Anyone elses A129 Pro turns off during parking mode?

[CaptureYourAction]

I assume that 32C was outside temp, which means inside, with windows up, it is much hotter. Built in car thermometers are usually measuring outside temperatures.

 

[programatix]

I assume that 32C was outside temp, which means inside, with windows up, it is much hotter. Built in car thermometers are usually measuring outside temperatures.

It's the built-in car temperature displayed in the dashboard. I'll try putting a digital thermometer inside my car tomorrow and monitor. The thing is, I first have to charge my car battery by driving it around. Usually I don't really go out during weekends because of the movement control in my country.

Anyway attached is Viofo's reply on the shutdown temperature. I'm not sure the 100 degree mentioned is C or F though. I read reviews online and many of them state the shutdown temperature is 60°C, or is it 65°C?

On sdcard, I checked that most cards (eg Samsung EVO Plus) operating temperature is to 85°C. This include those very high-end cards (Samsung Pro Plus and SanDisk Extreme) and endurance cards. So we should rule out that for the sdcard as the cause of shutdown due to temperature?

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[SawMaster]

If it were a card problem, the usual indication of failure is the card going into write-protect mode, which the cam would notify you of. Sometimes file corruption shows up instead. But if you can view all the files the cam writes without any problem and it's not write-protected, it's very unlikely there's a card problem.

Same as with hardware, the temp number given for cards is where the manufacturer felt was safe to give warranty, in RL you can usually go past that without problems but nobody can tell you how far past that you can go.

Phil

 

[Aly_Oops]

While you are monitoring the temperature, also monitor your battery voltage when vehicle is parked. Be sure not to start or turn things on. You will be surprise just how much of a voltage drop will occur after 2 hours or more. (Unless 100 healthy battery)

 

[programatix]

While you are monitoring the temperature, also monitor your battery voltage when vehicle is parked. Be sure not to start or turn things on. You will be surprise just how much of a voltage drop will occur after 2 hours or more. (Unless 100 healthy battery)

Doesn't the HK3 supposed to handle that? We already have someone here that said once the HK3 disconnect the power (red led inside it turned off), it won't turn back on unless the ACC gets power and the power input is more than 13V.

So, as long as the red led inside the HK3 is still on, the battery voltage can be ruled out, no?

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[dr_ramoray]

While you are monitoring the temperature, also monitor your battery voltage when vehicle is parked. Be sure not to start or turn things on. You will be surprise just how much of a voltage drop will occur after 2 hours or more. (Unless 100 healthy battery)

indeed it could be a voltage problem, but this user reports the cam runs fine all night, during the day is when it shuts off... https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...rns-off-during-parking-mode.40997/post-516165

im more inclined to believe its a thermal issue rather than battery.

we all know batteries and heat dont play nice, so i guess its possible that the battery is getting pretty old, and the added heat of the day is enough to drop the charge on the battery just below the threshold.

however i believe this same user also posted about swapping cameras with an a129 and it would record all day. i know the a129 pro will pull a little more power, but this all kind of seems like a thermal thing to me.

 

[programatix]

indeed it could be a voltage problem, but this user reports the cam runs fine all night, during the day is when it shuts off... https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...rns-off-during-parking-mode.40997/post-516165

im more inclined to believe its a thermal issue rather than battery.

we all know batteries and heat dont play nice, so i guess its possible that the battery is getting pretty old, and the added heat of the day is enough to drop the charge on the battery just below the threshold.

however i believe this same user also posted about swapping cameras with an a129 and it would record all day. i know the a129 pro will pull a little more power, but this all kind of seems like a thermal thing to me.

How come everyone is ignoring the HK3 cut off power thing? If the red led is still on, it never occurred, thus it has nothing to do with the battery.

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[dr_ramoray]

its not that I, personally, am necessarily ignoring the hk3... i just dont think this is a battery issue either..

EDIT: lets assume for a second.. that the you park the car, camera is recording fine, battery voltage drops below threshold. cuts power to camera, some time passes and since there is less draw on the battery it regains a bit of charge, putting it over the cutoff limit you set... wouldnt that turn the red light back on? thus seemingly indicating that the power never dropped below threshold. but indeed it did.

again, i do think this is a thermal issue, but weird things happen in electronics. very, very, very weird things can happen, so anything is possible

 

[programatix]

I did the test this morning and the result is inconclusive. It's not something a "normal consumer" can accurately test out. I had my car running for half an hour from 8:00am to 8:30am (without moving) and parked it under a tree. By 10:30am. the dashcam is already turned off. I checked the HK3 and the red LED is "dimmed". I think a power cut off has occurred. The multimeter reading at that time is 12.9V. I believe when it turned off, it should be around 12.8V. The configured cut-off voltage is 12.2V though. So, letting the engine running for half an hour is insufficient to charge the battery for testing. Btw, the temperature inside the car was 33°C at 11:30am and around 39°C at 12:00pm. I used a digital thermometer placed on the dashboard.

I did a little more tests on the HK3.

• The red LED will light up whenever it has input power. However it will be dimmed, until the ACC line has power or the BAT line input is more than 13V. This will make the red LED "bright".
• If the ACC line received power but the voltage is less than 13V, the HK3 will provide power to the dashcam, but after around 1 to 2 minutes of losing power from ACC line, it will cut off power to the dashcam and the red LED will be dimmed.
• If the ACC line received power with voltage more than 13V, then the HK3 will behave "normally" when ACC line stopped recieving power.

The above observation means that, if you want to test the parking mode properly, you need to start the engine before turning it off and let the dashcam enter parking mode. I believe only @viofo is able to provide us more details on HK3 behaviour.

I also noted that even with 12.2V as the cut off voltage set, my HK3 cut off power to the dashcam whenever the voltage reading from the fuse to the BAT is ~12.8V. Is my HK3 faulty or not working as it should?

The following are the results of my previous tests (HK3 cut off power set to 12.0V).

• With resolution set to 1080p, 1440p and 4K, at night (after driving home from work), it is able to record in parking mode from 8:30pm to 7:30am. It's still on when I enter the car.
• With resolution set to 1080p, at day time (after driving to work), it is able to record in parking mode from 9:00am to 7:30pm. It's still on when I enter the car.
• With resolution set to 1440p and 4K, at day time, it always turn off at around 10:30am to 1:30pm. Most of the time, it turned off at around 11:00am.

Again, as a "normal consumer", most of us don't actually have the time to actually perform a "professional" testing on the dashcam (and HK3) as the car battery need to be fully charged first before starting the tests. I can only do so when I drive to work. However, when I am at work, I couldn't be sitting in the car monitoring the voltage, the temperature and the dashcam, right? Also after work at 7:30pm, it would be too dark for me to open up the compartment to reach the fuse box and the HK3. Additionally, whenever I start my car engine, the voltage reading will go beyond 13V and after turning it off immediately, it stays above 13V for more than 5 minutes (it decreases very very very slow).

Attached at photos of my set-up. The HK3 red LED taken is when it is in "dimmed" mode. For the ground, I piggy-back on the existing ground cable. I think it's the GPS module of my car navigator.

 

[airflame]

I did the test this morning and the result is inconclusive. It's not something a "normal consumer" can accurately test out. I had my car running for half an hour from 8:00am to 8:30am (without moving) and parked it under a tree. By 10:30am. the dashcam is already turned off. I checked the HK3 and the red LED is "dimmed". I think a power cut off has occurred. The multimeter reading at that time is 12.9V. I believe when it turned off, it should be around 12.8V. The configured cut-off voltage is 12.2V though. So, letting the engine running for half an hour is insufficient to charge the battery for testing. Btw, the temperature inside the car was 33°C at 11:30am and around 39°C at 12:00pm. I used a digital thermometer placed on the dashboard.

I did a little more tests on the HK3.

• The red LED will light up whenever it has input power. However it will be dimmed, until the ACC line has power or the BAT line input is more than 13V. This will make the red LED "bright".
• If the ACC line received power but the voltage is less than 13V, the HK3 will provide power to the dashcam, but after around 1 to 2 minutes of losing power from ACC line, it will cut off power to the dashcam and the red LED will be dimmed.
• If the ACC line received power with voltage more than 13V, then the HK3 will behave "normally" when ACC line stopped recieving power.

The above observation means that, if you want to test the parking mode properly, you need to start the engine before turning it off and let the dashcam enter parking mode. I believe only @viofo is able to provide us more details on HK3 behaviour.

I also noted that even with 12.2V as the cut off voltage set, my HK3 cut off power to the dashcam whenever the voltage reading from the fuse to the BAT is ~12.8V. Is my HK3 faulty or not working as it should?

The following are the results of my previous tests (HK3 cut off power set to 12.0V).

• With resolution set to 1080p, 1440p and 4K, at night (after driving home from work), it is able to record in parking mode from 8:30pm to 7:30am. It's still on when I enter the car.
• With resolution set to 1080p, at day time (after driving to work), it is able to record in parking mode from 9:00am to 7:30pm. It's still on when I enter the car.
• With resolution set to 1440p and 4K, at day time, it always turn off at around 10:30am to 1:30pm. Most of the time, it turned off at around 11:00am.

Again, as a "normal consumer", most of us don't actually have the time to actually perform a "professional" testing on the dashcam (and HK3) as the car battery need to be fully charged first before starting the tests. I can only do so when I drive to work. However, when I am at work, I couldn't be sitting in the car monitoring the voltage, the temperature and the dashcam, right? Also after work at 7:30pm, it would be too dark for me to open up the compartment to reach the fuse box and the HK3. Additionally, whenever I start my car engine, the voltage reading will go beyond 13V and after turning it off immediately, it stays above 13V for more than 5 minutes (it decreases very very very slow).

Attached at photos of my set-up. The HK3 red LED taken is when it is in "dimmed" mode. For the ground, I piggy-back on the existing ground cable. I think it's the GPS module of my car navigator.

Thx god i changed back from pro to normal dashcam. Now having no problem the camera is running 24/7 on HK3 no beeps, power cut off, restarts.

 

[lisu]

Thx god i changed back from pro to normal dashcam. Now having no problem the camera is running 24/7 on HK3 no beeps, power cut off, restarts.

Sell us the name of that camera.
I had two main problems with this camera, slow card and overheating. When changed my card to viofo 64gb stops double beeps, but I didn't find a solution with overheating.
I tried to mount a 5V fan (20mmx20mmx10mm) on the side of the camera, but the fan wasn't efficient enough. I'm currently struggling with a discharged battery and I hope it's not by HK3. After a week's stop, I can't start the engine.

 

[HonestReview]

Sell us the name of that camera.
I had two main problems with this camera, slow card and overheating. When changed my card to viofo 64gb stops double beeps, but I didn't find a solution with overheating.
I tried to mount a 5V fan (20mmx20mmx10mm) on the side of the camera, but the fan wasn't efficient enough. I'm currently struggling with a discharged battery and I hope it's not by HK3. After a week's stop, I can't start the engine.

I believe he's referring to the A129 Duo instead of Pro. Cutoffs can be due to voltage. The Hk3 has a voltage selection on the hardwire kit. 12.6 = 100%, 12.4 = 75%, 12.2 = 50%, 12.0 = 25%, and 11.8 = Dead Battery.

I set my Duo to 12.2. So I occasionally will find my A129 Duo powered off if I haven't driven enough to recharge battery. This would be the first logical step. Second could be an issue with memory card. Third could be overheating. However, I haven't followed this thread enough to really say if others are experiencing a shutoff issue or not. So overheating is out of my expertise without reading everyone's post.

 

[Nath]

...
I had two main problems with this camera, slow card and overheating. When changed my card to viofo 64gb stops double beeps, but I didn't find a solution with overheating.
I tried to mount a 5V fan (20mmx20mmx10mm) on the side of the camera, but the fan wasn't efficient enough. I'm currently struggling with a discharged battery and I hope it's not by HK3. After a week's stop, I can't start the engine.

You can check if Viofo didn't forget to use a thermal paste in your camera. Me and other user disassembled our A129Pros and one of them hadn't a thermal paste applied under the heatsink. (then the fan won't help much)

 

[programatix]

You can check if Viofo didn't forget to use a thermal paste in your camera. [emoji14] Me and other user disassembled our A129Pros and one of them hadn't a thermal paste applied under the heatsink. (then the fan won't help much)

You mean Viofo doesn't put the a129 pro to QA test?

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[airflame]

Sell us the name of that camera.

Viofo A129 DUO

 

[Nath]

You mean Viofo doesn't put the a129 pro to QA test?

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Don't know but according to the another user's experience there are probably some of them which slips through. (mine had perhaps even more than necessary )

 

[HonestReview]

Don't know but according to the another user's experience there are probably some of them which slips through. (mine had perhaps even more than necessary )

Mistakes happen in mass production.

 

[Aly_Oops]

Even with a new battery, if you allow it to drop at any time to 50 percent charge (or less), your battery health will be under 100 percent. (with battery analyzer it may read 85% health).

Your car charging system (alternator/Generator) will bring it up to full charge voltage but not fix the health of the battery. After shutting off the vehicle, the voltage will drop slowly to the point that your camera will shut down as set by your HK3. Most will not be even aware of this, as you still able to start up your vehicle in most cases. If parked for days or weeks, it will drop a lot. Running your vehicle for a few hours or even a day, won't fix the issue.

Keep in mind, when your vehicle is parked and key turn off, the vehicle system still draws a low amount of current, more so, if you have the VIOFO park mode enabled and if it get activated often, due to motion and activity around your vehicle, it will draw more current, writing files.

The only way, I was able to resolve this, is using a battery conditioner (Can take 4 hours to fix and days if badly sulphated.). Every month or so, depending, I use my Foxwell BT715 to check the health and determine if I do a condition of the battery, using my NOCO G2600 unit.

As a result, my VIOFO doesn't shut off and through out the night or day, it records the activity.

As I mentioned before, the only glitch is the G force activation when my truck hit a bump, becomes too sensitive when it get very warm. Could be fixed with software update, I think.

This only fixes this particular issue. It is possible to have unrelated issues due to settings, how things are wired, setup and etc. First fix or prove one is not having this issue, then move on to the next issue. It is important that troubleshooting be done in an organize and proper steps, otherwise you will come to wrong diagnoses/conclusion.

Yes, I use HK3, one lead (fused) directly to battery and the ground to the battery Negative post. (I don't use body/chassis of truck for ground.) The other line is connected to a fused circuit that only powered when truck is running/ignition key is on. This tell VIOFO, to go into park mode when it looses power on this line. I don't depend on the idiot light on the HK3 for troubleshooting, as the circuit is unknown/not published.

Poor ground/corroded can cause lots of intermittent issues/problems, like noise, poor shielding issues and beeps, lots of beep can happen. Not doing this right will open you to aggravation. Taking short cut/installations often will never work nicely.