A139 Heat Issues - switching 2Ch & 3Ch mode and beeping

dammit

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I have a Viofo A139 which was going OK (Bought it during winter), looked up SD cards people having success with and have been using the Samsung Micro SDXC 256GB EVO Plus /w Adapter UHS-1 SDR104 (‎MB-MC256HA/APC).

Firmware is: VIOFO_A139_V1.2_0507 (V1.2 0507) - I see it is now latest version V1.6 2021_1217 - should I update to this?

Back in December, on a very sunny day, I first noticed it beeping (as though it does if the G sensor goes off from a large bump), and then it would say "recording - 2-channel" (rather than 3), and it would phase between 2 & 3 channel mode resetting itself. I formatted the card etc and still issue occurred.

It came good for a while and was going OK, but yesterday was another hot day. The camera randomly calls out "recording 2 channel started" "recording 3 channel started" again and again and again. I unplugged the 3rd camera (Interior) and it seemed to settle down. The car was 35 degrees C and outside was about 29 degrees C, it was in the sun.

Here is a snippet of the audio:

The tape also melted off the windscreen/dashcam. (Any suggestion on what product to fix this with)

Is this camera just not able to operate in temperatures like we experience (in Sydney, Australia, FYI) and I should change to a different model, or is it likely to be a faulty camera or SD card, and some other changes I can try? To be honest, I don't truly need 3 channel, I just thought it would be nice as I do plan on some adventure driving holidays and wanted to record video content :) I know there is a thread talking about 3CH dash cams with everything in the main unit exposed to the sun not being at the level they need to be to respond to hot environments.

FWIW, I bought from Amazon and they are happy for me to return it and get a replacement. But, I am not sure if it is operator error, some settings I need to change, or things I should be tinkering with...to get it reliably working. Appreciate any insights!
 
The tape also melted off the windscreen/dashcam. (Any suggestion on what product to fix this with)
Air conditioning?

It is designed to switch to 2 channels if it is too hot to cope with running 3 channels, and then down to 1 channel if absolutely necessary, and ultimately 0 channels; so I don't think there is any need for you to swap to a 2 channel camera manually, it will do it automatically.

Are you experiencing this while driving, or only while parked? It can cope with more heat than I can, but you Ozzies have evolved to cope with a lot more heat than me!

I guess an extra high temperature version of the 3M sticky pads is needed, I think there are some higher temperature ones, the ones Viofo use also have to cope with -30 C in Canada.
 
I see, thanks for the info, when it switches to 2 channel, is there a priority order? Internal camera shuts down first, then rear, then front? That's not too bad if so, I guess. I thought it was a loose wire or something, be good if it says 'overheating'. I haven't hardwired it yet, so I'm only experiencing it when I first get in the car/start driving, once the air con cools the car down a bit then it seems to settle, so I assume it is heat related.

Thanks for the info on the 3M High Temperature, I will look into it. I definitely can't cope with the heat! :)
 
It is possible that there is a connection issue, like you said, it would be good if it said "due to heat", but from what you have said I think it is almost certainly a heat issue, especially with the sticky pad giving up, we don't hear of that happening very often, except when people leave grease or wax polish on the glass before sticking it on - use detergent rather than polish to clean glass, but then it doesn't need much heat to make it fall off.

Possibly it is because you parked facing the sun, and at this time of year the sun is low enough around mid day to directly face the camera rather than hit the roof first. So this may be the worst part of the year rather than mid summer.
 
It is designed to switch to 2 channels if it is too hot to cope with running 3 channels, and then down to 1 channel if absolutely necessary, and ultimately 0 channels; so I don't think there is any need for you to swap to a 2 channel camera manually, it will do it automatically.
Where can you read about it?:unsure:
 
Where can you read about it?:unsure:
@HonestReview did a lot of testing, in a very hot car!

He has a thread about it somewhere, except I think Dashmellow didn't like him, so expelled him from the forum, so it may be hard to find...
 
I see, thanks for the info, when it switches to 2 channel, is there a priority order? Internal camera shuts down first, then rear, then front? That's not too bad if so, I guess. I thought it was a loose wire or something, be good if it says 'overheating'. I haven't hardwired it yet, so I'm only experiencing it when I first get in the car/start driving, once the air con cools the car down a bit then it seems to settle, so I assume it is heat related.

Thanks for the info on the 3M High Temperature, I will look into it. I definitely can't cope with the heat! :)
Please check if this is related to the loose connection. You can try to only use the interior cam or rear cam first to see if the loosen happen it will switch to one channel recording or not.
 
Thanks for the info everyone. After a few tests it definitely seems heat related. It only occurs when hot. I got a new A139 3Ch which I have now setup so will see if the problem occurs with this one.

Can someone confirm good settings for sunny Australia ?

I have 1 min loop, Wdr on, ev front cam +1, 1440 30fps front and 1080 rear and interior. Does this seem good to start? Cpl filter installed. IR internal cam auto. G sensor low. Parking mode off (i will hardwire it very soon once it’s stable).

Frequency 50hz ntsc.

It’s running v1.5_0701, should I upgrade straight to the latest firmware?

Should I buy a new sd card too just in case the old one got heat affected? I’m parking to the east at the moment today and it’s the end of summer but put a towel over the windscreen because I don’t want the sticky pad melting off again. Maybe I should buy the high temp ones.

Thanks for all the help.
 
I just returned my second Viofo A139 with this random cutting out recording/beeping issue.

My first Viofo A139 dash cam(s) had this issue which I posted about last year. Now, it was replaced and I got the same camera again 10 months ago...it's summer again in Australia and with the new camera, this same issue had been occurring. Randomly, it just stopped recording, and beeps. Also sometimes you press the 'protect video mode' and it instead says audio recording off. It occasionally does the "2 channel recording" announcement after beeping, then back to 3 , but most often it just beeps endlessly and reboots itself. I guess it could be a loose connection to one of the cameras, rather than a heat issue, but I doubt it, given it operated fine all the way up until summer. If I unplug the internal and rear camera though, it did stay happily recording on single front channel only. I have a suspicion, not verified, that once these are exposed to significant heat, something melts or is damaged,

Wondering if I bite the bullet and ditch the Viofo A139, given that's 2/2 with problems...or maybe 3rd time lucky if I get a new one? Technically I don't really need an internal 3/ch - I was planning to Uber etc but not doing that now...so just front and rear would do, but I do like to record internal for youtube videos at times etc.. thoughts??
 
I just returned my second Viofo A139 with this random cutting out recording/beeping issue.

My first Viofo A139 dash cam(s) had this issue which I posted about last year. Now, it was replaced and I got the same camera again 10 months ago...it's summer again in Australia and with the new camera, this same issue had been occurring. Randomly, it just stopped recording, and beeps. Also sometimes you press the 'protect video mode' and it instead says audio recording off. It occasionally does the "2 channel recording" announcement after beeping, then back to 3 , but most often it just beeps endlessly and reboots itself. I guess it could be a loose connection to one of the cameras, rather than a heat issue, but I doubt it, given it operated fine all the way up until summer. If I unplug the internal and rear camera though, it did stay happily recording on single front channel only. I have a suspicion, not verified, that once these are exposed to significant heat, something melts or is damaged,

Wondering if I bite the bullet and ditch the Viofo A139, given that's 2/2 with problems...or maybe 3rd time lucky if I get a new one? Technically I don't really need an internal 3/ch - I was planning to Uber etc but not doing that now...so just front and rear would do, but I do like to record internal for youtube videos at times etc.. thoughts??
It looks like a problem with the memory card. The memory card does not cope with three streams of video recording, but it works fine with one.
 
hm, I have been using the samsung evo plus 256gb, which was recommended on here. But the annoying thing is - I wish the dash cam said 'memory card error' or 'heat issue'...or 'connection to camera 3 lost' for instance...rather than just beep or reboot and not know why...maybe I am asking too much! :/
 
hm, I have been using the samsung evo plus 256gb, which was recommended on here. But the annoying thing is - I wish the dash cam said 'memory card error' or 'heat issue'...or 'connection to camera 3 lost' for instance...rather than just beep or reboot and not know why...maybe I am asking too much! :/
You might wanna check the SD Card speeds on your PC with crystaldiskmark.
There have been issues in the past that were caused by a bad SD card.
I actually had a Samsung Evo 256GB sd card go bad in another dashcam.
 
@HonestReview did a lot of testing, in a very hot car!

He has a thread about it somewhere, except I think Dashmellow didn't like him, so expelled him from the forum, so it may be hard to find...

Hadn't seen this post before, but Honest Review got banned (temporarily) because he was habitually abusive to many members, Nigel. (Someone even started a petition to ban him shortly after he signed up.) When he was allowed back onto the forum after a disciplinary period he immediately picked up where he'd left off and started trying to settle scores with several members he had previously been arguing with. The result was he didn't even last 10 days until he was banned permanently.

He then tried to sneak back onto the forum under the name DashCamDelight but numerous members began to recognize who it was because of his behavior and speech patterns and he got banned again, this time for good! It's true, I didn't like HR but I have no power to "expel" anyone from the forum. That's entirely up to DCM and he bases his decisions on people's conduct.
 
It looks like a problem with the memory card. The memory card does not cope with three streams of video recording, but it works fine with one.

I agree it is worth checking the card for errors. However if the camera records 3CH video fine for most of the year but struggles in mid-summer, that sounds more like a camera problem than a card problem.

I guess it could be a loose connection to one of the cameras, rather than a heat issue, but I doubt it, given it operated fine all the way up until summer.
 
However if the camera records 3CH video fine for most of the year but struggles in mid-summer, that sounds more like a camera problem than a card problem.
I completely agree, but there have been cases of a decrease in the speed of writing to a memory card due to its heating.

There were also cases of strong heating of the DVR due to the low write speed to the memory card. The memory card could not cope with the stream recording. (This was on a single chamber model).
 
Was this issue ever resolved? I plan to upgrade to the A139 3 Channel but will use low resolution like 1080/ 30 and low bit rate in Parking Mode.
 
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