U3000 rear camera RADAR does not work

[Agie]

Well, I guess I will hold off upgrading until they fix the rear radar issue.

If they're able to fix it. Sounds like it's been going on a while now

 

[egonvdv]

very good deal at he moment for Americans & Canadians : dashcamstore

(it costs 700 euros in europe...)

 

[safedrivesolutions]

So I am very confused by all of this. So today my office was kind of in shambles. As I have too many tests going on for future videos as I decided to take last weekend off for Canadian Thanksgiving.
This thread popped up so I half fast made a test for rear camera. My product is original stock from distributor. It is not the highest of quality video but hopefully you get the idea.

 

[Agie]

So I am very confused by all of this. So today my office was kind of in shambles. As I have too many tests going on for future videos as I decided to take last weekend off for Canadian Thanksgiving.
This thread popped up so I half fast made a test for rear camera. My product is original stock from distributor. It is not the highest of quality video but hopefully you get the idea.

Scientific enough of a test for sure, yeh I don't know just seems to be reports everywhere saying that their rear radar doesn't work. As you said, could just be a case of a defective batch maybe.

Maybe we'll never know lol.

 

[Savyy]

Hi Guys,
Finally I got an email and they offered me a replacement. I will report the results when I get a NEW REAR CAMERA if it works or not.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Reiner (Thinkware NA)

Oct 16, 2023, 12:48 PDT

Hello there,

Sorry for the late response. We wanted to offer you a warranty exchange for the U3000 rear view camera. Please provide your full name and shipping address to proceed. Thank you.

 

[Nigel]

Scientific enough of a test for sure, yeh I don't know just seems to be reports everywhere saying that their rear radar doesn't work. As you said, could just be a case of a defective batch maybe.

Maybe we'll never know lol.

They obviously know what the problem is, they would do well to tell us so that the mystery is solved!

 

[rcg530]

I configured my current U3000 2-channel dash camera’s parking mode to “Radar” parking mode. I received this U3000 2-channel dash camera in late September 2023. I adjusted the radar sensitivity to “High” from the default of “Mid” for both the front and rear cameras.



I drove to my local post office and parked. The rear camera radar did appear to detect motion of cars and people (me) behind the car. I parked with the front of the car parked towards a line of trees/cars and the rear of the vehicle pointed towards the main entry/exit path for vehicles in this parking lot. There wasn’t a lot of movement behind the car, but enough to have at least two parking mode videos created from car movement and a couple more from my walking behind the car.

So far, the rear camera radar appears to be working for my installation.

I reviewed the “How does Radar Parking Mode work” support document and it looks like it describes how radar parking mode should/does work. It does not incorrectly state that radar parking mode will create “motion detected” buffered recordings (10 seconds before and 10 seconds after) like the user manual states!

https://mondosystemhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/21305282643859-RADAR-Parking-Mode-U3000-

 

[Vortex Radar]

So I've spent the past 4 hours or so testing this out with two U3000's as well as various internal and external mounting locations and at this point I'm more confused than anything.

Generally speaking my rear impact detection stuff wasn't working. I'd walk up to the rear of the car and then literally shove the car, but nothing would be recorded. No motion detection, no impact detection, nothing. (Only the front cam has a G-sensor so whacking the rear window may not trigger the front cam. I tried pushing the whole car multiple times as well as whacking the WS.)

I tried with two different copies of front and rear cams, but it wasn't working.

I then tried mounting a rear cam on the outside of my car to see if maybe the rear window was blocking the radar signal. (My vehicle has non-metallic rear tint and so it shouldn't cause any issues. I don't see any issues with my radar detectors either.)



Results were variable. Sometimes it worked, but usually not. I tested with both front and rear cams.

I tried testing with the cam installed in the traditional spot at the inside top of my rear window and it wasn't working. Maybe it is the rear window causing problems, so I tried setting a camera down on the rear trunk cover like this.



This would let me try testing with the rear door open and closed, though the U3000's OBD II adapter thinks my engine is on every time a door is open. Nevertheless, in this situation I was able to get radar motion detection working.

At this point my running theory was the angle of the mount. The mount itself is nearly 90 degrees offset from the face of the rear cam where the radar transmitter is. Unlike the front cam, you can't adjust the angle of the rear radar transmitter.







The rear window on my SUV is angled at about 45 degrees.



This means that that the rear cam in its traditional mounting point angles down nearly 45 degrees. I have to tilt the lens up to compensate, but you can't also tilt the body with the radar transmitter.



I went out to go retest this, walking up behind the car, as well as trying to get down low to get in line with the radar transmitter. Nevertheless, it recorded the whole thing.

So at this point I'm at a loss and I don't have a good running theory onto why we're seeing what we're seeing. It's great I'm seeing it work right now, but I don't know why the motion detection results are so inconsistent at best, or non-functional at worst.

 

[dashcam_11]

D we

So I've spent the past 4 hours or so testing this out with two U3000's as well as various internal and external mounting locations and at this point I'm more confused than anything.

Generally speaking my rear impact detection stuff wasn't working. I'd walk up to the rear of the car and then literally shove the car, but nothing would be recorded. No motion detection, no impact detection, nothing. (Only the front cam has a G-sensor so whacking the rear window may not trigger the front cam. I tried pushing the whole car multiple times as well as whacking the WS.)

I tried with two different copies of front and rear cams, but it wasn't working.

I then tried mounting a rear cam on the outside of my car to see if maybe the rear window was blocking the radar signal. (My vehicle has non-metallic rear tint and so it shouldn't cause any issues. I don't see any issues with my radar detectors either.)

View attachment 68618

Results were variable. Sometimes it worked, but usually not. I tested with both front and rear cams.

I tried testing with the cam installed in the traditional spot at the inside top of my rear window and it wasn't working. Maybe it is the rear window causing problems, so I tried setting a camera down on the rear trunk cover like this.

View attachment 68619

This would let me try testing with the rear door open and closed, though the U3000's OBD II adapter thinks my engine is on every time a door is open. Nevertheless, in this situation I was able to get radar motion detection working.

At this point my running theory was the angle of the mount. The mount itself is nearly 90 degrees offset from the face of the rear cam where the radar transmitter is. Unlike the front cam, you can't adjust the angle of the rear radar transmitter.

View attachment 68623

View attachment 68624

View attachment 68620

The rear window on my SUV is angled at about 45 degrees.

View attachment 68621

This means that that the rear cam in its traditional mounting point angles down nearly 45 degrees. I have to tilt the lens up to compensate, but you can't also tilt the body with the radar transmitter.

View attachment 68622

I went out to go retest this, walking up behind the car, as well as trying to get down low to get in line with the radar transmitter. Nevertheless, it recorded the whole thing.

So at this point I'm at a loss and I don't have a good running theory onto why we're seeing what we're seeing. It's great I'm seeing it work right now, but I don't know why the motion detection results are so inconsistent at best, or non-functional at worst.

In the last video, looks like the camera is already active when you walk-in.

 

[safedrivesolutions]

Would it not be great if @Thinkware Dash Cam was active in this community??? Maybe then we could get some answers. For me it seems to be working. Maybe the problem is everyone using the OBD2 Cable??? Thats a thought. Becasue it does take 3-5 minutes for it to go to sleep.

I guess we will see them at SEMA in a little over a week. Maybe some questions will be answered.

 

[dashcam_11]

Would it not be great if @Thinkware Dash Cam was active in this community??? Maybe then we could get some answers. For me it seems to be working. Maybe the problem is everyone using the OBD2 Cable??? Thats a thought. Becasue it does take 3-5 minutes for it to go to sleep.

I guess we will see them at SEMA in a little over a week. Maybe some questions will be answered.

My U3000 is hardwired, and it doesn’t work. So don’t think it’s the OB2 Cable only.

 

[safedrivesolutions]

My U3000 is hardwired, and it doesn’t work. So don’t think it’s the OB2 Cable only.

I have tested on 3 seperate units and all 3 of them have worked. Maybe there is a firmware update coming to correct some of these challenges.

 

[dashcam_11]

Hi Guys,
Finally I got an email and they offered me a replacement. I will report the results when I get a NEW REAR CAMERA if it works or not.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Reiner (Thinkware NA)

Oct 16, 2023, 12:48 PDT

Hello there,

Sorry for the late response. We wanted to offer you a warranty exchange for the U3000 rear view camera. Please provide your full name and shipping address to proceed. Thank you.

Let us know if the replacement camera works as expected.

 

[Thinkware Dash Cam]

If they're able to fix it. Sounds like it's been going on a while now

U3000 rear camera RADAR does not work

same confirmed on a review here - starting from 15:23
U3000 rear camera RADAR does not work

My rear glass is tinted and RADAR does not work whatever setting I tried to apply
Please check yours?

If you are having issues with your U3000 rear view camera, please send an email to support@thinkware.com with the subject line " Issues with U3000 rear view camera radar". Thanks!

 

[Thinkware Dash Cam]

Same here. I tried a few things to improve it. First of all i set it to the highest sensitivity, then i removed the whole camera from my rear window. I propped it so it will have the best scenario, which is not having anything blocking in front of it. Tried walking in front of the rear radar with the rear door open(i have a hatchback), it does trigger the camera once i walk back and forth many times. (close to it and further away)

With that said the rear camera is still considered not working properly in my book. It should trigger as fast as the front camera.

Im only sharing this so future buyers and possibly thinkware to be aware of this problem. Im hoping this is going to be a 'firmware update' kind of fix.

If you are having issues with your U3000 rear view camera, please send an email to support@thinkware.com with the subject line " Issues with U3000 rear view camera radar". Thanks!

 

[Agie]

If you are having issues with your U3000 rear view camera, please send an email to support@thinkware.com with the subject line " Issues with U3000 rear view camera radar". Thanks!

Thinkware back from the dead!

 

[safedrivesolutions]

Thinkware back from the dead!

I did tag them 2 days ago.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Thanks for joining us @Thinkware Dash Cam!

So after all the testing from earlier, I've gone back through to collect some realworld samples of the rear cam's radar sensor waking up an OBD-powered U3000 to capture both vehicles and people. Here's a compilation showing some demos in different locations, with different vehicle speeds, at different distances people walk by my car, etc. (The front cam overlay is added just so you can verify if it was the front or rear cam that was being triggered.)

Overall when it's working, it seems to work very well. If cars drive past me slowly at typical parking lot speeds, it catches the whole thing. If they go by quickly, they may be basically gone by the time the dashcam wakes up. People are captured walking close by and as far away as about halfway into the street which is plenty of distance (testing done at max radar sensitivity).

While I could nitpick and say that there's times I wish the dashcam started to record a smidge sooner, realistically I think this does the job nicely, and the power savings is a huge benefit over traditional parking mode applications.

 

[dashcam_11]

Thinkware back from the dead!

Glad that the dead are back.

They should tell us what is the issue and how long it will take to fix it.

 

[Panzer Platform]

I think this does the job nicely, and the power savings is a huge benefit over traditional parking mode applications.

Is there audio in this configuration?
I cranked up my volume but, I can't tell.