808 Car Keys Micro Camera Review

2010 Sep 27 - #8, New Camera Version

100928 - Clemens in Germany received his #8 camera from eBay for-easy-life. He requested a webcam driver and it was sent to him. The driver is large (6 MB). I don't have the bandwidth to host it. If you want it by email, email me a request. I have two confirmations that it does not work with Windows 7-64.
Here is the #8 webcam driver.

When the USB is connected the camera is in mass storage device mode. Short press the power button and the camera will switch to webcam mode. Another short press will switch back to mass storage device mode.

The driver contains two files:
EKEN.exe - This is the driver for the webcam
EKEN_V0.0.03.exe - This is a tool to set the time of the internal clock, it worked. Just plug the camera in and execute the program.

EKEN.exe creates a folder "Program Files/EKEN PC Driver" with these files:

AMCap.exe	Remove.ini	pmp3052c.inf	pmp3052v.sys
SPRemove.exe	Setup.ini	pmp3052i.inf
SPSetup.exe	pmp3052.cat	pmp3052v.inf
Dext3052.ax	pmp3052.inf	Bulk3052.sys

The driver installs two devices:
Still Camera Device, CA5000A, bulk3052.sys
Video Camera Device, CA5000A, Product name SunPlus SPMP3052, pmp3052v.sys, dext3052.ax, dext3052_x64.ax

Hardware ID associated with this camera:
04FC 3058 - Webcam (Imaging device, Video Camera Device) (USB Controller, Null Camera device) (USB controller, Still Camera Device)
04FC 3060 - Disk Drive, Mass Storage Device (Disk Drives, EKEN Video Camera USB Device) (USB Controllers, USB Mass Storage Device)
04FC 5560 - Unknown

100927 - Alchemist sent me information about a new camera version. It has enough unique features to be christened the #8.

The main reason this version is different is:
● The video date time stamp is yellow on black.
● The audio is ADPCM u-law. All other versions have been PCM.
● The processor is labeled EKEN002, but based on the PID and the quality, it is probably a SunPlus processor.
● There is little to no aspect ratio distortion in the 720x480 video and 1280x1024 photos.
● Close-and-continue at 1GB.
● Hardware ID (VID PID) of the #8 webcam is 04FC 3058. The #8 has the same VID as the SunPlus cameras #3 and #6 (04FC 1528).

This 808 camera might be the Eken D006. The circuit board is labeled D006-V3
http://www.ekengroup.com/en/products/show.asp?id=12

#8 Video Date Time Stamp

#8 Photo Date Time Stamp

#8 battery, bottom side

#8 button, top side. D006 is the EKEN camera model.

#8 processor labeled EKEN002. Probably a SunPlus processor.

Features:

Processor	is marked EKEN002 M0090100 1033. Evidence is that EKEN is the camera manufacturer and SunPlus makes the chip.
FPS	30.0000
Missing frame rate	Very good, low rate. 1.7 missing frames per second. Here is the missing frame map from a 13 second, 413 frame sample video: MM....M.....MM......MM........M..............M...................................................... ..................................M..............M....M......M...MM............MMMMM..............M. .......M.....M...................................................................................... .................................................................................................... ............M
AVI File byte rate	High data rate. 86 megabyte per minute. Similar to the #3 camera. Taken from a 13 second video sample.
Video codec	MJPEG
AVI dimension.	720x480, No aspect ratio distortion
JPG dimension	1280x1024, No aspect ratio distortion
Audio codec	ADPCM u-law, 16000 samples per second, 8-bit, 128 Kbps. First 808 camera to have ADPCM u-law codec. First 808 camera to have a 16000 sample rate. Similar to the #1 and #7 cameras which are 128 Kbps. The audio fidelity you would expect with no strange artifacts.
High video quality	The video quality is not very good. Similar to Worse than the #3 and #6 camera.
Stamp disable unknown	I don't know if the date time stamp can be disabled.
Webcam	There is a webcam driver unique to this camera. See above.
Upscaled video	From a video frame grab, like the #3 camera, the 720x480 AVI seems to be upscaled from 640x480. Round objects in the sample video seem a little stretched horizontally.
AVI has large junk section	One strange note about the #8 is that in analyzing the 23.2 MB sample AVI file there is a large empty junk section (about 15% of the file). When run through VirtualDub in "Direct Stream Copy" mode, this junk section is removed and the resultant file is 19.8 MB.

Comments from Alchemist:

eBay kkwvfp was claiming specifically to be selling the #3 but it is not.
In his listing he wrote: "It is #3, Date time color is yellow, stamp on lower right"
http://cgi.ebay.com/Car-Key-Chain-Hidden-Camera-Spy-Camera-video-Recorder-/250651146449

But it turns out it is a new 720x480 key cam altogether..

Processor details...

EKEN002
M0090100
1033

Initial record time in one session,

EKEN0001.avi 1Gb 48m 09s 720x480
EKEN0002.avi 685Mb 31m 55s 720x480

So that's 1.69Gb over 80m 04s on the "as supplied" 200mAh battery. "Close and Continue" recording every 1Gb.

Timestamp: Bottom Right (Smaller than #3, yellow on black background)

#3 timestamp is larger on a transparent background.

In the very short test I gave it, it's not quite as sharp as the #3 (which is very good) but otherwise comparable in most aspects.. poor lowlight similar etc.

120112C8ModTicTac
120112 - Mod - #8 and Ext. Battery in tic tac Box
SmaRkieS made this mod that fits an 808 #8 and a Nintendo USG-003 1000 mAh external battery into a tic tac box (16g). See the full description here.


110928 - #8 Comments
A.J. comments about his 808 #8. I pointed my #8 at a measuring tape held 20cm away, and it caught just 8.8cm of it, which I worked out to be a 24.8 degrees horizontal angle of view, according tohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_view that works out to around an 80mm lens in 35mm terms. ... No wonder I find it abolutely hopeless as a camera - it's extremely difficult to aim properly at that kind of zoom level, without a viewfinder or screen! I was hoping for something I could carry hand-held through an area, unspotted, aiming as best I can - but my results have been terrible no matter how hard I've tried. Either too low, too high, off to one side, quite apart from the motion I was hoping to have Deshaker fix for me! Without rigging up a wider lens (I may try a 'jelly' one from eBay) or calibrating a viewfinder of some sort, it's only use is as a webcam or a sound recorder :( I have acquired a #8 key which has impressed me so far, I haven't had any audio or video drop-out problems here on a reasonable Win7 PC. It all works well in VLC player and VirtualDub. LogoAway works quite well while Deshaking, it's not hard to adjust the numbers while the Preview screen is visible, but I have used these settings for the #8's yellow-on-black box at the lower right : 502 446 204 25 I will admit being confused at first which button was Power and which was Mode, I realise that when you're well familiar with something it's easy to overlook the very basics for newcomers - perhaps a labelled photo on your page would help? I'll do one for you if you like. The photo on my key's instructions is so small and blurred I couldn't read it! I also had a little trouble for a minute or two working out which way the micro SD card was supposed to be inserted, and whether it went all the way in - again the photo for complete beginners could show that :) One issue I noticed with VirtualDub is the old problem of video levels. The MJPEG avi files contain full 0-255 RGB levels which seem to come into VirtualDub expecting levels of 16-235, resulting in "crushed blacks" and "clipped whites". I attach a JPG to show the difference it makes to open the file indirectly using a simple AviSynth avs text file, getting back low black level and bright white detail - the correct contrast instead of too much. Notice the washed out white blanket gets a lot more detail back, also the dark areas on the bin. Simply install AviSynth (http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page), and then instead of drag-n-dropping the original filename.avi onto the desktop VirtualDub icon to launch and load - instead you create a text file in NotePad in the same folder, containing one line of text as follows (with the required file name), and drag-n-drop that instead (also brings in the audio correctly) : --- textfile test.avs --- contains only the next line... --- DirectShowSource("EKEN0002.avi") --- end of file --- A.J. has this workflow: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=19464332&postcount=8163


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