DR650S-1CH, GPS and Wi-Fi

[snsjets]

Recently installed DR650S-1CH connected to a Power Magic Pro. Looking for a little help.

1) Does GPS normally take 4~5 minutes, sometimes 8 minutes to become active(solid blue LED) from a dark start-up? My phone and car GPS are active as soon as I leave the driveway.

2) My Samsung Galaxy Note 4(Android 6.0.1) absolutely will not connect to BlackVue Wi-Fi - every time I try I get "Failed to connect Wi-Fi" popup. My Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 will connect to BlackVue Wi-Fi without issues. Today I format the BlackVue SD card(using desktop app), I update the camera to the latest firmware, and updated my phone app. I also uninstalled/reinstalled the app on my phone and deleted the BlackVue Wi-Fi sign-on from my phone. Wi-Fi on my phone works fine on any network except BlackVue.

I am wondering if anyone has any other tips before I send this camera back. Thanks

 

[JohnM]

Have you tried emailing their customer service - cs@pittasoft.com

 

[Nine29]

Try doing a hard reboot of your phone and the cam to see if that works. Since you can connect with the Galaxy Tab, I suspect it's an issue with your phone and not the cam.

The GPS antenna in the cam can take longer to acquire satellites than other types of GPS's...

 

[snsjets]

I did some more internet search yesterday and someone recommended turning off Smart Network Switch in my phone's Wi-Fi settings. I did just that, cleared the app cache, forgot the BlackVue network and the Wi-Fi connected successfully to my phone. After a few minutes reviewing videos and settings I disconnected from the dash cam and tried to reconnect. Failed again and again.

I sent a message to Pittasoft support regarding the GPS question(their answer of course: update firmware) but have not contacted them yet about the Wi-Fi. I also found this link worth a look.

I'm not yet ready to hard reset my phone since Wi-Fi works OK on all other networks.

 

[snsjets]

After further troubleshooting I followed the recommendation in the last note from the link I posted above. It says only 1 device should be connected to BlackVue Wi-Fi at a time. So I turned off Wi-Fi on my Tab 3 and now my phone has successfully connected to the dash cam 5 out of 5 times. I'm wondering if the connection from the Tab 3 was lingering from in the house?

Errr, well now that Wi-Fi appears to be working now I am getting a random popup that says "Your device can't play this video file" while reviewing videos. Only on my phone, of course.

 

[tabetha]

I know my F770 finds GPS almost instantly certainly within 3-5 seconds but my garmin sat navc can take 3-4 minutes ha ha

 

[snsjets]

Yeah, all my other GPS devices are active in very short time. Yesterday my BlackVue took no less than 5 minutes to show a blue LED after I left my house. It's frustrating that I purchased this model because of built-in GPS. BlackVue FAQ site says 10~15 minutes is normal. I don't understand how this is acceptable to a manufacturer.

So far I still have 100% success connecting my phone to BlackVue Wi-Fi after turning the Wi-Fi off on my tablet.

 

[gpb]

Haven't had any issues with wifi, my iphone7 connects solidly and without incident.

With mine, GPS acquisition seems to vary, sometimes it can take a couple minutes, sometimes it is pretty quick. If yours is regularly taking many minutes and you're not swapping / formatting cars then perhaps there's an issue.

The 10 minutes worst case estimate is likely driven by the GPS specification. A GPS device starting completely cold with no cached ephemeris (satellite constellation orbits data) can take as much as 10 or more minutes to receive the (slowly) transmitted ephemeris from the GPS satellites themselves. Until this is complete it cannot get a position fix.

With stuff like a phone, it gets the ephemeris via the data network immediately, and the wifi-SSID location lookup provides a super fast initial position fix too. Car nav units seldom go a couple weeks without being used, and likely remember their last position (cars don't normally move without being turned on). I don't think either are particularly comparable. Better to compare against a GPS sports watch, which with the older types that didn't cache the ephemeris could take a few minutes to get a position fix when first turned on after not being used for a while.

 

[snsjets]

Wi-Fi is solid now after connecting only 1 device to BlackVue.

The satellite science is interesting however, it is very frustrating to use a device that will acquire satellites in 30 seconds one time, then the next time will take 8 minutes. My DJI Phantom acquires satellite info from a dark start in 30 seconds or less every time.

Now another new issue - after updating the firmware my dash cam seems to hang in Parking Mode. Starts from dark appear normal. Starts from Parking Mode stay in Parking Mode even after driving away. About 1 minute later the camera goes into Event Recording even if there was no event, and announces "Parking Mode off". 2 minutes later(my setting) the camera goes into normal recording until the next mode is triggered. Before the firmware update my dash cam would go into, and announce Normal Recording when I drove away.

 

[snsjets]

Well, downgraded firmware to 1.004 and now my dash cam appears to be operating as it should. No more hang up in Parking Mode and during the last few drives my GPS acquired faster that before.