F800 dead

[gamesfrager]

Ordered:
September 27, 2019 from their Amazon store
Price: $293.98 Canadian Lira

Dead:
October 3, 2024

It is connected to a Cellink NEO battery pack with the thinkware hardwire kit and the whole setup been installed when the camera was also installed.

What happened:

Camera would say `Parking recording started` while still driving the car and then switch back with `Continuous recording will now start`.
before this happened, the camera ate 2 SD cards over the period of 2 years. And when this happened, it's been running on a 256GB Samsung SD card for a good year.

I thought it's another SD card issue, so I ordered a Sandisk 128GB https://www.amazon.ca/gp/B07NY23WBGNoticed the camera would startup and announce `Continuous recording will now start. On your smart phone connect to a Wifi network name starts with Thinkware` and it would reboot. Sometime would simply get stuck and the voice would glitch and get stuck sometimes it doesn't even finish the sentence and reboots. And after a couple reboots, it just shuts off.

Here is what I have tried:

- Formatted the card through my Windows 10 PC and through the camera itself, same issue

- Did a factory reset on the camera, same issue

- Re-installed the firmware, same issue

- Bought a Samsung SD card https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX00125216, applied all the above steps to it, the camera seemed to be working but would do a double beep, as if an impact was detected. I lowered the sensitivity during continuous recording to the lowest setting, and have it on High for parking recording. It keep beeping even if I was stationary during continuous recording

- Popped the SD card that I have on my Viofo A139 and I know it's working, same issue

- Finally caved in and bought the over-priced Thinkware SD card https://thinkwarestore.ca/product/microsd-cards-64gb-ca/ and applied the same steps of formatting on the PC and on the camera itself, same issue

A nearly $300 Canadian Lira camera and many SD cards purchased and it only lasted just over 5 years is unacceptable. Oh, and to top it all, the Android app doesn't allow me any way to change settings, I have to do it through the Windows 10 program that is on the SD card and save the configuration. I have tried many ways to get it working through the app https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/thinkware-dash-cam-link-app-and-f800.51282/

I have used the last SD card that was working when this started happening in my Viofo A139, and it's working without any issues.
All other cards I try exhibit the same reboot issue on the F800.

@Thinkware Dash Cam , you have forever lost a customer and any time I talk to someone about dash cameras, I'll make sure they stay away from your brand.

 

[kamkar]

5 years is not bad, though also not stellar.
I personally only expect to get 4 years out of a system, by then technoly have progressed so far that a update will be well worth it.
It is too bad the F800 no longe work CUZ when you get a new one you could compare, and be amazed, today for instance, some cameras are able to capture plates at night, something that have been entirely out of the question in the past decade, in some cases even if that car is right in front of you or behind you at a traffic light, due to the plate being blown out, HDR in modern cameras take care of that.

The Thinkware systems are still memory card fussy, others almost run on what ever you put into them, my test suite of 256GB cards are 12 or so cards at the moment, and recent systems i have tested, if it is really bad 3 of them will not work in that model.
With thinkware and Blackvue it seem you will be lucky if you can find 3 cards not their own brand that will work in their systems, and it is a crying shame they operate like that.

The A139 which i also tested is on the older starvis sensors, the new starvis 2 sensors like Viofo run in their new models, can be really good, though also not anything special if it is not utilized fully.
For instance i currently test the 70mai A810 with the 4K starvis 2 sensor, i can absolutely not capture plates at night even if it is just on parked cars and i pass at bicycle speed ( 25 - 30 kmh )
But plate reflection on car in front / behind the HDR in it will deal with just fine, but the HDR dont seem to be tuned to capture plates at night while moving.
Tuning HDR like that to capture plates at night on the go is probably why the new viofo cameras have a timer to engage / disengage HDR at certain times of the day, CUZ it is advised to not use HDR in the daytime on those.

What kind of parking guard have you been running on the F800 ? assuming you have done that mentioning a power pack.
if you have been driving say 2 hours a day in the past years and run parking guard for 12 hours, i would assume 5 years are not too bad, i do think i will have to revise my expectations when the more and more popular parking guard are in play too.

My own favorite parking mode is low bitrate where the camera record all the time, but then i only use that on a 3 hour timer if possible, but on average i only drive like 15 -20 minutes a day.

 

[gamesfrager]

I'm waiting for the Viofo A139 Pro to come from Amazon.

The parking mode is set to low sensitivity motion and impact highest.
Since I'm in Canada, there is no issue of overheating.
If it just worked fine until no more, I would be ok with it. But considering the constant issue with SD cards, the horrible app experience and then finally glitching and dying like this, is what I have an issue with.
And I'm guy who is very technical-able. It would have been a much worse experience if I wasn't into technology and bother doing debugging.

I also don't have high hopes for the Viofo cameras. The one on my other car I had to send to be replaced in less than a year, and the app acts up all the time.

In honesty, I would be ok with a 1080 camera that is performing solid and an app that I can depend on.

Reading license numbers and all, is a great measure for comparing image and video quality. But in reality, this would be beneficial in a low number of cases.
Especially not here where I live since license numbers are too small to read and no front plates are installed.