A139 Pro Stopped Recording Suddenly

[TonyM]

About 20min from home on a 4-hour round trip today the camera shut down suddenly, with the last video files from both front & rear cameras being corrupted.

I have notification sounds turned off, so I did not notice anything was wrong until I parked at home and saw no lights on the camera.

There is 11.5GB free on the Viofo 128GB card, so it had not yet started looping. Settings are 4K30(F) + 1080p30(R), max bitrate, HDR-ON. FW V1.0_1115.

I'm using the HK3-C hardwire kit connected to a dashcam battery which is fully-charged after the long trip.

I know that the power supply and the memory card are the most likely suspects, rather than the A139 Pro camera, so I will investigate those components first.

Has anyone else experienced a sudden shutdown of the camera?

 

[Dimson75]

На карте Viofo 128GB свободно 11,5гб, так что зацикливаться пока не начал. Настройки: 4K30(F) + 1080p30(R), максимальный битрейт, HDR-ON. Микропрограмма V1.0_1115.

What memory card are you using?
Run the test in the program CrystalDiskMark

 

[TonyM]

What memory card are you using?

The new Viofo 128GB card that came with the A139 Pro

 

[TonyM]

My thoughts so far:

I don't think it is a power supply problem. If there was a sudden loss of power while recording, that is no different to switching off the ignition when the camera has a simple 5v USB supply. The camera should save the current file(s) then shut down normally. My last front and rear video files are corrupt, indicating an uncontrolled shutdown.

If the HK3-C could not supply enough current to the camera I suppose that could cause a shutdown? I'm running the A139 Pro in 2CH mode so the HK3-C should be OK. I don't have any other cameras connected to the 12v sockets of the dashcam battery.

A faulty capacitor could cause the last files to not be closed and saved correctly, but I was still driving so the capacitor should not have been doing anything. I would be extremely surprised if I experienced a power supply AND a capacitor failure at the same time.

I'm not sure how the A139 Pro reacts to a card problem? Assuming that the camera has power, I would normally expect a card problem to result in the REC light flashing, rather than the camera turning off and not trying to re-boot.

I should add that it is winter here in the UK, so overheating is not an issue.

 

[kamkar]

The fact your last files are corrupted, at least to me seem like there are something more serious wrong with the camera itself

Have you tried to change in between H.265 and H.265 formats just for the hell of it, maybe tried a lesser bitrate,,,,,,, bit of a long shot though.

 

[LateralNW]

A faulty capacitor could cause the last files to not be closed and saved correctly, but I was still driving so the capacitor should not have been doing anything. I would be extremely surprised if I experienced a power supply AND a capacitor failure at the same time.

I think the capacitors are constantly getting charged while it has power.
Depending on the circuit design it might be using the capacitors to cycle them.

 

[TonyM]

Test 1
Without starting the car, a long-press on the power button turned on the A139 Pro as normal.

Conclusions:
A139 Pro is not dead!
Dashcam battery is charged
HK3-C can supply power to the A139 Pro

Test 2
Enabled WiFi to check camera settings

Conclusion:
Nothing has changed. Setup looks normal.

Test 3 - ongoing
I have removed the Viofo 128GB Industrial V30 U3 A1 card. I will run a series of tests on it.

Test 4 - ongoing
I have put a Viofo 64GB U3 card in the camera and started a long duration recording test. At this point I'm not removing the HW kit cabling and remote cameras from the car, so the test is 1CH 4K30 at maximum bitrate.

 

[TonyM]

Test 3 - Results
Test results on the Viofo 128GB V30 U3 A1 card





Conclusion: The card appears to be OK

 

[TonyM]

The fact your last files are corrupted, at least to me seem like there are something more serious wrong with the camera itself

Have you tried to change in between H.265 and H.265 formats just for the hell of it, maybe tried a lesser bitrate,,,,,,, bit of a long shot though.

I do hope it's not the camera, but I'm trying to figure that out.

I could switch to H265 or drop the bitrate, but it should work with typical settings that most people will use.

 

[TonyM]

Test 4

24hrs of 1CH 4K30 continuous recording completed without any issues, using a 5V 2.4A USB desktop charger for the power supply, and a simple USB power meter.



90.068Wh / 24hrs = 3.75W average, which matches the 1CH 4K 2160p test results from @rcg530

 

[TonyM]

I'm not quite sure what to test next? So far everything looks OK, but something must have caused the sudden shutdown a few days ago

I can try a long duration test in the car, using the same setup (2CH 4K 2160p + 1080p) as I had when the shutdown occurred.

 

[TonyM]

This morning my A139 Pro stopped recording for 16 seconds, then continued as normal. I heard the double-beep 7 times. I have all sound alerts on, but voice notifications are off.

The card is a WD Purple 256GB U3 V30. Camera settings 1CH 4K30, HDR off, Max bitrate.

 

[LateralNW]

This morning my A139 Pro stopped recording for 16 seconds, then continued as normal. I heard the double-beep 7 times. I have all sound alerts on, but voice notifications are off.

The card is a WD Purple 256GB U3 V30. Camera settings 1CH 4K30, HDR off, Max bitrate.

The T130 intermittently would do the same ie shutdown while driving and restart.
Its saving grace is it restarted in about 5secs.
My first test T130 went through a stage where it was rebooting every minute regardless if the rear camera was connected.
Memory cards seemed to make no difference.
I bench tested it first leaving it without power for about a week.
I could not replicate the problem after that.
I had experimented with turning off parking mode but that was inconclusive.

The dash cam failed completely a couple of months later.
Viofo was kind enough to send me another I just paid the shipping to a site within Australia and they sent the replacement to me free freight.

The conclusion I arrived at which is just my opinion is it was a test unit so may have been slightly different to the release units and that a component failed.

Component failure has not been an issue with the 3x other various viofo dashcams I have in family cars.

Perhaps it's a 3 camera only problem?

Cheers D.

 

[TonyM]

The conclusion I arrived at which is just my opinion is it was a test unit so may have been slightly different to the release units and that a component failed.

Component failure has not been an issue with the 3x other various viofo dashcams I have in family cars.

Perhaps it's a 3 camera only problem?

I've been happy with most of the test and purchased Viofo cameras I've had in recent years.

The two problems I experienced were in 2CH and 1CH mode.

 

[TonyM]

This weekend I plan to disconnect the HK3-C from the A139 Pro and use the supplied 12v-to-USB adapter instead, to rule out any power supply issues from my PowerCore dashcam battery.

 

[gb25]

I'm on my second A139 Pro and I've had nothing but problems. The first one would randomly stop recording then start recording. Sometimes it would go in to parking mode and just stop recording, even using the included 12v lighter adapter. When it did record there were horizontal lines in the image, random flickering and eventually bad static image flickering.

The second A139 Pro (received as a replacement for the first one) works better in 4k, but 2k 60fps is unusable. In 60fps mode, it randomly stops and restarts recording all the time and the image is just static. Also, using parking mode with the hardwire kit, the camera won't respond after sitting. I've got the timer set to 12 hours, and if it goes longer than that I have to unplug the power to get the camera to respond.

I've done all kinds of troubleshooting and haven't found a solution. At this point the only thing I haven't changed is the gps adapter. I've tried two different hardwire kits, two different microsd cards. I'm only running it in one channel and it doesn't work. The image quality is good when it works but it's so flaky and unreliable, and I haven't even tried 2ch or 3ch yet.

Attached screenshot shows the static image when recording 60fps mode. Also, notice the file size of the one video. It's like 3x the file size of the 4k videos.

Here's a couple of videos...

a139 pro bad image
a139 pro stops recording

 

[TonyM]

I'm on my second A139 Pro and I've had nothing but problems. The first one would randomly stop recording then start recording. Sometimes it would go in to parking mode and just stop recording, even using the included 12v lighter adapter. When it did record there were horizontal lines in the image, random flickering and eventually bad static image flickering.

The second A139 Pro (received as a replacement for the first one) works better in 4k, but 2k 60fps is unusable. In 60fps mode, it randomly stops and restarts recording all the time and the image is just static. Also, using parking mode with the hardwire kit, the camera won't respond after sitting. I've got the timer set to 12 hours, and if it goes longer than that I have to unplug the power to get the camera to respond.

That's worrying that you have had two bad units.

I've not seen any flickering, static or other video issues like yours.

Have you tried it indoors with a 2A or better USB power supply, like a phone charger?

 

[gb25]

Yeah, the first one didn't seem to do any better. The second one did okay for the most part on a better usb power supply. Even the picture quality in 2k 60fps seem to do fine. The only thing that was weird then was that it would go in to parking mode after like 5 minutes of being powered up. I have no idea how the parking is supposed to work but I thought it needed some kind of trigger from the hardwire kit to start parking mode.

I'm still thinking the hardwire kit might be the problem. I've tried two different ones, including one I just bought off amazon like a week ago. I've read that maybe there were some revisions to the hk3-c and the newer version is better? I don't know if this is true or how to tell the difference and I don't want to keep buying them to try to get one that works.

 

[Panzer Platform]

I've not seen any flickering, static or other video issues like yours.

I've seen that flickering issue before when I was doing low light testing.
When ambient light drops below a certain level the camera starts freaking out trying to compensate.
Here's a test clip;

 

[TonyM]

Yeah, the first one didn't seem to do any better. The second one did okay for the most part on a better usb power supply. Even the picture quality in 2k 60fps seem to do fine. The only thing that was weird then was that it would go in to parking mode after like 5 minutes of being powered up. I have no idea how the parking is supposed to work but I thought it needed some kind of trigger from the hardwire kit to start parking mode.

After 5 minutes of the car not moving (or specifically, the GPS mount not moving) the A139 Pro will switch from normal to parking mode.

The hardwire kit will trigger the switch from normal to parking mode as soon as there is no voltage on the ACC connection.