File from crash missing. Wiring?

[DaveBlueIrl]

Hi,
We have a RedTiger dashcam in the car that is hard wired to the fuse box. It turns on automatically when the engine starts, and turns off when the engine is turned off. Mondeo 2006 car.

The car skidded and hit a wall, and the air bags went off.

However, the last file that was supposed to record the skid and the impact is missing from the dashcam.

The files before the last minute of the journey is there.. and also the files there after we turned on the engine again after the impact.

I am wondering whether the air bags going off possibly killed the power… so the DashCam went down without writing the last file?

Rather than someone guessing … is there anybody who knows for sure that this type of thing happens with dashcams hard wired to turn off when the engine is turned off?

Does anybody know of a better way to hard wire the dashcam so it retains power to the dashcam for at least 1 minute after the engine turns off?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

 

[TonyM]

Hi Dave,

All dashcams are designed to retain power for long enough after sudden power loss to save the current video file. They have either a capacitor or sometimes a battery inside for this purpose.

I'm not exactly sure about the RedTiger, but most dashcams have separate folders on the microSD card for Normal driving video and Event files. The dashcam moves the video clip into the Event folder (or similar name) if the G-sensor is triggered during that clip. Have a look and see if there are other folders where the video could be stored.

 

[DaveBlueIrl]

Thanks TonyM... I checked but only Front and Rear folders.

 

[Hack_man]

Have you tested the dashcam since the accident to confirm it writes the last file after the camera loses power?
What is the model of the RedTiger dashcam?

 

[kamkar]

Have you tried attempting playback on the dashcam itself, it might be able to detect a incomplete / corrupted file and repair it.

Though a corrupted file on a memory card will still take up space, but a OS might not see it just like that as the file probably not have a type affixed to it, and windows at least do not read something it will need to be something.mp4 or some file format.

I agree if G-sensor is on there aught to be a event created as you crash, and as mentioned they go to a read only folder named event or RO / something like that.
Also as i recall, even if you do not have any event on your brand new system, folders for such things are usually created anyway, and so you also often find a photo folder ASO

So to me this all sound very strange, but i have no experience with the red tiger brand, but i assume they are much like all other dashcams.

PIC of file structure on a memory card from a 70mai T800 system, each folder have 3 sub folders ( front / Rear / Interior ) as it is a 3 channel system.
This is a 100 % full memory card of 256 Gb but only the Normal folder have anything it it, as there are no time lapse recordings / photos or regular / parking guard events made.

 

[lufa6977]

Hi,
We have a RedTiger dashcam in the car that is hard wired to the fuse box. It turns on automatically when the engine starts, and turns off when the engine is turned off. Mondeo 2006 car.
.
.
.
Rather than someone guessing … is there anybody who knows for sure that this type of thing happens with dashcams hard wired to turn off when the engine is turned off?
.
.
.
Thanks in advance,
Dave

Not trying to sound ugly, but guessing is all anyone can do. We do not know which Red Tiger dashcam you are using, which fuses the dashcam is wired to, nor what your vehicle does with power when airbags are deployed.

Super Capacitors, if in good shape and being properly charged, will hold power and permit the final video to be saved to the SD. Lithium batteries will do the same, but they are problematic in terms of lifespan and power delivery. It is common for the video to be buffered before being written to the SD. In your case, that buffered stream was lost for whatever reason before the file could be fully written and or closed. In theory, if the only issue were that the file was not closed properly, and you have not attempted to overwrite the SD, you could possibly recover the file with an appropriate software tool.

 

[DaveBlueIrl]

The dashcam is a RegTiger F7NP.

The dashcam did work after the crash, and I can see a few files that were written after the crash. Then as the car was written off, I removed the dashcam from the car, and have not turned it on as I have no power supply to connect it to.

I took out the micro SD card, and used an SD card reader to read it.

There are 6 folders only on the SD card.

Movie_F
Movie_R
Park_F
Park_R
Photo_F
Photo_R

No Event folder and no other folders.

I have recording turned off for parking, so the Park folders are empty.

Movie Front has files on the day of the crash… right up to approx. 1 minute before the crash. And also a few files after the crash.

Movie Rear also has files up to 1 minute before the crash… but none at the time of the crash… and a few files after the crash.

Strange that both the front and rear folders are missing the files for approx. 1 minute before the crash.

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[lufa6977]

It looks like your cam is powered by USB-C at 5V 2.5A. You could power the cam from a PC USB port or a power bank with a 5V output via a USB-C cable.

If you are on a Windows box, you could try this tool from Stellar. I have not used it, but it is also available on the Microsoft Store.

Stellar

I would try to recover the data before putting it in the dashcam and running a power test. You can, of course, power the dashcam and test it, but use a different SD card for that.

 

[DAP]

It is possible that g forces during the crash caused the memory card to be momentarily disconnected from the camera (the socket uses spring contacts). There are data recovery tools that might be able to find a file that was written but not yet added to any directory (https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/photoRec or something similar), but I would not expect too much. Most likely thing is that the file was never written. All dash cams are unreliable, and the most likely time for them to fail is when you need them most. Often they fail silently, and you don't notice until you need to access a recording, and you find that it stopped working months ago.

 

[DaveBlueIrl]

Problem solved.

You guys were correct in your advice that many dashcams copy the event files into a different folder.

A few months ago I had the parking monitor turned on… and it copied a few files into the Park folders.

I had not noticed that there was an extra file in the Park folder… of the crash.

I had emailed RedTiger support asking about the problem, and they advised as there was no Event folder… to check the Park folder. So at least their customer support is responsive as they replied within an hour.

Thanks for your suggestions. I should have been more careful to check all of the files in the Park folder.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[TonyM]

Problem solved.

You guys were correct in your advice that many dashcams copy the event files into a different folder.

A few months ago I had the parking monitor turned on… and it copied a few files into the Park folders.

I had not noticed that there was an extra file in the Park folder… of the crash.

I'm glad you found it eventually.

I had emailed RedTiger support asking about the problem, and they advised as there was no Event folder… to check the Park folder.

Well, that seems a strange place to put a video of a driving impact.

 

[Vortex Radar]

I'm glad you found it eventually.

Definitely!

Well, that seems a strange place to put a video of a driving impact.

Somehow I doubt their logic is that a crash counts as a sudden and unexpected transition from driving to parking... 🙂 Probably some weird bug? Maybe an ACC wire getting momentarily disconnected during the impact?

 

[Karagandinez]

Maybe an ACC wire getting momentarily disconnected during the impact?

Possibly. But the first post doesn't mention parking mode...
It's about completely disabling RedTiger.

We have a RedTiger dashcam in the car that is hard wired to the fuse box. It turns on automatically when the engine starts, and turns off when the engine is turned off. Mondeo 2006 car.

 

[Vortex Radar]

Ah thank you. I missed that. Even more likely to be a bug then.

 

[TonyM]

Somehow I doubt their logic is that a crash counts as a sudden and unexpected transition from driving to parking... 🙂 Probably some weird bug?

It was RedTiger who responded and suggested checking the Park folder.

 

[Hack_man]

@Redtiger can you comment on why was the file in the Parking Folder after the collision?
Is this behavior expected or a glitch?