Firmware 119PRO

c4rc4m said:
No it happened in normal use.

I'm unsure what happened. It had been randomly rebooting itself for weeks. Sometimes multiple times almost back to back, other periods with no reboots. I was just driving one night, it was fine. I came into the pc to transfer some footage, plugged it into the USB and it was dead. Tried various other USB, 5v PSU sources and no matter what I try it's as dead as a door nail - no lights, no bleeps no nothing.
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c4rc4m said:
Thanks. I've just tried the bootloader twice followed by the 1.31 official firmware. Dead as a mouse. Not a light, bleep or anything. Looks as if it's totally finished.
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It is rare for a camera to die. Dead symtoms may occur due to lack of power to the camera. Suggest you power the camera with an power supply completely independently from your car using the supplied short cable and a USB wall charger or +5Vdc USB battery power bank, If you get any camera activity when the camera tries to boot, then you can proceed from there. I see you tried alternate power sources, but I did not see you try an alternate USB cable.
 
I’ve also had one card, that when used in a certain camera, the camera wouldn’t respond. No lights or anything. Once removed, the camera was fine. Card worked fine in a different camera too. It was very strange, but a good reminder that you always need check all variables, even when they sound unlikely.
 
c4rc4m said:
Thanks. I've just tried the bootloader twice followed by the 1.31 official firmware. Dead as a mouse. Not a light, bleep or anything. Looks as if it's totally finished.
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If you've tried everything and ran through my Troubleshooting Guide once with no signs of life or hope of returning the A119Pro, it then becomes a DIY Project.
When removing the cover if you smell burnt plastic or electrical stop and keep for parts. Otherwise suggest investing few $$ and order two new SuperCapacitors then perform Part E of my Guide.
 
BCHobbyist said:
If you've tried everything and ran through my Troubleshooting Guide once with no signs of life or hope of returning the A119Pro, it then becomes a DIY Project.
When removing the cover if you smell burnt plastic or electrical stop and keep for parts. Otherwise suggest investing few $$ and order two new SuperCapacitors then perform Part E of my Guide.
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bad caps wouldn't stop it powering up
 
5Cowbells said:
It is rare for a camera to die. Dead symtoms may occur due to lack of power to the camera. Suggest you power the camera with an power supply completely independently from your car using the supplied short cable and a USB wall charger or +5Vdc USB battery power bank, If you get any camera activity when the camera tries to boot, then you can proceed from there. I see you tried alternate power sources, but I did not see you try an alternate USB cable.
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I tried the USB in the car - cable dedicated for car use, the usb cable on my desk plugged into the pc - dedicated for pc use, then a USB mains power supply with dedicated USB lead. I also verified the USB leads were powering other items.
 
BCHobbyist said:
If you've tried everything and ran through my Troubleshooting Guide once with no signs of life or hope of returning the A119Pro, it then becomes a DIY Project.
When removing the cover if you smell burnt plastic or electrical stop and keep for parts. Otherwise suggest investing few $$ and order two new SuperCapacitors then perform Part E of my Guide.
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I might have to have a look. I took the cover off but didn't touch anything as I didn't want to void any warranty their might be (bit hopeful given it was a sample). Usually capacitors bulge if they fail but from what I could see, I couldn't see any issue. All of the tapes were in place with no burning smell or scorching. Nothing looked loose or detached. If I had to guess given the rebooting issue, I'd guess either a burnt out chipset, or a USB socket issue.
 
jokiin said:
bad caps wouldn't stop it powering up
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I had either a A119 or A119S about a year ago with 2 bad caps (both were bulging) and the camera wouldn't power at all. Replaced them both and all was good. I remembering asking Bill (at Viofo) about this as I thought is was odd it wouldn't at least show some signs of life.
 
would be unusual, dead short internally maybe, bad caps will generally only affect power off and the symptoms would be noticed before they got bad enough to be a bigger problem, he did mention random restarts so maybe something else at play, if it was a hand sample and not a mass production version then anything is possible
 
jokiin said:
would be unusual, dead short internally maybe, bad caps will generally only affect power off and the symptoms would be noticed before they got bad enough to be a bigger problem, he did mention random restarts so maybe something else at play, if it was a hand sample and not a mass production version then anything is possible
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my A119 died about 6-8 weeks ago after a couple of hours of reboots (I had a 5hrs trip), and even re-plugging lens cable and replacing the caps more than twice didn't revive it. nothing worked. I blamed the GPS mount because after I tried to plug into it my second A119 it almost died as well, but I was able to recover it (2 days I tried to connect A119 to that old GPS I blamed 'cause I wanted to mount it on a windshield to make some videos for comparison recording from 2 cams at once and found out it works). after that I replaced all the capacitors and (what I didn't mention before) rewired my switches with the new cables and solid soldering (I think the cables I used caused all the problems for me), and replaced the dead cam with A119 Pro. not a single problem since. so, constant camera reboots is a bad sign.
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may be we should set up a repair shop for dead cams and out of 3-4 we can assemble one that works.
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borik said:
my A119 died about 6-8 weeks ago after a couple of hours of reboots (I had a 5hrs trip), and even re-plugging lens cable and replacing the caps more than twice didn't revive it. nothing worked. I blamed the GPS mount because after I tried to plug into it my second A119 it almost died as well, but I was able to recover it (2 days I tried to connect A119 to that old GPS I blamed 'cause I wanted to mount it on a windshield to make some videos for comparison recording from 2 cams at once and found out it works). after that I replaced all the capacitors and (what I didn't mention before) rewired my switches with the new cables and solid soldering (I think the cables I used caused all the problems for me), and replaced the dead cam with A119 Pro. not a single problem since. so, constant camera reboots is a bad sign.
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we have to start the repair shop for dead cams. may be out of 3-4 we can assemble one that works.
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Bad power source and its wiring are prime suspects in restart/no start condition, Always recommend swap out everything currently used to isolate the cause, even a single USB cable is suspect, power bank is good alternate power option for testing.
Normal electrolytic capacitors if defective can fail as open short without visible signs, have a box of motherboards as prove, savaged many high end MB by replacing all caps which look visibly fine. Only way to tell is power drain test with meter. Repeated restarts can be the low voltage circuit being tripped as one or both caps don't perform correctly forcing a shutdown then suddenly cap release power for another restart and then drain and repeat. Still suggest replacing Caps will be correct Troubleshooting step once power source and all connectors have been verified and passed.
 
I understand. I'm no an electrician. I've had the idea to use the switches but didn't know if it would ever work. the first 1-3 cabling versions did not work well and I had no idea why, could be the switches, the cables, the soldering, or the whole idea was too crazy. all the help I could get was the internet. if I could make the wiring and the switches I have today 2 years ago you would never heard of me.
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what ever you get from your personal experience is unforgettable knowledge, anything else is just information.
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Latest A119 Pro firmware is released , version number is V1.32, below is the download link, or check the attachment:

A119 Pro V1.32 Firmware

Change log:
  • 1. Added: Support .TS video format
Is this for better viewing ??
 
Slava7 said:
Latest A119 Pro firmware is released , version number is V1.32, below is the download link, or check the attachment:

A119 Pro V1.32 Firmware

Change log:
  • 1. Added: Support .TS video format
Is this for better viewing ??
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just lovely.
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5sec "Boot Delay" + .TS file format solves a bunch of problems. the only "problems" remain: I would like to see no LED, no Screen at all during camera start up. stealthy means stealthy.
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borik,

Have you played the videos after upgrading to v1.32? Is there any image/video quality upgrade (particularly night time) from previous version? Thanks FYI.
 
limsandy said:
borik,

Have you played the videos after upgrading to v1.32? Is there any image/video quality upgrade (particularly night time) from previous version? Thanks FYI.
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no, I'm still on @BCHobbyist "FWA119P_MOD-06_v1.31+25Mbps..." He makes MODs faster than I can install them.
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I think the one I have is "FWA119P_MOD-07_v1.31+27Mbps+Sharp34+Edge178+DICE.bin"
 
Paul Iddon said:
I think the one I have is "FWA119P_MOD-07_v1.31+27Mbps+Sharp34+Edge178+DICE.bin"
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the difference between the MODs we use just 2Mbps, I can live with that for now.
 
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