C63 AMG (W204) 2008 - 2015
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What's your opinion about Finevu CR500HD so far?

Old Jun 8, 2013 | 10:00 AM
  #1  
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What's your opinion about Finevu CR500HD so far?

Most of you guys from W204 C63 AMG section bought this CR500HD camera from Blackboxmycar.

Do you like your CR500HD?
I hate mine!

Here's my problem:
I bought the power save box and CR500HD.
My hous-güru mechanic who does all service on my car connected my PSB to the main powersupply loom below the dash.
It's a thick red wire.

Now for functionality:
When I start my car for take off, my camera doesn't power up in blue mode for normal recording!
It's completely DEAD!
I have set the switch to power ON, a green light is illuminating on PSB.
My camera is still dead!
I have to start and turn off my ignition maybe 3-4 times for my camera to wake up recording?!
I don't know what's wrong with my Finevu CR500HD?
When I take off, I expect my camera to start recording at once and not after 3 - 4 cycles of start 'n' shut off!
I don't shut off my car for my camera to begin recording, it's when I go out driving my car and I park it somewhere and do errands.
After 3-4 times, my camera wakes up from the dead if I'm lucky and starts recording?
I shouldn't be like this?

What to do besides contacting Alex at BBMC?
Why isn't he a sponsor here anymore?

I need your opinions of your own ownership of this camera.
I am very disapointed with my CR500HD!

Thanks

Last edited by KJI3jflarryfe93; Jun 8, 2013 at 10:05 AM.
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Old Jun 8, 2013 | 12:47 PM
  #2  
Rsquad911's Avatar
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97 Porsche GT2 Wide Bodied Cabrio, Mercedes G500
I absolutely love mine.

Not one issue. Been using it for months.

I would start with how you wired it. You should follow how BBMC installs them (To trunk fuse box)

Good luck!
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Old Jun 8, 2013 | 12:59 PM
  #3  
CoolBDPhenom03's Avatar
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Vivid Racing '09 C63 AMG
Sorry to hear that. I followed BBCM's suggestion and hardwired it to a fuse in my trunk that's always on. Recording works great, video quality is good even at night, and it's easy to pull the feed. The whole install only took like 30 mins.

Reach out to Alex. He's a nice and helpful guy.
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Old Jun 8, 2013 | 01:22 PM
  #4  
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my mechanic wired the power safe box to constant power below dash.
there's only 1 wire with constand feed and it's covered in red color sleeve.
wire is thick.

I went out with my car today and this lousy camera was completely dead!
after 4rth time of re-starting my car after running my errands downtown it came back to life!
during this dead non function/recording time anything could happen with my car, I feel safer everytime when I drive my car because my camera when it works records everything in front of me.

my trunk in my C43 AMG I have only a small fusebox, that's it.
maybe it's connected to my factory tow-alarm?

when I park my car by the end of the day in my garage, I turn OFF the
PSB-safe switch, not to drain the battery during the night.

when I park my car outside in public area after a drive to the mall or to my work, I let the PSB-switch be in ON-mode for park mode recording.

could there be a problem if I switch OFF the PSB when I park my car by the end of the day?
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Old Jun 8, 2013 | 01:34 PM
  #5  
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I'm not sure. I never turn mine off. Even if I'm away for a week, it's always connected. There must be something wrong with your unit. Talk to BBMC, and see of they can help you sort it out. Mine has worked exactly as expected.
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Old Jun 8, 2013 | 01:54 PM
  #6  
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Hello Kowalski,

This is Alex from Blackboxmycar.com

First, we are no longer a vendor because we were initially moving between forums to sell our line of procuts. Our line of products are short and we cannot afford to stay paid vendor for all our vendor sites Besides, after the vendor period is over, we are unable to write or send any messages that gets sent into our account or gets written on the wall.

We see that you are having an issue with your unit and we have sent in a ticket into FineVu's HQ. We take full responsibility of all our units and we have never left any customers with any issues I am bit sad to see that you did not contact us directly and rather post up a post about an issue that you are facing... and we would have had no idea if you are facing an issues like these...

We have answered all your questions about the unit upto this point very quickly and in detail...

We will let you know as soon as we hear from Finevu...

Sincerely,
Alex
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Old Jun 8, 2013 | 02:07 PM
  #7  
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Originally Posted by CoolBDPhenom03
I'm not sure. I never turn mine off. Even if I'm away for a week, it's always connected. There must be something wrong with your unit. Talk to BBMC, and see of they can help you sort it out. Mine has worked exactly as expected.
I wrote an email to Alex, let's wait and see what he says?
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Old Jun 8, 2013 | 02:09 PM
  #8  
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Originally Posted by kowalski
I wrote an email to Alex, let's wait and see what he says?
I have replied to your email already.. please check. I have sent this into FineVu already and I will get back to you asap with the solution.
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Old Jun 8, 2013 | 02:16 PM
  #9  
KJI3jflarryfe93's Avatar
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Originally Posted by jjh939
Hello Kowalski,

This is Alex from Blackboxmycar.com

First, we are no longer a vendor because we were initially moving between forums to sell our line of procuts. Our line of products are short and we cannot afford to stay paid vendor for all our vendor sites Besides, after the vendor period is over, we are unable to write or send any messages that gets sent into our account or gets written on the wall.

We see that you are having an issue with your unit and we have sent in a ticket into FineVu's HQ. We take full responsibility of all our units and we have never left any customers with any issues I am bit sad to see that you did not contact us directly and rather post up a post about an issue that you are facing... and we would have had no idea if you are facing an issues like these...

We have answered all your questions about the unit upto this point very quickly and in detail...

We will let you know as soon as we hear from Finevu...

Sincerely,
Alex

people always ask on forums if other forum members facing same issues with certain products.
I did not mean to diss you or your business, you have always been friendly and curtious to all us forum members

my problem is my camera, it makes me hate it everytime when it doesn't start recording automatically when I start my car for a drive.
There's for sure an issue with my CR500HD

However I don't know what's wrong with it?
When I depress the rear buttons M + ON/OFF for memorycard reset, camera works it gets temporary power and then it shuts off after a while, being completely dead!

Something is not right for sure?

Last edited by KJI3jflarryfe93; Jun 8, 2013 at 05:39 PM.
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Old Jun 8, 2013 | 02:30 PM
  #10  
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Originally Posted by kowalski
people always ask on forums if other forum members facing same issues with certain products.
I did not mean to diss you or your business, you have always been friendly and curtious to all us forum members

my problem is my camera, it makes me hate it everytime when it doesn't start recording automatically when I start my car for a drive.
There's for sure an issue with my CR500HD

However I don't know what's wrong with it?
When I depress the rear buttons M + ON/OFF for memorycard reset, camera works it gets temporary power and then it shuts off after a while, being completely dead!

Something is not right for sure?
Hello Dennis,

We understand that it can get very frustrating and I will make sure all your concerns are addressed in very professional manner. We have customers from all around the world and even if you are in Sweden, your unit will be fully fixed or replaced by FineVu.

To get this solved in more profesional order, I have sent this into FineVu's HQ.

However, in my opinion, there is a weak connection between the power cord into the power kit, or the power kit's negative end is not properly sealed in my opinion.

This sort of issue is usually encountered when the connection between earth(-'ve end) is not properly attached to the metal end. Sometimes the metal end is coated and this interferes with the good connection. However, this is just my thought for now and I would get back to you when I hear back from Finevu..

At this moment, I would check on the negative terminal of the power kit connection and perhaps check to see if the fuse is working well.

I am currently in Korea and it is 3:30AM, I would quickly follow up with your further questions when I wake up tomorrow and I will get back to you when I hear anything back from FineVu.

Best Regards,
Alex
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Old Jun 8, 2013 | 05:07 PM
  #11  
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Mine is fine and I met up with Alex last month when I was in Vancouver to get some supplies from him for my FineVu. Great guy. My other unit is still sitting in the box waiting to be installed.
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Old Jun 8, 2013 | 07:36 PM
  #12  
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2014 C63 AMG 507 sedan
Try rewiring it the way 99% of us have and it may solve your issue.

Easy install and works great!
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Old Jun 8, 2013 | 07:37 PM
  #13  
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2013 C63 Coupe
My unit and my wife's unit are both working properly and we had it since December of 2012.
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Old Jun 9, 2013 | 04:33 AM
  #14  
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when my powerbox was connected to my car, we used a constant power feed.

on powerbox the switch when its turned ON, it illuminates a green bulb,
if there was a poor (-) negative ground connected to my car, the power save box wouldn't get proper juice from electrics in my car.

when I set the switch in position ON for PSB it stays ON all the time and illuminates the green bulb.
however my CR500HD still remains dead!
power save box receives constant juice but my CR500HD does NOT get any juice at all.
I don't think it's a wrong power connection when my PSB works all the time.
It's like my CR50HD works when it feels like, like a lazy donkey being stubborn and won't move forward without getting a carrot as a treat!
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Old Jun 14, 2013 | 09:19 PM
  #15  
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Do a search on my name and read my install and review thread. Different Finevue camera but works the same.

You are supposed to leave the battery protection box switch always on if you want to use park mode. It is possible that you wired the 3 wires to the wrong places. The "always on" lines do not actually stay always on in some parts of the car. In the rear fuse box they turn off after an hour. Also, if you have your battery sense dip switches in the wrong position set to some voltage above your battery voltage it will shut things off.

Read the directions.
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Old Jun 14, 2013 | 10:52 PM
  #16  
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2018 S63 AMG S and 2018 GLS450
Mines connected and on all when i turn on the car! However I find , after 2-3 weeks it keeps saying "Please check SD card"! Do you guys get this? i figure i have to format it manually everytime etc?
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Old Jun 15, 2013 | 04:52 AM
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Originally Posted by MBAdon
Do a search on my name and read my install and review thread. Different Finevue camera but works the same.

You are supposed to leave the battery protection box switch always on if you want to use park mode. It is possible that you wired the 3 wires to the wrong places. The "always on" lines do not actually stay always on in some parts of the car. In the rear fuse box they turn off after an hour. Also, if you have your battery sense dip switches in the wrong position set to some voltage above your battery voltage it will shut things off.

Read the directions.
as i wrote earlier, when i park my car for the night inside my garage i turn off the battery killswitch, i don't use PARK MODE @ nite it's not necessary.

when i go out driving, i turn the killswitch into position ON, power save box works, but camera gets NO power!
power doesn't reach my camera!!
after a 3 or 4 time of driving loop with parking start/turn off cycle, my camera comes back to life from the dead like a frikkin' zombie!

when my powerbox works all the time and the camera doesn't, it must be something wrong with my Finevu!
i think i got a lemon!?

yesterday on Friday 14th i went out driving, i fired up my PSB w/o problems, camera was 100% dead!
after 3 time start/shut off driving/parking cycle, camera came back to life from the dead!
WTF!?
after a 2hr drive or so, my camera went back to the dead!?
it shut off by itself!
after 5 minutes it came back to life!?

when my PSB have constant power when I turn it on and my camera does not receive constant power then something is not right with my camera..................?!
there's nothing wrong with PS-box because it would also have behaved funky if there was something?

Last edited by KJI3jflarryfe93; Jun 15, 2013 at 05:23 AM.
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Old Jul 23, 2013 | 01:53 AM
  #18  
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Just bought another unit through Alex @ BlackBoxMyCar! The product does speak for itself with the build quality and of course the video quality. One of my favourite feature on this unit is the Motion Detection!

Thanks again Alex for the help and assistance on the update on the firmware!
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Old Jul 23, 2013 | 06:40 AM
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i recently got a replacement camera from FINEVU thanks to Alex.
i haven't tried it yet as I don't have my car at home.
however I feel confident that everything will work out in a positive manner this time.

all of ya forum members please don't get any wrong assumptions from my first post, this was never an attempt to badmouth BBMC!
Blackboxmycar is a great and respectable shop to deal with.

i have full trust for bbmc.
we'll do business again.
thanks again Alex for all your help.

Last edited by KJI3jflarryfe93; Jul 23, 2013 at 11:33 AM.
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Old Aug 7, 2013 | 03:10 PM
  #20  
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Originally Posted by kowalski
as i wrote earlier, when i park my car for the night inside my garage i turn off the battery killswitch, i don't use PARK MODE @ nite it's not necessary.

when i go out driving, i turn the killswitch into position ON, power save box works, but camera gets NO power!
power doesn't reach my camera!!
after a 3 or 4 time of driving loop with parking start/turn off cycle, my camera comes back to life from the dead like a frikkin' zombie!

when my powerbox works all the time and the camera doesn't, it must be something wrong with my Finevu!
i think i got a lemon!?

yesterday on Friday 14th i went out driving, i fired up my PSB w/o problems, camera was 100% dead!
after 3 time start/shut off driving/parking cycle, camera came back to life from the dead!
WTF!?
after a 2hr drive or so, my camera went back to the dead!?
it shut off by itself!
after 5 minutes it came back to life!?

when my PSB have constant power when I turn it on and my camera does not receive constant power then something is not right with my camera..................?!
there's nothing wrong with PS-box because it would also have behaved funky if there was something?
That does sound like some weird behaviour. My PSB 12V port does have a tendancy to want to push the connector out over time. Maybe you have a loose connection? Try plugging your camera directly into your cigarette lighter. That would rule out any power problems coming from the PSB.
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Old Aug 7, 2013 | 04:45 PM
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i had psb+plug taped with sticky hockeystick griptape and then ziptied.
no loose connection there, problem was still there
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