A139 freezing and other issues

[faroutxxx]

Previously, I was using firmware version 1.6 and I did not experience this drawback. I'll do a downgrade and see. The card is not from Viofo and it is not the fastest card, but according to the seller's assurances, it is 100% compatible.

I tried 2 different cards with mine and still had lots of issues. When you send it back they will tell you it works with their card. Thats what they told me and I then went and bought a different card that everyone seems to recommend on here. I paid for shipping out of my own pocket to give them another chance. When i received the A139 back again it was a different one from the one i sent. Again lots of issues with the second A139. I then had to pay shipping again to send it back.

Please be careful I did a lot of testing on it at home and it is very unstable. Goes into permanent boot cycles when changing different settings. G sensor also sends it into boot cycles.

 

[Paul Iddon]

My apologies - but "yours" did. You cannot tarnish everything with the same brush m8.

How are you certain the cameras were different too? Did you note the serial numbers down, or take photos of each to be sure they are different? Maybe once they had looked inside your first one, they had to put a different case on?

Paul.

 

[drillman]

Can you show us a photo of the card please?

Paul.

 

[Paul Iddon]

UHS Speed Class 1 supports a minimum 10MB/s write speed, whereas UHS Speed Class 3 supports at least 30MB/s write speed. The UHS Speed Class is denoted by either a 1 or 3 inside of a bucket U symbol. As a rule of thumb, 4K-capable camcorders will usually require at least a U3 rated SD card.


I suspect your card may possibly be too slow.

Wait to see if anyone more technical than me can confirm this.

 

[drillman]

Speed Class | SD Association

www.sdcard.org

As I said, the card did not freeze when I had firmware 1.6. Now I have 1.7 (probably unofficial) which has buffering added in parking mode - adds 15 or 20 seconds before motion detection and probably after. It is likely that this memory dump may not be fine-tuned and causes a crash (when going from parking mode to driving mode). And the card may also be complicit here. I do not want this buffering during motion detection, so I will go back to version 1.6 and see.

 

[viofo]

I tried 2 different cards with mine and still had lots of issues. When you send it back they will tell you it works with their card. Thats what they told me and I then went and bought a different card that everyone seems to recommend on here. I paid for shipping out of my own pocket to give them another chance. When i received the A139 back again it was a different one from the one i sent. Again lots of issues with the second A139. I then had to pay shipping again to send it back.

Please be careful I did a lot of testing on it at home and it is very unstable. Goes into permanent boot cycles when changing different settings. G sensor also sends it into boot cycles.

About the reboot issue testing at home, may I know what kind of charger you use to power the camera?
If you can also post a video about the issue, it will help us to quickly confirm the issue.

 

[drillman]

I just discovered a dent in the door of my factory new Toyota C-HR (500 km on the meter). I can guess where it happened but just right at that time the camera was not recording (for 2.5 hours) because it was frozen (on 1.7 ver. firmware).
Today I was touring with firmware 1.6 and it was getting better. However, browsing files on place I discovered a 30 minutes hole formed when I turned off the camera and turned it on back. At this time the voice said "recording 3 channels" but as it turns out it did not start recording. Only after 30 minutes, the recording came back (suddenly while driving) and worked to the end of journey.

 

[faroutxxx]

I just discovered a dent in the door of my factory new Toyota C-HR (500 km on the meter). I can guess where it happened but just right at that time the camera was not recording (for 2.5 hours) because it was frozen (on 1.7 ver. firmware).
Today I was touring with firmware 1.6 and it was getting better. However, browsing files on place I discovered a 30 minutes hole formed when I turned off the camera and turned it on back. At this time the voice said "recording 3 channels" but as it turns out it did not start recording. Only after 30 minutes, the recording came back (suddenly while driving) and worked to the end of journey.

As I keep telling everyone unless you play around with it you wont discover that its misbehaving. Most people will just turn it on, it says "recording" and wont know any different that its not recording or missing files or frozen!
The number of issues I found when testing (I got sent two) was just not normal for a consumer product.

 

[drillman]

I have downgraded firmware to v1.6 and works fine. No freezing (at least at 20 deg. C). I even forgot to limit the number of minutes and it was recording 15 minutes video files of over 2GB size and so far no file was damaged.
@faroutxxx you are right - this device is not for everyone. You must have the talent and stubbornness or easily accessible and helpful seller.

 

[drillman]

I confirm after a few drives - firmware 1.6 is working properly.

 

[k9x9]

I've had my 3-chan A139 running for a few months without issue, but last week it froze up on me. All lights lit, but not recording, unresponsive to button presses, etc. I had to yank the power cord to get it going again. Speaking of cords, I had an issue with one of the data cables too. Not hating the setup, but not loving it either.

 

[viofo]

I've had my 3-chan A139 running for a few months without issue, but last week it froze up on me. All lights lit, but not recording, unresponsive to button presses, etc. I had to yank the power cord to get it going again. Speaking of cords, I had an issue with one of the data cables too. Not hating the setup, but not loving it either.

Have you tried to format the memory card, what kind of memory card do you use?

 

[drillman]

Well, I will add now that I was driving and a bit parking in the strong sun, and the 139 (3ch) was so hot that it could not be held and the 3M tape was flowing (until the camera dropped slightly) and the cards after removing could not be held in the fingers. Despite these temperatures, it recorded properly. For now, at least. Firmware 1.6 of course.

PS. It's just a bit silly that I have to burn more gasoline to heat the camera and twice as much to cool it with air conditioning. But in the parking I only pay once - for heating, because I do not turn on the air conditioning there.

 

[kamkar]

I've had my 3-chan A139 running for a few months without issue, but last week it froze up on me. All lights lit, but not recording, unresponsive to button presses, etc. I had to yank the power cord to get it going again. Speaking of cords, I had an issue with one of the data cables too. Not hating the setup, but not loving it either.

I had the same happen with one of the new Samsung evo plus cards, it filled up,,,, maybe 2 times but then it stopped recording ( camera did give faliure to record beeps, and as far as i can remember did not lock up )

I am currently testing a old cheap kingston card, and it have filled up a few times by now, and done 8 hour parking guard sessions in 30 deg C temperatures which is about as hot as it get in Denmark a few days every summer.

 

[kamkar]

BTW if you have the camera hard wired, maybe try the old school 12 V plug for a day or two to see if thats any better, there are still a chance a hard wire kit could go bonkers.

 

[Julian23]

I had the same happen with one of the new Samsung evo plus cards, it filled up,,,, maybe 2 times but then it stopped recording ( camera did give faliure to record beeps, and as far as i can remember did not lock up )

I am currently testing a old cheap kingston card, and it have filled up a few times by now, and done 8 hour parking guard sessions in 30 deg C temperatures which is about as hot as it get in Denmark a few days every summer.

My Samsung Evo Plus failed as well. The camera started to beep. With a different SD Card it was fine. I checked the card on my pc but couldn't find anything wrong with it. Also formatted it completely. The camera still beeped.

 

[k9x9]

I have mine hardwired and am running whatever firmware it came with and a Samsung mem card. Cam has locked on me once (that I know of) since installing it 6 months ago. Not thrilled with it overall, but it's been ok. I use Samsung's cards in everything, including a USB stick that has lived in my truck's console for 7 years, so I would be very hesitant to consider the card. Besides, it has worked fine since and no issues reading/writing with the card.

 

[drillman]

I observed a strange behavior of the Viofo A139 (3ch). I connected it directly to the 12V battery of the car in the garage in driving mode, turned off the light and went. After 30 minutes I looked in and when I turned on the light I heard "beep, beep, recording 3 channels". Similarly, every time I turned on the previously turned off light. After 90 minutes, it turned out that the recording covers 28 minutes - each file begins with an audible announcement "beep, beep, recording 3 channels" and the previous one file is missing from a few seconds to a few minutes.
Every cable sits Ok.

 

[Mtrev]

I observed a strange behavior of the Viofo A139 (3ch). I connected it directly to the 12V battery of the car in the garage in driving mode, turned off the light and went. After 30 minutes I looked in and when I turned on the light I heard "beep, beep, recording 3 channels". Similarly, every time I turned on the previously turned off light. After 90 minutes, it turned out that the recording covers 28 minutes - each file begins with an audible announcement "beep, beep, recording 3 channels" and the previous one file is missing from a few seconds to a few minutes.
Every cable sits Ok.

Is it not in park mode with event detection turned on?

 

[drillman]

Is it not in park mode with event detection turned on?

100% not. Cables connected to + was red & yellow. And files was in app root folder, not in Parking folder (and names was without P).