A119 first impressions

[lacibaci]

i knew it was originally military only. and what we get isn't anywhere near as accurate as what they get, but it's good enough for simple navigation.

i didn't think speed or heading were things that came down from the sats. i figured that was a local calculation on the device, done using time and location differences. for example: "between 09:10:21 and 09:10:22 you moved from x,y to x+1,y. Since Y didn't change and X changed to the positive, you are moving due east. and you moved one degree in one second so that works out to (really stinkin fast) km/h" or something along those lines...

AFAIK all basic GPS modules will give you date/time, location, altitude, speed and heading. There is actually not much that the device has to do other than decode standard NMEA sentences.

 

[jokiin]

AFAIK all basic GPS modules will give you date/time, location, altitude, speed and heading. There is actually not much that the device has to do other than decode standard NMEA sentences.

that info is what is output by the GPS, it's only really location and time from the sats, the rest is calculated based on combining that information from multiple sats, the data output is then further decoded by the device for things like speed

 

[thancam]

Can it display the speed on screen when playback ? Is it possible in future ?

Thanks for sharing the experience with A119, we are waiting for more advice to tune the firmware, firmware will be updated continuously.
For GPS logger, please try the dashcam viewer.

We promise will release CPL in future.

 

[SergeiF]

Updated original post with images and 1080p60 video sample (daylight)

 

[viofo]

Can it display the speed on screen when playback ? Is it possible in future ?

It show speed and GPS info in the left bottom color.

 

[thancam]

It show speed and GPS info in the left bottom color.

Do you have any footage ?
My market needs to be able to see the speed on screen.

 

[viofo]

Do you have any footage ?
My market needs to be able to see the speed on screen.

http://dashcameras.net/a119-viofo/

 

[klatch]

If you have the GPS mount, can the speed display be turned off and just use it to auto-sync the clock? Can it show speed but not latitude and longitude coordinates?

 

[fubduck]

Thanks for the 1080p60 video.

I installed mine this morning and took it for a test drive. The GPS locks very fast. I like that the power goes through the GPS unit, no wires to disconnect when removing from the car.

Can we please get an option to display the speed in mph and the ability to remove the displayed speed from the recorded video files?
Is there a firmware tweak that can done to support larger microsd cards, 128GB and up?

Registrator Viewer can display the files but doesn't see the GPS data. Dashcamviewer is unstable and sees the GPS data and sometimes plays the video but most of the time it just crashes.

 

[Rifleman]

I've taken my first test drive this afternoon and can echo some of fubduck's comments and requests. Standard Delivery from Fox Offer to UK was far faster than I expected, less than 1 week.

Fitting and configuration was a breeze (Skoda Citigo).
GPS lock is incredibly fast, just a few seconds from start up.
Sound quality very good.
Video quality very good but preferred the resolution on my old mini806, 2560x1080, which cut out the top & bottom garbage of sky and dash and concentrated on the central view, it also improved exposure compensation.
LEDs way too dim in daylight, can only see them by putting hand over the camera to put them in shade. Fine when car is in the garage though.

Possibly a Dashcam viewer problem or down to gps accuracy but track shown on map (Google) was offset by about 20-30m to the west consistently.

Camera was supplied with a Transcend 32gb sd card which works fine. Small hiccup when trying a Transcend 64gb card which had been pre-formatted on my PC to fat32.
The A119 didn't like it, it just locked up on power up with the Viofo logo on screen. Wouldn't respond to any of the buttons, had to unplug it from the power supply. The screen slowly faded to off. Removed card and reformatted it on PC to xFat, placed it back in camera which then worked fine. Already recorded 1/2 hour footage on it with no problems.

Requests for Viofo:-
Add support for 128gb micro sd cards
Please give option for speed display in MPH.
Please give option to show either speed OR coordinates OR both OR none.
Is there any chance of an option to display gps accuracy on screen and/or in recorded files?
Would it possible to add an option to replace the speed/coordinate display with a user defined one, e.g. Drivers name, vehicle make/model etc.?
Please supply BLACK 3m sticky pad rather than grey ones.
Finally, please hurry with the cpl filter, I want to buy another A119 but will wait for the filter before placing an order...

Very impressed with the camera so far, sturdy and well built with an excellent form factor. As long as they prove reliable you have a winner!

 

[drtepper]

Thanks for the 1080p60 video.

I installed mine this morning and took it for a test drive. The GPS locks very fast. I like that the power goes through the GPS unit, no wires to disconnect when removing from the car.

Can we please get an option to display the speed in mph and the ability to remove the displayed speed from the recorded video files?
Is there a firmware tweak that can done to support larger microsd cards, 128GB and up?

Registrator Viewer can display the files but doesn't see the GPS data. Dashcamviewer is unstable and sees the GPS data and sometimes plays the video but most of the time it just crashes.

I think they said earlier that the way that the new chip stores GPS data isn't compatible with registrator, so you have to use dashcam viewer or something else that has been updated more recently.
I second the need for MPH and a little more customization to the imprinted text. I don't really need to stamp lat/lon data on my videos, but it's nice to have the option for speed -- so maybe break that out into two options?

That said I haven't had much of a chance to test out the quality, just finished mounting the thing, but I really do like the fact that the power plugs directly into the GPS mount. If I ever want to pull the cam off of the car to mess around with settings I don't have to unplug any wires which was kind of a hassle with the A118 bodies.

I was also really skeptical about how thick the gps mount would be (for flushness against the windshield), but it seems to be pretty small.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Would it possible to add an option to replace the speed/coordinate display with a user defined one, e.g. Drivers name, vehicle make/model etc.?

Isn't that what Car No in the menu does? It's not in place of speed, but allows you to put in a name or plate number.

 

[Rifleman]

Isn't that what Car No in the menu does? It's not in place of speed, but allows you to put in a name or plate number.

I have the registration number in the "car num" entry. Just saying it would be nice to be able to put some other text in the space that speed/coordinates normally occupy if you have those switched off...

 

[viofo]

Requests for Viofo:-
Add support for 128gb micro sd cards
Please give option for speed display in MPH.
Please give option to show either speed OR coordinates OR both OR none.
Is there any chance of an option to display gps accuracy on screen and/or in recorded files?
Would it possible to add an option to replace the speed/coordinate display with a user defined one, e.g. Drivers name, vehicle make/model etc.?
Please supply BLACK 3m sticky pad rather than grey ones.
Finally, please hurry with the cpl filter, I want to buy another A119 but will wait for the filter before placing an order...

Very impressed with the camera so far, sturdy and well built with an excellent form factor. As long as they prove reliable you have a winner!

Thanks for your review.
The NTK9660 chipset, support 128GB card, we will check and confirm it soon.
The GPS info is stored in the movie file, can not separated, limited by the hardware platform.
We are checking about other requirement, seems make sense, some features will be added in next version.

 

[viofo]

Please supply BLACK 3m sticky pad rather than grey ones.

As we checked before, the black version thickness is only 1.0mm.

 

[Rifleman]

The GPS info is stored in the movie file, can not separated, limited by the hardware platform.

Hi Viofo, thanks for your response.

I'm just wondering which of the requests I made are prevented being acted upon due to your comment about the embedded GPS data.
Does it prevent the MPH display and getting rid of the gps coordinates in the recorded footage for instance?

 

[jokiin]

Hi Viofo, thanks for your response.

I'm just wondering which of the requests I made are prevented being acted upon due to your comment about the embedded GPS data.
Does it prevent the MPH display and getting rid of the gps coordinates in the recorded footage for instance?

just about it being a separate file, display related stuff like mph is no issue, will just take time for the engineer to get it done

 

[traveler]

I think I found the binary GPS data

SE in |ASE.>.cE.H.F=..A| suggest correct hemisphere. Although it looks a bit empty (not time data?).

082b7f00  47 50 53 20 4c 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |GPS L...........|
082b7f10  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
082b7f20  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  0a 00 00 00 1b 00 00 00  |................|
082b7f30  04 00 00 00 10 00 00 00  07 00 00 00 0f 00 00 00  |................|
082b7f40  41 53 45 00 3e f0 63 45  d2 48 88 46 3d 0a db 41  |ASE.>.cE.H.F=..A|
082b7f50  7b 14 36 42 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |{.6B............|
082b7f60  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
082b8ef0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 20 00 66 72 65 65  |.......... .free|

Edit: 3e f0 63 45 works out to 3647.01513671875 and d2 48 88 46 to 17444.41015625
Which works out to here, which is very accurate.
Also next 4bytes 3d 0a db 41 work out to 27.3799991607666 (knots?) and 7b 14 36 42 to 45.52000045776367 (bearing). The 27knots or so work out 50km/h which is also about right, as well as 45' bearing.

The time data is hidden in there too! (4-byte ints)
0A 1B 04 10 07 0F = 15 July 2016 10:27:04

Same format used is by Novatek, StreetGuradian, and a few more. Dashcam Viewer should be able to process and display A119 GPS data and video (although I don't have A119 sample video to verify it).

John

 

[AndrewL]

Anyone know what the green LED under the button is supposed to show? I believe it's to let you know the camera is powering on as the green light appears only during the startup sequence.

Also GearBest is listing the A119 but haven't started shipping it yet. Are they considered an authorized retailer?

 

[viofo]

As @SergeiF reported much noise in night time video, did some change in latest firmware, how about this?
IQ change: reduce noise, and optimize the metering.