YourMomLikesRollerDerby

My last post about helmet cams ended with my first impressions of the Tachyon XC helmet camera. Basically, it looked like a very solid choice.

Last night I took the Tachyon XC to practice with me, along with my laptop to check the results. I was setting up the side mount, having trouble to get it aimed in the direction that I was hoping for. I finally got it in a position I could live with, when one of the most simple (but critical) parts of the camera failed.

The camera has slots on the sides to slide into the mounts. At one end of the slot there is a notch that locks the camera in place inside the mount. I went to slide the camera back into the side mount. No click. I tried the other mounts. Same thing, nothing keeping the camera from falling out other than friction. Upon closer inspection, I notice that the notch was now gone. This is the only way that the cam can be secured, which makes it useless for its intended purpose.

Also, after trying to use them, I found the supplied mounts to be wholly inadequate. There is a side mount for a helmet included, though it is intended to slide onto the strap from goggles. If you want to attach it directly to the helmet, your only option (without modifications) is to use the supplied velcro. The velcro is more than strong enough to keep the mount and camera attached to the helmet, but allows for an unacceptable amount of bouncing. There is a way to mount the other two mounts with velcro to the top of a helmet, but I didn’t get a chance to see if that would alleviate the bounce very much. I want to reiterate , there is no other included method to attach to a helmet than velcro.

I wrote an email to Tachyon Inc, after getting a voicemail message saying to contact them by email. It was probably worded a little stronger than necessary, but hey, I was angry. I got a response a little more than 12 hours later. They were very polite and agreed that this camera was definitely broken. They want me to ship the camera (not the mounts or accessories) to them and they will ship a replacement. They also told me that there is a “new mount that [they] feels corrects any deficiencies in [their] original mounts”. They said it has been shipped out to all of their customers and I should receive it soon.

So now I have to find a box to package the camera in and take time out of work to go to a post office. I’m hoping that I just got a defective unit, but I don’t have a whole lot of faith in that. If it turns out that this was just a fluke and I got the rare defective unit, the mounts I have can be altered easily to be very secure.

Also, the video was exactly what I was expecting. Considering the average quality of all-in-one helmet cams and the lighting conditions in our space, it was definitely good enough for my purposes.

I’ll keep you updated on my findings of the replacement unit.