Annnnd the dash cam has failed me. (Damaged $5,000 paint job, culprit not caught on camera)

[NKato]

For some reason, it recorded most of Feburary 22nd...and most of February 24th. Not the 23rd. At all. Not even a single February 23rd file.

And you know what? That was the day SOME ****WIT DINGED MY ****ING CAR!!! He wrecked a $5,000 paint job. A paintjob this camera was MEANT TO PROTECT.

What the ****, Viofo!? How the **** does the camera record Saturday, but not Sunday, and yet still record Monday?! What the ACTUAL ****!?

The camera was set to Parking Mode. So it shouldn't have overheated or powered off. It was running off of battery power. And the camera recorded all of the 24th before I got in the car to drive to work.

I am absolutely freaking livid over this.


P.S. Pardon my profanity, but I am still very angry over the damage and the camera's failure to capture the incident at all. Even 18 hours after discovering the damage and having spent a night shift at work. The upside is, the moron parked again next to my car again, and I was able to examine his vehicle...and found the paint transfer damage. Same color, too.

 

[Nath]

I'm sorry, that little dent cost you 5000$? If it isn't Ferrari, Porsche or something like that, i think the painter "failed" you even more... I thought Sunday is non-working day all-over the world, that could be the problem.

Anyway, couldn't be the problem the hardwire kit/batterypack turned off your dashcam (due to discharged battery) and "you" turned it back on by accessing the car on Monday?

 

[NKato]

I'm sorry, that little dent cost you 5000$? If it isn't Ferrari, Porsche or something like that, i think the painter "failed" you even more... I thought Sunday is non-working day all-over the world, that could be the problem.

Anyway, couldn't be the problem the hardwire kit/batterypack turned off your dashcam (due to discharged battery) and "you" turned it back on by accessing the car on Monday?

The entire paint job for the whole body was 5k, the damage itself is $500 at the least just to repair it. And no, the camera somehow didn't record for all of the 23rd. It's definitely not a discharged battery because then my car wouldn't have turned over. (I'm not using a voltage cutoff or auxiliary battery yet)

It recorded on the 22nd and the 24th. Look at the bloody file folder screenshot. See that there isn't any 23rd time stamps? It's ****ed up.

 

[Nath]

By discharged battery i obviously meant the voltage cutoff... (not drained to death) Then how is your camera powered?

I've looked at the "bloody file folder screenshot" and it would perfectly make sense to me. Anyway, i missed the "And the camera recorded all of the 24th before I got in the car to drive to work." part.

 

[Nigel]

The entire paint job for the whole body was 5k, the damage itself is $500 at the least just to repair it. And no, the camera somehow didn't record for all of the 23rd. It's definitely not a discharged battery because then my car wouldn't have turned over. (I'm not using a voltage cutoff or auxiliary battery yet)

It recorded on the 22nd and the 24th. Look at the bloody file folder screenshot. See that there isn't any 23rd time stamps? It's ****ed up.

The 24th shows no parking mode files, the 22nd files are parking mode, so it does look like it shut down on saturday afternoon and then restarted when you drove the car on monday. If it had crashed then it wouldn't have restarted on monday, so it seems likely that something shut it down.

Are you sure there is no low voltage cutoff? Maybe your power adaptor has one you don't know about, maybe your car turns off the accessory sockets on low voltage... there is a good explanation to be found, and many to be eliminated...

What sort of car is it? Don't see much chrome these days!

Is the damage in the image the only damage? It's not clear from the image that it goes through the clear coat, if it does I would expect a dent which I don't see, if it is only clear coat damage then it can just be filled in

And the camera recorded all of the 24th before I got in the car to drive to work.

What time did you "got in the car to drive to work"? Because with no parking mode files on the 24th it looks like it started recording when you started the engine, not at midnight...
...

 

[TonyM]

As Nigel said, the files from the 22nd are parking mode recordings. You will see they have PR at the end of the filename, and are much smaller file size than the regular driving files. The parking mode files end at 3pm on Saturday 22nd. The oldest driving file shown is from 6:24am on Monday, which I understand was recorded before you got in to drive (so the camera was recording in normal mode before you got in?).

AFAIK, The A129 Pro operates separate loop processes for the parking and driving files. What I think might have happened is that the camera switched from parking mode to normal recording, quite possibly at 3pm on Saturday. I have seen this behaviour sometimes on my beta test camera. If this did happen, then your camera would have sat there for a long time writing those much larger 3.8GB files, which inevitably have to be overwritten in the loop process, which is why you don't see any driving files for the 23rd.



That's just my theory on what might have happened.

Have you checked the other folders to see if there are any RO recordings on the card?

 

[NKato]

The 24th shows no parking mode files, the 22nd files are parking mode, so it does look like it shut down on saturday afternoon and then restarted when you drove the car on monday. If it had crashed then it wouldn't have restarted on monday, so it seems likely that something shut it down.

Are you sure there is no low voltage cutoff? Maybe your power adaptor has one you don't know about, maybe your car turns off the accessory sockets on low voltage... there is a good explanation to be found, and many to be eliminated...

What sort of car is it? Don't see much chrome these days!

Is the damage in the image the only damage? It's not clear from the image that it goes through the clear coat, if it does I would expect a dent which I don't see, if it is only clear coat damage then it can just be filled in

What time did you "got in the car to drive to work"? Because with no parking mode files on the 24th it looks like it started recording when you started the engine, not at midnight...
...

I go to work at 2PM, usually. Today, I got up earlier and left the apartment between 1 and 2. And no, the damage goes RIGHT down to the primer. The primer coat is gray. You can see that there is a lack of metallic paint where the damage is. So no, it's a significant amount of damage.

It's a 2010 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor that I've been restoring.

 

[NKato]

As Nigel said, the files from the 22nd are parking mode recordings. You will see they have PR at the end of the filename, and are much smaller file size than the regular driving files. The parking mode files end at 3pm on Saturday 22nd. The oldest driving file shown is from 6:24am on Monday, which I understand was recorded before you got in to drive (so the camera was recording in normal mode before you got in?).

AFAIK, The A129 Pro operates separate loop processes for the parking and driving files. What I think might have happened is that the camera switched from parking mode to normal recording, quite possibly at 3pm on Saturday. I have seen this behaviour sometimes on my beta test camera. If this did happen, then your camera would have sat there for a long time writing those much larger 3.8GB files, which inevitably have to be overwritten in the loop process, which is why you don't see any driving files for the 23rd.

View attachment 50724

That's just my theory on what might have happened.

Have you checked the other folders to see if there are any RO recordings on the card?

There are no other recordings. The entire folder was too long to show, so this was like only half of it. The rest of the folder is footage on the 24th.

 

[NKato]

By discharged battery i obviously meant the voltage cutoff... (not drained to death) Then how is your camera powered?

I've looked at the "bloody file folder screenshot" and it would perfectly make sense to me. Anyway, i missed the "And the camera recorded all of the 24th before I got in the car to drive to work." part.

Camera is plugged into the ACC outlet that is always on even when the car is turned off (due to being a police car, that's how it was wired).

I even DELIBERATELY switch the camera's parking mode on (by turning it to auto event detection), because it has a habit of staying in parking mode during normal driving. Apparently the auto event detection may be the reason why it **** the bed.

 

[TonyM]

It still seems like something caused your A129 Pro to switch from parking mode to normal recording mode, so now you're left with parking files from the 22nd and the most recent normal files from the 24th.

 

[Nigel]

It still seems like something caused your A129 Pro to switch from parking mode to normal recording mode, so now you're left with parking files from the 22nd and the most recent normal files from the 24th.

If it is not connected to the HK3, could it be due to a poor GPS signal making it see movement? Maybe due to being parked under cover?

 

[CaptureYourAction]

There are no other recordings. The entire folder was too long to show, so this was like only half of it. The rest of the folder is footage on the 24th.

Do you have any normal driving files from before the 24th on the card? Also, what size card are you using?

 

[TonyM]

If it is not connected to the HK3, could it be due to a poor GPS signal making it see movement? Maybe due to being parked under cover?

I did think of that, but then it should switch back to parking mode after a few minutes of no movement

 

[NKato]

Do you have any normal driving files from before the 24th on the card? Also, what size card are you using?

128gb and larger. I use two cards. The Samsung and the SanDisk. I think there's some driving files but not sure. I really need to get the HK3 installed...

 

[CaptureYourAction]

128gb and larger. I use two cards. The Samsung and the SanDisk. I think there's some driving files but not sure. I really need to get the HK3 installed...

With a 128GB card, you would have less than 5 hours or regular recording time. Add all the parking mode files that are on a different looping cycle, you have much less. If you had no regular files before the 24th, is plausible they were erased as part of the looping of the regular files.

 

[NKato]

With a 128GB card, you would have less than 5 hours or regular recording time. Add all the parking mode files that are on a different looping cycle, you have much less. If you had no regular files before the 24th, is plausible they were erased as part of the looping of the regular files.

Yup. I need to find a configuration that will work properly. One that I can manually turn parking mode on, in the absence of a hardwire kit.

 

[CharlieG]

400 or 512gb card and low bitrate parking mode, or time lapse parking should meet your needs. Also if you turned the regular recording bitrate to medium or low you would have a LOT more hours of recording and still have the same front bitrate as a black web or other competitors.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

The A129 officially supports up to 256GB. If you use larger cards, be diligent with checking on the camera and files.

 

[Nigel]

The A129 officially supports up to 256GB. If you use larger cards, be diligent with checking on the camera and files.

I think 512GB is not recommended at the moment for A129 and especially A129 Pro unless the card is formatted regularly, however the upcoming firmware release will hopefully solve the issues and work fine with 512GB. Meanwhile you can always partition your card to a smaller size for reliability and the card wear leveling will still ensure the extended lifetime of a larger card by making use of the whole physical memory space.

 

[SawMaster]

And this is why I've never used or trusted detect-activated parking modes other than for testing purposes If you MUST have a recording, then only low-bitrate, short-duration time-lapse. or regular recording will guarantee that you get it.

Not a Viofo problem, failure to record can and does happen with every brand of cam which uses detection-based parking mode

Phil