GPCV1248 Action Camera Teardown

500% Fake 4K camera

Action camera, Dash cam, bloomed over the years, and there are too many of them on the market today. The battle is out there, and when there is a war of action camera, so as false advertising and specification. Others are just grabbing every photo out there, compile it in an article and voila. Instant selling marketing strategy. To ordinary consumers, they are misleading, but to tech junkies out there. Who can be fooled?

Picture above represent one misleading details of an action camera. It was bought in a local online store here in my country just to tear it apart. For 24 us dollars ($24), yep that's the price of that camera. I know what I am doing and not expecting anything from the inside. As I've said, the purpose is for educational only. To be familiar everyone what was inside this little camera.

Tearing it apart is actually very easy. Too many related videos on how to dismantle one, and so I didn't made in so just browse the net for it.The front panel will just snap and replaceable. No wonder why everything seems to be a look alike of one another.

OK let the tear down begin and show what was hidden.

Components of a fully functional action camera.

1. Plastic back cover to protect the TFT module.

2. Body case to hold the hardware

3. The hardware cover before the front panel to where it was attached

4. Front panel which is interchangeable with other panel.

5. TFT module attached to the main hardware by ribbon cable.
6. The battery

7. The hardware that contains the Chipset, Cmos sensor, etc etc.

Closer look of the Hardware.

Remember, not all action camera are the same. they might fit of the same body, internal components may vary. We won't be able to detect what was inside, up until we tear it down and visually inspect.

The PCB board stamp detail with the date of manufacture.

Here we see the board detail.

KHE-H40C- V1.3, as of now i haven't found any information about this board. Other PCB is color green, this one is blue.

The Wifi module, with part umber SV6030, responsible for connecting this device to your phone via dedicated application software, so that when turned on, what the camera see, you will also can navigate every detail like settings, live video feed on your phone.You can also manage those clips recorded and transfer it to your device storage for easy sharing over to your favorite social media site.

The CHIPSET or CPU

The heart of every action camera. The encoder, the decoder, the converter, the integrator, and the developer of what the camera eye can see.

This is one part of any pcb that you are paying for. It defines the overall QUALITY of your camera. The one that process all the much needed resolution a good camera will be.

when the camera is cheap, do not expect anything from it more than what you imagine. There are entirely too many out there. But this camera with the price of $24. I didn't expect and not surprised of what I saw from the inside.

This camera uses General Plus Chipset. GPCV1248, and according to the data sheet. Well guess what..the maximum resolution it can process was 1080p@30fps, with a video file type of AVI ot Audio Video Interleave, and a codec of MJPEG, This type will record clips that shall entirely consume all of your precious micro SD card space. LOL. As much as possible, Avoid those kind of camera. Look for the H.264 codec,and MOV or MPG file type of video recording details.

The Cmos Sensor. (the eye of the camera)

The CMOS sensor is the eye. What it sees will be process by the chipset. This determines the pixel effectiveness of all camera. Sony, Panasonic, Omnivision,Aptina, Samsung and etc are example of manufacturers.

There is also a battle for supremacy here, each having their own identity and effectiveness, but more often found on some expensive types are the Sony and Onmivision.

The picture of the CMOS sensor of this camera is unknown with part number T278CB. If one is planning to buy an action camera, make sure the CMOS sensor is there on the description of the item, not just it is 12M, 14M, or 16M..without the detailed Cmos sensor chip. there is no way to improve your camera.

The SPI Flash chip

The one that holds the software of your camera..the FIRMWARE as they commonly called by developers. Each camera have their own IDENTITY, this is where it holds up, what version and model of your camera was.

Not all camera with same hardware will have same SOFTWARE. This where people brick or make their camera be dead by FIRMWARE update.Without the original dump. The camera is junk and unuseful. There are forums out there that have mods, and hacks pertaining to action camera. They are the ones that progress the development of some firmware for better functionality of the camera. This camera uses PN25L16,

The TFT 2 inch screen

Your viewing part of the cameras menu, live video. Firmware have so much effect on this part of a camera, Again not all camera have the same part number.

Here, the camera uses HLGD-CMI121B, I can't find any informtaion of this TFT LCD as of this writing.

Few years back. GoPro version 1 did not have any viewing screen fitted when you buy those type before, instead they are add on and sold separately. to where it was attached via connector at the back side of the camera. As technology progress, The TFT now been fitted at the back of every dash cam, sports cam, high end cameras like DSLR, point and shoot cameras, for easy navigation of the function such as setting menu, playback option of recorded video clips.

BATTERY MODULE

Battery of this camera was the same of those SJ4000, SJ5000, clones, and other non branded camera.

Capacity ranging from 900mah, up to 1200mah.


Firmware of this camera is so difficult to extract for almost all forum i went to, there is simply no description on how to extract it. None. So buying camera without any FIRMWARE support is like a road to the DEAD END. no where to enhance everything,

To summarize everything The camera that was teardown is as foolows

1. Chipset- General Plus GPCV1248
2. Cmos Sensor T278 (unknown manufacturer)
3. 1080p@30fps maximum video recording
4. Video type AVI with MJPEG codec
5. PCM audio recording at 32khz
6. No image stabilization for there is no accelerometer chip installed
7. No gyro as well
8. No Time lapse recording


Looking for an Action or Sports Camera..AMBARELLA or NOVATEK is your only choices of chipset, but be aware that they are expensive CPU, so definitely they are far better capable of 2k recording resolution, and worth your money..

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