Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Zippy7 wrote:

jasonc wrote:

brumby33 wrote:Just seen on FB a comment on the Fly6 by Jenica Brooke, someone who has used both the old and newer versions.


Also should mention that the new Fly6CE and Fly12CE only support up to 32GB card

i have a 64GB in my Fly6CE

I have an older Fly6 (believe it is gen2, pre-velcro fastening model).
That version cannot take 64gb, maxxes out at 32gb.

Fly 6 - 32GB
Fly12 - I've been running 128GB for over a year but I'm not 100% if I'm on a beta fw still or if on a now public released version. The original limitation was the number of files per directory. Easy to test, it will grind to a halt if on old FW before the filesystem modification fix when the filesystem is being overwritten.
Fly12CE - running 128GB on standard realised FW
Fly6CE - will be arriving any day, will be plugging a 128GB into it and will update.

Fly6CE seems to work with 64GB though officially 32GB max.
Not sure why they say it is limited, perhaps there can be occasional bugs? Though I have some ongoing issues at 32GB regardless.

kenwstr wrote:There are plenty of very cheap mini 1080p HD action cameras around 32GB card for under $50. So What exactly does cycliq give us apart from a light?

Just the packaging into a ready to go device with minimal weight for battery size.

None of the cheap cameras fit the purpose and need lots of hours having to make something as suitable.
It is easy enough though without waterproofing or looking nice. SQ11 with a powerbank.

There will certainly be a day when the cheap SQ11 style camera is waterproof, 10hr battery and bike mounts at $30 AliExpress.
But that day hasn't arrived yet.

I'm thinking about a GoPro to record some rides (not as a commuting/traffic watching scenario, but for actual decent quality ride recording) and also to use on scuba diving. The Hero5 is no longer rated to a decent depth without an add-on housing (compared to the Hero4), but the stabilization looks worth having.

Are there any other serious contenders?

jasonc wrote:

brumby33 wrote:Just seen on FB a comment on the Fly6 by Jenica Brooke, someone who has used both the old and newer versions.


Also should mention that the new Fly6CE and Fly12CE only support up to 32GB card

i have a 64GB in my Fly6CE

Supported card list!

https://cycliq.com/sdcards/

My fly6 gen2 has died.. it now just beeps. It's two years old and has been trouble free.

hamishm wrote:I'm thinking about a GoPro to record some rides (not as a commuting/traffic watching scenario, but for actual decent quality ride recording) and also to use on scuba diving. The Hero5 is no longer rated to a decent depth without an add-on housing (compared to the Hero4), but the stabilization looks worth having.

Are there any other serious contenders?

I suppose you just have to ask yourself whether you want 4K or not. GoPro's use pretty tiny sensors, so you're not looking at anything that's going to give you mind blowing video quality, but anything much larger turns into a dedicated camera. I guess the direct competitor is the Yi4K and the Yi4K+

The other side of things. Housings are cheap for GoPros. Once you step up to serious cameras like the Panasonic G7/G9 and GH4 or the Sony A7 or A9 you start to end up with a very expensive camera body around $1-5k price range and then adding on another $1k for a decent housing for diving.

I'd say stick with the GoPro or Yi until you decide how serious you are about shooting video. Because there is also another thing. If you drown a proper camera underwater you've just pissed a couple thousand dollars up the wall. If you drown a GoPro you just go out and buy another one for $600 or so and learn a reasonably easy (by comparison) lesson instead.

I'd say exactly the same about riding with an expensive camera on your bike also. It can be done. I ride with a Joby action bike mount, an out front mount for DSLRs and a chest strap also for DSLRs and use my mirrorless camera. But its kinda heart in the mouth because if you crash not only do you run the risk of destroying a camera body, but its the detachable lenses also which can be over $1000 by themselves each.

Thanks. I had a camera in housing for diving before (a small Canon PowerShot) but after not diving for a few years the o-rings for each and every button in the housing dried up and got sticky, so I had to toss it. My partner has another camera for underwater but only rated to 10 metres. I was toying with the idea of an action cam for the bike so a solution for that covers riding and diving sounds like the way to go.

A second hand GoPro 4 would be waterproof to 40m with the stock housing and cost effective but lacks the stabilization of the GoPro 5 for cycling. From the demo video I saw it makes a huge difference. Nothing worse than shakey cycling videos.

The GoPro 5 will be better but will unfortunately require the add-on housing because it's now waterproof out of the box but only to 10m. This will add an extra $70 odd to the cost.

Chainreaction Cycles have the Fly6 on sale atm for $91.49, not sure if it's an older model or not, but wondering if it's worth it, or better to get a newer model, or just find 2nd hand GoPro or something?

http://www.this link is broken/au/e ... prod154763

I don't 'need' a camera, at least at this stage, I don't ride often enough, but would be nice to add one sometime.

Couldn’t see it on the site but it would be, or have been the older model.

The price is good. There are mixed experiences and opinions but mine has been good and I always prefer to ride wirh cameras. The new model has better video quality (my testing) but the price makes it less accessible.

Chain reaction also had Gen1 Fly12 on special... which I grabbed. have a sony action camera but find it always switches itself off just before I get hit ...

I'm still looking for GoPro alternatives, and have a question. What camera brands/models support upside-down recording?

Cyclophiliac wrote:I'm still looking for GoPro alternatives, and have a question. What camera brands/models support upside-down recording?

^^^ anybody?

Well you can always post process it the right way up.

Jmuzz wrote:Well you can always post process it the right way up.

Yes, I can do that, and thanks for your reply, but that didn't answer my question.

I know the mobius action cam can.

Has anyone used their phone as a front camera?
There are numerous "dash cam" applications available.

I was wondering if an app along with a handlebar mount would be a viable way of recording in front least.

Most of the decent phones these days are IP68 on their own, so you'd just need a case and mount to do the job. I see armor x makes mounts for many different phones.

Smart phones are ok for short videos but don’t last well for long recording.

They rapidly lose battery power which is why they havn’t automatically replaced action cameras.

Just got a Fly12 but yet to try it.

Foo

My Fly12 is starting to play up after a bit over 2 years use. It wasn't used a whole lot between June and November last year due to health issues some of you know about.

I suspect the battery is on its last legs - complains if I have the light on and it hasn't been charged immediately before use. Normally I charge it immediately after last use and remove the USB lead when the light goes green so that it's an immediately ready state for next use, whenever that might be.

I've logged a ticket with Cycliq. Will be interesting to see how they handle it.

In the meantime, does anyone know how the battery can be replaced? My google-fu wasn't much good with finding useful links.

trailgumby wrote:My Fly12 is starting to play up after a bit over 2 years use.....
I suspect the battery is on its last legs

ref: http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewt ... 34&t=97951

How many cycles has it done?
Were they full discharges or partial?

trailgumby wrote:Normally I charge it immediately after last use and remove the USB lead when the light goes green.

This is how I charge my own. I'd be interested if they recommend this for prolonged battery life, or cite it as a reason for failure.

When mine eventually dies, I'd like to be able to replace the battery, rather than have to dispose of it. I'd also like to see if I could replace the Fly6 with a larger capacity battery when the time comes.

For lithium batteries, they degrade with time as well as usage. Degradation with just sitting on the shelf is much higher when the temp is high or the battery is at a high state of charge (and if you combine both its even worse). If you aren't going to be using it, leave it about half charged. There is no need to fully charge lithium batteries, so if you don't need to fully charge it, don't.

InTheWoods wrote:For lithium batteries, they degrade with time as well as usage. Degradation with just sitting on the shelf is much higher when the temp is high or the battery is at a high state of charge (and if you combine both its even worse). If you aren't going to be using it, leave it about half charged. There is no need to fully charge lithium batteries, so if you don't need to fully charge it, don't.

Yep, thanks for mentioning. I am aware of that. For the LiPo battery packs we use in our 1/10th scale R/C race buggies we put a "storage charge" on them after use topping out at 3.85v per cell, which is a selectable mode on the charger. That ends up being about a half-charge.

The problem with doing that with the FLy12 is that the charge rate is a lot less than 1C, so popping it on charge for half an hour just before use while I'm eating breakfast isn't a practical option.

@Nate: I very rarely went near full discharge.

I've received some feedback from Cycliq - there are some tests they want me to run to isolate the issue. Too late for tonight - will tackle tomorrow night.

trailgumby wrote: Yep, thanks for mentioning. I am aware of that. For the LiPo battery packs we use in our 1/10th scale R/C race buggies we put a "storage charge" on them after use topping out at 3.85v per cell, which is a selectable mode on the charger. That ends up being about a half-charge.

That's a good idea, and there's a good reason for it. Most of the damage begins to happen at >=3.92v due to parasitic reactions that begin at that voltage. Below that, there's way less degradation happening. There's another voltage above 3.92v where it gets worse again as a different set of parasitic reactions starts to happen. One involves anode and one cathode but I can never remember which is which