HK3 hard wire kit - terrible voltage regulation

[CaptureYourAction]

Lots of this technical stuff is over my head, but I am doing my best to read over it. Sorry if I sound like a fool, but where is the setting/feature for me to adjust related to the voltage cut-off? I have the Viofo A129 Pro Duo and it is in my race car. one day after using the car I accidentally left the car's main battery on/off switch on, and the camera was running for 4 days just loop recording in 4k front and Full HD rear. It drained my car's battery to about 10.2 volts. I looked through the menus of the viofo camera and can't find anything about power supply cut-off settings. I do have the Hard wire kit, and do not use a usb adapter or anything.

Also, unrelated, but maybe related? The camera keeps intermittently turning on and off the display (and playing that "welcome" chime noise) as I am driving down the road or racing. I have the G-meter turned off, and all my electrical connections are very good. The car is a bit rigid, but I can't see it causing the camera to randomly turn on and off.

The low voltage cutoff setting is on the Viofo 3-wire kit.

Sounds like you camera is restarting. If your powering to the mount, try powering direct to the camera.

 

[Vlad1977]

I would add that you should start a new thread. Otherwise, everyone will start posting their issues to this thread and it will be a very, very long thread with totally unrelated items in the thread.

Did you install the HK3 yourself? It's the big black module on the HK3 with the slide switch that modifies the cut-off. I believe the values are directly listed on this black module. I would set it to the higher values especially if you have additional items that draw power in your car, such as additional amplifiers, computers, etc

You'll also get the attention of other people that may be having your issue(s) and others will be able to find similar issues quickly.

 

[Nigel]

I have the Viofo A129 Pro Duo and it is in my race car. one day after using the car I accidentally left the car's main battery on/off switch on, and the camera was running for 4 days just loop recording in 4k front and Full HD rear. It drained my car's battery to about 10.2 volts.

Note that the HK3 will not turn off for low voltage if the ACC input is on, you need to connect it so that ACC turns off when the ignition is off. I guess this is your main problem.

 

[Iroczman15]

Thank you both for the reply. Much appreciated.

Vlad, I did actually pose this same question in the thread I created (and updated) and a few people suggested some ideas, but nothing helped the situation and the camera seems to be doing it more often now. Lots of chimes while I am driving.
and it turns out that many files from my race last night were corrupted and can not be opened. so thats kinda a bummer. i did need those videos for technical racing discussion.
here is the link: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/simple-dash-cam-for-race-street-car.43727/page-2
post #38 on that link

Yup i did install the kit myself and do remember that black box. I went out and looked and it is on the lowest setting 11.8 volts. Seems right, but somehow still drew power for 4 days, and I did have the recording files to show that it was running and recording. Since it was just of the darkness inside my garage, those files were deleted.

Nigel, you might be onto something there. Mind explaining it a little deeper? This might be my issue, basically if I had it wired to something that shared power with key on engine off, it would not shut down? As opposed to key on engine on?

* also, sorry, if this is more appropriate to be chatted about in my own dash-cam thread, please everyone, reply to me on that thread (same link as above). I would love to get this solved. Aside from these three issues, the camera system is great. (1. not powering off at pre-determined voltage,.... 2. the camera system and chime turning on and off intermittently while driving..... and 3. I just was unable to view/use footage from my race event last night)

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Thank you both for the reply. Much appreciated.

Vlad, I did actually pose this same question in the thread I created (and updated) and a few people suggested some ideas, but nothing helped the situation and the camera seems to be doing it more often now. Lots of chimes while I am driving.
and it turns out that many files from my race last night were corrupted and can not be opened. so thats kinda a bummer. i did need those videos for technical racing discussion.
here is the link: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/simple-dash-cam-for-race-street-car.43727/page-2
post #38 on that link

Yup i did install the kit myself and do remember that black box. I went out and looked and it is on the lowest setting 11.8 volts. Seems right, but somehow still drew power for 4 days, and I did have the recording files to show that it was running and recording. Since it was just of the darkness inside my garage, those files were deleted.

Nigel, you might be onto something there. Mind explaining it a little deeper? This might be my issue, basically if I had it wired to something that shared power with key on engine off, it would not shut down? As opposed to key on engine on?

* also, sorry, if this is more appropriate to be chatted about in my own dash-cam thread, please everyone, reply to me on that thread (same link as above). I would love to get this solved. Aside from these three issues, the camera system is great. (1. not powering off at pre-determined voltage,.... 2. the camera system and chime turning on and off intermittently while driving..... and 3. I just was unable to view/use footage from my race event last night)

Corrupted files can sometimes be fixed by playing the files back on the camera itself.

 

[Iroczman15]

woah ! really? simply just Play them back, and then remove the SD card, and retry to upload them to my computer? Way cool. it is worth a shot! Thank you !

edit: I tried this, but it didn't work. No worries, The race passes were not that great anyways. I did learn from you guys on the board that my issues might be caused by an under-achieving memory card, coupled with the fact that I like to delete the files on the card often and clear it out.. which causes the memory car's beginning cells to be overused and other cells to remain unused. There is a discussion on this over on my thread. Therefore, I will let the original topic of this thread resume. Thank you guys for the help !

 

[AHG]

New here.

I believe the HK3 on my Toyota Corolla Touring Sports hybrid is kick the vehicle alarm on when it disconnects the cameras in Parking Mode as the battery drops to threshold level.

Any others having this problem?

The 12V battery really only drives electronics and a few devices so maybe hybrids detects power transients as a tamper by a thief.

 

[Nigel]

Any others having this problem?

Not heard of anyone else with that problem, although I would expect an alarm system to watch the battery voltage. I assume most alarms only monitor for voltage drops, and dashcams only cause very slow voltage drops.

 

[v81]

The 12V battery really only drives electronics and a few devices so maybe hybrids detects power transients as a tamper by a thief.

Could be the case, i have not had anything to do with car alarms in recent years, but i installed some 15-20 years ago that used voltage drop as a method of triggering.
Reasoning was that if someone gained access to the vehicle the interior light would turn of because a door opened, this voltage sag would trigger the alarm.
Might also happen when the voltage increases after the dashcam load is shutoff, seems awefully sensitive thought if that were the case.
Also you'd think a factory alarm (assuming that is what it is) would be able to work off the door switch circuit directly.
So.. not a clear answer, just tossing some theories.

 

[AHG]

Could be the case, i have not had anything to do with car alarms in recent years, but i installed some 15-20 years ago that used voltage drop as a method of triggering.
Reasoning was that if someone gained access to the vehicle the interior light would turn of because a door opened, this voltage sag would trigger the alarm.
Might also happen when the voltage increases after the dashcam load is shutoff, seems awefully sensitive thought if that were the case.
Also you'd think a factory alarm (assuming that is what it is) would be able to work off the door switch circuit directly.
So.. not a clear answer, just tossing some theories.

Thanks. It's just a theory and I wanted to see if there was a wider body of evidence.

Other possibilities are that a) the HK3 causes interference that could look like a key tamper; b) My home wifi could be causing a tamper response as the car is parked very close overnight.

The alarm goes for only a few seconds and a million causes could be postulated. Just enough to wake up the neighbouring kids and very irritating. However, turning off "parking mode" fixed the problem - hence my question. However, I really want "parking mode" active again.

 

[bobcat]

I know this thread is somewhat old and mostly dead but is there a general consensus what the output voltage at cable end should be reading? I recently installed HK3 and my camera was heating a lot in the parking mode. Don't think it is the cause of the issue, but I've measured voltage output and it was 5.55v.

I then measured voltage output on the included 12v cigarette plug power adapter and cord that came with camera and I got bummed - the voltage on that one was reading 5.6v... Is that normal and something to be expected since 5.6v is well above USB specs. All the specs for both camera and HK3 kit read 5v, so I have no idea what is going on - did I get double-lucky?

 

[LateralNW]

I know this thread is somewhat old and mostly dead but is there a general consensus what the output voltage at cable end should be reading? I recently installed HK3 and my camera was heating a lot in the parking mode. Don't think it is the cause of the issue, but I've measured voltage output and it was 5.55v.

I then measured voltage output on the included 12v cigarette plug power adapter and cord that came with camera and I got bummed - the voltage on that one was reading 5.6v... Is that normal and something to be expected since 5.6v is well above USB specs. All the specs for both camera and HK3 kit read 5v, so I have no idea what is going on - did I get double-lucky?

With or without a load?
When a load is applied the voltage will drop.
How much It drops will be different depending on the circuit design.

 

[Nigel]

Is that normal and something to be expected since 5.6v is well above USB specs.

It is normal, mainly to ensure that at the end of the long cable the voltage drop will not take it under 5 volts. The cameras don't work well at low voltage.

It does mean that you shouldn't power other USB devices using those chargers, unless you first confirm that they can safely handle above specification voltages. Most devices will have no problem with 5.6 volts though.

 

[Leonauto]

the voltage on that one was reading 5.6v... Is that normal and something to be expected since 5.6v is well above USB specs. All the specs for both camera and HK3 kit read 5v, so I have no idea what is going on - did I get double-lucky?

Yes, that's right, you don't have to worry.
According to the USB Implementers Forum specification (USB-IF), the voltage on USB 2.0 must be between 4.75 and 5.5 Volts.
In this case, if the adapter is supplied with the device (for us it is a dashcam), then it corresponds to the parameters set by the manufacturer of this dashcam and a slight excess is apparently specially incorporated into the design of the dashcam.

PS: I experienced a similar concern when I received dashcam (from another manufacturer) for tests and as a result of measuring the voltage on the connector, I also received something about 5.6 V. The manufacturer provided me with the adapter specifications (secret, in general, information), where were specified which parameters the adapter should meet. Everything coincided.

And in the characteristics of the device, of course, the main voltage level is indicated - this is either 5 V, or, for example, 12 V, etc.

 

[v81]

I know this thread is somewhat old and mostly dead but is there a general consensus what the output voltage at cable end should be reading?... ...Don't think it is the cause of the issue, but I've measured voltage output and it was 5.55v.

The HK3 is very much out of spec.
Of all the units i tested there was a large percentage that straight up failed, possibly a bad batch.
Of the remaining units they were pretty much all out of USB spec.
To be clear, the voltage measurements i took were AT THE END OF THE CABLE WHILST THE SUPPLY WAS UNDER LOAD.
Sorry so be so loud about that but it's important as there would be people that would jump to conclusions about the correct method of measuring.
Here is a link to one of the last tables of info...

HK3 hard wire kit - terrible voltage regulation

Interior LED IR lamps take a bit of power, the A129 Plus now does the video encoding for the rear in the rear camera, and we now have 3 channel cameras, the HK3 needs to support all these. I don't know what's in it, all i know is that the power used by the system barely changes with and without...

dashcamtalk.com

Ultimately the power supply is often serviceable, but is lacking in the quality and attention to detail department.
The chosen regulator has a feature where it can compensate for voltage drop over long cables under load by using a resistor to set the approximate resistance of the cable.
I can't recall whether or not that was implemented in the HK3.
The results do indeed speak for themselves however.

It is normal, mainly to ensure that at the end of the long cable the voltage drop will not take it under 5 volts. The cameras don't work well at low voltage.

It does mean that you shouldn't power other USB devices using those chargers, unless you first confirm that they can safely handle above specification voltages. Most devices will have no problem with 5.6 volts though.

Without exception all of the HK3's i tested were outside of the USB spec of -5%/+10% or >5.5v at the end of the cable under a 1 amp load.
I agree that this is a thing, but the HK3 has taken it too far.




For all cameras I've seen inside of these days it is common for them to have a 3v3 LDO linear regulator on the board itself.
If the input voltage is indeed 5.0v and the linear reg is regulating to 3v3 at 1A we're looking at 1.7watts of hear to be dissipated.
If the voltage is high at 5.6v for example then the heat dissipated by the linear reg is 2.3 watts.
That said i suspect that the LED backlight and the power transmision to the rear camera might be runing from the 5v input line with no additional regulation on the input, so actual current drawn by the reg for the internals of the front camera only might be more like 700ma for example.

They certainly work in the bulk of cases, but the quality of components in the power supplies are certainly not as well chosen as those in the camera itself.

 

[Nigel]

If the input voltage is indeed 5.0v and the linear reg is regulating to 3v3 at 1A we're looking at 1.7watts of hear to be dissipated.
If the voltage is high at 5.6v for example then the heat dissipated by the linear reg is 2.3 watts.

It doesn't sound like it uses linear regulators!

 

[v81]

It doesn't sound like it uses linear regulators!

It might not, but the few cameras i've pulled apart so far do.
That said it's not more than half a dozen cameras and the Viofo would be the most powerful of them all so a linear reg might not suit the internals.

 

[Nigel]

It might not, but the few cameras i've pulled apart so far do.
That said it's not more than half a dozen cameras and the Viofo would be the most powerful of them all so a linear reg might not suit the internals.

They can have both, for low current devices which require a small voltage drop, a linear may be more efficient than a switching regulator, but most of the power in the Viofo dashcams will go through switching regulators, possibly then through a linear regulator to provide a further small voltage drop to specific low current components. They definitely have switching regulators in them, I and many other people can hear them.

Power tends to cause more problems than anything else, so I very much doubt that they are wasting much!

 

[bobcat]

The HK3 is very much out of spec.
Of all the units i tested there was a large percentage that straight up failed, possibly a bad batch.
Of the remaining units they were pretty much all out of USB spec.
To be clear, the voltage measurements i took were AT THE END OF THE CABLE WHILST THE SUPPLY WAS UNDER LOAD.
Sorry so be so loud about that but it's important as there would be people that would jump to conclusions about the correct method of measuring.

Hey, thanks for input - I completely forgot about voltage loses due to cable length and resistance. You are completely right about proper way to measure output voltage and even though I did not measure it under resistive load - it does not matter any more as my HK3 kit failed (less then one month into ownership)!

I've posted some of my troubleshooting in Viofo HK3 Fails! and the only conclusion I could come up with is that Viofo uses unsuitable / faulty or fake ICs in these converters as it is clearly a fail caused by the logic malfunction and a poor design choice!

 

[Mtz]

So Viofo are selling their hardwire kits for 3-4 years without big problems, just isolated cases, and now you come here telling us
that Viofo uses unsuitable / faulty or fake ICs in these converters as it is clearly a fail caused by the logic malfunction and a poor design choice!
I will look at that thread to see how many people will report the same problem as you. Number of different people, not number of posts.