A129 pro duo Long term review

[LAKKS]

I purchased the cam on Oct 2021 and had initial issues with a bad extra long rear cable and the unit not pairing with the remote button. The vendor Captureyouraction was great and solved the issues by replacing the cable and unit.
After 2 years, the unit stopped recording and I accidentally found the problem was the power plug is not working if the power cord is fully seated. I glued an o-ring between the plug and cam to keep the plug pulled out enough to restore power. Not great for my confidence though. After 3 months, I noticed the camera didn’t record an entire road trip, so I checked the connection and saw that the cover plate was popped out slightly at the power plug location. Snapping it back in restored the field fix, but it isn’t great for the confidence level again.

The other glitch is that the memory card has pages of clips taken from parking mode, but I have parking mode turned off. I’ve turned off parking mode and any other related settings a few times. Before I installed the o-ring on the power plug, I noticed that the camera would sometimes be on when I turned off the ignition. The o-ring fixed the power problem but I then noticed that parking mode was enabled!
I can live with parking mode on, but the cam not recording reliably while driving is now a concern.

 

[LateralNW]

I purchased the cam on Oct 2021 and had initial issues with a bad extra long rear cable and the unit not pairing with the remote button. The vendor Captureyouraction was great and solved the issues by replacing the cable and unit.
After 2 years, the unit stopped recording and I accidentally found the problem was the power plug is not working if the power cord is fully seated. I glued an o-ring between the plug and cam to keep the plug pulled out enough to restore power. Not great for my confidence though. After 3 months, I noticed the camera didn’t record an entire road trip, so I checked the connection and saw that the cover plate was popped out slightly at the power plug location. Snapping it back in restored the field fix, but it isn’t great for the confidence level again.

The other glitch is that the memory card has pages of clips taken from parking mode, but I have parking mode turned off. I’ve turned off parking mode and any other related settings a few times. Before I installed the o-ring on the power plug, I noticed that the camera would sometimes be on when I turned off the ignition. The o-ring fixed the power problem but I then noticed that parking mode was enabled!
I can live with parking mode on, but the cam not recording reliably while driving is now a concern.

I replied in your other thread but I see you have other questions/problems here so I am interested in them too.

I've read someone else had a weird problem where there dashcam would power on when it was supposed to be off. First thought is it is impossible but if you consider the Hardwire Kit then that may change things.

I don't know if the other person ever posted their findings/solution.

Is it possible it happens with certain weather conditions?

There may be someone who can advise if a firmware update may have been issued due to the dashcam going into parking mode when not deliberately turned on.

The latest firmware can be found here.
https://viofo.com/content/36-viofo-a129-pro-duo-dash-cam-support/
Version V2.9_20221215
The change log doesn't give any insight of all the things that have been altered/updated.

You may already have this version given its date.

Cheers

 

[LAKKS]

Hi! I don’t want to mess with firmware due to me not having good luck with that sort of thing.
I have to check recordings tomorrow to see if the dashcam is still filming in parking mode, even with the settings turned off.
The only issue I had with the unit staying in recording mode with the power off was when I first discovered the problem with the power plug. Backing out the power plug around 3mm by using an o-ring solved that problem.

 

[DashCamOnBoard]

I was about to buy this kit off their website which has everything you need, but based on this post and the other thread about about the hardwire kits failing, I will have to hold off.