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

[Ragnarok1983]

Hi all,

I am having issue with Viofo HK3 not cutting off. Have wired it up as per diagram, except I added a manual BATT power cut off (just in case if i want to disable parking mode completely)

With the multi meter, i have confirmed the Battery, ACC terminals in the fuse box and got fuse taps installed and wiring soldered to HK3 tails.

My only concern is about the HK3 cut off value. I have set it to 12.4V cut off on switch, but it does not cut off when battery is at 12.2V (measured from fuse tap). Possibly it may cut off when the battery is drained to lower voltage, but i dont want to take that chance.

Anyone else had experience with this? Possible mismatch between cut off value on switch and actual cut off in operation?

 

[SawMaster]

Welcome to DCT @Ragnarok1983 Not having that eact kit I can speak only in general terms, but these devices are rather well known for being as much as 0.2V off from the chosen setting. It won't greatly harm your battery to test yours down to a little below 12.2V once to see if the cut-off voltage can be set to an acceptable actual level.

Phil

 

[mrblob]

Another unhappy camper with HK3 here. Bought my HK3 in Dec 2019 directly from VIOFO. Found my battery dead the other day. The voltage was around 11.6V-11.8V when I measured after a few attempts to start the car. At this time, at 11.8V, the camera was still on and happily recording. My battery is 3.5 years old (Sears Gold with 3 year replacement warranty) and it is cold outside, but it worked perfectly until now. The parking mode in A129 Pro Duo GPS was OFF (did not realize it is not on by default). After playing with the parking mode, I've discovered it is quite unstable too (managed to get it to turn on only once after leaving the car for 10 minutes). Since everything is wired and it took VIOFO almost a month to ship my camera and the HK3, I've moved the battery cable to ACC and left the ACC wire unplugged.

 

[IAmATeaf]

It’s well known that these are not spot on accurate and switch off at lower volts than indicated. I suppose it’s what you’d expect for such a low cost, low quality device.

 

[DesertBike]

Dumb question maybe: if you don't use parking mode at all, is the cutoff setting at all relevant?

I would guess that if the camera powers off completely as soon as you turn the ignition off - which is how I have mine set up at present - then the camera is drawing no power at all while the car sits.

That's the situation in the car I bought a week ago. I got the A129 wired in this Tuesday but am not using any parking modes, so I guess the hardwire kit's cutoff setting doesn't matter.

In my old car, I had the A129 installed with the HK3 from last July to just a few days ago. I used some kind of parking mode for a few weeks out of that period, but never had the battery drained to where the car wouldn't start. I had the cutoff voltage set at 12.2V. Generally, the car would start if the battery had a resting voltage of at least 11.8V, but better safe than sorry.

 

[camerashy]

I have had one battery run down to 11.8 volt by this non functional voltage cutout. Voltage measured at the 3 month old battery. I have monitored battery operation of the parking mode down to 12 volt before pulling the plug - literally on the camera. The cutout is set to 12.4volt.

I have used low voltage cutouts before but not as unreliable as this.

From the behavior described in this long thread this comment following gives a glimmer of an idea how this thing is programmed.

"If the sense wite (the acc wire) is not ABOVE the set threshold when parking is activated, the system will NOT cutout when the battery voltage drops ot the set level (12.4 in my case)."

When parking is activated means that the SENSE wire (connected to ACCESSORIES power) loses voltage.

Inference - there is some sort of "arming" LOGIC happening in the HK3 with the sense wire. The arming of the low voltage cutout does not happen unless the sense wire is ABOVE the set point at the time power is removed from the sense wire.

This is dangerous design IMO. I hope precautions were taken but from observations made on this thread - I do not think they were in the design.

Any glitch on the sense wire voltage at the point of turning OFF the ignition could result in a low voltage spike and thus no arming thus no low voltage cutout being triggered. Such a glitch in automobile power circuits is highly likely. If the HK3 does not de-bounce this decision or otherwise filter such noise from the sense input - then yes - inconsistent behavior can occur between testing in a car and on "the bench"

Some smoothing circuit on the sense wire input may help this . . I will be trying this.

 

[LateralNW]

I have had one battery run down to 11.8 volt by this non functional voltage cutout. Voltage measured at the 3 month old battery. I have monitored battery operation of the parking mode down to 12 volt before pulling the plug - literally on the camera. The cutout is set to 12.4volt.

I have used low voltage cutouts before but not as unreliable as this.

From the behavior described in this long thread this comment following gives a glimmer of an idea how this thing is programmed.

"If the sense wite (the acc wire) is not ABOVE the set threshold when parking is activated, the system will NOT cutout when the battery voltage drops ot the set level (12.4 in my case)."

When parking is activated means that the SENSE wire (connected to ACCESSORIES power) loses voltage.

Inference - there is some sort of "arming" LOGIC happening in the HK3 with the sense wire. The arming of the low voltage cutout does not happen unless the sense wire is ABOVE the set point at the time power is removed from the sense wire.

This is dangerous design IMO. I hope precautions were taken but from observations made on this thread - I do not think they were in the design.

Any glitch on the sense wire voltage at the point of turning OFF the ignition could result in a low voltage spike and thus no arming thus no low voltage cutout being triggered. Such a glitch in automobile power circuits is highly likely. If the HK3 does not de-bounce this decision or otherwise filter such noise from the sense input - then yes - inconsistent behavior can occur between testing in a car and on "the bench"

Some smoothing circuit on the sense wire input may help this . . I will be trying this.

based on what you just wrote I just had a quick thought.
Diode across acc and V+ would alter voltage by approx .6V
Ceramic 100nf or is it pf across V+ to ground and also perhaps same from acc.

I did find problems with acc if it wasn't connected at exactly the same time as the V+ It seemed to loose reference.
Haven't done indepth testing however.

 

[camerashy]

What smoothing you use depends on how the sense wire is being used. If it has no contribution to the power supplied to the camera then one design. If carrying current then another design.
The former is easy. Diode in series with the sense wire then capacitor across the sense wire to ground. Capacitor on the hk3 side of the diode. The diode stops capacitor discharge. The capacitor smooths the voltage. And thus Stops low voltage spike on acc affecting sense. Then only issue is controlling the discharge time of the capacitor. If the hk3 does not provide enough leakage then a resistor across the capacitor will.
Downside. The diode voltage drop means that the acc volts need to 0.6 volt above the set point now. But using a solar panel blocking diode (Schottky barrier diode) reduces the volt drop to 0.2volt. Much more manageable.

if the latter. Ie more current being supplied. Gets a little stickier. Same principal can used but upscaled. Much bigger capacitor. higher current rating diode.
The pain For me is that the hk3 is now installed. Makes playing Much more difficult. Not impossible though.

 

[camerashy]

Well the HK3 "may" be working. Suspect is the slide switch that sets the trigger voltage. I slid it back and fro a few times before settling back to 2.4volt. Set it up again. The camera was off when I checked after a few days in motion sensing parking mode (car garaged). Battery was at 12.3volt.

 

[Sydney2020]

Thanks all for sharing the issue in detail.

Is this fixed officially by Viofo? Or should I expect same issue in 2022 purchased HK3?

 

[NiceCupOfTea]

Hi all,

I've been running an A129 with hardwire kit for a couple of years now - camera is the best of any I've had (also fitted one to my wife's car), but I have also had issues with the hardwire kit.

It's wired as per instructions, but I had inconsistent results with it - sometimes it seemed to shut down the camera, other times it didn't. Ended up with a flat battery more times than I care to remember, so interesting to see that I was not the only one. In the end it killed the battery.

As a result I decided to give up on the parking mode, so once I had a new battery I swapped the permanent 12v feed for an ignition controlled one, reasoning that both would go live with the ignition and the camera would work fine like this.

However, I have realised that it's not always starting the camera properly - sometimes it works, but more often than not I need to press the left hand button to switch on the camera.

Is there a recommended way to use the hardwire kit without having to power it permanently? Somebody above said they'd unplugged the +12v feed and just left the ACC wire connected - it didn't occur to me to do this as I assumed power was drawn from the permanent live and the ACC wire was just used as a trigger...

It's a shame it doesn't work consistently as intended - my faith in it has gone though, too many times I've had to use a booster pack to jump it

 

[kamkar]

i prefer to use timer vs letting things run until low voltage is hit.
But of course i only use parking guard while shopping, that is all i need

 

[NiceCupOfTea]

There were occasions when the camera had shutoff but the battery was flat and I was wondering if the hardwire kit itself was drawing a current whilst the camera was unpowered. If it's logic based there has to be an overhead while it monitors the power...

 

[Sydney2020]

I am considering purchase of a129 pro duo, but if this issue is not fixed after reported 2 years ago, I would be concerned on quality/standards of whole Viofo product range.

So just checking and hoping that issue was announced as fixed by Viofo.
Otherwise have to spend extra and get Blackvue.

 

[StrayCam]

I am considering purchase of a129 pro duo, but if this issue is not fixed after reported 2 years ago, I would be concerned on quality/standards of whole Viofo product range.

So just checking and hoping that issue was announced as fixed by Viofo.
Otherwise have to spend extra and get Blackvue.

I went through all the girations with Viofo where "everything" seems like it's constantly in "beta mode". And try communicating with their tech support... lol.

Spend a bit more money and... get more features and save your sanity in trying to reach customer support! - You can speak with Blackvue tech support by phone in about 2 minutes time or less, 6 days a week (closed Sunday).

 

[SawMaster]

I am considering purchase of a129 pro duo, but if this issue is not fixed after reported 2 years ago, I would be concerned on quality/standards of whole Viofo product range.

So just checking and hoping that issue was announced as fixed by Viofo.
Otherwise have to spend extra and get Blackvue.

There is a miniscule amount of power being drawn at all times with any HWK, and in fact with any modern car too. It's not enough to be a consideration unless the car is going to be parked several months, and then the car itself will be what uses most of that energy.

I've only used Viofo's HK3-C and HK-4 kits but they work excellently for me. It seems that the original problems which this thread stems from were rectified since 2 years passed with no more problems being reported since 2020. They have listed vague descriptions of whatever problems they had with their Viofo cam refusing to give any details regarding them in order that any of us here might have helped them, and their concept of good customer service seems to be based solely on having a phone number you can call for tech support- if you speak English or Korean and find the limited hours which that line is answered convenient to you- which does no good for at least half the world. IMHO they are not credible, intelligent, considerate of others, nor knowledgeable about dashcams in any depth.

In the interest of full honesty and disclosure I do beta-test and review cams from Viofo and several other cam manufacturers, but you'll find that I do not hide or omit problems and flaws I find in my reviews- I'm not anyone's "fanboi" nor will I ever be. And I have bought with my own very limited money 3 Viofo cams, which is more than I've purchased from any other dashcam manufacturer, and I certainly would not have done if I felt I might have problems of any kind with their cams. I am far from alone in believing that Viofo cams are a good choice and a good value with problems being rare and well-addressed quickly on their discovery.

Phil

 

[Sydney2020]

@SawMaster Thx. Do you know any source to verify that problem was rectified? I am not able to find much info.
Just need to confirm because do not want risk of flat bttery.

I had Navman hardwire kit previously which was twice the price of HK3, but worked perfectly cutting off the camera power as set on cut off voltage setting.

 

[LateralNW]

Hi all,

I've been running an A129 with hardwire kit for a couple of years now - camera is the best of any I've had (also fitted one to my wife's car), but I have also had issues with the hardwire kit.

It's wired as per instructions, but I had inconsistent results with it - sometimes it seemed to shut down the camera, other times it didn't. Ended up with a flat battery more times than I care to remember, so interesting to see that I was not the only one. In the end it killed the battery.

As a result I decided to give up on the parking mode, so once I had a new battery I swapped the permanent 12v feed for an ignition controlled one, reasoning that both would go live with the ignition and the camera would work fine like this.

However, I have realised that it's not always starting the camera properly - sometimes it works, but more often than not I need to press the left hand button to switch on the camera.

Is there a recommended way to use the hardwire kit without having to power it permanently? Somebody above said they'd unplugged the +12v feed and just left the ACC wire connected - it didn't occur to me to do this as I assumed power was drawn from the permanent live and the ACC wire was just used as a trigger...

It's a shame it doesn't work consistently as intended - my faith in it has gone though, too many times I've had to use a booster pack to jump it

@Sydney2020

While not a tidy solution, placing a relay on the red wire being enabled by the yellow wire will shut the hk completely off therefore preventing a drained battery.
You won't have parking mode but you'll be able to start the car every time.

I'm working on another solution that will override the hk and power the complete system down when the battery goes below a set threshold. In this solution the parking mode will work.
However I can't speak for the way the hk may perform.

 

[Nigel]

While not a tidy solution, placing a relay on the red wire being enabled by the yellow wire will shut the hk completely off therefore preventing a drained battery.

That would have the same effect as connecting both the red and yellow to ACC, no need for the relay...

 

[StrayCam]

There is a miniscule amount of power being drawn at all times with any HWK, and in fact with any modern car too. It's not enough to be a consideration unless the car is going to be parked several months, and then the car itself will be what uses most of that energy.

I've only used Viofo's HK3-C and HK-4 kits but they work excellently for me. It seems that the original problems which this thread stems from were rectified since 2 years passed with no more problems being reported since 2020. They have listed vague descriptions of whatever problems they had with their Viofo cam refusing to give any details regarding them in order that any of us here might have helped them, and their concept of good customer service seems to be based solely on having a phone number you can call for tech support- if you speak English or Korean and find the limited hours which that line is answered convenient to you- which does no good for at least half the world. IMHO they are not credible, intelligent, considerate of others, nor knowledgeable about dashcams in any depth.

In the interest of full honesty and disclosure I do beta-test and review cams from Viofo and several other cam manufacturers, but you'll find that I do not hide or omit problems and flaws I find in my reviews- I'm not anyone's "fanboi" nor will I ever be. And I have bought with my own very limited money 3 Viofo cams, which is more than I've purchased from any other dashcam manufacturer, and I certainly would not have done if I felt I might have problems of any kind with their cams. I am far from alone in believing that Viofo cams are a good choice and a good value with problems being rare and well-addressed quickly on their discovery.

Phil

While I normally agree with most of @SawMaster 's posts, I totally disagree with this recent post.

I have recommended Viofo cameras to many people, and I indeed own a Viofo dashcam. But of course, fan boy or not, as a "tester FOR Viofo", @SawMaster doesn't tell you that!

I've mentioned many times that although Viofo "customer support" sucks, there are many people here on this forum who will help sort out Viofo challenges. Unfortunately some of those challenges go on much longer than they should. For example, above both Nigel and LareralNW are coming up with possible solutions to a 2-year old problem with Viofo's hw3 kits!

By all rights Viofo should be paying these guys for their help. Oh wait, maybe by giving them free dashcams to test, they are at least giving them something.

If a company sells products to people in English speaking countries, I think it is incumbent upon them to have staff who are paid to handle customers from those countries. Viofo does NOT do this and Blackvue does. Some very knowledgeable people on this forum have referred to the communication from Viofo as Chinglish! If you expect to use that in communicating with Viofo, good luck!

As I've said numerous times, if you don't mind "beta mode new dashcams" which hopefully get their problems ironed-out by bargain-shopping consumers AND if you don't care to pay the price for a dashcam where the company can answer your problem/question in 3 minutes over the phone and not 3 weeks via email, Viofo might be a decent choice for you.

But, if you prefer great customer support, and yes @SawMaster, that means being able to "speak" with your dashcam company in English on the phone, you just might consider Blackvue or Thinkware, or even Guardian dashcams. All three of these companies offer their customers good customer support. And yes, ALL THREE of these companies "charge a bit more" than Viofo charges for a dashcam... but remember, you get what you pay for!