card came with a "SD" Card that it could be inserted into that could plug directly into any regular SD slot. Might that work for you? I know it's not as easy as plug and play...

That's the way I do it too.
 
My Micro SD card came with a "SD" Card that it could be inserted into that could plug directly into any regular SD slot. Might that work for you? I know it's not as easy as plug and play...

Hmmmm... When I ordered the camera, I got one that included the micro SD card with the camera, figuring it would be compatible and conveninet. It doesn't have an SD adapter thingy in the package. Maybe I can get one. Is that how you use it, or do you plug and play the camera? Also, aren't there other things I may need to attach the camera to the computer for? Updates and configurations? I haven't got that far yet...
 
Hmmmm... When I ordered the camera, I got one that included the micro SD card with the camera, figuring it would be compatible and conveninet. It doesn't have an SD adapter thingy in the package. Maybe I can get one. Is that how you use it, or do you plug and play the camera? Also, aren't there other things I may need to attach the camera to the computer for? Updates and configurations? I haven't got that far yet...

Yeah, it should have wires for direct connection to the computer... However, you're using a Mac, and I'm not (I used to tech support the Macintosh computer, but that was a veeerrrrrry long time ago).
 
Yeah, it should have wires for direct connection to the computer... However, you're using a Mac, and I'm not (I used to tech support the Macintosh computer, but that was a veeerrrrrry long time ago).

I have the correct USB cable that came with the camera for connection to the computer, and that is what I am using, but the computer is not showing any indication of detecting the camera when it is connected.

I'll check on a micro SD adapter. And maybe I'll pull out the ancient Dell laptop to see if it is a Mac issue --- it seems like that should not be the case. If the micro SD adapter works for copying the video off the camera, that will be fine, but I am just thinking ahead to other issues that might actually require the camera itself to connect to the computer.
 
I have the correct USB cable that came with the camera for connection to the computer, and that is what I am using, but the computer is not showing any indication of detecting the camera when it is connected.

I'll check on a micro SD adapter. And maybe I'll pull out the ancient Dell laptop to see if it is a Mac issue --- it seems like that should not be the case. If the micro SD adapter works for copying the video off the camera, that will be fine, but I am just thinking ahead to other issues that might actually require the camera itself to connect to the computer.

I use mine with a Mac, but I can plug in the USB cord and it recognizes it as a temp drive right away. I’m sorry I don’t know why yours wouldn’t.

I do have a problem downloading the videos by connecting the Mac directly to the camera. The video gets garbled for some odd reason. I bought a Dynex component with its own USB cord. I remove the card from the camera and insert it in the Dynex and plug in the USB. The computer is able to pull the video off the card with no issues when I do this.

https://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin...6&cadevice=c&gclid=CMzIjO_I970CFZFcfgodwxQAnw
 
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I use mine with a Mac, but I can plug in the USB cord and it recognizes it as a temp drive right away. I’m sorry I don’t know why yours wouldn’t.

I do have a problem downloading the videos by connecting the Mac directly to the camera. The video gets garbled for some odd reason. I bought a Dynex component with its own USB cord. I remove the card from the camera and insert it in the Dynex and plug in the USB. The computer is able to pull the video off the card with no issues when I do this.

https://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin...6&cadevice=c&gclid=CMzIjO_I970CFZFcfgodwxQAnw


Thanks for the info. I'll look into a micro SD USB device like the Dynex you have for pulling the video off the card. It sounds like that will be the best way. I was looking at another site that discusses the camera. Troubleshooting instructions there for when the device is not recognized as a removable drive mentioned the operating system needs to be XP or above, without mention at all of a Mac OS. Maybe it does not work with Macs.
 
Sometimes the cable is bad. Do you have any other cables you could swap to try?

OR... try with a different computer. Got any friends with a PC just to try and trouble shoot?
 
Are you sure it's a full USB cable and not one use for recharge only ?
 
Sometimes the cable is bad. Do you have any other cables you could swap to try?

OR... try with a different computer. Got any friends with a PC just to try and trouble shoot?

Are you sure it's a full USB cable and not one use for recharge only ?

Thanks guys!

Either it was a bad cable or one only for recharge. It was the cable supplied with the camera, so I assumed it was for data, not just recharge. I tried with a different cable, and it worked just fine. The camera immediately came up in iPhoto with the videos ready for download. They downloaded smoothly, and iPhoto was able to delete them from the camera as well.

All is well!

I'm looking forward to giving this a try on a rocket. Last week I had a cool drag race and was wishing I had a ground-based video of it, but I think it would be very cool to have on-board video of a drag race as well.

Thanks again for the suggestions.
 
I've noticed that the cables that come with these are very low quality. In the batch that I've bought, the cables do range from perfectly fine to won't even charge the device.
 
Actually, I thought it odd that his cable may have only charge capabilities. My cord came with the camera and I assume his did too.

I know there is such a thing as a cord that only transmits electricity for charging, and the other pins for data don't work. I would have assumed like you that the cord supplied with the camera would be for data and charging, but in my case it only charges the camera and does not successfully send data to the computer. Either they gave me a charge-only cable, or the cable is meant for data but is defective. Either way, I got rid of it. I don't need a charge-onoy cable laying around here that looks exactly like my data USB cables.

My camera also comes with a odd-looking custom cable that has a USB at one end for plugging into a power source, a micro USB for plugging into the camera, and a white audio out and yellow video out for plugging into a TV. There don't seem to be any instructions on how to use it. For example, once everything is plugged in, how to you play a video? How do you select a video to play or go to the next video? Can you pause or rewind? I assume with only 2 buttons on the camera, options are limited. I haven't tried to figure it out yet.
 
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