SmplMaker
New Member
I've had nothing but issues with this POS dashcam since receiving it from Amazon yesterday morning. I was eager to get it install, and replace the A129 Duo I had in my truck. So as soon as it arrived, I busted out the tool box and got to working installing it.. that's where the first mistake occurred. I should have tested this thing outside of the vehicle, checked how everything worked, noted any differences between the current A129 Duo and the A139, and so on..
Issue #1: It gets very hot, to the point where it is shutting itself off. It got to about 91°F yesterday afternoon. I took a break after the install, before getting down to the settings configuration portion, went inside for about 30min and when I came back out the camera had shut itself off, couldn't figure out why.. I checked my wiring in the fuse box, checked to make sure I didn't pinch any wires while installing, then I reached up to and touched it. It was insanely hot! I have 5% Ceramic tint (after market) all the way around my truck (yes the windshield too..truck is also factory tinted on the windows except the windshield... No, you can not see inside my truck whatsoever from the outside) It stays slightly cooler inside the truck than it does outside.. So I don't understand why this thing is getting so hot.. The A129 never got close to being that hot, or ever shut itself off due to the heat. I also have the A129 Duo in my car, which has black leather seating and 10% tint all the way around, and it never shut off once due to overheating.
Issue #2: The connection for the external cameras are udder garbage. Camera starts up, it announces "Recording.. 3 channels".. I adjust my review mirror, knuckle bumps a cable, I hear "Recording.. 1 channel"... I'm leaving the neighborhood, slowly drive over the speed bump.. "Recording.. 2 Channels" ... Driving down the road, randomly hear "Recording.. 3 Channels"... Hit a pot hole.. "Recording... 1 channel"... Any time you bump a cable, hit a pot hole, or even hit the brakes to hard.. it loses connection to one or two of the external cameras.. I can't even lower the back window of the truck, as if I do it moves the cable and loses connection. I have the rear camera mounted in the center of the rear sliding window, with a enough extra cable exposed for the window to roll down to the the camera. This is the same setup I had on the A129 Duo.
Furthermore, the connections on the camera side should have been 90 degree angles, so that when connected the wire was direct toward the head liner instead of sticking straight out. This would have put less section on the camera and helped hide the wire better.
Issue #3: The app is a total piece of waste deposited from the ass of a donkey! Its slow, clunky, and essentially useless. There is no live feed; unless I put my phone into Airplane mode, re-enable wifi, then manually locate the Wifi signal in the phone setting for the camera.. Why so much crap to do, just to be able to connect to the camera to obtain video files? 90% of the time, I get a screen that shows me an image of a A129, with a "next" button.. but the button does absolutely NOTHING! I often have to force close the app, relaunch it, then click connect camera before it will actually connect. But what's the point of connecting to the camera? None of the settings I change seem to get saved to the camera. I've input the "Vehicle Tag" 9 times now. Disconnect the wifi, wait 20 min, reconnect, and the Vehicle Tag is blank again. Parking mode says off again, IR is set to on even though I set it Auto, Timezone is reset to +8 instead of what I set it to.. Just garbage! I've disable it showing the Speed on the video file several times, but it still shows up when I check the video from the computer. I certainly do not want the speed on the video. If I get into an accident because someone is a moron and pulls out in front of me, I don't want to be sending the insurance company a video that shows I was doing 65 in a 45, just want them to see that the other person caused the accident.
I can't view a single video from within the app! None! It always says 0kps (Kbs? whatever) and then nothing, video never plays. And holy hell is it the slowest thing to download/transfer a file from the app to my phone! I feel like I'm back in 1999 on AOL Dialup trying to download a mp3 file from Napster.. Having to start the download before bed, so it finishes before the school bus comes!
I never really used the app on the A129, I think I used it once for setup and positioning the camera and then uninstalled it. But the A129 has a screen, so I can look to see its recording and view what it sees..
Issue #4: Why is there such a large fisheye on the front camera!? It looks terrible.. I don't remember this being on the A129 (its been a while since I've had to look at any footage from it).
Issue #5: The cabin camera (the one with the IR LEDs), set to Auto makes everything PURPLE! Whats with the Barney filter? I want a "dashcam" not an Instagram Photo Booth..
Issue #6: The AV out doesn't seem to work.. I connected it to my backup camera screen (it has a AV in port routed to the glove box) and the signal from the A139 won't show up at all on it.
Issue #7..15... I'm just tired of typing, so not gonna even bother. I'll certainly be sending it back to Amazon for a refund + a credit for time spent installing the POS.
Sidenote: I did update the firmware. Even though the manufacture is not competent enough update the firmware version listed on their site (not that I expect much with an app like they offer). I thought perhaps I had a defunked firmware install from the factory, so I did the update anyways, and it went from v1.1 to v1.2 .. still didn't fix the settings not saving.
Issue #1: It gets very hot, to the point where it is shutting itself off. It got to about 91°F yesterday afternoon. I took a break after the install, before getting down to the settings configuration portion, went inside for about 30min and when I came back out the camera had shut itself off, couldn't figure out why.. I checked my wiring in the fuse box, checked to make sure I didn't pinch any wires while installing, then I reached up to and touched it. It was insanely hot! I have 5% Ceramic tint (after market) all the way around my truck (yes the windshield too..truck is also factory tinted on the windows except the windshield... No, you can not see inside my truck whatsoever from the outside) It stays slightly cooler inside the truck than it does outside.. So I don't understand why this thing is getting so hot.. The A129 never got close to being that hot, or ever shut itself off due to the heat. I also have the A129 Duo in my car, which has black leather seating and 10% tint all the way around, and it never shut off once due to overheating.
Issue #2: The connection for the external cameras are udder garbage. Camera starts up, it announces "Recording.. 3 channels".. I adjust my review mirror, knuckle bumps a cable, I hear "Recording.. 1 channel"... I'm leaving the neighborhood, slowly drive over the speed bump.. "Recording.. 2 Channels" ... Driving down the road, randomly hear "Recording.. 3 Channels"... Hit a pot hole.. "Recording... 1 channel"... Any time you bump a cable, hit a pot hole, or even hit the brakes to hard.. it loses connection to one or two of the external cameras.. I can't even lower the back window of the truck, as if I do it moves the cable and loses connection. I have the rear camera mounted in the center of the rear sliding window, with a enough extra cable exposed for the window to roll down to the the camera. This is the same setup I had on the A129 Duo.
Furthermore, the connections on the camera side should have been 90 degree angles, so that when connected the wire was direct toward the head liner instead of sticking straight out. This would have put less section on the camera and helped hide the wire better.
Issue #3: The app is a total piece of waste deposited from the ass of a donkey! Its slow, clunky, and essentially useless. There is no live feed; unless I put my phone into Airplane mode, re-enable wifi, then manually locate the Wifi signal in the phone setting for the camera.. Why so much crap to do, just to be able to connect to the camera to obtain video files? 90% of the time, I get a screen that shows me an image of a A129, with a "next" button.. but the button does absolutely NOTHING! I often have to force close the app, relaunch it, then click connect camera before it will actually connect. But what's the point of connecting to the camera? None of the settings I change seem to get saved to the camera. I've input the "Vehicle Tag" 9 times now. Disconnect the wifi, wait 20 min, reconnect, and the Vehicle Tag is blank again. Parking mode says off again, IR is set to on even though I set it Auto, Timezone is reset to +8 instead of what I set it to.. Just garbage! I've disable it showing the Speed on the video file several times, but it still shows up when I check the video from the computer. I certainly do not want the speed on the video. If I get into an accident because someone is a moron and pulls out in front of me, I don't want to be sending the insurance company a video that shows I was doing 65 in a 45, just want them to see that the other person caused the accident.
I can't view a single video from within the app! None! It always says 0kps (Kbs? whatever) and then nothing, video never plays. And holy hell is it the slowest thing to download/transfer a file from the app to my phone! I feel like I'm back in 1999 on AOL Dialup trying to download a mp3 file from Napster.. Having to start the download before bed, so it finishes before the school bus comes!
I never really used the app on the A129, I think I used it once for setup and positioning the camera and then uninstalled it. But the A129 has a screen, so I can look to see its recording and view what it sees..
Issue #4: Why is there such a large fisheye on the front camera!? It looks terrible.. I don't remember this being on the A129 (its been a while since I've had to look at any footage from it).
Issue #5: The cabin camera (the one with the IR LEDs), set to Auto makes everything PURPLE! Whats with the Barney filter? I want a "dashcam" not an Instagram Photo Booth..
Issue #6: The AV out doesn't seem to work.. I connected it to my backup camera screen (it has a AV in port routed to the glove box) and the signal from the A139 won't show up at all on it.
Issue #7..15... I'm just tired of typing, so not gonna even bother. I'll certainly be sending it back to Amazon for a refund + a credit for time spent installing the POS.
Sidenote: I did update the firmware. Even though the manufacture is not competent enough update the firmware version listed on their site (not that I expect much with an app like they offer). I thought perhaps I had a defunked firmware install from the factory, so I did the update anyways, and it went from v1.1 to v1.2 .. still didn't fix the settings not saving.