A129 Parking mode stops working after ~2 hours

[HonestReview]

Anyone can post anything here -- whether fact or fantasy. And some people give better advice than others.
For instance, as you've already observed, voltage is affected by resistance, and resistance varies by temperature.
Also, the internal chemical reactions within a battery slow down at lower temperatures.
And there are many more factors in play...

So which of the four positions available on the HK3 voltage cutoff switch you choose may just as likely depend upon whether you carry a backup battery jump starter in your car during your testing period. Furthermore, there may be some question as to whether the labeled voltage thresholds accurately reflect the sensed voltages depending upon the tolerances built into the power supply circuit which was probably designed with inexpensive manufacturing costs in mind -- perhaps it's close, but not necessarily exact, sort of 'good enough'.

(I would rate my own advice at 5.5 on a scale of 1 to 10. I've seen better; I've seen worse.)

Or he can have the battery tested and see the strength and set voltage accordingly...... As batteries weaken with age...I'd rate your advice nonsense.

 

[Dashcamuser567]

Anyone can post anything here -- whether fact or fantasy. And some people give better advice than others.
For instance, as you've already observed, voltage is affected by resistance, and resistance varies by temperature.
Also, the internal chemical reactions within a battery slow down at lower temperatures.
And there are many more factors in play...

So which of the four positions available on the HK3 voltage cutoff switch you choose may just as likely depend upon whether you carry a backup battery jump starter in your car during your testing period. Furthermore, there may be some question as to whether the labeled voltage thresholds accurately reflect the sensed voltages depending upon the tolerances built into the power supply circuit which was probably designed with inexpensive manufacturing costs in mind -- perhaps it's close, but not necessarily exact, sort of 'good enough'.

(I would rate my own advice at 5.5 on a scale of 1 to 10. I've seen better; I've seen worse.)

Battery Discharge Prevention – DashCamTalk

dashcamtalk.com

The page wasn't a forum post by a user here, it was an official post by dashcamtalk. I dont see a username or any responses on the page since its the same place where they post reviews for dashcams. Thats why i said it should be updated if your info is correct

 

[jdct]

Battery Discharge Prevention – DashCamTalk

dashcamtalk.com

The page wasn't a forum post by a user here, it was an official post by dashcamtalk. I dont see a username or any responses on the page since its the same place where they post reviews for dashcams. Thats why i said it should be updated if your info is correct

You did not previously attribute your comment to that article; you quoted another member's post in yours.
And the very first sentence of that article reads, "Unfortunately this is not a clear cut question." -- which you and that other poster may have glossed over.
I will not bother to repeat my other points.

 

[PasswordIsTaco123]

So ive been doing some troubleshooting between an A129IR and an A129Duo, and have been finding this issue alot with my A129, and then went back to testing with the A129IR and saw the same thing. One thing I did change last night and it worked flawlessly on the A129IR, was making sure to include the 5 second boot delay. I hadnt been using this before, and when I turned that on, so far so good.

I was having alot of issues with the lights working but for some reason things werent getting written to the card after about 2 hrs of parking. Ill be testing this same thing on the A129Duo tonight to see if this boot delay fixes my issue of it only recording for a couple hours and then not recording again til I get to the car in the morning and start the engine.

 

[Airborne]

I will be watching for the end result as I am a newbie myself

 

[Cozza]

I have this exact same problem with my HK3 Kit. I had a new kit sent to me by Viofo a few weeks ago as I had the problem with the Dashcam making a high pitched sound.

Dashcam turns off about 2 hours after car turns off. I recently sat the battery on a CTEK charger to keep the battery charged overnight & the dashcam still turned off whilst the battery was being charged so it's certainly not hitting voltage cut off. The battery is a 6 month old Optima Yellowtop that kept the cam running for a good 2 days on the previous hardwire kit.

I noticed I had boot delay turned off, have set it to 5 seconds and hopefully will see some results.

 

[PasswordIsTaco123]

Update on My Testing of Parking Mode:

At this point with my testing currently (not completed yet running a few more variables), turning on the Boot Delay (for my experiences so far) having the boot delay ON and set to 5 seconds is one of the factors that has improved the reliability of parking mode so far, along with a few other variables Ive tested. I havent yet been able to rule out boot delay as a potential factor in buffered PM working correctly for me at the moment, though I have a feeling its not.

Im now testing out if the SD cards im using are playing a big factor in it only recording for a couple hours in parking mode. This is where I think the ultimate problem for me lies, though im still working on confirming this.
These are the 2 cards ive been using:
Samsung EVO Select 128gb U3 C10 card has been working with the current settings all night, capturing all events on A129Duo and A129IR, both cameras with latest A129IR firmware installed (rear camera ends up being black and white because it thinks its an IR camera) Though this card did have some problems with some previous tests on the A129Duo firmwares, it could have been from firmware or settings I was using at that time. At this point, this card has successfully passed the overnight parking mode test (Auto Event Detection) on A129Duo and A129IR cameras, both with latest A129IR firmware installed, 5 second boot delay, voltage cutoff 12.4v, 50hz, GPS OFF, WIFI OFF, WDR OFF, Parking Motion Sensitivity HIGH, Parking G-Sensor HIGH though it doesnt do much.
SanDisk Ultra A1 200gb C10 *(This is the other potential culprit of the parking mode failing after a few hours) Sometimes I get 2 hours of parking mode, sometimes i get about 4 hours, but then the camera/card doesn't record any events until the engine fires up and switches it back to driving mode.

After digging a little deeper into the SD cards, its looking like even though i thought the SanDisk A1 might be okay for use in some dash cams, the signs are starting to point to the contrary. While it handles driving recording well, something with the parking mode, buffering, or recording lots of (parking) clips back to back with little 'off' time between recordings is causing the camera to not be able to write files after about 2-4 hours in parking mode. I haven't done an extended 2-4hour drive test to see if it cuts out during driving or not.
I also dug a little deeper and noticed the SanDisk A1 card is just rated for HD video, not 4k video transfer rates so this probably a factor.

I didn't do enough research on the SD cards before purchasing the camera so theres probably other posts out there that inform people of this but in general for dual dashcams youll probably want to start with a card that can handle a 4k transfer rate to begin with, because the dashcam is transferring 2x 1080p files at the same time aka Half of what a 4k transfer would be, but double what a solo 1080p write would be. So with that in mind, this is probably one of the bottlenecks for the SanDisk A1 cards.

To test this, I purchased 2 "endurance" cards the other day that are specifically designed for DashCams, Security Cams, and CCTV cameras, One Samsung EVO PRO Endurance 128gb and one SanDisk HIGH Endurance 128gb and they should be arriving today.

From my limited research, regular consumer style SanDisk Ultra or Samsung Evo Plus/Select Cards and similar that boast high transfer rates, do so with much less abuse to the card in regular instances even though recording 4k and are really meant for DSLRs/Mirrorless cameras, and consumer tablets, devices and cameras. However Dashcams are much different, in that they write, erase, and re-write over those memory cells much more often. Each time files are written, deleted, then re-written over, it slightly damages the memory cells. So with Consumer cards in cameras phones tablets or whatever, take much less abuse, and the cards are able to handle that information differently. From my minimal research and understanding (haha) these Pro Endurance cards, do much less damage to the memory cells because of how it writes and re-writes the data to those cards. This is supposed to extend the life of the card and also make it handle the abuse that dashcams cause to them much more efficiently than the other types of cards. It's even noted in many of the non-Pro Endurance card warrantys that the warranty does not cover if the card was used in a dashcam or CCTV device.

Once those come in and I can do an overnight test with those I should be able to confirm if the boot delay had any effect, if the SD card was the reason, or if its something completely different, but I think im getting pretty close to nailing down what settings work consistently and will let yall know.




What Micro SD cards are you guys using and has Auto Event Detection working and Buffered Parking mode motion detection been working correctly all night for you? Maybe we can pinpoint 1. if it really is the SD cards causing this issue, and 2. Which SD cards work correctly so we can point people in the right direction.

 

[Cozza]

I havent yet been able to rule out boot delay as a potential factor in buffered PM working correctly for me at the moment

Are you finding the issue is only in buffered parking mode for you? I'm using low bitrate recording and the camera is definitely off after a couple of hours.

 

[Airborne]

Can I ask you why the 50Hz. If you live in the states that should be 60Hz. Maybe I am wrong

 

[HonestReview]

FYI: There are a LOT of fake SD cards floating through Amazon and Online Sellers. So one thing to eliminate is running a validation on the SD card using manufacturer software. As these cheap fakes just don't cut it.

 

[PasswordIsTaco123]

Can I ask you why the 50Hz. If you live in the states that should be 60Hz. Maybe I am wrong

Yes you are correct, I was just leaving that as default for now while doing testing. US most cameras and electronics are standard 60Hz and elsewhere like UK is typically 50hz.

FYI: There are a LOT of fake SD cards floating through Amazon and Online Sellers. So one thing to eliminate is running a validation on the SD card using manufacturer software. As these cheap fakes just don't cut it.

Good call I havent done this, but ive heard other people having problems with SanDisk Ultra (Non A1) cards in general, ive heard the A1 was supposed to have improved on that for dashcams, but I think im seeing more errors with that card than the Samsung. Id bet the A2 version might improve due to higher transfer rates and the card being rated for 4k transfer rates, rather than the A1's HD1080p rating.

Are you finding the issue is only in buffered parking mode for you? I'm using low bitrate recording and the camera is definitely off after a couple of hours.

So far buffered parking mode was really the main reason for me choosing this camera over other models, and so far that motion detection feature was what I was testing, and most looking for so I dont have to sift through a bunch of clips looking for events where someone potentially keyed or dinged the car while away. But I can definitely test this all out on the the low bitrate mode on these different cards as well once I find out what the main cause of recording cutoff for auto event detection mode. Id bet that if its cutting off around the same amount of time passing, that its probably the same thing causing it in all modes. But who knows we'll see! haha

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Are you finding the issue is only in buffered parking mode for you? I'm using low bitrate recording and the camera is definitely off after a couple of hours.

The camera is off or not recording?

 

[PasswordIsTaco123]

The camera is off or not recording?

For mine, it was on, and acting like it recognized a motion event so goes from blinking REC light to solid, and then goes back to blinking. then when I'd start up the car, wait a few seconds for it to switch over from parking mode to driving mode, then it would start recording a driving mode clip. I would then stop the recording, remove the card, go inside and check what was recorded, and it would be missing anything from 5pm the evening before, all the way until i start the car again and the next clip after parking mode clips at 5pm the day before, jumps to 7am the morning I cranked it up and pulled the card.

 

[Cozza]

The camera is off or not recording?

Mine is without power after 2 hrs. When turning the car on the camera will play its power on sound and boot animation etc.

Quick update: I set boot delay to 5 seconds last night and plugged the cam into the car at 1am. It was still powered on when I left for work at 9:30am. Will keep monitoring over the next few days and checking the SD card to ensure it's actually recording.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Mine is without power after 2 hrs. When turning the car on the camera will play its power on sound and boot animation etc.

Quick update: I set boot delay to 5 seconds last night and plugged the cam into the car at 1am. It was still powered on when I left for work at 9:30am. Will keep monitoring over the next few days and checking the SD card to ensure it's actually recording.

If your camera was off, then the hardwire kit probably reached its voltage cutoff point. Boot delay shouldn’t have anything to do with shutting the camera off.

 

[Cozza]

If your camera was off, then the hardwire kit probably reached its voltage cutoff point. Boot delay shouldn’t have anything to do with shutting the camera off.

I agree and it's why I sat the battery on a CTEK charger last weekend to test. Even with the battery sitting on the charger keeping it topped up the cam still turned off after a couple of hours.

 

[HonestReview]

Good call I havent done this, but ive heard other people having problems with SanDisk Ultra (Non A1) cards in general, ive heard the A1 was supposed to have improved on that for dashcams, but I think im seeing more errors with that card than the Samsung. Id bet the A2 version might improve due to higher transfer rates and the card being rated for 4k transfer rates, rather than the A1's HD1080p rating.

Camera is incompatible with Sandisk Ultra Plus. Will lock up camera. Ultra is supposedly fine. I run the Sandisk A2 Extreme without Problems. Well no freezing. Apparently there's a bug that the camera is duplicating and dropping frames (another forum). That we aren't sure if a hardware issue or a big introduced in a firmware update.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

I agree and it's why I sat the battery on a CTEK charger last weekend to test. Even with the battery sitting on the charger keeping it topped up the cam still turned off after a couple of hours.

How old is the battery and what voltage setting is it on?

 

[Cozza]

How old is the battery and what voltage setting is it on?

6 Month old Optima Yellowtop 48Ah. Voltage cutoff was on lowest setting (11.8V?) for testing but it's normally on 12.4V.

I don't currently have a multimeter to test the battery before starting the car but might need to pick one up to get some more data.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

6 Month old Optima Yellowtop 48Ah. Voltage cutoff was on lowest setting (11.8V?) for testing but it's normally on 12.4V.

I don't currently have a multimeter to test the battery before starting the car but might need to pick one up to get some more data.

OK, I remember you wrote this earlier or on another thread. So at 11.8V it’s been staying on?
My wife’s new 2019 Santa Fe needs to be set to 12V or it shuts off too quick. I think all the bells and whistles in the car can take a toll. My 2011 Sonata with a 2-3 year old battery can be set at 12.4V and I can leave the camera in parking mode for 8+ hours and it’s fine.