Concerned about temps.

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IcEWoLF

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I just got my brand new VIOFO 139 Pro today. The installer I reached out to said he only installs blackvue dash cams. He said the main reason is due to temperatures in Nevada. I am in northern Nevada temps can get up to 155-160 interior.

My car has ceramic tints and this includes a clear front windshield tint: imo I think this would be good enough to reject most of the heat no?

I am seriously considering returning it and going with the

BlackVue DR900X-2CH Plus​



Just looking for opinions. I thought with the new VIOFO I would get the best image quality due to the new chip. Plus the blackvue is almost double the price.
 
Welcome to the forum IcEWoLF.

For just sitting there in the sun while you are parked, that should not be a problem, if you hope to be able to run parking guard, that might be a issue with any camera.
At least i think so as a Dane my American geography are probably not top of the class, but i think you can get toasty summers over there in Nevada.

But for normal operation the new Viofo should do fine, just sitting there cooking waiting for you to take your next drive, and then come to life when you start the car.
I got the A229 earlier in the year to beat on, and as we Danes got blessed with one of the decent summers, we had a few days with temperatures over 30 deg C ( 86 deg F ) , which are hot here, anyways on one of those days i parked my car facing the sun, and i was pretty damn sure it would tap out due to heat before my 3 hour parking guard timer did that.
But to my surprise every second of the 3 hours was recorded.
While that went on i was sitting in the shade shooting my air rifle at the bench and i was sweating like a pig.
 
Last edited:
IcEWoLF said:
I just got my brand new VIOFO 139 Pro today. The installer I reached out to said he only installs blackvue dash cams. He said the main reason is due to temperatures in Nevada. I am in northern Nevada temps can get up to 155-160 interior.

My car has ceramic tints and this includes a clear front windshield tint: imo I think this would be good enough to reject most of the heat no?

I am seriously considering returning it and going with the BlackVue DR900X-2CH Plus

Just looking for opinions. I thought with the new VIOFO I would get the best image quality due to the new chip. Plus the blackvue is almost double the price.
Click to expand...
Very likely that your installer doesn't know what he is talking about and is probably trying to upsell you. I would recommend you find another installer or install it yourself.
 
kamkar said:
Welcome to the forum IcEWoLF.

For just sitting there in the sun while you are parked, that should not be a problem, if you hope to be able to run parking guard, that might be a issue with any camera.
At least i think so as a Dane my American geography are probably not top of the class, but i think you can get toasty summers over there in Nevada.

But for normal operation the new Viofo should do fine, just sitting there cooking waiting for you to take your next drive, and then come to life when you start the car.
I got the A229 earlier in the year to beat on, and as we Danes got blessed with one of the decent summers, we had a few days with temperatures over 30 deg C ( 86 deg F ) , which are hot here, anyways on one of those days i parked my car facing the sun, and i was pretty damn sure it would tap out due to heat before my 3 hour parking guard timer did that.
But to my surprise every second of the 3 hours was recorded.
While that went on i was sitting in the shade shooting my air rifle at the bench and i was sweating like a pig.
Click to expand...
Lothar said:
Very likely that your installer doesn't know what he is talking about and is probably trying to upsell you. I would recommend you find another installer or install it yourself.
Click to expand...

Thank you all for the replies. Yeah, his fee was a bit high, including the blackvue install he quoted close to $1500 for front and back.

I see his point on why he said what he said, but for the most part my car is parked under the shade, and if I’m outdoors I can simply park in a way where the sun doesn’t directly shine on the car windshield when possible.

I think the VIOFO will do everything I need it to do.

$300 cam vs $500 cam.

Also because he is a reseller for blackvue if I buy my own unit from Amazon he won’t install unless I buy it from him…he charges over $100 more than the cost showing on Amazon.

Definitely going with a different installer.
 
There was a time where heat could be a factor and dashcams would go out of focus, but this was in the old days and most often with very cheap systems using plastic lenses and mounts.
These days thats generally not a factor, yes if your camera sit there in the sun waiting for you to go on a drive, then yes it will be very hot, but it should boot and just do what it should.
I cant even recall hearing of a dashcam that shut down due to temperatur while driving or right after startup even if the car are blast furnace hot as all cars are. My own car are so cheap it dont even have AC or a radio for that matter when i got it in 2012.
So hot summer here and the windows are down before i start the car, and i am good.

Users down in Texas also had cameras do just fine in the temperatures they see down there.

Parking guard while parked in the sun, it will be a challenge for all on windscreen systems, here it is my strong feeling that the few remote cameras systems would fare better as after all you can place the main unit out of direct sun, so should fare better.
 
Plenty of videos on youtube on how to install and wire / hard wire dashcams, maybe not that partikulær model you have, but generally it is the same for all brands / models of dashcams and cars.
A master degree in DIY are not needed, just a little and some common sense and tools should be fine.
 
Going back years, I've been hearing complaints about BlackVue cameras having issues with overheating, thus have never considered purchasing one.

support.blackboxmycar.com

My BlackVue DR900S dash cam is overheating and shutting down. How do I fix it?

The BlackVue DR900S Series is designed to work up to 167 degrees F. You do not have to worry about the temperature affecting the dashcam, because when it reaches the high temperature cut-off, It will…
support.blackboxmycar.com support.blackboxmycar.com

Concerns about heat issues with the BlackVue DR900S-2CH

I ordered a BlackVue DR900S-2CH yesterday from thedashcamstore.com after research and looking at the review from Vortex Radar on YouTube. Now, I am suffering from buyer's remorse after seeing that people are having heat issues with it in parking mode. I had been considering the Street...
dashcamtalk.com dashcamtalk.com

Overheating
 
IcEWoLF said:
Thank you all for the replies. Yeah, his fee was a bit high, including the blackvue install he quoted close to $1500 for front and back.

I see his point on why he said what he said, but for the most part my car is parked under the shade, and if I’m outdoors I can simply park in a way where the sun doesn’t directly shine on the car windshield when possible.

I think the VIOFO will do everything I need it to do.

$300 cam vs $500 cam.

Also because he is a reseller for blackvue if I buy my own unit from Amazon he won’t install unless I buy it from him…he charges over $100 more than the cost showing on Amazon.

Definitely going with a different installer.
Click to expand...
That is the biggest piece of steaming rubbish I have ever heard.
Cost of this same dashcam directly from Blackvue themselves: https://shop.blackvue.com/product/dr900x-2ch-plus/
Labor install should not be more than $100-250 maximum on your dashcam install.

What car do you drive? You can install this yourself if you want.
Believe me, this is something that is very easy to do. Just do a YouTube search for your car make/model and add "dashcam" at the end of your search.

You can also go the BestBuy route as a last resort (if you are not interested in installing it yourself). Only $79.99.

Go with Viofo A139 Pro.
If you are going to pay that much for a dashcam to begin with then you might as well get the best that is available today.
You will be very disappointed with the video image quality on Blackvue, not to mention it is not using the latest Starvis 2 sensor.
Viofo, Street Guardian, and Thinkware dashcams all have better video image quality than Blackvue.
 
Lothar said:
That is the biggest piece of steaming rubbish I have ever heard.
Cost of this same dashcam directly from Blackvue themselves: https://shop.blackvue.com/product/dr900x-2ch-plus/
Labor install should not be more than $100-250 maximum on your dashcam install.

What car do you drive? You can install this yourself if you want.
Believe me, this is something that is very easy to do. Just do a YouTube search for your car make/model and add "dashcam" at the end of your search.

You can also go the BestBuy route as a last resort (if you are not interested in installing it yourself). Only $79.99.

Go with Viofo A139 Pro.
If you are going to pay that much for a dashcam to begin with then you might as well get the best that is available today.
You will be very disappointed with the video image quality on Blackvue, not to mention it is not using the latest Starvis 2 sensor.
Viofo, Street Guardian, and Thinkware dashcams all have better video image quality than Blackvue.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I drive a 2022 x3m bmw. I’m not the handiest person so I am not that comfortable doing it myself. I might actually get a friend that has a local shop to do it next week or I might end up going the Best Buy route.
 
Found a friend that will do the install for me. He has a shop and his main job is tinting and occasionally does dash cam installs. Safe to say, it won’t cost me $600-$800 to have him install the dash cam :)

Thank you all for the input. I couldn’t justify hiring that other guy to install a Dashcam and charge me well over $600 to install it.
 
I offer my service up installing dashcams for free, but it is a long cold swim to America, and in spite of me earning a living on the high seas for some years, well swimming are not my strong side.
No Danes taken me up on it yet though.
 
Got the cam installed today and happy with it.

At first the installer couldn’t figure out why the cam was not auto shutting off and turning on with the car, he went back in the side panel and got it figured out.

Main cons: can’t use the dashcam app when using CarPlay. I have CarPlay wireless with my bmw. This means only one device can be connected to Wi-Fi.
I have to use airplane mode if I need to edit the settings.

Also another con is I haven’t figured out the parking mode settings. It seems that when I place things on parking mode the cam stays on. I believe it should only be on if any collisions are detected. I will check the setting tomorrow.

Lastly, I wish VIOFO offered a cloud option, where all the footage is uploaded in the cloud. Maybe in the future.

Overall happy with the device. The install was super clean and the guy did it for $200.
 
IcEWoLF said:
Also another con is I haven’t figured out the parking mode settings. It seems that when I place things on parking mode the cam stays on. I believe it should only be on if any collisions are detected. I will check the setting tomorrow.
Click to expand...
The A139 Pro has three parking modes. "Auto Event Detection" (AED) parking mode is a buffered parking mode (15 seconds before / 30 seconds after). AED will keep the camera powered on, but you'll see the record LED blink while there is no event to record and the record LED will become solid red when it's writing video to the microSD due to an event. The other two modes of time-lapse (video only) and low bitrate (video and audio) are actively writing to the microSD the entire time.

In the power consumption spreadsheet, you'll see that AED with or without an event consume a similar amount of power.

viofo_139_pro_features_1080x1080.jpg 1671611811121.png
 
Thank you, also one more thing I noticed, sorry if this is a stupid question but this is the first time I ever had a cam installed in my car, but is the Rec button red led supposed to always stay on when there is no event and parking mode being off?
 
IcEWoLF said:
Main cons: can’t use the dashcam app when using CarPlay. I have CarPlay wireless with my bmw. This means only one device can be connected to Wi-Fi.
I have to use airplane mode if I need to edit the settings.
Click to expand...
See my post here:

A229 Wifi Disconnects

I'm using an iPhone XS with the latest software in a 2022 BMW 340i. When I connect to the A229's wifi I get a message (on my phone) that says Carplay will be disconnected if I connect to this network. I click OK and the wifi turns on for only about 10-15 seconds, then disconnects. When I go back...
dashcamtalk.com dashcamtalk.com

Just disable Bluetooth, then re-enable it again once you have finished editing settings
This is not an issue of the dashcam itself, it is just how both CarPlay and Android Auto work.

IcEWoLF said:
Lastly, I wish VIOFO offered a cloud option, where all the footage is uploaded in the cloud. Maybe in the future.

Overall happy with the device. The install was super clean and the guy did it for $200.
Click to expand...
Nah...The cloud features (as currently implemented today by both Blackvue and Thinkware which are considered the best dashcams for cloud) are overrated IMO.
 
Lothar said:
See my post here:

A229 Wifi Disconnects

I'm using an iPhone XS with the latest software in a 2022 BMW 340i. When I connect to the A229's wifi I get a message (on my phone) that says Carplay will be disconnected if I connect to this network. I click OK and the wifi turns on for only about 10-15 seconds, then disconnects. When I go back...
dashcamtalk.com dashcamtalk.com

Just disable Bluetooth, then re-enable it again once you have finished editing settings
This is not an issue of the dashcam itself, it is just how both CarPlay and Android Auto work.


Nah...The cloud features (as currently implemented today by both Blackvue and Thinkware which are considered the best dashcams for cloud) are overrated IMO.
Click to expand...

Thanks, will do that. When you disable Bluetooth you are able to review footage/ make updates to all settings?

The reason I ask is because it was a pain in the rear to get CarPlay to automatically work again. Had to re-pair my phone to the car.

Also, I put my parking mode on today, put it on low settings and it has been recording for the past 2 hours on and off. I live in an apt complex. Maybe having parking mode is not a good idea because it seems to be too sensitive.

I turned it off for now because I don’t want my battery to drain.
 
The blue tooth in dashcams are generally just for use with a remote event button, you use the wifi to get on the camera and make changes.
At least that is what i am used to with older other brand but also viofo cameras.

Bluetooth are always off in my phone like wifi and the GPS
 
IcEWoLF said:
Thanks, will do that. When you disable Bluetooth you are able to review footage/ make updates to all settings?

The reason I ask is because it was a pain in the rear to get CarPlay to automatically work again. Had to re-pair my phone to the car.
Click to expand...
When you turn off Bluetooth on your phone, you will be able to connect your phone to the dashcam via the Viofo app and can change settings (or review footage).
I'm not sure why one would want to review footage on a tiny 4-5" inch phone device. That's what a laptop or monitor is for.

Just turn off Bluetooth on your phone, and when you are done what you need to do concerning connecting to WiFi on the dashcam app then turn it back on again.
You are not removing or deleting any bluetooth profile so your phone should automatically connect to CarPlay in your car automatically when you turn Bluetooth back on.
You should not have to re-pair anything.

If it does not then this is either an "Apple" issue or your car manufacturer make/model issue. It works fine on my Android phone with Street Guardian dashcam, and even the person I helped in that same link future posts down confirmed that this procedure worked on his Apple device with Viofo dashcam.
IcEWoLF said:
Also, I put my parking mode on today, put it on low settings and it has been recording for the past 2 hours on and off. I live in an apt complex. Maybe having parking mode is not a good idea because it seems to be too sensitive.

I turned it off for now because I don’t want my battery to drain.
Click to expand...
Set low voltage cutoff to 12.2 if you're concerned about battery drain.
Since you live at an apartment complex and likely will not be able to install an outdoor camera since it is not your personal property, consider getting a dashcam battery from Blackvue, @BlackboxMyCar , or one of the Cellink derivatives.

If you own your own house, there is no need for parking mode in your garage or driveway. If you do need some monitoring, then getting a Nest outdoor camera would be a better use than parking mode on a dashcam.
 
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