Anybody use the A119 V3 as a rear dashcam?

OK, maybe a dumb question or just a matter of my morning coffee not kicking in yet (I hope it's the latter) but will the RTC battery recharge with the camera connected to a power supply and turned off?... or does the camera need to be turned on?
Needs to be running
 
One snag after another.

When plugged into a wall socket it wanted a TFCard (SDCard). Then when you turn off recording the screen saver doesn't cut in.

I'm going to run it in 4 hour stints till I hit 48 hours.
Just put a memory card in it is easier
 
I should have clarified, I did put a card in.

Do I turn off recording and have the screen on permanently or allow recording so the screen turns off. Currently allowing recording as it seems to run cooler.
 
Just what I've done :)

Only 40 hours to go .........
 
I am running two A119V3 front and back. The front one is wired to a constant on with GPS module. The back without GPS wired to an accessory wire, reason to skip the GPS module is using the low profile mount I will not see the camera in rear view mirror as the cam was hidden completely by the top of the hatch trim. My back window is 15% tinted though so the image is quite a bit darker, had to crank up the exposure a bit. I chose to trun two A119V3 rather than a dual channel is cost for the image quality. I can't find a 2K rear view cam that close to the cost of two A119. The 2 channel cam with 2k rearview is the Thinkware U1000 and it's way too pricy. Also, I don't want to have to run a cable from fron to back. I was able to tap into a power wire in the trunk area, simplicity of wiring. And also one can argue two independent cams can back each other up incase of failure. Now I am thinking having two more to cover the sides so I get 360 degree coverage, but that's a project for later.
Only thing about the A119V3 is I am struggling with the parking mode, going into and coming out. I have the A119V3 wired to a constant hot lead in the front, I didn't use the 3 wire kit as there was already existing wiring in the head liner area I don't need to run any wire from the dash area up. And I don't want to have to run another wire to provide acc signal. After some fiddling around, I was able to get hold of v2.0T preleased firmware and it seems to be working. The A119 goes into parking mode after some period of on motion and goes into driving mode after the car start moving. Previous firmware v1.03 the A119V3 won't go into parking mode for hours and if it does go into parking mode it won't go back to driving mode. So I end up with hours of parked footage at full bit rate, and when driving I end up with short 45s parking footage because the cam refuses to come out of parking mode. This is a really stupid thing Viofo did. Not sure if it's unintentional bug in the software or intentional to drive people to use the 3 wire kit. If the new firmware is not working consistently I may have to abandon A119V3 for the front cam and maybe go with 70mai pro which uses the same Sony sensor with similar image quality. We'll see after couple days with the v2.0 firmware.
 
This is interesting info, 'cause I'm considering buying another A119v3 for the back window.

Living in a relatively cold area, I'm paranoid about running the car's battery down, and reluctant to spend big bucks on a battery. Therefore, although the parking mode works fine, I am thinking of doing without and just running off ACC power. Now, I reach up and turn off the unit-that'd be hard to do with the back unit.

I hear it's not wise to just tap into wires in modern cars', so I'll probably run a wire from the fusebox. The hatchback design will make it harder to route wires. The rear windshield wiper just seems to sweep to the top in the center.

I added the power consumption table, from Viofo, because I thought it was interesting.



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@Velvetfoot Thanks for posting the power-consumption chart, it will be useful to many in deciding their approach to cam choice (y)

I am surprised at the numbers for the old WR-1, a much lower spec cam yet with the same power consumption as far better cams :oops: I run some old IMX323 cams made by others and now I'm wondering if I should make some changes myself if they are drawing similar power which they probably are.

Phil
 
@Velvetfoot Thanks for posting the power-consumption chart, it will be useful to many in deciding their approach to cam choice (y)

I am surprised at the numbers for the old WR-1, a much lower spec cam yet with the same power consumption as far better cams :oops: I run some old IMX323 cams made by others and now I'm wondering if I should make some changes myself if they are drawing similar power which they probably are.

Phil
I suspect those WR-1 figures were at 5 volts, not the 12 volts shown!

The most efficient camera is the Blueskysea B1W, IIRC that gets down to 0.5W when in motion detect parking mode and under 1W in normal recording. (It's a while since I looked at the figures so I might be wrong, but it is definitely low powered.)
 
For my car it makes sense to just tap into the interior wire as it's a Tesla Model S, all the fuses are in the trunk nothing in the interior. And taping wire to run dashcam, radar detector in a Model S is well documented so I feel safe to do so. For Tesla and EVs in general there is no fear of running the 12V battery flat because of the giant drive battery constantly top off the 12V. As for running wire to the hatch, my advice is to use a wire fishing tape or rod, I bought a roll of nylon wire fishing tapes from Harbor Freight Tools for less than $10. Cut the metal end off because I don't want to scratch my car. Then use the nylon rod which is flexible enough to find ways through cracks but stiff enough to be push through crowded area. Then fish the wire in stages from inside of the car through the rubber gromet to the hatch.
Next couple days I plan to sort out the parking mode on constant power without the third wire acc situation with firmware v2.0T, that's for the front camera. The rear cam is on ignition switched power and it's great as a rear cam. You can't find a better 2k rear cam at any price point. Not sure why dash cam makers always skimp on rearview coverage as the rear collision is just important and for parking you need to cover the car all the way around anyway. That's my future plan to have 4 cams one for each direction, but for now, front and back coverage is sufficient.
 
That's nice about your humongous battery!
I ordered another A119V3 yesterday. Didn't order a wiring kit since I'm going to see if the kit I had from my previous cam works (no parking mode...just power).
I rigged up a whatever you want to call it, to get power from one ACC fuse to both yellow and red of the front HK3 kit, and the rear unit. Have yet to test it.
Going to take a run over to HF From the picture, it looks like string trimmer line on steroids, and suited for the job. The less trim I have to take off the better...that's not in my wheelhouse, for sure.

IMG_20200705_082919396.jpg
 
The HK3 hardwire adapter is not behaving as I thought it should.
(Bear in mind, I had one made for another make dashcam, with the yellow and red wires reversed, but it worked fine in Parking Mode.)
I've decided that I'm going to eliminate parking mode and to only power from an ACC fuse.
I removed the yellow wire (remember the colors are reversed), thinking that unnecessary connections to, in the case, the car's locking system, weren't desirable, and connected it to the red wire, so that both wires were fed by ACC.
When I power down the car, the unit's REC light blinks and the unit shuts down.
If I restart the car within a short period, the unit starts up as it should.
IF, however, I wait, say 10 minutes, (that's what I tested), when the car is turned on, the unit does not turn on without depressing the power button on the unit.

Do I need a two wire adapter kit?
 
With 3-wire kits, if you want it to act like a 2-wire kit you need to tie the red and yellow together- they both need powering. If that's not working properly then there may be another problem.

Phil
 
I just got a do-hickey in the mail that plugs into the cigarette lighter, has two USB ports, and has a readout Volts and Amps.
I got it before I abandoned using parking mode. thinking it could show the state of the battery.
It read .217 amps for the A119v3, where the table above has .180, so I don't know.
It could be possible to use the USB cable supplied with the unit, and use the second port for the rear camera, avoiding the fuse box.
Would the USB cable be more reliable, ie, less voltage drop, than the hardwire kit?

Edit: I just noticed that the unit's included USB adapter already has two USB ports; and, they are the higher amperage, if I read it correctly. The doo-hickey I got has one high and one low amp port.

Also, plugging the jack from the unit's included cigarette lighter adapter to the unit itself (difficult to get into the GPS sensor), made the unit work as it should: on with ACC power on, even after a 20 minute wait, unlike the situation above with the HK3.

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I just installed the A119v3 in the back. Works great.
I tried to miss the electric defroster wires with the lens, but I don't know; I don't notice anything.
 
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