No notification that it wasn't saving to SDCard :-(

HSV Guy

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Today I went to watch something that happened today while driving only to find that despite 38GB (of 128GB) being free on the SD Card, nothing has actually been saved to the SD card in the last 6 days. I did try coping another 20GB of files to the SD card while plugged into my PC which worked fine.

What is very concerning for me is the fact that there was no indication from the dashcam that files weren't being saved. I would expect that by the time it says any message (e.g. 'BalckVue for your safe driving') that isn't an error that it would have checked that the file is being saved to the SD card. What's the point of having a dashcam if I don't know until after the fact whether or not it is recording??? If I had had something serious happen only to find out afterwards that it hadn't been working for the past few days I'd be somewhat annoyed.

The SD card itself had been formatted a few days beforehand and is a 128GB Lexar 633x MicroSD card.

Has anyone had anything similar/thoughts on what may have caused this/why the dashcam didn't report an SD card error.
 
...why the dashcam didn't report an SD card error.
The only way the cam could report the error is if the card gave some indication to the camera that the error occurred. In other words, if the camera said 'write the data' and the card responded 'OK, I just did' (even though it didn't) there's not much the camera can do.

It's possible the camera could buffer everything it writes and then try to read it back to verify but that would require more programming, faster cards and faster processors in the camera.
 
The only way the cam could report the error is if the card gave some indication to the camera that the error occurred. In other words, if the camera said 'write the data' and the card responded 'OK, I just did' (even though it didn't) there's not much the camera can do.

It's possible the camera could buffer everything it writes and then try to read it back to verify but that would require more programming, faster cards and faster processors in the camera.

It already has a 'start-up' function that includes (if nothing else) playing the message 'BlackVue for your safe driving'. All that would need to be done is to add a tiny bit of logic to the start-up function to write the current date/time (or something similar) to a text file on the SD card, read said text file and then play the 'SD card error message' if it can't find/read the text file or if the date/time is older than a few seconds.

I find it really surprising given the purpose of a dashcam that there doesn't seem to be any verification that data is actually being saved. If it was a cheap and nasty generic branded dashcam I guess I could put it down to that, but given that BlackVue are at the top end of the market I'd expect much better.

Are there any BalckVue reps that frequent this forum? I'm not after anything other than to find out if anyone else has had this sort of problem and to bring it to BlackVue's attention. If there are no checks whatsoever (which I doubt/hope is not the case) that really needs fixing ASAP, if whatever happened to me is an edge case that slipped through the cracks than that's not so bad (but could still ideally be fixed :)).

I want to be able to drive around and KNOW, rather than hope, that the dashcam is actually working.
 
Hi HSV Guy

I'm sure that the very helpful Blackvue Australia people will contact, and assist you, after the weekend.

Regards

John
 
Are there any BalckVue reps that frequent this forum? I'm not after anything other than to find out if anyone else has had this sort of problem and to bring it to BlackVue's attention. .

@BlackVue Australia are on here, at a guess the first thing they'll advise you to do is to use a Pittasoft memory card, the camera can be fussy with other brands of memory cards
 
Thanks for the quick replies JohnM and jokiin. Yes, I did read through the thread about SD cards which is why I got the Lexar SD card. I won't comment on its fussiness when using 3rd party cards but I am keen to see if BlackVue can add any extra info.
 
"All that would need to be done is to add a tiny bit of logic to the start-up function to write the current date/time (or something similar) to a text file on the SD card, read said text file and then play the 'SD card error message' if it can't find/read the text file or if the date/time is older than a few seconds."

As a start up function that would work. I was thinking more along the lines of continually monitoring the write performance.
 
OP is the record light on while it is not recording?
 
OP is the record light on while it is not recording?
No idea (since I formatted the card it has been working, but) I have it setup to not have the light on while recording.
 
So it has done it again. I Just checked the SD card and it looks to have stopped working yesterday morning.

The most recent file on the SD card is titled 20170131_084223_PF but according to the BlackVue application there are a whole bunch of parking mode files until 10:51 AM (3 hours after I parked).

Attached is a copy of some log files off the Dashcam. The car/dashcam were in my garage all day today until 18:15. I'm not sure why the nand logs are timestamped 08:15 as nothing should have happened then.

One thing I have noticed is that both this time and last time (I think) there is around 70GB of free disk space (46.9 used, 69.9 free of 116GB, formatted with FAT32 - actual format was done by the dashcam itself).

Any thoughts?

--edit--
After I deleted a number of files it was able to record video again. So it would appear that it may be related to not being able to record 'past' 46.9GB of space. As per my earlier comment, I was able to copy files on to the SD card using my PC so the SD card itself is ok.
 

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I haven't run into that problem...yet. Did you originally format the card, then copy the file contents over from the original Blackvue card?
 
--edit--
After I deleted a number of files it was able to record video again. So it would appear that it may be related to not being able to record 'past' 46.9GB of space. As per my earlier comment, I was able to copy files on to the SD card using my PC so the SD card itself is ok.

is this a new memory card you're using?
 
Yes, brand new, I bought it specifically for the dashcam.
 
Exactly where did you buy it from There are heaps of fakes out here from unexpected places even
 
I've heard of blinking dashboard lights setting off parking mode recording in garages.
Have you tried another card? How about the cheaper Blackvue 16GB card?
If you use one of their cards, and it still doesn't work, you can put some pressure on them.
 
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