Unfortunately, this deal has expired 18 October 2018.
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1791°
Posted 1 September 2018
GoPro Hero (2018) (easily convert to a Hero 5 Black with simple firmware update) £131.91 @ TobyDeals
Shared by
fpsazerbaijan
Joined in 2013
24
217
About this deal
This deal is expired. Here are some options that might interest you:
Little known fact that you can convert a standard Hero 2018 to a Hero 5 Black with a simple firmware update.
Did mine the other day and it works a treat. I now have 4K 30 FPS, GPS, 12mp photos etc for £130 ish.
I managed to get Halfords to price match Tecobuy in-store, they said no over live chat but the guy in store was fine with it. Maybe worth a punt!
Credit to ohyicong over on Reddit for the method:
"I have compiled all the steps into one folder. Place this folder in the sd card and power on your gopro. Then the update will start automatically. It takes around 5~10 mins to finish updating. Delete this file from the SD card after updating."
FILES (thanks to coastersteve for re-uploading them): drive.google.com/dri…4or
*EDIT* for anyone attempting this take a read of the Reddit thread: reddit.com/r/g…re/
The process is as follows:
- Download the 'UPDATE' folder from the above Google Drive link. This should contain 4 files. Place the entire folder onto a blank, formatted micro sd.
- Place the sd in the camera and power it up. It will run through the update process, restarting and black screening several times and taking anywhere betwee 3-10 mins, be patient and don't be tempted to press anything!
- Camera will eventually boot as a fully fledged Hero 5 Black. Turn it off. Remove the SD and delete the UPDATE folder. I reformatted just to be sure.
- Place it back in the GoPro and go video something cool in 4K 30 fps
2% Quidco at TobyDeals too.
Proof video:
Did mine the other day and it works a treat. I now have 4K 30 FPS, GPS, 12mp photos etc for £130 ish.
I managed to get Halfords to price match Tecobuy in-store, they said no over live chat but the guy in store was fine with it. Maybe worth a punt!
Credit to ohyicong over on Reddit for the method:
"I have compiled all the steps into one folder. Place this folder in the sd card and power on your gopro. Then the update will start automatically. It takes around 5~10 mins to finish updating. Delete this file from the SD card after updating."
FILES (thanks to coastersteve for re-uploading them): drive.google.com/dri…4or
*EDIT* for anyone attempting this take a read of the Reddit thread: reddit.com/r/g…re/
The process is as follows:
- Download the 'UPDATE' folder from the above Google Drive link. This should contain 4 files. Place the entire folder onto a blank, formatted micro sd.
- Place the sd in the camera and power it up. It will run through the update process, restarting and black screening several times and taking anywhere betwee 3-10 mins, be patient and don't be tempted to press anything!
- Camera will eventually boot as a fully fledged Hero 5 Black. Turn it off. Remove the SD and delete the UPDATE folder. I reformatted just to be sure.
- Place it back in the GoPro and go video something cool in 4K 30 fps
2% Quidco at TobyDeals too.
Proof video:
More details from
Community Updates
Edited by fpsazerbaijan, 5 September 2018
320 Comments
sorted byAh you must've paid £299 for a Hero 5 Black
Apparently you can! "Firstly, go to Gopro official website to download the original hero 2018 firmware. Next, put the firmware file into your SD card and turn on your device. The firmware will be reversed automatically (wait for 5~10mins)." taken from the Reddit thread (here in case anyone wants a read: reddit.com/r/g…re/)
You turned your Nissan Leaf into a Tesla Model 3?!? (edited)
Ah to be young again (edited)
drive.google.com/ope…4or
Time to see how painful the TobyDeals RMA process is.
Edit: I managed to fix mine. Attaching a volt meter to pins 1 & 4 showed that the battery was completely drained (output 0.001v). This was too low for the GoPro to recognise the battery was installed, so camera refused to charge it. I had to splice an old USB charge cable and connect red and black wires directly to the pins 1 & 4 for ~1min to give it some juice. After reinstalling within GoPro it was recognised and is now charging normally. Do not attempt this unless you know what you are doing. (edited)
That is a possibility. I've just been using mine without the app, it's not ideal but for the price I can live with it!
Thanks OP (edited)
if this turns them into hero 5 its the find of year if you ask me
intredasting
Bit of a risk, but if you purchase through credit card you may be protected. I bought a photo frame which was quite expensive from a site with .co.uk domain and it arrived broken. Wanted refund instead of replacement as it was a gift. They said they wouldn't refund but replace (German law vs UK apparently). So contacted credit card company and because they were masquerading as uk site, I was refunded.
Never going to be as easy as purchasing from UK. For any tech stuff I would never order from tobydeals, or any of the others because of warranty etc.
And how legit is that site?!
Website says 5 stars on Trustpilot.
Strange when you go onto the Trustpilot website - it has no review and no stars; either that or I'm looking in the wrong place.
uk.trustpilot.com/rev….uk
I kind of get why it's shocking to many, but this is very, very common in the electronics industry and there are thousands of examples where the old generation product gets re-badged as a budget model and is sold on, often with very little to no hardware changes, just a firmware update. You even see it with "current" hardware - there are many graphics cards where the mid and premium cards are identical save for a firmware update and a port swap. CPUs again get badged as a budget model and locked by what is in effect, firmware.
My car is the same - I have "unlocked" nearly £1000 worth of extra features by flashing it's firmware. The hardware is identical in different models, and its use is controlled/limited p[surely by software.
it's pretty normal practice in the electronics industry, and is a nice benefit for us consumers when we find ways to "unlock" extra features for free. It's not a rip off. (edited)
Yes it does, tested the other day! Ideal for mapping applications now
Or... Is the original firmware restricting the mp capture rate? If everything else is identical it doesn't make sense to use a different sensor. Would be great if someone can verify that they use different sensors (10mp or 12mp).
Spec sheet would suggest this is only 1080p but we now know it's capable of 4K.
It also states that the hero 2018 doesn't have GPS but geotagging works after the firmware flash. Is it possible it's actually a 12MP sensor but firmware crippled to 10?
This seems to suggest they are identical hardware:
gethypoxic.com/blo…ro5
A firmware trick will not tell windows the image file is 4000x3000 if there are only 10MP (edited)
I've downloaded the original Hero 2018 firmware in case I need to roll back in future. The biggest risk I see is that the GoPro app is updated and can detect a 'hacked' Hero 2018. Currently the app connects fine and sees it as Hero 5 Black
Very happy :-)
Now need to record some Gnarr
Use all 4. Just put in a folder called update, pop it in, works a charm.
Make sure you have more than 50% battery or the update won't happen.
Lucky son and great that you can get him a £260+ camera for around half that.
I would also like to add to this thread that my Halfords price matched Hero 2018 to Hero 5 upgrade worked perfectly and was even quicker (2 minutes) than the 5 minutes witnessed on the YouTube instruction video (I’m assuming because I used a quicker micro SD card). Fantastic price for Hero 5 functionality.
Had an email saying thanks for the money. Then another a few hours later saying, we are chucking it in a box.
Then nothing.
Tried emailing them.
Nothing.
Tried their messaging thingy.
Nothing.
Was coming to terms with having to invoke the whole Paypal spanking procedure when I got an email from Yodel saying a parcel had been delivered.
Got home to find two shiny GoPro Heros well packed on the table. So...... Basically you save a chunk of cash monies but he true cost is the anxiety you suffer from because Toby deals operate a customer service department on the award winning 'Go fist yourself.... twice' model. Not sure I can recommend them given this attitude.
The cameras however..... Awesome. Charged one up. Had a play round, everything working. I downloaded the Black firmware zip. Extracted to a formatted micro SD. Put it into the fully charge camera and switched on. It did the updatey flashy things, like it should and rebooted about 6 mins later. Hey presto a fully functional, brand new GoPro Hero 5 Black. My 11 year old son (Who I got the other one for) did his about an hour later with no issues either.
So.... two £300 GoPros for £235.
Chicken Dinner.
Awesome. Just wonder if gopro will somehow release a fix for this or brick your gopro if you try to connect to the app etc...
Will do. Thanks for your help. I am really tempted but still think there will be a comeback from Gopro about it
I'll take that hit. Lol. To be fair this is my first action camera and was going to get the Yi 4k but wasn't waterproof without case so I'll take another hit if I have too lol
I don't have a computer, see if I put in my sd card from my gopro into my phone, could I still download the firmware through that then put it back in my gopro?