A129pro Reboot on starting car.

[CaptureYourAction]

I forgot to mention its an electric car, the camera starts to fire up as soon as I open my door, and the red light flashes very quickly sometimes, the same as A firmware update.

Have you tried any of the betas? I think Viofo released a beta that was supposed to help with the camera startup in an electric car. I think it's V1.1TS or something like that.

 

[Nigel]

What voltage does the accessory socket run at?

In a normal car with the engine running it would be between 13.8 and 14.6 volts.
I assume an electric car needs the same voltages, but maybe at times it gets a lot less?

 

[HonestReview]

GPS mount for the regular A129 and Pro are the same. Did they make some internal changes to the GPS mount before the Pro came out so it would compatible to both models, I'm not sure. I'm not aware of any changes. The HK3 kit was updated awhile back to fix a noise a few users were experiencing. This was not a change for the Pro though, just a general improvement of the kit. The 12V car adapter was updated to provide a little more power for the Pro.

Nigel has answered this question. I can't offer input here because I don't have an answer.

 

[R1KSU]

12v it runs of a car battery, only the car motor runs off the 42kwh battery, where are the beta fw?

 

[Nigel]

12v it runs of a car battery, only the car motor runs off the 42kwh battery, where are the beta fw?

I think the firmware to use is the one in the first post of the firmware thread: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/a129-pro-firmware.40465/post-484438

Not sure that is the very latest available, but as far as I know it is the latest reliable one, and I don't think there have been any recent updates due to an SDK update being in progress and taking some time.

When you say that your camera reboots several times during startup, does it fully reboot, or just restart recording?

The screen flicker is definitely a sign that there is not enough voltage reaching the camera, which means either a power cable of insufficient quality, or a power adaptor giving out insufficient voltage, or both. The fact that an alternative, non A129 Pro power adaptor also causes screen flicker is not a big surprise, some will cause flicker, some will work OK. It might be interesting to connect the camera to the power adaptor using an alternative cable, even if it is only a short cable for testing, but it does need to be a power/charging cable, not the data cable for connecting to a computer since that will not carry enough power to also power the rear camera.

 

[Sparkyy]

I think the firmware to use is the one in the first post of the firmware thread: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/a129-pro-firmware.40465/post-484438

Not sure that is the very latest available, but as far as I know it is the latest reliable one, and I don't think there have been any recent updates due to an SDK update being in progress and taking some time.

When you say that your camera reboots several times during startup, does it fully reboot, or just restart recording?

The screen flicker is definitely a sign that there is not enough voltage reaching the camera, which means either a power cable of insufficient quality, or a power adaptor giving out insufficient voltage, or both. The fact that an alternative, non A129 Pro power adaptor also causes screen flicker is not a big surprise, some will cause flicker, some will work OK. It might be interesting to connect the camera to the power adaptor using an alternative cable, even if it is only a short cable for testing, but it does need to be a power/charging cable, not the data cable for connecting to a computer since that will not carry enough power to also power the rear camera.

On mine it totaly loses power, red light goes off and reboots

 

[R1KSU]

Complete reboot, I noticed on some clips the rear camera has flashing lines or completely locked up, even though the front cam was fine, The usb adapter is for a fast charging phone, so more amps than normal, so better
I just tried the V1.2T and my cam won't even start, will take the car for a run and see if it starts, May be a low 12v battery.

 

[Nigel]

The usb adapter is for a fast charging phone, so more amps than normal, so better

It is low volts that causes the flickering problem, unfortunately a high amp adaptor doesn't always guarantee high volts once an amp is being used.

 

[R1KSU]

Right, my cam won't even turn on with an SD card in it, tried the ordinary A129 cable and another fresh formatted card, no power. even tried another usb Viofo adapter. leave it for a while without a card in start the car and cam turns on no problems, no rebooting problem. ODD. gonna try my old A129 front cam tomorrow and see if it fires up, if it does, this is going back to Amazon.

 

[Sparkyy]

Right, my cam won't even turn on with an SD card in it, tried the ordinary A129 cable and another fresh formatted card, no power. even tried another usb Viofo adapter. leave it for a while without a card in start the car and cam turns on no problems, no rebooting problem. ODD. gonna try my old A129 front cam tomorrow and see if it fires up, if it does, this is going back to Amazon.

Happened to me on my pro after an update. I had to flash the old firmware on it to get it going again. Needless to say the a129 duo 1080p seems a far more reliable cam at present.

 

[R1KSU]

Can't flash anything as it won't start with a card in. My old A129 fired up first time when I swapped it over.

 

[Sparkyy]

Can't flash anything as it won't start with a card in. My old A129 fired up first time when I swapped it over.

If you upload the new firmware to the card (format it first) and put it in the cam, cam connected to a usb power source not in the car it will boot with the new firmware. It happened to me.

 

[Nigel]

And remember that firmware updates need FAT32 format cards, best to use a 32GB or smaller.

 

[R1KSU]

I have tried 2 different cards, and pc and phone charger, the A129 Pro refuses to start with an SD card in it, take it out and it fires up first time ???
Send it back @viofo ?

 

[SawMaster]

I have tried 2 different cards, and pc and phone charger, the A129 Pro refuses to start with an SD card in it, take it out and it fires up first time ??? Send it back @viofo ?

If Viofo can't give you a possible solution which you have not tried already, then that would be my course of action. For whatever reason, it seems this particular cam is having more than the usual amount of 'teething pains' going on and until they are dealt with it may not be a good choice for everyone. I think it will all get sorted out in the end but we're not there yet

Phil

 

[R1KSU]

Right, I had downloaded at FW from here but it was named LWA I think? I renamed it to FWA, it was only 32kb in size, I had put that on both memory cards, thats why it wouldn't boot up.
I reformatted again with the GUIFormat tool (same as my Fat32-Format tool) and put the v1.2T2 on and its updated and boots OK.
I will keep an eye on it and see if it has the reboot problem.
Thanks for the help.

 

[HonestReview]

Right, I had downloaded at FW from here but it was named LWA I think? I renamed it to FWA, it was only 32kb in size, I had put that on both memory cards, thats why it wouldn't boot up.
I reformatted again with the GUIFormat tool (same as my Fat32-Format tool) and put the v1.2T2 on and its updated and boots OK.
I will keep an eye on it and see if it has the reboot problem.
Thanks for the help.

If I were to venture a guess, it sounds like your camera isn't on receiving enough power. What amp fuse is it hardwired to for Battery? ACC? Also, as mentioned the SD card should be fat 32. If it's successfully update, the red light blinks, and the camera then reboots. Go to menu and check firmware version afterwards.

 

[NKato]

That is almost certainly because it is not getting enough power, it needs more power than standard A129.

What are you using to provide the power?


This is also partly due to the higher power consumption, but I'm hoping for an improvement with the next firmware update.

What next firmware update? @viofo has pretty much ghosted us.