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.

 

[LAKKS]

Long term use update: 11/16/25. My 2021 A129 Duo dashcam still works. I noticed a problem with the camera turing off and on during drives, and I solved this by using a silicone gasket sealer to keep the power plug from vibrating loose. After a few months, the problem reoccurred. The fix was to pull the power plug from the camera and plug it into the GPS module. Interesting because when the camera was new, plugging power into the GPS module didn’t work reliably back then. Power into the GPS module worked for a year and a half, but the on/off glitch occurs occasionally now.
I had to replace the high endurance memory card after 3 years, which was expected.

 

[LAKKS]

update: the A129 occasionally powers on 2-5
minutes into the drive, without me noticing the startup chime didn’t occur
when the car started. This is a little concerning, so I will keep watching for failures. The power is
plugged into the GPS unit and not directly into the dashcam. I mentioned switching the power location in a past update after the dashcam would constantly turn off and on during drives.

 

[LAKKS]

Update June 2026: the dashcam
is acting too erratic for
me to rely on after 5+ years. I’m going to get another A129 Pro Duo front camera because it was a lot of trouble routing the extended length rear camera cable under my Odyssey van
panels, so I want to keep using that rear
camera setup.
FYI. I had a road rage incident last week and that’s when I found out that the dashcam stopped recording. The one time I needed my dashcam footage, it wasn’t available, so I cannot show the offending driver his error.

October 2021 to June 2026. I only had
to replace 1 Sandisk heavy duty SD card during this period. I’m replacing the a129 pro duo front camera and the HK3 hardwire power supply because I don’t trust the loose fitting plug as well.
The gear will be purchased from CaptureYourAction, a trusted seller on Ebay and resource here on Dashcamtalk.