A129 3-wire kit

So, a couple of weeks in and when in position ‘0’ for over 12 or so hours the camera does not restart automatically. There is a 10s boot delay selected and there are no other issues with the camera.

If I flick the switch from ‘0’ to ‘1’ before or after I restart the engine then the camera still won’t switch on unless I physically press the power button on the camera.

For me, the cam will consistently power on if switch to '1' prior to starting the engine, I'm also on 10s boot delay. What voltage setting have you selected on the HWK? I'm set to 12.2v.

One thing I have noticed is that if I start the engine for a minute, stop it and then start it again then it will spring into action. I’m no auto electrician so I have no idea what that means but perhaps someone else will.
My guess is that the engine will need to draw more power when sitting overnight or from a 'cold' start vs restarting the engine throughout the day after shorter rests when engine is still somewhat 'warm'.
 
For me, the cam will consistently power on if switch to '1' prior to starting the engine, I'm also on 10s boot delay. What voltage setting have you selected on the HWK? I'm set to 12.2v.


My guess is that the engine will need to draw more power when sitting overnight or from a 'cold' start vs restarting the engine throughout the day after shorter rests when engine is still somewhat 'warm'.

So today the camera restarted after an 8hr shift in temps of -6.

The voltage cutoff is set to 12v at present. I will be looking after my battery by using a smart charger on the battery weekly.

How does your camera behave at switch position ‘1’? At this position on my switch the camera is running off Bat+ and uses parking mode. At position ‘0’ it is only relying on the ACC feed.

Picture is the witch on the trim by the drivers left knee

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1450c64c2ca5397fdc8a5e06979a07dd.jpg
 
How does your camera behave at switch position ‘1’? At this position on my switch the camera is running off Bat+ and uses parking mode. At position ‘0’ it is only relying on the ACC feed.

My switch functions and is setup the same way where:

0 = ACC only (cam off when ignition off)
1 = BAT+ (Parking Mode)

I have no issues when switch = 1. Cam stays on all the time and transitions between normal and parking modes as expected.
If switch = 0, I need to switch to 1 prior to starting engine in order for cam to power on consistently. Otherwise it's hit and miss, similar to what you've been experiencing.

Picture is the witch on the trim by the drivers left knee

Nice clean install! (y) :giggle: Hopefully you're not accidentally hitting switch with knee...
 
My switch functions and is setup the same way where:

0 = ACC only (cam off when ignition off)
1 = BAT+ (Parking Mode)

I have no issues when switch = 1. Cam stays on all the time and transitions between normal and parking modes as expected.
If switch = 0, I need to switch to 1 prior to starting engine in order for cam to power on consistently. Otherwise it's hit and miss, similar to what you've been experiencing.



Nice clean install! (y) :giggle: Hopefully you're not accidentally hitting switch with knee...
I flicked the switch to '1' prior to starting the car this morning. It worked fine so perhaps the only answer.

The switch is quite stiff so my knee should be ok, probably lol

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Hello. Do not just put a switch on Bat+?
Leaving it on will always activate the parking mode;
on off the camera turns off if one does not want the active parking mode.

Or is there any reason why it should not work? Thank you.
 
Wire quality not the best the kit is that why i have static noise!
 

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Hello. Do not just put a switch on Bat+?
Leaving it on will always activate the parking mode;
on off the camera turns off if one does not want the active parking mode.

Or is there any reason why it should not work? Thank you.


That would work in a sense. If you did the switch this way then you would always have to flick the switch to the ‘ON’ position when you started the car no matter what mode you wanted.

So if you had the switch off when parked up (no parking mode) you would need to turn it on again when you get back in or the camera would not work when you switched the ignition on. The camera must have both BAT+ and ACC feed to work which is why you need the 3 pole switch.

I know that it seems we are having to flick the switch anyway at the moment but hopefully one of us will find a solution to this problem.


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I know that it seems we are having to flick the switch anyway at the moment but hopefully one of us will find a solution to this problem.

See https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/a129-3-wire-kit.35898/page-13#post-447344.

I think you are running into the same problem I had. Basically "for the kit to function properly, the hardwire kit must see power on B+ before power on the ACC line." If you have yours wired up like I did in the past, then ACC and B+ receive power at the same time, and the camera never boots. I found there are probably two ways to fix this:

1) Wire up so that in your "no parking mode" switch setting, you get power from a circuit that goes hot before ACC. For me, there are a few circuits that turn on when the car is unlocked (before ACC) and turn off a little bit after the car stops (after ACC). I chose this option.

2) Wire up a timer on the "no parking mode" switch line so that B+ power is effectively delayed to the hardwire kit by about 5 seconds or so. Don't confuse this with the bootup delay in the camera, these are two different things. It's probably a matter of an RC circuit or something, but I'm not an electronics expert and I don't know how this would be accomplished exactly. Perhaps others can share how :)
 
I finally got my kit installed on my Civic. It works as advertised. The dealer set the under voltage cut-off protection to 12.8V just to be on the safe side. We'll see how much recording time will that give to the camera.
I set the parking mode to Low Bit rate recording. The gap between parking and normal mode seems to be about 7 to 8 seconds, which is not a big deal. There is no weird static noise with my kit as other users reported.
Can't wait for the buffered parking mode firmware to be released! :)
 
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See https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/a129-3-wire-kit.35898/page-13#post-447344.

I think you are running into the same problem I had. Basically "for the kit to function properly, the hardwire kit must see power on B+ before power on the ACC line." If you have yours wired up like I did in the past, then ACC and B+ receive power at the same time, and the camera never boots. I found there are probably two ways to fix this:

1) Wire up so that in your "no parking mode" switch setting, you get power from a circuit that goes hot before ACC. For me, there are a few circuits that turn on when the car is unlocked (before ACC) and turn off a little bit after the car stops (after ACC). I chose this option.

2) Wire up a timer on the "no parking mode" switch line so that B+ power is effectively delayed to the hardwire kit by about 5 seconds or so. Don't confuse this with the bootup delay in the camera, these are two different things. It's probably a matter of an RC circuit or something, but I'm not an electronics expert and I don't know how this would be accomplished exactly. Perhaps others can share how :)

the only delay timer i found is one that comes in a kit you build, its still sitting in my boot to be put together, i do belive this will solve it but
 
See https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/a129-3-wire-kit.35898/page-13#post-447344.

I think you are running into the same problem I had. Basically "for the kit to function properly, the hardwire kit must see power on B+ before power on the ACC line." If you have yours wired up like I did in the past, then ACC and B+ receive power at the same time, and the camera never boots. I found there are probably two ways to fix this:

1) Wire up so that in your "no parking mode" switch setting, you get power from a circuit that goes hot before ACC. For me, there are a few circuits that turn on when the car is unlocked (before ACC) and turn off a little bit after the car stops (after ACC). I chose this option.

2) Wire up a timer on the "no parking mode" switch line so that B+ power is effectively delayed to the hardwire kit by about 5 seconds or so. Don't confuse this with the bootup delay in the camera, these are two different things. It's probably a matter of an RC circuit or something, but I'm not an electronics expert and I don't know how this would be accomplished exactly. Perhaps others can share how :)

I too am suffering this issue, both lines wired into inside fuse box but camera doesn't start after over night shut down.
Need to find another solution as not really wanting to wire back to battery fuse box to keep B+ as I'm assuming my car is shutting it down?
Must be one in the box that is always live.
VW Touran 08 if anyone has one?
 
I've an issue with 3-wire kit. When I use my camera with 3-wire kit's cable, it records a very noisy sound and the very sharp noise like a cricket insect's sound distubs me a lot.
When I connect the camera with USB cable provided through lighter socket, this sounds goes away.
Does anyone have the same issue with me? I've contacted to Viofo Support and waiting them to help me. Before that I just wanted to be sure whether any of you faced the same problem.

Best Regards.
 
I've an issue with 3-wire kit. When I use my camera with 3-wire kit's cable, it records a very noisy sound and the very sharp noise like a cricket insect's sound distubs me a lot.
When I connect the camera with USB cable provided through lighter socket, this sounds goes away.
Does anyone have the same issue with me? I've contacted to Viofo Support and waiting them to help me. Before that I just wanted to be sure whether any of you faced the same problem.

Best Regards.
Try tapping into different fuses.
 
check the position of the power supply also, if it's very close to some other electronic device it can pickup noise
 
check the position of the power supply also, if it's very close to some other electronic device it can pickup noise

Hi,
What do you mean by power supply? I mean which part is it? I've directly connected it to the fuse. I'll try different fuse as per suggested above.
 
Hi, I would like to ask if it’s safe to connect A129 ACC wire to 15A fuel pump fuse, since that’s the only 15A one inside the in-cabin fuse box?
 
None of the voltages will kill the car battery, but they will all shorten its life! The lower the voltage setting, the shorter the car battery life, assuming that it regularly reaches the cut off limit, which depends on how much and how often you drive the car.

A general guide, assuming that your car has a lead acid main battery:
  • For an AGM car battery use 11.8V.
  • For a Long Life (Calcium)(5 Year Warranty) battery use 12.0V.
  • For a Maintenance Free (Cheap)(≤3 Year Warranty) battery use 12.2V
If you often leave the car unused for over a week at a time then it might be wise to increase that by one stop.
If you don't regularly do drives of more than 1 hour, or occasional drives of over 4 hours, then it would help battery life significantly if you used a battery charger to 100.00% fill the car battery every 3 months.

How do I know what type of battery is installed in my 2018 Subaru Crosstrek/XV? It's still the stock battery. Sorry, I'm a car noob. I have the A129 hardwire kit already installed and its low voltage protection switch set to 12.4V/24.8V just to be on the safe side while I'm figuring out what is the optimal setting.
 
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