A129 Electrical Issues After Hooking Up Rear Dashcam

Travis959

Travis959

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On my 2018 Camaro, I installed the Viofo A119 since shortly after buying the car in 2018 using this hardwire kit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00MH4ZVHO. It is hooked into a 12v line that goes to the passenger airbag light as this was the recommendation for dash cams/radar detectors.

This past Christmas, I upgraded to the A129 to the same kit, but didn't hook up the rear as I wasn't sure about running the usb cable to the back.

I finally got around to installing the rear cam last week. I did some short tests and everything appeared to be working fine. The next day I had to go somewhere which was about a 35 minute drive. About halfway there, I got a notification to service the tire monitoring system because two of the TPMS sensors were blank. They came back on once I restarted the car. Same thing coming home. The next morning after that, about 4 minutes into my drive, the car comes up with a check engine light and the automatic transmission will no longer shift out of the drive gear it was in at the time. Once again power off and power back on and it shifts fine. The check engine code was unable to talk to the transmission module.

Took the car to the dealer and he blamed it on my "accessories" which is only my dashcam. To his credit, since unplugging the rear dash cam it has had no issues since. I thought perhaps it was the battery, but it checks out fine. My next step I suppose is to try running both via USB in the center console instead or maybe replacing the hardwire kit as perhaps it can't handle the extra load of the rear camera, but does anyone know any other reasons why this might be happening?
 
Try using the 12V car adapter and Viofo USB cable provided with the A129 to see if the interference is still there. If it is, you may need to re-route the rear camera cable.
 
Travis959 said:
On my 2018 Camaro, I installed the Viofo A119 since shortly after buying the car in 2018 using this hardwire kit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00MH4ZVHO. It is hooked into a 12v line that goes to the passenger airbag light as this was the recommendation for dash cams/radar detectors.

This past Christmas, I upgraded to the A129 to the same kit, but didn't hook up the rear as I wasn't sure about running the usb cable to the back.

I finally got around to installing the rear cam last week. I did some short tests and everything appeared to be working fine. The next day I had to go somewhere which was about a 35 minute drive. About halfway there, I got a notification to service the tire monitoring system because two of the TPMS sensors were blank. They came back on once I restarted the car. Same thing coming home. The next morning after that, about 4 minutes into my drive, the car comes up with a check engine light and the automatic transmission will no longer shift out of the drive gear it was in at the time. Once again power off and power back on and it shifts fine. The check engine code was unable to talk to the transmission module.

Took the car to the dealer and he blamed it on my "accessories" which is only my dashcam. To his credit, since unplugging the rear dash cam it has had no issues since. I thought perhaps it was the battery, but it checks out fine. My next step I suppose is to try running both via USB in the center console instead or maybe replacing the hardwire kit as perhaps it can't handle the extra load of the rear camera, but does anyone know any other reasons why this might be happening?
Click to expand...

1. So are you using the 12V Adapter to plug it into the 12V socket / Cigarette Lighter?
2. Or are you hardwiring the camera to the fuse box?

I can't really discern your setup from the explanation. I think you are hardwiring?

It would help if you post a diagram of your fuse box. Modern cars use Canbus. Meaning many electrical systems are tied together. Perfect example on my 2015 Volvo S60. I hardwired my cam, selecting the 12V socket, as accessory. Well, I kept coming out to my car to find the camera powering itself on. Apparently, when I went to lock my doors and fold my mirrors, the 12V accessory was intertwined with my security system. Zero mention in the manual.

I always recommend using Power Seats for Batter and something like Heated Seats or Other benign circuit for Accessory. Never, absolutely never, tie into any safety systems. Avoid electronics if at all possible, too.
 
problem comes from the rear camera/cable, the power connections won't be the issue, rerouting the cable may sort it out, adding ferrite chokes on the video cable may be needed also
 
jokiin said:
problem comes from the rear camera/cable, the power connections won't be the issue, rerouting the cable may sort it out, adding ferrite chokes on the video cable may be needed also
Click to expand...

You think it's interference vs. improper wiring? I do know hooking up to the wrong fuses can definitely cause erratic behavior.
 
jokiin said:
in this case yes, have seen it before
Click to expand...
And also IIRC, the very early production rear cable was updated wasn't it? He did say the cam is a couple years old. But yeah, re-routing and/or chokes usually mitigate this kind of problem. It's not too uncommon to see this.

Phil
 
SawMaster said:
And also IIRC, the very early production rear cable was updated wasn't it? He did say the cam is a couple years old. But yeah, re-routing and/or chokes usually mitigate this kind of problem. It's not too uncommon to see this.

Phil
Click to expand...

Thing that worries me is he's throwing codes. Would an improperly shielded cable cause these symptoms? It's one reason I thought checking to make sure no conflicts existed in his fuse choice, might have been a good idea, too?
 
jokiin said:
it's not a problem with the cable itself, replacing it and putting it back in the same place would yield the same result, it may need to be rerouted or have some filters added to avoid the interference issue
Click to expand...

Maybe I am misunderstanding @SawMaster post, but he seems to imply the early production cables were improperly shielded?

SawMaster said:
And also IIRC, the very early production rear cable was updated wasn't it? He did say the cam is a couple years old. But yeah, re-routing and/or chokes usually mitigate this kind of problem. It's not too uncommon to see this.

Phil
Click to expand...
 
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HonestReview said:
Maybe I am misunderstanding @SawMaster post, but he seems to imply the early production cables were improperly shielded?
Click to expand...
his A129 is only 6 months old, it would already have the updated cables, not the issue in this case though anyway, the TPMS issue is a common one, not the first time it has come up
 
The real issue here is that neither do car manufacturers allow for aftermarket equipment when they test for functionality and possible interference, nor do cam manufacturers test with all the different cars out there, so the end result is that you sometimes have problems, and sometimes there is just no fix. A superbly shielded cable would help- and would be impractical to run as well as cost a lot more. Think much larger diameter and minimum allowable radius for bends meaning you can't fit it where you want to. And that wouldn't shield the cam itself, which can be the source of the problem. Car manufacturers can test their stuff with a Viofo cam but it might not assist with someone using a Blackvue, and if they redesign their cars to reduce the possibilities for cam interference they'd encounter other problems as well as increasing the cost of every car they sell in the process.

So the bottom line is that everyone is doing things as well as can be reasonably expected and no one bears all the fault when things don't do as well as we'd like. It's all that we're going to get.

Phil
 
Thanks for all the replies, I would never think about the cable going to the rear camera interfering with other wiring. That should be easy to test to see if it is an issue.

I forgot to mention that the day it threw the code, the front camera wouldn't come on at first. As in, the led starting flashing and it was beeping sort of like it does when you pause recording but the screen wouldn't come on. I unplugged it from the GPS mount and put it back on and it came on after that. Then 2-3 minutes later the CEL. Not sure if this helps anything in the diagnosis.

I also have a problem with the A129 not coming on every time with the car. Usually about 40% of the time it won't - seems to work more often if the car has been turned on recently, but most mornings it won't come on with the car unless I press a button on the camera. This seems to be a common occurrence with this camera as I've read a lot of threads with people have the same issue, so not sure it is related. It's always been like that since I just put the front camera on in December. It also has the latest firmware and the startup delay has been set to 10 seconds and it doesn't seem to matter.

My plan for this weekend is to install the actual A129 hardwire kit to the fuse box in the trunk instead of it being hardwired to the power and ground of the passenger airbag light as maybe this will alleviate all the issues and it will also give me the option to have it recording while parked. If it still has problems, I can try pulling down the rear USB cable and have it just hanging in the cabin and go from there.
 
It can be moved to one side or the other, and if there's enough length you can even run it under the door sills. No way to know the results without trying unless you can find someone who's solved the same problem with the exact car and cam before. At worst you can use the front cam alone- for driving it's the one which matters most.

Phil
 
Sadly dashcams not least rear cameras can play havoc with a lot of things, they can almost totally kill off things like DAB or SAT radio, and interference with original car navigation have also been seen a few times over the years.
Yet another thing i dislike about Smart cars, they are now so smart you can barely take your phone inside one, and soon they will be so smart you cant even be trusted to drive your own car.
 
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