A119 V3 randomly forgets settings

CaptainTivo

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Hello,
I bought a Viofo A119 V3 from Amazon to replace my old Mini 0805. I installed it in my car such that it is only powered when the car is on, thus recording only my actual driving.
For a few days, it was fine but then it started randomly resetting the following settings to their defaults.

EV Exposure
WDR
Speed Unit
Date Stamp
GPS Info Stamp
LED
Beep Sound

Strangely, it does not forget the date/time. It does this seemingly randomly like every day for a couple of days and then it's fine for a few days. I have not seen a pattern.

At first, I thought this might be because the backup battery was not charged, so I took it out of the car and charged it overnight.
This did not help. Each time it reset, I would manually set restore the settings again. It would be fine for a few days and then reset to the default settings. (I know when because I manually set the Beep Sound to off and when it resets to the default of "On" it makes the zing sound when it boots up)
After some cursory googling did not find many complaints about this, I returned it to Amazon and got a replacement. The replacement is doing the same thing. I suppose 2 bad units in s row from the same warehouse could mean a bad batch or it could mean a design fault. I tried updating the firmware to V2.5, but this did not help.

I found one post that suggested it might be a bad supercapacitor because the controller saves the settings when it shuts down and a bad capacitor might not have enough power to keep it powered while it did this. I find this hard to believe. Surely, the settings would be saved in FLASH and/or battery backed RAM when you make the setting changes and not when it shuts down?

Anyway, has anyone had experience like this? Should I get a third one or just give up and get a different brand. My wife has an A129 that is fine but I wanted the higher res video of the V119 V3.
Thanks for any help you can give me.
 
If it came with WDR and not HDR then my first thoughts is an old unit that has been on the shelf for so long the internal RTC battery has been allowed to run irretrievably flat.
 
I had the same problem like you. After changing the boot up time delay to 10 secs the problem is resolved. May be the transient power cut during starting the car causes this problem. I hope it helps.
 
It does have the HDR option and I use it. The time date is never lost and that is powered by the internal battery so that must be OK. Any other thoughts?
 
Ozcicek means set the setting of boot delay to 10s in the menu may help solve this problem. Please have a try.
 
I've always used the boot delay. Gives the car electrics time to settle down after the starter motor has given power back.
 
Kremmen, thanks for the comment but I have a Tesla. The way I power the dashcam is through an alway-on USB port that I manually switch when I start the car. I don't see any way this could affect the startup (no low voltage, etc). However, I will try the delayed boot option just to see if that helps.
 
Ah, if you have permanent power then the boot delay may not help. Your solution of a switch is what I would do.

However, in your case I think my original thought of it being an old unit still stands. WDR was last supplied with firmware version 1.03 and that firmware is now quite old and makes me think the small rtc battery has totally discharged while sitting on a suppliers shelf and is now unable to hold a charge.
 
Except the RTC battery would also power the real time clock/date and that has never failed. Only some of the user settings are lost.
 
I'm confused about your comment of firmware 1.03. Mine is version 2.5 build: 20210715. Is there some other firmware you are talking about?
 
I based my 1.03 on your WDR statement. Every firmware after 1.03 has replaced WDR with HDR.

If the V3 came with 2.5 then it's a modern V3.

There have been a few issues with 2.5. I would go backwards to 2.4 and see what happens.

Just a thought, you haven't still got the .bin file on the SDCard ?
 
I based my 1.03 on your WDR statement. Every firmware after 1.03 has replaced WDR with HDR.

If the V3 came with 2.5 then it's a modern V3.

There have been a few issues with 2.5. I would go backwards to 2.4 and see what happens.

Just a thought, you haven't still got the .bin file on the SDCard ?
I did update from 2.4 to 2.5. .bin is not on the card now. However, I don't see 2.4 on the Viofo web site. Where would I get that?
 
I did update from 2.4 to 2.5. .bin is not on the card now. However, I don't see 2.4 on the Viofo web site. Where would I get that?

After changing firmware, be sure to manually default the cameras settings through the cameras menu, then press and hold the hard reset button on the side of the camera for about 5 seconds.

The rtc battery only holds the time and date, so your looks fine. Other settings are stored in onboard memory. I highly doubt you received two defective cameras that exhibit the same issue, so I would continue to troubleshoot.

How many amps does your cars USB port supply? If it’s under 1A, I would not use it.

When changing the cameras settings, are you pressing the ! Button to confirm the change before leaving the menu?

Try powering the camera in your house using the supplied short USB cable and a USB wall charger that supplies at least 1A. Adjust your setting and see if they hold while powered this way. Don’t use any aftermarket cables.
 
I'm confused about your comment of firmware 1.03
I based my 1.03 on your WDR statement.
Excuse me, but in every topic, whether you need to or not, you put your self about the firmware version 1.3, even if it has nothing to do with the name of the topic.
Maybe you should create a separate topic about 1.3?
It's in every topic! :eek:
 
There is a very good reason for that but I won't repeat myself, it's all there in my replies.
 
OK. So I downgraded back to firmware 2.4 and it had no effect. Still resets to default settings after a day or so. I measured the current draw and it is between 0.36 and 0.62 Amps, my USB power has no problem supplying that much current.

I returned that camera to Amazon and bought another V3 and after one day, it is doing exactly the same thing! That's 3 units from Amazon that all have this problem. I simply can't be bothered to stop and re-enter the settings every time this happens so I will returning this unit to Amazon, as well. I had thought that I might order one from some other vendor on the assumption that Amazon simply has a bad batch but the return policies of most other vendors are terrible (one of the main reasons I use Amazon so much is their no-excuse-needed return policy).

One other thing: I said before that the time/date was not reset when this happens. This is only partially right. If you set the time/date and the Time Zone, when it loses it's setting, the time zone is reset to Zero (GMT). This also causes the time to be offset by the difference between the time zone that was set and GMT. Example: set time to 09:00 and time zone to 6 (CST). When the setting reverts to GMT, the time is set to 14:00 (GMT+6 hours)! So I have to set the time AND the Time Zone every time it loses settings.

I really like the sensor, form factor and price of the Viofo A119 V3, so are there any similar dashcams should I consider? . The ones that I have seen either have a ridiculous form factor (like a GoPro) or really high prices ($200 and up).
Thanks.
 
OK. So I downgraded back to firmware 2.4 and it had no effect. Still resets to default settings after a day or so. I measured the current draw and it is between 0.36 and 0.62 Amps, my USB power has no problem supplying that much current.

I returned that camera to Amazon and bought another V3 and after one day, it is doing exactly the same thing! That's 3 units from Amazon that all have this problem. I simply can't be bothered to stop and re-enter the settings every time this happens so I will returning this unit to Amazon, as well. I had thought that I might order one from some other vendor on the assumption that Amazon simply has a bad batch but the return policies of most other vendors are terrible (one of the main reasons I use Amazon so much is their no-excuse-needed return policy).

One other thing: I said before that the time/date was not reset when this happens. This is only partially right. If you set the time/date and the Time Zone, when it loses it's setting, the time zone is reset to Zero (GMT). This also causes the time to be offset by the difference between the time zone that was set and GMT. Example: set time to 09:00 and time zone to 6 (CST). When the setting reverts to GMT, the time is set to 14:00 (GMT+6 hours)! So I have to set the time AND the Time Zone every time it loses settings.

I really like the sensor, form factor and price of the Viofo A119 V3, so are there any similar dashcams should I consider? . The ones that I have seen either have a ridiculous form factor (like a GoPro) or really high prices ($200 and up).
Thanks.
Try powering it in your house for a day or two with the supplied short USB cable and a USB wall charger to eliminate your car environment.
 
I really like the sensor, form factor and price of the Viofo A119 V3, so are there any similar dashcams should I consider? . The ones that I have seen either have a ridiculous form factor (like a GoPro) or really high prices ($200 and up).
Thanks.
The V3 is one of the better dashcams out there today and rarely gives trouble. To have had a 2 replacements do the same thing is very odd. Eliminate the car as explained above and that will make diagnosis a lot more certain. Could be a bad batch of cams but could also be something with the car so positive diagnosis is needed.

Phil
 
You don't still have the .bin file on the SDCard ?

That would reset every startup.
 
You don't still have the .bin file on the SDCard ?

That would reset every startup.

I’ve done that before, not with my dash cam but my car, put an update on the same usb stick as my music and wondered why on each start of the car it would come back and say something like update not applicable [emoji3]
 
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