F50 SD Card Size

[WA3PNT]

I'm currently running LEXAR 633x 64GB SD Cards in my two F50s.

Has anyone tried a larger SD Card (128GB) and found that it works?

RodeoGeorge

 

[WA3PNT]

I guess that nobody has attempted to use a 128GB SD Card in the F50.

I'll order one and give it a test.

I thought that Thinkware would have replied if it is feasible, but no such luck.

RodeoGeorge

 

[niko]

I'm currently running LEXAR 633x 64GB SD Cards in my two F50s.

Has anyone tried a larger SD Card (128GB) and found that it works?

RodeoGeorge

I guess that nobody has attempted to use a 128GB SD Card in the F50.

I'll order one and give it a test.

I thought that Thinkware would have replied if it is feasible, but no such luck.

RodeoGeorge

If you can not format 128GB inside F50, then you may use "exFat to Fat32 PC format tool" and most likely you will be able to use 128GB microsd in your dashcam.

 

[WA3PNT]

The 128GB SD Card arrived today.
I formatted it using the SmartDisk_FAT32_Tool program with no problem.
Put it in the F50 and fired it up. The initialization process took a bit longer than when the 64GB Card is used, but got the normal "Continuous Recording will now start" prompt.

I asked about the 128GB Card on the Thinkware FB Page, and the reply from Thinkware was that the F50 will only use 64GB of the 128GB Card. I'm not sure that is true, and I'm currently recording video to the Card to determine how much of the card is used.

One anomaly is that when I switch to Parking Mode (by removing the 12V from the Accessory lead) it enters the Parking Mode with no problem. However, when the Accessory lead is reconnected to 12V while in the Parking Mode the F50 reboots, and during the reboot (Red LED) says "Insert a Memory Card". Then the LED turns green and the "Continuous Recording" prompt is spoken. The same thing happens if I remove power from both the BATT and ACC leads while in the Continuous Recording Mode, and then reapply power.

Right now I'm just marking time while it records before removing the SD Card to determine how much was recorded on the Card.

I did do a detail analysis of my 64GB SD Card that was in the F50, and found that adding up all the video files, in all the directories, they amounted to 61.39GB + the System files.

I will do the same to the 128GB after a few hours and report.

 

[niko]

Depending on the brand different 128GB have different "free space".
Lexar 633s 128GB has 127.3GB and Toshiba Exceria 128GB has 123.5Gb free space ( you can see some of my tests HERE )

Anyway you should get about 27-29h of recording at 1080p / 30Fps at average 10 Mbps bit-rate you would get about ( check Recording Calculator )

 

[WA3PNT]

After over 24 hours of Continuous Record, the files on the SD Card total 124.14GB plus the System Files. So the F50 is definitely taking advantage of the 128GB Card.
The F50 is overwriting files created 14 hours ago.
As I mentioned earlier, the only anomaly is the "Insert a memory card" message during boot. The boot continues after that prompt and the F50 enters the Continuous Recording mode.

RodeoGeorge

 

[Maddog1974]

As you say Thinkware only say up to 64gb cards on their whole range. I have seen many posts about people using 128gb cards and they seem to be working fine. I will fire them an email and see if i can find out the reason for that!

Sorry for my delayed reply, i've been on holiday for a week and a bit and i'm the one who checks this site when i get a min to see if i can help because i really like the products! (Not that i could have helped much anyway!)

 

[Maddog1974]

Actually reading that again is that right? Niko suggesting it should record approx 28hrs say but it's overwriting files that are 14hrs old (about half) could that be a reason it's not shown as working with 128gb cards? I have sent them an email asking for the reason they recommend 64gb max.

 

[WA3PNT]

Thanks @Maddog1974 I am curious what their response to you will be.

Hope your Holiday was enjoyable and relaxing.

Yesterday I formatted the 128GB (LEXAR 633x) in the F50 (first time) and now find that I do not get the "Insert a memory card" prompt when the F50 boots.

I ran the F50 in Continuous Record only, and find this morning that the files are being overwritten in 14 Hours (actually 13 Hours and 53 Minutes)

Windows 8.1 Disk Properties shows the card as being 119GB.

My next test will be to run it in Continuous Mode for an extended period of time and determine if it retains the Event Videos, as I have the F50 set to NOT overwrite the Event Videos.

RodeoGeorge

 

[niko]

Thanks @Maddog1974 I am curious what their response to you will be.

Hope your Holiday was enjoyable and relaxing.

Yesterday I formatted the 128GB (LEXAR 633x) in the F50 (first time) and now find that I do not get the "Insert a memory card" prompt when the F50 boots.

I ran the F50 in Continuous Record only, and find this morning that the files are being overwritten in 14 Hours (actually 13 Hours and 53 Minutes)

Windows 8.1 Disk Properties shows the card as being 119GB.

My next test will be to run it in Continuous Mode for an extended period of time and determine if it retains the Event Videos, as I have the F50 set to NOT overwrite the Event Videos.

RodeoGeorge

Your are getting about half of what 128GB should fit for videos at 1080p/30fps/10Mbps. This means that Thinkware firmware at the moment is limited to max 64GB capacity use and even if you try 200GB MicroSD card ( I do believe it will work if formatted to Fat32 ) then F50 still only will be using 64GB space our of 128 / 200 GB. After it reaches 64GB ( and rest of 64GB from 128GB is free ) then it will not continue using rest available free space, but will overwrite old files.
I guess the only way is to wait for FW upgrade.

 

[niko]

Your are getting about half of what 128GB should fit for videos at 1080p/30fps/10Mbps. This means that Thinkware firmware at the moment is limited to max 64GB capacity use and even if you try 200GB MicroSD card ( I do believe it will work if formatted to Fat32 ) then F50 still only will be using 64GB space our of 128 / 200 GB. After it reaches 64GB ( and rest of 64GB from 128GB is free ) then it will not continue using rest available free space, but will overwrite old files.
I guess the only way is to wait for FW upgrade.

Just to confirm this

I ran the F50 in Continuous Record only,

Does it meant only Normal recording was used for test, or 14h was overall recording amount that fitted to memory card ?
Does your "continuous recording" folder capacity is set to 50% from total memory card space, right ?
In this case 14h vs 128GB is fair deal.

Is it possible to set set all other folders capacity to 0% and use 100% of card space for continuous recording ? This way you will be able to check much quicker how much video F50 is able to fit before overwriting.

 

[WA3PNT]

@niko I think you are absolutely correct.

Out of curiosity, I'm going to put the 64GB card back in the F50 and see what the oldest videos are.

Also going to try the 128GB in my A119.

RodeoGeorge

 

[niko]

@niko I think you are absolutely correct.

Out of curiosity, I'm going to put the 64GB card back in the F50 and see what the oldest videos are.

Also going to try the 128GB in my A119.

RodeoGeorge

There could be two cases: 1. normal rec. folder is set to 50% 2. system set not to use more that 64Gb no matter how big card you use.

 

[Dee_82]

not sure its relevant as I haven't read the thread properly, but you need to keep in mind that thinkware have a limit on the folder size. for example, mine is setup to something like 60% continuous recording meaning the max amount of recording in normal mode will be 60% of the card, the rest is split between events, parking mode, manual record etc.

That % is hard coded in to the camera, the settings just refer to the size differences as 1 2 or 3 so its not user configurable which is a little disappointing.

 

[WA3PNT]

not sure its relevant as I haven't read the thread properly, but you need to keep in mind that thinkware have a limit on the folder size. for example, mine is setup to something like 60% continuous recording meaning the max amount of recording in normal mode will be 60% of the card, the rest is split between events, parking mode, manual record etc.

That % is hard coded in to the camera, the settings just refer to the size differences as 1 2 or 3 so its not user configurable which is a little disappointing.

Good point.
But I've run into another issue. I formatted the 128GB SD Card in the F50 and entered the Continuous Record mode yesterday (the F50 is in my shop on a 12V Power Supply). Today I check the files on the SD Card and found that it stopped recording at 3AM. The oldest file on the Card was 14 hours prior to 3AM. This is something that I obviously cannot live with.

I have no idea why it stopped recording, but until Thinkware updates the firmware to support a 128GB Card (hopefully), I'll stick with the 64GB.

I transferred the 128GB to my A119, which supports the 128GB Card, and I'm testing the Card in the A119 now.

RodeoGeorge

 

[Dee_82]

your problem is probably nothing to do with the size of the card and everything to do with you not having a supported card, if it works some times then its nothing to do with a limit on the card, its because the card isn't any good.

Do me a favour and try this out

1, download http://crystalmark.info/redirect.php?product=CrystalDiskMarkInstaller-en
2, install it then insert your SD card in to a computer
3, run Crystalmark, you will se 3 drop down selection boxes above the words "write" and "read" change them to the following
5 - 100 - SDcard drive letter
4, hit the "ALL" button on the left, do not operate the computer whilst this is running.
5, once its finished click "file" then "save" save it some place safe
6, open that txt file you just saved and post the results here, it will look like this

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2 x64 (C) 2007-2016 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

   Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :    89.998 MB/s
  Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :    24.297 MB/s
  Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     5.278 MB/s [  1288.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     1.603 MB/s [   391.4 IOPS]
         Sequential Read (T= 1) :    89.341 MB/s
        Sequential Write (T= 1) :    35.864 MB/s
   Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :     4.411 MB/s [  1076.9 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :     1.262 MB/s [   308.1 IOPS]

  Test : 100 MiB [D: 10.7% (6.4/60.0 GiB)] (x5)  [Interval=5 sec]
  Date : 2016/08/08 18:33:06
    OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 14393] (x64)

Copy that file and paste the contents back here, I have been putting together some data on working / non working cards and it will be interesting to see if your card matches the trend.

 

[WA3PNT]

Okay @Dee82 here are the Crystal Mark results.

LEXAR 633x 128GB in ExFat

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2 x64 (C) 2007-2016 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

   Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :    85.139 MB/s
  Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :    27.024 MB/s
  Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     6.038 MB/s [  1474.1 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     1.936 MB/s [   472.7 IOPS]
         Sequential Read (T= 1) :    81.995 MB/s
        Sequential Write (T= 1) :    27.051 MB/s
   Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :     5.695 MB/s [  1390.4 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :     1.233 MB/s [   301.0 IOPS]

  Test : 100 MiB [G: 0.0% (0.0/119.2 GiB)] (x5)  [Interval=5 sec]
  Date : 2016/09/03 10:42:40
    OS : Windows 8.1 Pro [6.3 Build 9600] (x64)

LEXAR 633x 64GB in ExFat

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2 x64 (C) 2007-2016 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

   Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :    93.958 MB/s
  Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :    22.332 MB/s
  Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     7.219 MB/s [  1762.5 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     1.203 MB/s [   293.7 IOPS]
         Sequential Read (T= 1) :    94.167 MB/s
        Sequential Write (T= 1) :    35.649 MB/s
   Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :     6.039 MB/s [  1474.4 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :     1.342 MB/s [   327.6 IOPS]

  Test : 100 MiB [G: 0.0% (0.0/59.7 GiB)] (x5)  [Interval=5 sec]
  Date : 2016/09/03 11:43:25
    OS : Windows 8.1 Pro [6.3 Build 9600] (x64)

And Transcend 633x 64GB in ExFat

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2 x64 (C) 2007-2016 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

   Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :    93.740 MB/s
  Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :    84.697 MB/s
  Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     6.317 MB/s [  1542.2 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     1.705 MB/s [   416.3 IOPS]
         Sequential Read (T= 1) :    93.738 MB/s
        Sequential Write (T= 1) :    84.641 MB/s
   Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :     5.487 MB/s [  1339.6 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :     1.384 MB/s [   337.9 IOPS]

  Test : 100 MiB [G: 0.0% (0.0/60.4 GiB)] (x5)  [Interval=5 sec]
  Date : 2016/09/03 11:50:19
    OS : Windows 8.1 Pro [6.3 Build 9600] (x64)

RodeoGeorge

 

[Dee_82]

cheers for that, am I right in thinking the 64GB cards are fine?

I re read your posts and it suggests that you did have a problem with the 128 but you formatted it and its been fine since, except the size issues?

 

[WA3PNT]

cheers for that, am I right in thinking the 64GB cards are fine?

I re read your posts and it suggests that you did have a problem with the 128 but you formatted it and its been fine since, except the size issues?

There was an issue with the 128GB Card, even after formatting it in the F50.

While in the Continuous Record mode, it stopped recording after about 13 hours.

I'm sticking the Transcend in a F50 in the wife's car on Monday, and she's off to CA for a few days. It will be interesting to see what's on the card when she returns.
Hardwired for Parking Mode. No overwrite of the Event videos i either Continuous or Parking.

RodeoGeorge

 

[Dee_82]

ok, have you used another card, other than those or the thinkware card that generated memory card error messages?