A139 Firmware

[ChampaRando]

While those files cannot be viewed "real time" like a blackvue (without a non natted connection), they could be transfered and stored in real time to the host server run anywhere in the world.

Wait what do you mean?
Obviously I haven't tried this lol so without doing a practical, I may miss some bits lol/be wrong at something here.
But I am sure if I setup a 4G portable router for eg, that the camera connects to right. So camera and 4g portable hotspot/router in my car. It is behind a nat.
Then this 4G router can open / establish a connection to my home (considering my home is reachable, and in my case it is, I get a proper IPv4 dynamic IP which is bound to a DDNS).
So now my 4g router basically said to my raspberry pi at home "hi man!"
Cool connection established. Now I am pretty sure I am easily able to maybe VPN into the 4G router and join the "lan" or "intranet" of this 4g router and camera sitting in my car using a tunnel for example.

Ngrok is a cool program to do so. Then you can just type in "https://camera_ip_in_4g_hotspot_lan/xxx.mp4" or whatever IP Viofo gave for station mode live rtsp. I remember a friend in my university 2 years ago setup a reverse proxy/some tunnel (lol I forgot the exact name of this concept, been a while since I used it) using this tool: https://github.com/v2fly/v2ray-core
He had some servers in China lol behind government firewall (so CG-NAT essentially) and he uses these tunnels and this client.

It's not hard to establish if we go messing with it. But before anything like that happens, we need, back to the old topic again , station mode ON in parking
Also, something like this is I probably can never do in Australia. 4G isn't cheap XD, of course 5G here is more expensive lmao.

 

[HonestReview]

Wait what do you mean?
Obviously I haven't tried this lol so without doing a practical, I may miss some bits lol/be wrong at something here.
But I am sure if I setup a 4G portable router for eg, that the camera connects to right. So camera and 4g portable hotspot/router in my car. It is behind a nat.
Then this 4G router can open / establish a connection to my home (considering my home is reachable, and in my case it is, I get a proper IPv4 dynamic IP which is bound to a DDNS).
So now my 4g router basically said to my raspberry pi at home "hi man!"
Cool connection established. Now I am pretty sure I am easily able to maybe VPN into the 4G router and join the "lan" or "intranet" of this 4g router and camera sitting in my car using a tunnel for example.

Ngrok is a cool program to do so. Then you can just type in "https://camera_ip_in_4g_hotspot_lan/xxx.mp4" or whatever IP Viofo gave for station mode live rtsp. I remember a friend in my university 2 years ago setup a reverse proxy/some tunnel (lol I forgot the exact name of this concept, been a while since I used it) using this tool: https://github.com/v2fly/v2ray-core
He had some servers in China lol behind government firewall (so CG-NAT essentially) and he uses these tunnels and this client.

It's not hard to establish if we go messing with it. But before anything like that happens, we need, back to the old topic again , station mode ON in parking
Also, something like this is I probably can never do in Australia. 4G isn't cheap XD, of course 5G here is more expensive lmao.

Two issues were raised about Viofo Cameras in Past Threads:

1. http: / rtsp livestream viewing of the camera's feed from anywhere within the world. This requires inbound traffic with a connection that's not natted. Blackvue cameras allow people to remote into the camera and view a live feed in real time.

I tested this theory. I Setup a VPN on my home computer. Connected the Phone to the VPN. And Camera to the Phone's internet. Then connected another device to the VPN (so these two shared same network).

Unfortunately, on a non rooted cell phone, the Phone's Internet (4g) and Hotspot work on two different tunnels. So even though the phone was connected to the VPN, the "Hotspot" was not. Meaning there was no tricking the phone into being on the "same network".

Basically, in order to allow inbound traffic, you need a rooted cell phone, and some 3rd party apps from play store or sim router that permits port forwarding. As in order to get rtsp / http live feed to work, you need a solution that permits inbound traffic. In this case, port 8192 needs open.

http://192.168.1.254:8192

Otherwise, live feed is only available from within an intranet and not from anywhere in the world.

Outbound / Remote Storage Backup To a Host Serve / Cloud

Per what I said before....to accomplish this you don't need inbound traffic. I believe the Camera Connecting to ANY internet connection that permits outbound traffic would work.

Camera Connects to Hotspot. Raspberry Pi to Same Hotspot. Raspberry pi runs script that pulls selected files from the camera (all files, event files, etc) and uploads to Host Server automatically.

Does this make sense?

Either way, for ANY OF THIS to work, Station Mode must remain "ON".

 

[HonestReview]

Haha love this english for them. Nice and simple

Except they never answered my question if they actually tested it or just keep thinking I alone am going to be able to keep doing this....

Wish it was Summer in Australia, Much easier and we'd have quick answers.

 

[Nath]

So here we have some info for v1.6_0721 firmware:
https://www.viofo.com/en/blog/six-new-functions-added-in-a139-dash-cam-v16-firmware-b79.html

Yeah, I noticed that a bit weird way of flagging events as well. I hope now it's fixed.

 

[rd08]

tried v1.6_0721, when you set the parking recording time to 6hrs, it keeps resetting to 4hrs.
Parking geofencing, keeps turning off, cannot make it stay on so cannot test

 

[VIOFO-Support]

tried v1.6_0721, when you set the parking recording time to 6hrs, it keeps resetting to 4hrs.
Parking geofencing, keeps turning off, cannot make it stay on so cannot test

After updating firmware, please remember to default the settings in the app and reset the dashcam.

Parking geofencing function is only available to android users at present. The iOS app is still in testing.

 

[rd08]

After updating firmware, please remember to default the settings in the app and reset the dashcam.

Parking geofencing function is only available to android users at present. The iOS app is still in testing.

Reset the android app and dashcam, went into settings and set parking time to 6hrs, came out and went back in and it was set to 4hrs.
Went into settings and set Parking Geo On, came out and when back in and it was Off

 

[kamkar]

Seem like i have to update my A139 today, which s good timing the sun is not out so car will be comfortable to "work" inside.

 

[kamkar]

got this new FW up and running.

 

[HonestReview]

After updating firmware, please remember to default the settings in the app and reset the dashcam.

Parking geofencing function is only available to android users at present. The iOS app is still in testing.

Any update from engineer on testing overheat for final firmware?

 

[mrpk]

There are issues with this firmware, you cannot plugin the camera to a laptop via usb-c cable. Card wont be recognized. Also it does spit out weird behaviors for me atleast, buttons do actions they are not meant to do . Station mode works but you have to enter the wifi details again after power down or starting wifi again. So basically station mode settings do not get saved, it doesnt like special characters either btw so if your home wifi got special characters change your home wifi password to not have them...

 

[ras07]

Station mode works but you have to enter the wifi details again after power down or starting wifi again.

I wrote about this in VIOFO many times.
I persistently asked to add the ability to automatically turn on Station mode when switching to parking mode.
There was no reaction.
What needs to be done to make them hear?

 

[ChampaRando]

I wrote about this in VIOFO many times.
I persistently asked to add the ability to automatically turn on Station mode when switching to parking mode.
There was no reaction.
What needs to be done to make them hear?

They're useless in that case. Lot's have tried asking them, they just say it has "issues" when it's nothing they cannot fix.

 

[ChampaRando]

@VIOFO-Support
See LOTS OF people want Station Mode in parking mode!! Not hard to implement...

 

[mrpk]

@VIOFO-Support
See LOTS OF people want Station Mode in parking mode!! Not hard to implement...

It is an issue. You have to even right now configure it every time. It does not even retain the configuration. Also I would think it be heating issues with wifi always on. They would then have to enable timer when the station mode gets turned off automatically. Since this enables I am guessing rtsp server so more load. I have not tested this but probably motion detect might also not work when in station mode. This is dashcam, will be awesome though to be able to use it as a streaming camera. I can than hook it up to my NVR and do nightly recordings when at home. Great feature but most likely hardware limited.

 

[ChampaRando]

It is an issue. You have to even right now configure it every time. It does not even retain the configuration. Also I would think it be heating issues with wifi always on. They would then have to enable timer when the station mode gets turned off automatically. Since this enables I am guessing rtsp server so more load. I have not tested this but probably motion detect might also not work when in station mode. This is dashcam, will be awesome though to be able to use it as a streaming camera. I can than hook it up to my NVR and do nightly recordings when at home. Great feature but most likely hardware limited.

Yeah I get the heating. We've discussed heating countless times above haha.

2CH isn't too bad with the heat, especially without WDR. Plus, they can disable station mode if the heat starts to go too high, they have heating protection for the actual unit anyways. I don't see much extra work. Plus, I have described how station mode always on can actually auto turn off in msot caes without connections so this again, will ensure heat isnt an issue 95% of the time.

 

[mrpk]

Yeah I get the heating. We've discussed heating countless times above haha.

2CH isn't too bad with the heat, especially without WDR. Plus, they can disable station mode if the heat starts to go too high, they have heating protection for the actual unit anyways. I don't see much extra work. Plus, I have described how station mode always on can actually auto turn off in msot caes without connections so this again, will ensure heat isnt an issue 95% of the time.

Yea i like to see station mode, but it doesnt even work right now properly, you power down the camera the settings get removed and have to enter again lol. It's strange other settings are retained but not this ? It could be hardware limit - how much space or power protected data can be stored. But again they can always use the SD card to store boot up config instead of internal storage.

I was actually thinking of getting a mini solar powered fan, small enough to put it on back of the rear view mirror pointing towards the dashcam, all it needs is an internal fan or proper air flow.

 

[ChampaRando]

Yea i like to see station mode, but it doesnt even work right now properly, you power down the camera the settings get removed and have to enter again lol. It's strange other settings are retained but not this ? It could be hardware limit - how much space or power protected data can be stored. But again they can always use the SD card to store boot up config instead of internal storage.

I was actually thinking of getting a mini solar powered fan, small enough to put it on back of the rear view mirror pointing towards the dashcam, all it needs is an internal fan or proper air flow.

I doubt they cannot store few bytes of Wifi SSID data. Worst case you can do it on SD card like you said. I'm sure they will fix this soon.
Station mode in parking, no idea XD

 

[mrpk]

I doubt they cannot store few bytes of Wifi SSID data. Worst case you can do it on SD card like you said. I'm sure they will fix this soon.
Station mode in parking, no idea XD

Let's see. I am not sure if they know of the issue I have posted on their forums too but not acknowledged or if working on fix lol. But I would love to see station mode on a timed scheduled as well parking mode. The rtsp stream was actually not bad when I tried it.

 

[Nath]

Here we have another iteration of beta firmware, this time v1.5_0908 (don't ask my why it went back to v1.5 ) with implemented "pre-record":
https://we.tl/t-wbDdBZQrFI