A119 connection solution

[muchEEh]

I am preparing to buy A119 and as I have seen it doesn't have wifi or other built-in connection method. I have came to conclusion that there are 2 reasonable options to fetch videos from dashcam to phone in case of emergency. First one is to buy microSD adapter to USB-C (in my case), something like this:


The downside of this method is that when you will be ejecting and inserting that microSD often then it is possible to damage the contacts/pins on microSD.
The second option, which i don't know if will work and i want to ask someone more experienced is to use miniUSB port in dash cam. In theory it will work only with GPS version, power will be applied with miniUSB in GPS module. Connect that miniUSB in dashcam with miniUSB-USB Type A/F with OTG and second cable USB Type A - USB C with OTG to phone. Phone supports OTG of course. That miniUSB-USB Type A/F with OTG looks like:


What do you guys thinks about those options? I know that the first one will probably 100% work but I am not certain about the second one. Does anyone tried one or all of those methods? I will be very gratefull for any of your advice and optinion with fetching videosfrom dashcam to phone.

 

[Nigel]

If you use OTG then to the phone, the camera will look like a card reader and all files will be accessible, just need to keep an OTG cable in the car, assuming you have an Android phone. The camera doesn't need separate power.

 

[muchEEh]

That was my thinking, dashcam should pop-out as a external storage in my phone. I think that the camera won't have enough power to power on and stay on when it will be plugged only to phone. It will be working as a media transfer, not powering up camera, even though media transfer option will supply camera with power, i suppose it won't be enough to power camera on. The camera must be powered on to transfer files, I suppose. That's why I said that the version with GPS module should work because camera will have power from cable connected to that GPS module and the miniUSB port in camera will be used as a file transfer port. In that case there is no danger that camera won't have enough current to power on. What do you think?

 

[Nigel]

That was my thinking, dashcam should pop-out as a external storage in my phone. I think that the camera won't have enough power to power on and stay on when it will be plugged only to phone. It will be working as a media transfer, not powering up camera, even though media transfer option will supply camera with power, i suppose it won't be enough to power camera on. The camera must be powered on to transfer files, I suppose. That's why I said that the version with GPS module should work because camera will have power from cable connected to that GPS module and the miniUSB port in camera will be used as a file transfer port. In that case there is no danger that camera won't have enough current to power on. What do you think?

I don't have a phone with OTG capability, but I do have a tablet, and on that the A129 camera powers up in mass storage mode on the OTG cable with no problems. The A119 power consumption is a lot less than the USB specification, so I don't think there should be a problem with any device. A119 has no battery to charge, and in mass storage mode it doesn't need to power up the sensor etc., although I guess it probably does.

 

[muchEEh]

I don't have a phone with OTG capability, but I do have a tablet, and on that the A129 camera powers up in mass storage mode on the OTG cable with no problems. The A119 power consumption is a lot less than the USB specification, so I don't think there should be a problem with any device. A119 has no battery to charge, and in mass storage mode it doesn't need to power up the sensor etc., although I guess it probably does.

So if I understand you correctly, the option with that OTG cable works and you are able to fetch those files to your phone? I read some forums that some people could power up camera in mass storage mode but downloaded videos were corrupted, lacked video or sound. Could you check if the files aren't corrupted as you have that abillity? I really appreciate your help.

 

[Harsh]

Pop the card out and use something like this - https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B01MQX2FOT

You're not going to damage the pins as long as you don't jam it in at an angle.

 

[Nigel]

So if I understand you correctly, the option with that OTG cable works and you are able to fetch those files to your phone? I read some forums that some people could power up camera in mass storage mode but downloaded videos were corrupted, lacked video or sound. Could you check if the files aren't corrupted as you have that abillity? I really appreciate your help.

I guess there are a few things that can go wrong, such as your phone not having a suitable codec which may result in no sound. Installing VLC Media Player should probably sort that.

You also need a good quality cable and OTG adaptor, a small voltage drop down the cable can cause the camera to stop responding.

I have tried it on the A129, works fine with my tablet via OTG with a good quality cable.

Or as Harsh suggests, take the memory card, as long as your fingers are capable of not loosing it when it attempts to fire itself out the window!

 

[jola]

Tried with a Dell Chromebook and an ordinary cable, all installed players could do the job (2k resolution files).

 

[muchEEh]

I've bought that dashcam and that OTG adapter but it won't work. I mean the OTG adapter works fine when I plug it into computer. But if i plug it in my phone, it doesn't work. The cables I've used work fine with OTG because I checked them all and connected to PC they all work fine. The problem is that, when I plug it into phone, it kinda starts charging my phone and then stops and dashcam won't power on. I checked on 2 diffrent phones and tablet and the same thing happen. Do you have any advice or solution?

 

[Nigel]

You might have to enable power to the OTG on your phone...

 

[muchEEh]

You might have to enable power to the OTG on your phone...

And do you know how am I suppose to do that? I've checked all avaliable option, even in developer options and there is nothing about OTG.

 

[Nigel]

No, I don't know, but it might help to get an answer if you tell us what type of phone it is...

 

[muchEEh]

No, I don't know, but it might help to get an answer if you tell us what type of phone it is...

It's a LG G6 (Android 8.0) or Huawei P10 (Android 8.0) or Huawei P20 Pro (Android 9.0). I have all these phones so any help will be great.