522GW with a mind of its own?

Dac

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Scotland
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Dash Cam
Nextbase 522GW, 402G Professional and 422.
Good evening all

Hoping someone can offer a resolution to the issue I'm experiencing here.

I purchased a brand new Nextbase 522GW with genuine 64GB Nextbase card and the 'golf ball' reverse facing camera six days ago for approximately £230. Fitted myself (12V cigarette socket) and after five trips back to Halfords and three separate 522GW cameras later, I'm still having the same weird problem.

When switching my engine on, the 522GW will NOT always start recording... I mean it should, of course - it's a Dashcam. Nevertheless, about every 3rd or 4th engine start throughout the day or night, the 522GW will power up, but fail to start recording. It'll just sit there, fully powered up showing me a live image of the view (front and rear), but just not record. I'll have to physically lean over and press the record button. For the other few times I'm starting the engine, no problem - the 522GW will start up and automatically begin recording as it should do... What gives?

I've spoken with Nextbase Technical Support (Stuart and Tracey who are both extremely professional amd helpful), but having gone through all the steps over the phone, I've been advised that there must be a problem with the 522GW itself as we've checked the power cable, firmware level, windscreen mount, replaced the Nextbase 64GB card on three occasions and formatted via laptop and via the Dashcam itself... Absolutely nothing seems to cure this intermittent fault.

Also, the car is not the problem. I've tried the three different 522GW cameras that I've owned this week in my car (Volvo S60 2007), my wife's car (Volvo V50 2009), my neighbour's car (BMW 3 series 2020) and my other neighbour's car (Brand new Citroën C3 that she purchased three weeks ago from the Citroën dealership in Glasgow). All three 522GW cameras had the same fault regardless of which power cable, memory card, etc that I used.

I even thought that my local Halfords had perhaps received a bad batch of 522GW's, hence today I drove to the next Halfords about 8 miles away and swapped my 522GW for one of theirs... Back home, charged via the wall socket for two hours and the blue light went out. Fitted to my Volvo windscreen and within 3 - 4 engine starts (letting the engine run for 5 minutes each time with around a 2 minutes wait before starting the engine up again... Yup, you guessed it... Damn 522GW powers up, but won't record.... Switch the engine off, wait 2 minutes, start up the engine and the 522GW starts auto recording as normal... So frustrating...

Between my wife's cars and mine, we've purchased around six different Nextbase Dashcams over the last ten years amd all have worked perfectly. But this new 522GW range is really annoying me now and it's been less than a week.

What's happening, please? Any suggestions?
 
Oh - and I'm using the factory settings with no parking mode enabled at all.
 
Do the camera have a boot dalay ? if so try that ( probably have like 5 - 10 - 15 second delay options )
 
If thats not the case, as i understand it you are using the dash plug for power, try and pull that before you start your car, and then insert it 5 - 10 seconds after the car have started.
If that work, your car probably have a voltage sag during startup.

What car is it ? diesel or ??
 
Do the camera have a boot dalay ? if so try that ( probably have like 5 - 10 - 15 second delay options )
Hi Kamkar. Great suggestion and I had considered this too, but alas - there's no such option that I can find.
 
If thats not the case, as i understand it you are using the dash plug for power, try and pull that before you start your car, and then insert it 5 - 10 seconds after the car have started.
If that work, your car probably have a voltage sag during startup.

What car is it ? diesel or ??
I've tried the three different 522GW cameras in a variety of different vehicles (petrol and diesel) over the last six days. Some are older cars (10+ years) and some are brand new (three weeks old)... No difference.

I will try this, but I can't see it making any difference to be honest. The 522GW begins powering up when I turn the ignition on (in my car) and won't start it's shutting down procedure until it's been deprived of electricity for 30 seconds. Therefore between me switching the ignition / power on and the engine bursting into life two seconds later, the 522GW is still powering up and is completely unaffected (until later when it's deprived of power for 30 seconds). Again, three other cars of varying ages and fuel types have experienced the exact same problems... Maybe it's just the cars in my street
 
Last year i got a new SG camera to play with, and i also had some problems with it, i was using 1 hour parking guard and 12.2 V cut off, so not really putting a strain on my battery.
And everything was also fine as long as i dident park for more than 18 hours, if i did that the time/date was reset and dident get in order before the GPS kicked in.
But replacing the seemingly okay battery of my 2012 car removed that problem, so something must have been there anyway, just not something i could see on voltage gauges in my car, cuz charge voltage was good, and battery voltage was also good.

You also seem to have entered the Bermuda triangle with your camera and all the stuff you have tried.

Have you tried to run it without the rear camera connected ? these are often a cause for problems with dual systems, though with as many times as you have swapped yours out and done test installs in other peoples cars, that just dont make any sense.
But it is something easy to try at least.
 
And my car is a Volvo D5 2.4T (diesel) with a brand new heavy duty battery fitted just last week. That's the reason why I was in Halfords in the first place and spotted the 522GW range when I was tempted by their inviting shop display
 
By any chance the camera model shouldent by chance have 2 ports where the rear camera would fit in ? and maybe you plugged into the wrong one.

I say so cuz with systems with a remote GPS antenna which plug into the dashcam with a mini jack, you will be amazed how often people have not seated that plug properly or put it in the AV out plug beside it.
 
Last year i got a new SG camera to play with, and i also had some problems with it, i was using 1 hour parking guard and 12.2 V cut off, so not really putting a strain on my battery.
And everything was also fine as long as i dident park for more than 18 hours, if i did that the time/date was reset and dident get in order before the GPS kicked in.
But replacing the seemingly okay battery of my 2012 car removed that problem, so something must have been there anyway, just not something i could see on voltage gauges in my car, cuz charge voltage was good, and battery voltage was also good.

You also seem to have entered the Bermuda triangle with your camera and all the stuff you have tried.

Have you tried to run it without the rear camera connected ? these are often a cause for problems with dual systems, though with as many times as you have swapped yours out and done test installs in other peoples cars, that just dont make any sense.
But it is something easy to try at least.
Definitely strange territory, no doubt about it. But yes - I've tried running the 522GW with and without the rear view camera multiple times (reset button being pressed, the memory card being formatted in-between, etc, etc) with no change to the camera's decision to either auto record or not. Really is a head scratcher. Neither Halfords, Nextbase or myself can figure this one out...
 
By any chance the camera model shouldent by chance have 2 ports where the rear camera would fit in ? and maybe you plugged into the wrong one.

I say so cuz with systems with a remote GPS antenna which plug into the dashcam with a mini jack, you will be amazed how often people have not seated that plug properly or put it in the AV out plug beside it.
Another great idea, but no my friend. There are two sockets yes, but it's only the side one that's compatible with the rear view camera. The other port (the power socket on top of the 522GW) is completely bypassed as the power is fed through the magnetic windscreen connector and enters via the front of the camera.
 
So yesterday morning, I tried something different... I returned to Halfords and purchased a Nextbase Hardwire Kit for £20 and installed my 522GW directly into the fuse box (I've installed many Dashcams in this way over the years). To my surprise, the 522GW started auto-recording perfectly every single time! Hooray!!! I've been in and out the car all day and even went to the beach which was a 40 minute drive there and then back again. Excellent stuff... Until.... I went to start the car up to bring it into the driveway five minutes agi and it didn't record. It just powered up and showed me the dreaded settings icon on the top left and the red 'start recording' icon on the bottom left.... Dammit. I'm all out of ideas.
 
What type of power fuse have you tapped into ?

I've always used an ignition position 2 source, not one that comes on earlier as ignition position 1.

The problem with a lot of fusebox taps is that they become live when you turn on the ignition, then are killed off by the starter motor action, then become live again when you release the sprung loaded key. This confuses the hell out of most dashcams logic as they often in startup mode then go into shutdown mode and ignore the new re-connection.
 
What type of power fuse have you tapped into ?

I've always used an ignition position 2 source, not one that comes on earlier as ignition position 1.

The problem with a lot of fusebox taps is that they become live when you turn on the ignition, then are killed off by the starter motor action, then become live again when you release the sprung loaded key. This confuses the hell out of most dashcams logic as they often in startup mode then go into shutdown mode and ignore the new re-connection.
Hi Kremmen. I've linked into a 5 amp fuse which powers up on ignition position II. Totally understand what you're saying, and yes the 522GW starts powering up when I switch the ignition on and the power will then be 'cut' for 2 seconds as the engine fires up, but this doesn't stop the 522GW from continuing it's start up procedure (never has on the previous 3 Nextbase Dashcams I've had installed in my Volvo over the years).

Just to confirm - The 522GW powers up as it should every single time but just won't always start recording. I sometimes have to physically press the record icon.

Very frustrating having to lean over to the passenger side of my car and try to squint my head to see behind my rear view mirror to ascertain if the 522GW has started to record (or not) everytime I start the car.
 
Maybe Nextbase should follow Viofo's lead and include a delay. I've got mine set to 5 seconds so nothing happens immediately and has never failed to start.
 
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Maybe Nextbase should follow Viofo's lead and include a delay. I've got mine set to 5 seconds so nothing happens immediately and has never failed to start.
That'd definitely be a solution, I believe. The issue I'm experiencing with the 522GW definitely seems to be a start up problem. Speaking with Halfords, I'm not the only customer who has experienced this.
 
It doesn't need a startup delay setting in the menu as it has an internal battery, they just need to adjust the startup and shutdown processes correctly, still a firmware change but the correct way to do it
 
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