Drained battery. Broken 3-wire VIOFO hardwire kit or other issue ?

[jokiin]

With an ADC to measure voltage, I would expect it to be accurate to better than 0.1 volts, and as far as I can tell mine is, just seems like the logic is not perfect in all circumstances.

Now how do I find out which firmware version it is, and how to update it?

it's accurate to 0.1v, the firmware isn't something that can be updated after production though unfortunately

how old is your hardwire kit, could be that you have an earlier version, we've tweaked the firmware on ours a few times, I know Viofo have mentioned some updates they did to theirs but not sure what that was about

 

[joe384]

This is quite disappointing. I tend to switch the ignition on without starting the car when I am testing stuff or reviewing footage so the dashcam doesn't switch off. Looks like I was messing up the logic somewhat by not starting the car.
Really lucky I haven't come back to a dead car battery. This also explains why the kit was still going into parking mode when my resting voltage was 12.0v and I had a 12.4v cutoff.

 

[Nigel]

how old is your hardwire kit,

Not sure, and there are no markings or serial numbers on it, so not even sure if it is a production unit! It came with the A129 Pro so should be newish, and quite likely has the latest firmware since I don't know of any reason it would have changed, unless this issue has already been fixed.

 

[jokiin]

if you haven't had it long I would think it should be the current version

 

[valkyrie]

On mine, if I put the voltage up to 13V and then test the cut off voltage, it works fine. But I do have a problem if I "turn the ignition on" without "starting the engine", then it will come on at eg 12V, turn the ignition off so the battery voltage increases to 12.2V, it should shutdown because it is less than the 12.4V set point but it hasn't shut down even if the voltage drops to 11V. Maybe your test is passing because you always increase to 13V before reducing again?

Sounds like yours is working very similarly to the results I was getting in testing yesterday. Not what one would expect from a device that's main purpose is to protect against over discharge.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

I've got a lab power supply (keep in mind I'm testing our version of the hardwire kit and our firmware is different so I don't know if the Viofo will work the same) and this is what I just tried

Set the power supply to 12.4v and set the hardwire kit to 12.2v, powered on and then disconnected the ACC so camera went into parking mode, set the supply voltage to 11.4v, camera turned off after 100 seconds

Left the input supply voltage at 11.4v and the hardwire kit at 12.2v cutoff, connected the ACC and the camera powered on and started recording, disconnected ACC and camera went into parking mode, 100 seconds later the camera powered off

I’ll try this later today.

 

[joe384]

Are all hardwire kits like this similar just different firmware?

I've noticed the blueskysea hardwire kit looks identical to the viofo one. Also zerogogo one just looks the same as well...

Are they all interchangeable?

 

[valkyrie]

Are all hardwire kits like this similar just different firmware?

I've noticed the blueskysea hardwire kit looks identical to the viofo one. Also zerogogo one just looks the same as well...

Are they all interchangeable?

My Blueskysea hardwire kit is not the same as my Viofo. But I was kind of wondering the same thing as @jokiin seems to indicate theirs work as I would expect and wondered if it would work on Viofo cams?

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Are all hardwire kits like this similar just different firmware?

I've noticed the blueskysea hardwire kit looks identical to the viofo one. Also zerogogo one just looks the same as well...

Are they all interchangeable?

Casing may be the same, but will be different inside.

 

[Harsh]

But I was kind of wondering the same thing as @jokiin seems to indicate theirs work as I would expect and wondered if it would work on Viofo cams?

I think it will work with the ACC and Battery wires reversed.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

I've got a lab power supply (keep in mind I'm testing our version of the hardwire kit and our firmware is different so I don't know if the Viofo will work the same) and this is what I just tried

Set the power supply to 12.4v and set the hardwire kit to 12.2v, powered on and then disconnected the ACC so camera went into parking mode, set the supply voltage to 11.4v, camera turned off after 100 seconds

Left the input supply voltage at 11.4v and the hardwire kit at 12.2v cutoff, connected the ACC and the camera powered on and started recording, disconnected ACC and camera went into parking mode, 100 seconds later the camera powered off

I just did this exact test and got the same results as you. I did it a second time to confirm. The only difference is the Viofo kit shut off power after about 90 seconds.

 

[jokiin]

Casing may be the same, but will be different inside.

insides are different, casing is also different, comes from a different supplier

 

[jokiin]

I just did this exact test and got the same results as you. I did it a second time to confirm. The only difference is the Viofo kit shut off power after about 90 seconds.

maybe @Nigel has an older version of the hardwire kit

 

[CaptureYourAction]

maybe @Nigel has an older version of the hardwire kit

It’s possible the one I used for testing was an old one as well as I just received it as a return from Amazon.

 

[Nigel]

It’s possible the one I used for testing was an old one as well as I just received it as a return from Amazon.

Maybe only the new ones have a problem!
I will test mine again with a controllable variable supply rather than one that depends on load and charge rate.

 

[jokiin]

Maybe only the new ones have a problem!

@CaptureYourAction could run the same test on a new one I guess

 

[CaptureYourAction]

@CaptureYourAction could run the same test on a new one I guess

Was thinking the same. Will do that in a few.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

I just got the same results with a kit from a batch I received about two weeks ago from Viofo. Possible both kits I tested were new version, but can't be sure since there isn't any way to tell them apart from the outside.

 

[jokiin]

I just got the same results with a kit from a batch I received about two weeks ago from Viofo. Possible both kits I tested were new version, but can't be sure since there isn't any way to tell them apart from the outside.

the firmware on our kits has worked this way for over a year now, doubt this is a recent change to the Viofo version

 

[valkyrie]

I just got the same results with a kit from a batch I received about two weeks ago from Viofo. Possible both kits I tested were new version, but can't be sure since there isn't any way to tell them apart from the outside.

Did you try testing using the input voltage from the point it shut down and referencing ACC from that point? That's what I did on the two tests that never shut off. If it shut down at 12V, disconnected power and reconnect, reference ACC to that voltage then remove, then start decreasing input voltage. I didn't test it starting off with low voltage to see what it would do, I may try doing that today later on. I guess I could also start very low and go up in voltage to see at what point it starts passing voltage.