CDV300 Series Firmware

[JooVuu.allen]

Just want to know if the product will be supported as features are modified, and if anyone has dealt with TCL before.

Things like:

1) The ability to turn off the power on/off sounds (without hacking firmware)
2) Improve the parking mode (would need a better battery)
etc.

Reporting bugs - where would that be done? to the distributor or manufacturer?
If reported how well is TCL with providing a fix? would the fix come from TCL or the distributor?

TCL overseas sales department seem focus on sales qty mainly

 

[tmanz]

So... because I didn't hear any concrete evidence against the CDV300X, I went ahead and bought one. I must say I'm happy I did. If I have time I'll produce a proper review.

In summary: I have had no GPS issues - it locks within a minute. I have been able to use a 64GB MicroSD card (11.5Hours @ 1296p) - it loops without a problem and absolutely no corruption. I've been able to modify the firmware to silence the sound and upload my own logo.

Things to be improved and minor issues: Slight electrical noise over recording (I confirmed this to be a noisy power supply issue and I will fix it once I upgrade the battery along with parallel high farad capacitors), and low battery capacity (again will be addressed when I upgrade the battery).

Overall, excellent unit and the warnings against the unit are unfounded in my opinion.

I purchased my CDV300X on eBay via Foxoffer.

 

[tmanz]

I've been asked to share my firmware, so I will do that here. My unit is the TCL CDV300X bought from Foxoffer on eBay (seller: foxoffer1).

Procedure to backup and update firmware:

This can be done via the usb cable to the main unit (not cradle - I haven't tested this), which has the micro sd card inside. Plugging it to the computer via USB will place the unit into PC mode and give access to the memory. This will save you having to take the Micro SD card out and use a card reader every-time you need to add/remove files.

To extract the backup firmware: Place the autoexec.ash script on your memory card, eject the device safely from your PC and disconnect the USB cable from the PC. Plug the USB cable to your 5V power supply and wait 2mins. The unit will power on and look like its recording but it is also building your backup firmware in the background. Once 2 mins has passed turn off the power and reconnect the USB to your PC. You should see a file called backup.bin sized around 30MB on the root of your memory card. Remove this file from the root memory and save it for your records and recovery, if needed.

To update or install firmware on your device: Take a firmware file compatible with your device and rename it to firmware.bin. Connect the main unit via USB cable to a PC and place the firmware.bin file at the root of your memory card. Eject the device safely from the PC and disconnect the USB cable. Then connect the USB cable to your 5V supply voltage. The splash screen should recognize the firmware file and prompt you to install it. Once selected to install the screen will show a 'Processing' screen until the firmware has been installed, and when completed it will notify you of success. This is not the end! you must remove the firmware.bin file from your memory card or it will keep asking you to update the firmware on startup. When the firmware has successfully installed, disconnect the unit from your power supply and reconnect it via USB to the PC to remove the firmware.bin file from the root of your memory card.

To modify/build firmware files: I used the excellent AFT tool, built by @Tobi@s

My Files
Before applying my firmware, please backup yours using the autoexec.ash script.

My autoexec.ash script -> Link1
Original Foxoffer backup firmware -> Link2
Foxoffer firmware modified for no startup/shutdown sound -> Link3 (I used Adobe Audition to attenuate the sounds to silence, thus keeping the original file size intact)

If you have files to share, I'd be interested to check them out.

 

[Tobi@s]

Foxoffer firmware modified for no startup/shutdown sound -> Link3 (I used Adobe Audition to attenuate the sounds to silence, thus keeping the original file size intact)

Hi, filesize doesnt matter

 

[AdamNZ]

Thanks, tmanz! The beeping was really starting to annoy me. I've been running this dashcam for the last three weeks, now, and haven't had any problems. No file corruption, and a solid GPS lock within a minute every time. I was pretty paranoid reading the dire warnings here, but haven't had any problems, other that during initial setup (when I used the USB output from my DVD head to power the cam, which it didn't like: it looked like it was recording, but it wasn't. Switching to the included cigarette lighter cable fixed that). I've also add a polarizing filter by chopping up a pair of 3D glasses and attached that to the lens to cut down the dash reflections I've been getting off the windscreen. I really like how inconspicuous this camera is when installed.

 

[tmanz]

"I've also add a polarizing filter by chopping up a pair of 3D glasses and attached that to the lens to cut down the dash reflections I've been getting off the windscreen. I really like how inconspicuous this camera is when installed.

Sounds like some good old kiwi ingenuity right there!

I'll be trying out some polarizing stick-ons by the guys at www.vibeXmounts.com, should be coming in the mail soon. I'll be writing up a review for the camera once I have my kit setup.

Some of the warnings may be warranted particularly the one about the battery capacity, although I haven't experienced the battery issues or corruption to date.

However, I did notice that, just today, on power-up the camera did not automatically start recording - it got the GPS lock within 30seconds and everything else seemed fine. I did a power recycle and everything came right, and I have not bee able to reproduce it.

So far so good for me as well - I am trying to put the battery through it's paces and will report back if I find anything else!

 

[tmanz]

Thanks to our friends at http://videoregforum.ru/, particularily user sotrack, I was able to test the Cambox DRIVE (Russian version of the CDV300X) firmware on the CDV300X. Prelim results are good with some caveats.

The Good
- ability to customize the timestamp with custom text
- ability to record GPS speed in km/h
- ability to use GPS or GLONASS (I did not test GLONASS, which is the russian version of GPS and is also globally available - GLONASS is supported in smartphones like the iPhone)
- relocated icons on the record screen: the GPS icon only comes on when locked (no GPS symbol with a cross) - seems like a more intuitive layout

Caveats
- Bitrate seems higher than the TCL firmware, and sometimes this is seen in the video's out-of-focus areas as being blocky
- Playback on Registration Viewer is shaky (on my old 2008 macbook laptop), but playing files in VLC media player is smooth. Why? I do not know yet - the 3 min files are much larger in this firmware version
- I would warn against flashing this firmware into your unit, just to be safe, I'd wait for Foxoffer (@billknow) to come out with his firmware version.

Video sample:

Original video file (snippet from Datakam Player) -> Link3

For the tinkerers
Original Cambox Drive firmware -> Link1
Cambox Drive firmware silent sounds -> Link2

 

[tmanz]

GLONASS does not work, and the reason the Datakam playback was too choppy on my laptop is because the bitrate is too high for the Datakam software on my laptop. The video bitrate is on average 27Mbps, and this accounts for the larger files as well - 600MB vs 300MB of the TCL firmware for 3 min files.

 

[tmanz]

After using the Cambox firmware for a week, I have found it to be more stable than the TCL firmware shipped with the device:

- Battery seems to hold charge longer: with the TCL firmware my battery logo goes from 3 bars to 1 within two days, with the Cambox firmware it held at 3 for the week but then reported no bars today (after 7 days)
- No abrupt shutdowns: it goes through the countdown process and shuts downs, whereas the TCL firmware would sometimes shutdown too quickly on power-off. (I am using the 3 sec timeout)
- Video quality is better: indiscernible at day but definitely better at night
- Extra features: custom stamp and speed stamp, ability to turn GPS on/off from menu

I will upload some example videos to the review section.

 

[Rodrigo Emedy]

Very nice... I was wondering if I could make CDV300X default bitrate of 15Mbps be risen up. Please publish the night videos to see the difference..

 

[jokiin]

camera will support up to 27mbit ok

 

[markseven]

camera will support up to 27mbit ok

and even more to 28 mbit/s

 

[jokiin]

yes most likely

 

[Rodrigo Emedy]

Hummm... Nice.. My images are very blocky, even during daylight.. at night there´s a lot of flickering too, even with the WDR enabled.

Where in the firmware I can change from 15Mbps to 28Mbps? Can I do this on the original V.0.4.7 which is already in the 300X, or I need another firmware like this Cambox?

 

[markseven]

Hummm... Nice.. My images are very blocky, even during daylight.. at night there´s a lot of flickering too, even with the WDR enabled.

Where in the firmware I can change from 15Mbps to 28Mbps? Can I do this on the original V.0.4.7 which is already in the 300X, or I need another firmware like this Cambox?

look up at what he wrote tmanz

 

[Rodrigo Emedy]

Thank you tmanz for sharing the CAMBOX Firmware. The camera is finally with a better quality, with 28Mbps! Just wondering why TCL v.0.4.7 firmware is released with 15Mbps max, when with the CAMBOX v.0.4.3 makes the sensor be able to capture and encode at 28Mbps... just to record around 20% more? My cards are 32Gb... will buy the 64Gb to see how it goes..

Way, way better compression.. no more blocky noises on the image.. Will try at the road tomorrow.

Thank you once again!

 

[jokiin]

Thank you tmanz for sharing the CAMBOX Firmware. The camera is finally with a better quality, with 28Mbps! Just wondering why TCL v.0.4.7 firmware is released with 15Mbps max, when with the CAMBOX v.0.4.3 makes the sensor be able to capture and encode at 28Mbps... just to record around 20% more? My cards are 32Gb... will buy the 64Gb to see how it goes..

Way, way better compression.. no more blocky noises on the image.. Will try at the road tomorrow.

Thank you once again!

the original TCL version was only 10Mbps, was very bad before

 

[Rodrigo Emedy]

Ouch, jokiin ... 10Mbps for a device which one of the main functions is to capture with detail numbers of plates... Is not good. My original firmware was the v.0.4.7 and was with 15Mbps.

My only concern is the record speed, that may chunk and create some lag on the capture.. I have a Sandisk SDHC 32Gb 48mb/s Class 10.. at least for recording 1080p @ 23Mbps footage with my Sony A6000, is fast enough.

Will try it on traffic and share my thoughts here..

PS.: Jokiin ... I was curious about your thoughts on CDV300X. My concerns were:

- Annoying sounds (fixed by custom firmware);
- Too much noise @ 15Mpbs (went to 28Mbps with Cambox firmware);
- Way too weak battery (at home, when I´ll check the footages, if I unplug it from my computer, it gave me less than 2 minutes).
- Takes Around 10 minutes to receive the data from the GPS.

Other than that, very good cost/benefit ratio for what I´ve found around the internet when I was choosing before buy it.

 

[jokiin]

the most annoying sound on this model is the sound it makes at shutdown, many people think it's a weird shutdown tune but it's actually a low battery warning, the default startup and shutdown sounds they had are questionable also though

the GPS is slow to pickup, that's a design issue and could be improved

battery/charge circuit on this model is less than ideal

not sure what the cambox firmware looks like, never tried it, we did a lot of work with firmware on this model but just couldn't get around some of the hardware shortcomings so decided to cut our losses, if they get that sorted we'll revisit it in the future, still waiting to hear about any hardware upgrades

 

[Rodrigo Emedy]

Thank you jokiin for sharing your thoughts... mine are the same as yours:

- freaking weak battery (from full charge to zero in less than 2 minutes);
- Around 10 minutes for the GPS start recording;
- The sounds that you can´t turn it off (FIXED);
- No custom image (FIXED).

I´d like to share my thoughts on Cambox firmware: just awesome! Thank you tmanz for sharing it!!

The image quality was improved by almost 100%. The bitrate is really higher, as you can compare at the asphalt of the next images (no treatment, it´s a 1:1 Registrator View region crop from the 2304x1296 footage):

Before:

After

There´s still some noise, even during daylight, but the plates don´t flick anymore..

For the quality, really worth to try it, jokiin.

Only have one major problem: Now I can´t turn it on after connecting to the computer, because the battery won´t charge anymore.... if I unplug it, it just give me around 5 seconds or so..

If someone that has the technical knowledge to check the both firmwares, and fix this, would be much appreciated..