A139 Firmware

[HonestReview]

I doubt that in a home garage you risk overheating with StationMode enabled.

Clearly, most people would not need to enable station mode in a home garage. Station mode uses are when parked in public or car is in the possession of another person (check in on friend borrowing car, mechanic working on car, etc).

Or should you car be stolen, capture a picture of the thief!

This is presuming you have station mode setup with an internet connection that will permit outside access.

 

[Nath]

Clearly, most people would not need to enable station mode in a home garage. Station mode uses are when parked in public or car is in the possession of another person (check in on friend borrowing car, mechanic, etc).

Then "clearly, most people" will be pissed because StationMode alone doesn't give you anything that even remotely resembles what you wrote.

StationMode now is beneficial mainly for a home network. You won't get remote access even if your mechanic gives you his Wifi SSID and password... . Park under home AP, enable StationMode, get home and e.g. download your footage either manually or automatically (for a bit more advanced users) via local network without the need to remove SDcard or wait next to a cam until your phone downloads it via Wifi hotspot.

Do we have to make this discussion again..?

 

[HonestReview]

Then "clearly, most people" will be pissed because StationMode alone doesn't give you anything that even remotely resembles what you wrote.

StationMode now is beneficial mainly for a home network. You won't get remote access even if your mechanic gives you his Wifi SSID and password... . Park under home AP, enable StationMode, get home and e.g. download your footage either manually or automatically (for a bit more advanced users) without the need to remove SDcard or wait next to a cam until it downloads it via Wifi.

Do we have to make this discussion again..?

This time you're wrong. Station mode, if used with a hotspot that permits for outside internet (incoming connection), will allow remote viewing from anywhere in the world. Presuming Viofo resolves the Station Mode being disabled when car turns off issue.

Since unlike the A129, Station Mode / Wifi doesn't affect video quality. There's more practicality here.

Do we need to discuss how you are wrong here as this proof of concept has already been discussed at length.

Whether or not most people will choose to utilize station mode in this manner is a different story. But this is the "practical use" of station mode.

 

[Nath]

This time you're wrong.

No way, then I was right before?

This time you're wrong. Station mode, if used with a hotspot that permits for outside internet (incoming connection), will allow remote viewing from anywhere in the world.

In which point? Even you confirmed me right. I said "StationMode alone" and you disproved it by "with a hotspot that permits for outside internet (incoming connection)".

Btw: Basically anything with internet access has the ability of an incoming connection. Many protocols even uses handshakes and there is no handshake without a second hand... The key issue is a public accessibility, which is a bit of different story.

Do we need to discuss how you are wrong here as this proof of concept has already been discussed at length.

I don't think you came out with any working solution, if I recall correctly. I remember you end up asking for somebody else to try a rooted phone.

And the most funny thing is that most of those conclusions back then were the things I did mention (of course only at theoretical level, nothing about rooted phone or alternative firmwares for modems). Anyway, I've said now what I've needed to say (all the other things were said before). Not sure if I still have the strength or will but the offer about opening a dedicated thread for RemoteAccess is probably still valid. (still better than spamming firmware thread again)

Whether or not most people will choose to utilize station mode in this manner is a different story. But this is the "practical use" of station mode.

I agree on the practical use.

 

[HonestReview]

In which point? Even you confirmed me right. I said "StationMode alone" and you disproved it by "with a hotspot that permits for outside internet (incoming connection)".

Btw: Basically anything with internet access has the ability of an incoming connection. Many protocols even uses handshakes and there is no handshake without a second hand... The key issue is a public accessibility, which is a bit of different story.

No you are wrong. There's a difference between a filtered (natted) connection and unfiltered (open) connection. A regular cell phone utilizing a hotspot will most likely be a filtered connection. Not permitting INBOUND traffic. Meaning even if the A139 in Station Mode is connected to the Phone's Wifi Hotspot, I cannot access the Camera's Live Feed from OUTSIDE of the internal network of the phone's hotspot.

A Rooted Cell Phone (which I don't have the ability to test) or a wireless router using a sim card and permitting a vpn would solve this issue.

I don't think you came out with any working solution, if I recall correctly. I remember you end up asking for somebody else to try a rooted phone.

Its not that I didn't come up with a "working solution". A rooted cell phone or a wireless sim card router permitting a VPN is the solution. I have neither at my disposal. Which is why I asked others to try and "verify". But these SHOULD WORK and resolve the issue of using an unrooted cell phone blocking inbound traffic.

A rooted phone will allow applications to piggy back off a phone's hotspot. Unfortunately, an unrooted phone creates two different tunnels.

1. The wireless internet connection itself (hotspot)
2. The phone's regular internet connection

Meaning running a VPN on an unrooted phone won't piggy back off the hotspot and simply uses the phone's REGULAR internet connection. Meaning the VPN doesn't share the hotspot connection that is needed to "fake being on the phone's internal network". That's where my testing ended. Since I don't have a spare cell phone (only own one) that I can root. And I wasn't going to invest money in a wireless simcard router.

And the most funny thing is that most of those conclusions back then were the things I did mention (of course only at theoretical level, nothing about rooted phone or alternative firmwares for modems). Anyway, I've said now what I've needed to say (all the other things were said before). Not sure if I still have the strength or will but the offer about opening a dedicated thread for RemoteAccess is probably still valid. (still better than spamming firmware thread again)

You clearly have alzheimers. This was discussed AT LENGTH by me, with a rooted cell phone or wireless sim router permitting a vpn being the ENDING discussion! You participated in this thread!

Goal: Access A139 with Station Mode

Hello Folks, I have update my Viofo 3 channel dashcam to the latest firmware and I can see now Station Mode options within settings. I would like to be able to connect my camera while is in Parking Mode outside my home to my Wifi network and that way I can do a wireless back up of my files. 5g...

dashcamtalk.com

I agree on the practical use.

Ok.......But see above.

 

[TonyM]

FWIW, I park my car outside on the driveway rather than in a garage. The A139 can connect to my home WiFi from there, so station mode is feasible while the car is outside in the sun.

It is of no use to me personally since I already have cctv covering the driveway from the house. But it might be useful for some owners, if it can work alongside parking mode.

 

[TonyM]

In theory, I could install the A139 inside the front window of my house, with the 'rear' camera deployed on a side window and perhaps the 'interior' installed in my hallway, as a 3CH home cctv setup. Plug into a mains power adapter and turn on station mode so I can stream to my home office in the back garden!

 

[HonestReview]

FWIW, I park my car outside on the driveway rather than in a garage. The A139 can connect to my home WiFi from there, so station mode is feasible while the car is outside in the sun.

It is of no use to me personally since I already have cctv covering the driveway from the house. But it might be useful for some owners, if it can work alongside parking mode.

Right now, it isn't usable at all since the firmware disables upon turning of the car's ignition. Of course, once that problem is addressed, we need to determine if station mode generates a lot of heat or if the camera will function properly long term.

Generally, most people who have their car parked in a garage or driveway won't need this feature. Yes, there will be some who have worries about their car being vandalized or damage. So using the home wifi is sufficient.

The real benefit of Station Mode (Consider a Blackvue with Cloud Support) is viewing the car from a distance.

1. Car is at mechanic. You can watch mechanic and make sure no joy riding or other nonsense.
2. Car is being parked by a valet. You can watch the car being parked.
3. You live in a bad area and must do street parking. You can check in on car.
4. Car is left at airport, again check in on car.
5. Car is stolen. Well you can check in on thief if he/she hasn't disabled camera.

 

[Dashmellow]

The real benefit of Station Mode (Consider a Blackvue with Cloud Support) is viewing the car from a distance.

1. Car is at mechanic. You can watch mechanic and make sure no joy riding or other nonsense.
2. Car is being parked by a valet. You can watch the car being parked.
3. You live in a bad area and must do street parking. You can check in on car.
4. Car is left at airport, again check in on car.
5. Car is stolen. Well you can check in on thief if he/she hasn't disabled camera.

I always make a point of disabling my cameras when I leave my vehicle at my mechanic's garage. I trust the guys who work on my truck and I want them to know it. It creates a bad vibe to have these guys think I am spying on them.

Big Brother has infiltrated our society more than enough already. I don't want or need to play the role of Big Brother with people I have a long term, productive business relationship with. The work they do and how they do it is what informs me that I can trust them. Plus, they don't have the time or interest in screwing around or going for joy rides.

 

[kamkar]

I dont like to, but i simply have to,,,, that be initially trust people, otherwise i would go insane i am sure.
BUT ! The naive trust in other people i lost at a young age ( my 16 year birthday )
So i will give people a chance, i will even give them 2. But thats also it, after that i have nothing for you.

 

[Dashmellow]

I dont like to, but i simply have to,,,, that be initially trust people, otherwise i would go insane i am sure.
BUT ! The naive trust in other people i lost at a young age ( my 16 year birthday )
So i will give people a chance, i will even give them 2. But thats also it, after that i have nothing for you.

I basically agree. As for my auto mechanic, last year I had an issue with my brakes that was apparently very difficult to track down. I authorized work on the rear brakes. This didn't fix the problem. Without my authorizing it my mechanic went ahead and worked on the front brakes. That didn't quite fix the problem either. Long story short, he ended up putting more than $1500.00 worth of parts and labor into my brake system including a new master cylinder, front rotors and calipers without first asking me but then wouldn't take any money for the repair except for the work I had previously authorized!

That's why I trust them and it wouldn't be the first time something like this happened. The last thing I'm gonna' do is spy on this guy or any of the other guys on his crew with my dash cams! I know they appreciate that I disable my dash cams because I've talked to them about it. One of the guys told me that he worked on a fleet vehicle with a satellite enabled dash cam and after he took the vehicle out for a test drive he immediately got an angry call from some guy at corporate headquarters about it and he had to tell the guy to bug off if they wanted them to work on their vehicles going forward!

 

[Nath]

Just out of curiosity, this is also something new, isn't it?


EDIT: Yep, Parking Recording Geofencing is not part of the official app (at least not for A139). So probably another experimental thing.

 

[HonestReview]

Just out of curiosity, this is also something new, isn't it?
View attachment 57161

EDIT: Yep, Parking Recording Geofencing is not part of the official app (at least not for A139). So probably another experimental thing.

What version of the APP? I downloaded Firmware 1.6 and the Updated App on the A139. Don't see that listed.

 

[HonestReview]

With my A139 I've had issues with one card; we can't blame the cam for those, I've had some random instances of restarting/boot-looping while driving; the boot-looping was only two sequences long. In all cases the cam's beeps and/or voice let me know of the problem and only a few to several seconds of video was lost. This is as good or better than any cam other than Mobius has given me. Thus I will call the A139 reliable for the purposes of driving recording, but if you want a "mission critical" cam then you'll need to do what is done with all "mission critical" systems and add redundancy; two is one and one is none

Which leads us to deciding what the "mission" is and what it's priorities are. For me, driving recording comes first- that is the most important aspect of a dashcam. Indeed that is why they exist in the first place, so everything else rates less important. And being less important those other aspects needn't be as perfect or as reliable to still have a good dashcam. Those who expect everything any cam does to always work perfectly aren't based in reality. These truly ARE somewhat cheap consumer-grade devices where none have ever worked perfectly in every regard and none ever will.

Getting back on topic, other than the earliest and beta FW's, the A139 has been both reliable and fully functional until the last 2 (now 3) FW's came into use. Early/beta FW's usually have issues and we can extend that to new cam designs sometimes having hardware issues in early versions. We saw a couple months where no serious issues were spoken of, and very minimal issues with anything were noted. So what has changed since then? FW

Given the seasons, there weren't a lot of temperature extremes for the average user to encounter till recent days, but several folks did see some days hot enough to cause issues with other cams, yet no issues were found with this one. Not a perfect test but it should have discovered any major heat related issues. As the seasons continue we're going to get more experiences with this to better know if there are any heat-related issues, what those are, and what aspects of use are being affected. And as always new FW is always to be suspected to have issues and to not be trusted till proven. If new FW introduces new features or significantly expands older known-to-be-stable features you can expect some problems to arise. Even the most careful and conscientious cam manufacturer occasionally has problems with new FW versions.

Life ain't perfect and neither are dashcams

Phil

IRL has bested me the past week. Soon as I get time + sunny day, I'm going to run two tests.

1. Firmware 1.6 with H.264 + FHD-FHD-FHD
2. Firmware 1.1 with H.x264 = FHD+FHD+FHD

I figure if my camera craps out on the lowest settings, then there's no need to run more. If the camera doesn't crap out, then I'll proceed to H.x265. Honestly, I doubt my camera will make it. I've got a replacement camera in the mail + new cables to work with the A139 Lock I ordered.

I'm lazy so I'll swap out the interior cable, but not the rear. Only because the interior cable snaps in but isn't nearly as snug as the rear cable. Rear cable takes herculean force. Interior cable "Seats OK and Snaps" but also comes out without much effort. Also, I see no real benefit to ripping out the rear cable to replace.

Locking the camera with front + interior will do track. After all, the camera would capture anyone yanking out the cable for the interior anyway. Not like the rear camera (unless pointed inward) changes much.

Let you all know what happens in my future testing. I've got a few weeks before the replacement arrives.

 

[Leonauto]

Hey guys, am I probably in the wrong place? Is this thread about firmware A139?

I went to the thread "A139 Firmware" and what I see - again endless tirades of an honest gentleman, saturated with skepticism, disrespect for everyone, the desire to show their "I" and stand out from others.

When I see the posts of this "honest gentleman", I feel uncomfortable and in 99% of cases the desire to go into this thread disappears altogether.

Spoiler: Offtop

This is very reminiscent of the cheap tabloids, which puff their cheeks and make a global problem out of an insignificant fact with flashy headlines, just to be noticed.

These tirades also resemble an election campaign, when one candidate goes out of his way to reveal some problems, even invented by himself, shouts very loudly and persistently, with the intention of punching the opponent in the face and pouring more **** on him.

And forum users for some reason have to endure it?

Have you forgotten, mister, that you are not on the podium! Or you were kicked out of a cheap newspaper and now you cannot stop and do not know where to put your ardor?
There is no need to strain the forum users with your outpourings, a homely atmosphere reigned here, where they simply shared their observations, problems and experience in their elimination.
And do not think that this is some kind of tribune for speeches, you are mistaken, although maybe you are chasing the Pulitzer Prize and hone your style here? Or are you a "revolutionary" and have now taken to the streets to carry out pogroms?

I would ask you to calm down. Live in harmony with yourself and the world around you, no need to rip your shirt off and yell at the top of your lungs. You are simply causing great inconvenience to users with your bile, hatred and desire to push yourself out as the best connoisseur of everything.
The wise say - I know that I know nothing. Do not try to be better than others just because that someone bullied you as a child or you graduated from several universities.
I would think about it

 

[SawMaster]

As noted on another thread, my upgrade to FW V1.2_0507 has shown no problems, glitches, or issues. It seems as solid and stable as the V1.1_0315 FW I was using previously.

Phil

 

[HonestReview]

As noted on another thread, my upgrade to FW V1.2_0507 has shown no problems, glitches, or issues. It seems as solid and stable as the V1.1_0315 FW I was using previously.

Phil

Is that the firmware posted on Viofo.com? I know mine came with version 1.2 but not sure whole build. As now I'm testing out 1.6

 

[vvs49]

Installed A139 and the first exit !!
Firmware A139AV1.6 with data replacement from comrade Falsificator, thanks to him !!

21_139.mp4

drive.google.com

 

[vvs49]

New comparison of A139 and A119V3_Mod 2.4_20210517
We really need HDR for A139, we are waiting !!!

139-119.mp4

drive.google.com

 

[ChampaRando]

Expectable, the "web"interface servers are still the same. The only thing which have changed is the way how Wifi module behaves and network switched to client. There is even more than that, check out Novatek documentation. (somebody posted it somewhere here at dashcamtalk)

Hi nath (and even anyone else if they know)! Quick question, I have a A139 and all I intend to do is just automatically pull RO/event videos (not all of them) from the cam everytime I park my car in the garage. Basically I will pull videos from my camera and upload it to my NAS as a double backup (I have had issues where SD cards just corrupting when I needed to retrieve an event footage/locked footage), so I do this.

So, you mentioned something about this Novatek web API outlined here = (https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/reverse-engineering-web-api-live-feed-etc.21057/) ?
I had another camera before, which I sniffed packets manually and found some useful CMDs. It was a time consuming task, so just wondering, if that Novatek API is the same for this camera too, then I would not need to mess with packet sniffers again. Or was that just an example (totally unrelated example)?
Thanks mate.