129 Duo parking mode myth

Ridgeline

New Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2020
Messages
9
Reaction score
7
Location
Florida
Country
United States
After 2 months of consulting VIOFO support in China and contact with the seller through Amazon, OCD Tronics, parking mode still does not work. The seller replaced the hard wire kit but it did not solve the problem. I was expecting plug and play, but apparently I purchased something that is not very well sorted out. The seller suggested I contact this forum for help. I see from this forum that I am not the only one having problems with parking mode. If anyone has definitive advice regarding a remedy for this, please let us know. 2018 Honda Ridgeline.
 
Might help if you told us what the problem is :unsure:

It seems to work for most people...
 
There are multiple random problems. The basic problem is it does not seem to go into parking mode when the car is turned off. Sometimes the cam beeps after the car is off with the record light flashing. Went to store yesterday and it recorded in parking lot on auto detect, recorded the drive home. Last night the cam kept recording until it timed out, apparently never entering parking mode. Then this morning recording did not start automatically when the car was started. Acc connected to seat heater, battery + connected to power seat. Both connected with fuse taps. Voltage switch set to lowest- 11.8v. Hard wire connect with VIOFO kit. Power connected to cam, not GPS.
 
Acc connected to seat heater,
Have you checked that the seat heater connection has proper voltages on it? Does it actually drop to 0 volts when the ignition is turned off?
 
There is quite a few new cars that seem to be a royal pain to get working with dashcams, and not least parking guard, some have in desperation gone as far as connecting directly to the car battery, and as i understand even that have not been enough for some.
I can install a dashcam in my own car in 30 minutes ( conventional setup ) but doing the same in my friends fairly old Mercedes estate, well it took me hours and in the end i used a fuse i had dismissed several times earlier as a always on fuse.
And i was just hard wiring one +12 V for neatness of install not parking guard.
@jokiin have a tech at hand that maybe can come up with alternatives as to which fuses to tap into.

Sort of related, having been given a SG9663DR to test, i ended up as a few others having the camera date / time default when my car had been parked around 20 hours.
Also some times the camera did not boot on the first drive of the day.
Tried a few fuses and ground points with no change, so i bit the bullet and got a new battery to replace the 2012 battery in my little Suzuki car, and since that day i have been clear of that issue.
Just go to prove, that some times all ones educations and DIY skills can get put to the test, and you end up sitting staring with a dazed look at something scratching your head.
 
car is CAN-BUS system, the circuits used won't be suitable, start by wiring it correctly or it's never going to work reliably
 
Jokiin. Can you elaborate on how to correctly wire the cam. I connected it per manufacturer directions. What is CAN-BUS?
 
CAN-BUS systems are controlled by the vehicles computer, circuits will be shutdown or enabled by the computer even when the car is off, it plays havoc with parking mode, I don't have the details specific to your model to tell you which circuits you should connect to, look at moving your B+ though and also make sure you are grounded to the factory ground point nearby the fuse panel
 

It is probably smart in general, but if you pair it with a not so smart person / old fashioned like me who dislike things like ABS and what have you they have put in cars the past 30 years.
Then you have a recipe for disaster or in my case a lot of compromise making as i would rather drive in a "stupid" smart car than walk or take public transport.

And as you have found out installing a thing like a dashcam can be problematic, and even the smart dashcams, well it is not can bus smarts they have so the issue are probably the same there.
 
CAN-BUS systems are controlled by the vehicles computer, circuits will be shutdown or enabled by the computer even when the car is off, it plays havoc with parking mode, I don't have the details specific to your model to tell you which circuits you should connect to, look at moving your B+ though and also make sure you are grounded to the factory ground point nearby the fuse panel
Thank you, I will try that tomorrow and report back.
 
Not a Honda, but I connected always on power to the power door locks. I mean, the power has to be on all the time for that.
 
In response to Jokiin’s suggestions I did further testing and discovered the following:
1. Many of what should be switched fuses are actually not. For example, the front accessory socket turns off when the ignition is turned off. However, there is power to that fuse connector even when the ignition is off. I found other examples of that. Through testing I found that the wiper fuse terminal actually has no power when the ignition is off. Though not ideal, I have tapped that for the acc wire. This enabled me to further test the cam operation. Fuse 8 on the 2018 Ridgeline.
2. I found a reliable source of bat+ at the door lock fuse. I connected that to a meter that is visible through the window and the meter showed power for at least 3 hours with the car locked. I will try it overnight and expect to see power still on in the morning. I connected the bat+ wire to it with a tap. Fuse 2 on the Ridgeline.
3. These connections have allowed me to check the operation of the cam. It comes on and records while driving. It goes into parking mode with the ignition off as evidenced by video clips in the parking section of the saved files. The random beeping has not reoccurred.
4. Unfortunately the parking video is continuous, despite the cam set to auto event detection. I have read elsewhere that the auto detection feature doesn’t work very well. So, I changed it to low bitrate and set the parking timer for 3 hours. Hopefully I won’t have a dead battery or a full sd card in the morning.
Thank you Jokiin for opening my eyes to CAN-BUS. If anybody has any suggestions about getting the auto detect to work, please let me know.
 
Parking mode is not working OK for Auto Detect mode because of a firmware bug, same bug also on A119 V3. The problem will be fixed (soon) in a future firmware so you need to stop investigating and wait for the firmware. Until then is better to use the Time-lapse or Low bitrate mode.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
Thanks Mtz, I’ll patiently wait for an update. Jokiin, I plan to investigate other connections when time permits. Thanks for your help.
 
Did you resolve this issue? I just ordered the A129 Duo plus and will be installing in my 2019 Ridgeline. I have my radar detector hard wired to the fuse box with a fuse tap and have no issues. It was an empty slot, I can get you the slot number if you want. What fuse are you taking for constant power?
Viofa is showing the latest A129 Plus Duo Dash Camera firmware version number of the A129 Plus front camera is V1.0(20200925) and the rear camera is V1.0 (20200925). Is that what you are using?
 
Did you resolve this issue? I just ordered the A129 Duo plus and will be installing in my 2019 Ridgeline. I have my radar detector hard wired to the fuse box with a fuse tap and have no issues. It was an empty slot, I can get you the slot number if you want. What fuse are you taking for constant power?
Viofa is showing the latest A129 Plus Duo Dash Camera firmware version number of the A129 Plus front camera is V1.0(20200925) and the rear camera is V1.0 (20200925). Is that what you are using?

I have run 2 x A129 Duos flawlessly. One for almost 2 years and another for about 1.5 years. Neither has had any trouble with parking mode, heat, etc. Workhorses.

The A129 Duo is a solid camera. Most failures are related to user error and improper installation. I.E. Users don't understand how to hardwire a car correctly. Or pick an improper fuse which results in erratic behavior. I.E. I had tapped in the 12V socket on my car, and it wasn't listed as being connected to alarm. I'd shut my car off and it'd turn the camera on! Had to swap fuse placement and issue resolved.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LMN
I have run 2 x A129 Duos flawlessly. One for almost 2 years and another for about 1.5 years. Neither has had any trouble with parking mode
What's the version of FW ?
 
Back
Top