Episode #96 – 808 Keychain Spy Cam Review
Comments(38)
There’s been a lot of discussion in PI forums about the keychain spy cams. This episode is my attempt to explain what they are, the different versions and how they work. Much of my source material was taken from here. Big thanks to the author for the work in figuring these things out and allowing me to use the material.
Here’s the link to my Youtube page where some sample videos can be viewed. Keep in mind these are highly compressed by Youtube.
My ebay seller where I’ve had good luck purchasing the keychain spy cam for $15. Keep in mind you’ll have to supply your own micro SD card.
Here’s a link to my working tag.txt file. I use it all the time and know it works. Just plug in the correct time and date.
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Usage notes:
HOW TO TAKE A VIDEO
1. Start with the camera off (or press the reset button to turn it off).
2. Press the power (on/off) button. This turns the LED and the camera on.
3. Press and hold the mode (video/image) button. The LED flashes 3 times then the LED goes off. The camera is recording video and audio.
4. Press the mode button to stop video recording. The video recording stops, the video is written to a AVI Flash memory file, and the LED turns on.
5. Press and hold the power button. The camera and the LED turn off.
HOW TO TAKE A PHOTO
1. Start with the camera off.
2. Press the power button. This turns the LED and the camera on.
3. Press the mode button. The LED briefly goes off, then on. The camera took a photo and wrote it to a JPG Flash memory file. Repeat step three to take more photos.
4. Press and hold the power button. The camera and the LED turn off.
Setting DATE and TIME
HOW TO SET THE DATE TIME – Use one of these methods and maybe try them both.
The Internal Flash Camera
The camera keeps the date and time as long as the battery is not dead. It stamps the date time in the upper left corner of all video, and the date time property of all AVI and JPG files.
If you don’t set the date time, 1980 Jan 1 will be used.
For example, to set the date time to May 13 2009 at 3:10pm:
Connect the USB. Create a time.txt file in the flash root with one line inside in this format:
2009.05.13 15:10:00
Disconnect the USB. The camera will read the file, change the camera date time, and delete the file.
The Micro SD Camera (#3)
David contacted a seller to get these instructions.
Bob has give me a more detailed instructions.
For what you call the #3 camera – settime.txt and time.txt files don’t work at all. It has to be a file named tag.txt reading EXACTLY this way:
[date]
2009/10/22
03:45:00
There has to be a space after the first line AND AFTER THE SECOND LINE. And the time stamp starts when the key chain camera is powered on with this file on the root – not when the file is created – so create it with a time a minute ahead and then disconnect it from the USB (the proper way) and power up the keychain cam at that time.
Sample Video
Morning Video
Daytime Video
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Join the forum discussion on this post - (2) Posts 
Hi Scott…
I REALLY appreciate this information. I’ve been buying these cameras left and right -just to get a few that will be reliable. At this price, redundancy is necessity, as is this body of information you’re sharing. Thank you for taking time to do the legwork, and allowing us to benifit, as well.
Peace,
Keith
Hi there!
Nice job with all these informations..!!
I wonder if there is any solution to my problem about keychain camera..because after a long search through net,I still haven’t found a useful link to this… : I’ve tried several times so far to get access to the root catalog of it any possible way,unfortunately without success…Even if I keep pressed the on/off button for 10sec as I’ve read,and release it when I plug in usb cable..For the record I have the 808 8Gb keychain cam (propably #1 as I saw in your link)that still keeps working..
Thanks in advance!
Chuck Lohr seems to be on top of the spy cams. I don’t know much about versions #1 adn #2 other than that they seem to have problems because of bogus memory specifications. Chucks updates his page whenever he gets new information so keep checking to see what he’s found. I’ll post anything I find out as well.
I have already asked Chuck Lohr as you advice and hope to find a solution..If anything good comes out of this I’ll let you know..
Maybe We’ll help other people that might have the same problem..
Thanks for your quick reply and help..
Best Regards,
Stamatis
Hi there,
I have the same problem as stamatis :
led remains on, pushing either buttons -> nothing
and not seen by the PC when connected to USB port.
I have a 2GB SD which is OK when connected in USB port (via an adapter) in the laptop.
The only active “button” is reset -> the led off.
I had wait 6 weeks to got it from HK !
Cheers
Papay
Check out the links and info on Chuck’s site. He’s got some possible solutions for getting the cam back up and running. The link is in the original post.
Hello,
I have opened the keychain spycamera with 4 gb memory, and I noticed that it has a 4 gb micro sd card in it, that can easily be removed and also replaced by bigger memorycard.
I removed the 4 gb micro sd card and replaced it with a 16 gb micro sd card, it worked perfectly with this new bigger memorycard.
Some older versions of the keychain spycamera also have a problem with sound, there is a little annoying beep with the actual recorded sound.
This annoying beep can be removed when you put a little piece of paper, between the circuit board and the battery.
When you want to react to my post you can email me at postbus@inbox.com
Hello,
I purchase another one at digitalwholesaleshop.
It works fine (Mod #3). The file tag.txt on root writes the date. I hope it lasts a lot.
Thanks and happy Christmas for all guys.
A
If your SD won’t mount, look at the usb plug closely. I got one where one of the contacts got bent out of place.
Hi …. the tag.txt file solved my keychain problem.
thank you… have a great 2010 !
Hey there.
I was wondering if theres any way to completely remove the time/date indicator?
There is a way to obscure it but not remove it. It’s a pretty involved process and for surveillance purposes would only get you into trouble. You can read more about it at Chuck’s site.
Hi,
Thank you for all the info! Can you comment on the amount of video that fits, in say, 1GB?
Thanks!
Ed
Ops. I guess I just had to look for Chuck’s page.
Got it:
http://www.chucklohr.com/808/
Thank you!
Keep in mind that the size of the video will also depend on the amount of action or movement in it. You’ll be able to record more of a static scene that of high action due to the fact that the processor is working harder.
10q verry much for the indications regarding the date/time. On my 808 model it worked with tag.txt.
Good luck!!!
Thank you!
The above info on setting the date worked perfectly. The instructions that came with my Micro-Camera DVK808 were woeful, but now make sense after having read the above info. So thanks again for the English translation.
im looking at buying one of eBay will this be ok cause i have heard them failing a lot and not working after a week can anyone help
My experience has been with the #3 versions which have the removable memory. They’ve lasted a while now and for $15 you can’t go wrong.
Thank you very much! You helped me set the time and date. It was driving me bananas.
Thanks for your help. The instructions that came with the camera were obviously not particularly good in their translation to English.
It takes some skill to be steady and sneaky with the camera but I guess that comes with practice. Sound quality is not half bad either.
I have to agree that redundancy is important if you are going to depend on these in a surveillance operation although I would like the option of being able to disable the time/date stamp. Any way we can do that?
Alex, there’s really no good way to remove the time and date stamp from the camera. If you check Chuck Lohr’s page that’s referenced in the podcast, he does post a labor intensive, dirty way to do it but I don’t recommend it for surveillance work.
Hi,
I’ve had it connected to my laptop for charging for almost 2 hrs. The LED is consistently flashing. How does it indicate when the charge is complete?
Cheers
To the best of my knowledge, the light does not indicate a full charge. 45 minutes should be more than enough. That’s one of the downfalls of the cheap knock off products.
Hi all,
Anyone interested in a small executable (2Kb) that creates the tag.txt automatically for you? If you keep it in the root of the camera, it only takes you a few seconds to set the time. Works for #3 key chain and gum camera.
Robert
I’m having a heck of a time setting the date/time. I have another device that uses the TAG.txt format (and the weird space after 1st 2nd line) but it doesn’t seem to work on this keychain. I have tried the 5 variants I found online, none work. It always has the date of 1/14/2007.
BTW, I did read it takes 4 hours to do a charge, and that seemed to be the case with mine.
Just as an aside, these are the names/formats I’ve tried (amongst others)
SetTime.txt
2010.06.14 08:00:00
settime.txt
2010/06/14 08:00:00
settime
2010/06/14 08:00:00
Set Time.txt
2010/06/14 08:00:00
settime.txt
[date]2010/06/14 08:00:00
tag.txt
[date]
2010/06/14
08:00:00
TAG.txt
[date]
2010/06/14
08:00:00
Jim, I’d be happy to send you my tag.txt file to see if that work. Just let me know or drop me an email at scott [at] sunsetwestpi.com
Hi Jim,
You could try two tools to create tag files:
The standard 808SetClock program:
http://www.kingmax.nl/808SetClock-1.2-bin.zip
and my own SetCameraClock program which works for some type-6 cameras:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2010/6/9/2885209/SetCameraClock.zip
It cost me several hours too to figure out that some cameras need a different format. Hope it is useful!
Thanks for the info … the tag.txt file worked perfect … keep up the good work
Bill in SC
I just recieved my Camera today, I need an SD card so I can get some video and determin the version. Im fairly confident it is a #3 but cant be certain. After reading several articles, and incorperating my own knowledge of LIPO batteries, Im sure that 2 hours should charge the battery fully. Its not overly big, I have 120mAh LiPo’s for my micro heli’s that charge in 30 min.
I do sugguest however that anyone with no or limited knowledge of LiPo Batteries, to do some research into them. I do not wish to scare or frighten, but they are a volotile and dangerouse piece of equipment when mis-used or mis-handled.
Thanks 4 the directions on those key fob cams.
The directions for the flash drive one from CHINA are horrendous! I have both and you’ve made life easier.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Robert, many thanks for SetCameraClock.zip – it works perfectly with my #6 cam.
My camera worked for a short while, but it stopped.
When I press the OFF/ON button, the light goes on. I press it again and the light goes off.
Now, I press it on, the light lights and I press the Record button. Nothing happens, no light flashes at all. Then the light stays on even when I press the OFF/ON button.
I can press the Reset button and the light goes out. If I press the Record button, it just starts all over again.
I did format to Fat32.
I can access the removable card. It has a Root directory, then a sub-directory called DCIM, then a sub-sub-directory called 100MEDIA.
Can anyone help?
Hi,
I have a problem with the saved video files.
When I take a 2nd video, it overwrites the first saved video instead of creating a new file.
Any ideas how I can sort this, it did work fine to begin with.
Hi there,
I’ve a 808 with a built in 8gb memory.
led remains on, pushing either buttons -> nothing
and not seen by the PC when connected to USB port.
The only active “button” is reset -> the led off.
Please give me a solution
I had wait 6 weeks to got it from HK !
Cheers
JOsh
Heeeelp !!!
I bought some micro cameras recently in China, but I have noticed that when I do record short videos the camera work OK, but if the video is long lenght is imposible to play back it, and the windows media or any video software give me an error trying to read it.
Any one ones about this?
thanks alot, i tried everything, but none worked, your simple technique works perfectley,
thanks again
Robert, many thanks for your SetCameraClock.zip.
It works like a charm. After struggling for a long time setting date and time right, this one worked within a blink of an eye.
Many thanks,
Ron