Astrocam trouble

[UhClem]

I have flown the new Astrocam three times and have not yet gotten usable video.

The most recent flight resulted in good audio (I think) but the video was just one partial frame and then it froze.

Getting the files out hasn't been trouble free either.

As a test I copied a file from my hard drive to the micro-SD card (mounted in a reader). A check showed it had a different MD5SUM from the original.

After deleting, I was greeted with a multitude of files with wonky names. A cleanup with fsck returned the file system to normal, more or less.

After some additional fiddling around, the wonky file names returned but this time fsck threw up its hands. So I used mkfs to build a new file system. (With the "-c" option to check for bad blocks.) The Astrocam put a TIME.TXT file on it but refused to record video. It looked like it was working but kept blinking after the button was pressed to make it stop. It might be because I chose the wrong flavor of file system. The partition is tagged as FAT so I tried that and VFAT.

But with the new file system, copying files onto the card produces matching MD5SUM results.

Estes customer service has said to return the camera to them. Sigh.

 

[feensch]

What happens when you try to take still pictures?

How does it work when you plug the Astrocam, with the memory card installed, into a computer USB port? You should be able to see the memory card content as a USB data drive.

Which FAT version have you been trying? You need to format the card in FAT32.

The 16GB memory cards that I received with the two Astrocams that I have are formatted as FAT32. The memory card must be in FAT32 format. NTFS and exFAT will not work. If you plug the Astrocam into a computer, you may be able to access an NTFS or exFAT formatted memory card, but the Astrocam itself will not record any files to that card. Memory cards up to 128GB in size can be formatted in FAT32 format, but MS Windows does not format memory cards in FAT32 format if they are bigger than 32GB. You can use a third party utility to do that.

PS:
The Astrocam does not have a very good charge circuit. The battery is prone to getting hot when charging. If my Astrocam gets very warm I unplug it, let it cool off, and then if it is not fully charged I plug it back in again and continue to monitor it.

I fried batteries on two brand new never been used Astrocams due to this issue. By “fried” I mean that one battery is completely dead, producing no voltage, and on the other a charge lasts a few seconds at most. Both batteries also swelled. One swelled so much it broke the Astrocam’s plastic case. I also had one stock memory card fail. It may have been overheated when the battery fried. Estes has sent me replacements under warranty.

 

[Sparkyflyer14]

I have flown the new Astrocam three times and have not yet gotten usable video.

The most recent flight resulted in good audio (I think) but the video was just one partial frame and then it froze.

Getting the files out hasn't been trouble free either.

As a test I copied a file from my hard drive to the micro-SD card (mounted in a reader). A check showed it had a different MD5SUM from the original.

After deleting, I was greeted with a multitude of files with wonky names. A cleanup with fsck returned the file system to normal, more or less.

After some additional fiddling around, the wonky file names returned but this time fsck threw up its hands. So I used mkfs to build a new file system. (With the "-c" option to check for bad blocks.) The Astrocam put a TIME.TXT file on it but refused to record video. It looked like it was working but kept blinking after the button was pressed to make it stop. It might be because I chose the wrong flavor of file system. The partition is tagged as FAT so I tried that and VFAT.

But with the new file system, copying files onto the card produces matching MD5SUM results.

Estes customer service has said to return the camera to them. Sigh.

I can't remember how I formatted it, but I have never had any similar problems. I would think its something wrong with your unit. Only time mine has struggled was when parachute didn't come out, and it nose dived, burying itself in the dirt. When I dug it out, the sd card had come out. I found it, but the video was lost. Interestingly, once when it did the same thing but on conrete it was fine. Rocket was not as you can see.

 

[Sparkyflyer14]

 

[UhClem]

I hate when old threads rise from the dead.

I convinced Estes to send me a replacement microSD card and that fixed the problem.

 

[Sparkyflyer14]

Sorry! I didnt notice what year it was posted

 

[kyle]

I hate when old threads rise from the dead.

Better this than someone asking about their Astrocam 110, right?

The 10+ year necros are what get me. There're some people here who seem to make that their mission, though.