Hot swap the 3rd channel?

[Phrede]

I'm waiting on a A139pro-3ch. I have only an occasional need for the interior camera. Has anyone hot connected the interior camera? I'm thinking the higher rates with 2 cameras and dropping down when I need 3.

 

[gamesfrager]

I don't believe it would be a problem. I mean there were issues with the cables being loose and the camera switches between three/two channels to two/one channel when once gets disconnected.
I'm not sure on the long term if you do that regularly, but once in a while; yeah maybe.
I'm no expert, just stating what I have noticed.

 

[Vortex Radar]

When you say hot swap, do you mean doing it while the dashcam is still on? I haven't tried it since I'd imagine it could cause some issues. Personally I just pull the power cable, plug/unplug cameras as needed, and then power it back on.

The little connectors can be a little delicate and so I like to be careful with them, particularly when plugging things back in. They're easier to damage compared to USB plugs. The cables also lock in pretty securely and so I don't wanna just yank it. IMO it's worth spending a few extra moments doing things carefully to ensure long term reliability.

 

[rcg530]

Like @Vortex Radar stated, I've not tried to hot swap in/out a camera with the A139 Pro. I would recommend pressing the <PWR> button to power down the A139 Pro and insert/remove the cable you want to remove and then press the <PWR> button again to power up the A139 Pro. I've used that approach while I was out driving to gather footage for my A139 Pro review when I was testing 1-CH mode, 2-CH mode and 3-CH mode.

I would make sure you pull the cable from the base (not pulling on the wire) where it's inserted into the A139 Pro front camera. They cable connectors can be a bit stubborn at times when being removed and I'm not sure how resilient they are to repetitive insertions/removals. The same is true on the interior/rear camera end of the cable.

 

[Panzer Platform]

The little connectors can be a little delicate

They cable connectors can be a bit stubborn at times when being removed and I'm not sure how resilient they are to repetitive insertions/removals.

As my esteemed colleagues have cautiously mentioned, since I started using Viofo dash cams in 2020 I've learned to say a silent prayer to the top three deities, and do that four point cross motion across my chest every time I disconnect, and reconnect a rear, or IR camera to the main unit. Sometimes the main camera unit will act "wonky" for a few power cycles until it settles in, and starts working reliably agian.

The newer COAX cable connectors are not my favorite because the older USB cables are more durable in my opinion. But everybody wants the thinnest cable possible to tuck / wedge behind trim pieces in the car. I prefer the thicker cable because I just remove all my trim pieces and I secure the cables in place with low adhesive painters tape to make sure they don't get damaged from moving around during normal road vibrations. I always worry about road vibration causing a chafe in a loose wire. Because back tracking looking for an electrical malfunction can be time consuming, and frustrating.
Here's what I mean about the painter's tape;

 

[kamkar]

I would assume pulling the wire on a camera would make the system error, and probably reboot.
Problems with multi channel systems, and the first order of the day should always be check connections to rear camera, and if good but still problem pull the rear camera from the system to see if front camera alone will be good on its own.

 

[Phrede]

Thanks for all the replies. I get that the connectors are not very robust. I would never disconnect any connector from any device by pulling on the cable . I don't anticipate plugging directly into the front camera repeatedly as it would be too awkward and I expect too fragile. I'll know more after seeing the connector. Even though this is not going to be a regular thing I would make, at a minimum, extensions to serve like a port protectors.

It should be mentioned that many devices support hot swapping by design. I thought maybe someone here knew. I'm just trying to get a jump on my configuration options.

It all depends on a few factors which way I try to go.

• The perceived front performance lost between 2 and 3 cameras with my eyes, everyone is different.
• How the system reacts. ie. does the front camera revert back to higher performance settings or must the settings be changed manually. What happens to higher performance settings if a 3rd camera is attached. etc.
• The power consumed, both total and the relative difference between 2ch and 3ch. I don't see much need to monitor the interior when parked.
• The boot up time and decay time on power disconnect, if I do need to cycle the power while switching.
• How much signal degradation occurs on the interior camera if I insert switching components.
• If I have to sequence power down, connect the camera, power up, the reverse and the required delays. Certainly more complex hardware and automation than just engaging the camera signal alone.

It would have been nice if this was selectable by a front push button or soft setting, but I understand why not. Maybe I'm the only one who ever considered having 2ch/3ch user selectable. Having a wi-fi switch is already an unexpected bonus.

 

[LateralNW]

Thanks for all the replies. I get that the connectors are not very robust. I would never disconnect any connector from any device by pulling on the cable . I don't anticipate plugging directly into the front camera repeatedly as it would be too awkward and I expect too fragile. I'll know more after seeing the connector. Even though this is not going to be a regular thing I would make, at a minimum, extensions to serve like a port protectors.

It should be mentioned that many devices support hot swapping by design. I thought maybe someone here knew. I'm just trying to get a jump on my configuration options.

It all depends on a few factors which way I try to go.

• The perceived front performance lost between 2 and 3 cameras with my eyes, everyone is different.
• How the system reacts. ie. does the front camera revert back to higher performance settings or must the settings be changed manually. What happens to higher performance settings if a 3rd camera is attached. etc.
• The power consumed, both total and the relative difference between 2ch and 3ch. I don't see much need to monitor the interior when parked.
• The boot up time and decay time on power disconnect, if I do need to cycle the power while switching.
• How much signal degradation occurs on the interior camera if I insert switching components.
• If I have to sequence power down, connect the camera, power up, the reverse and the required delays. Certainly more complex hardware and automation than just engaging the camera signal alone.

It would have been nice if this was selectable by a front push button or soft setting, but I understand why not. Maybe I'm the only one who ever considered having 2ch/3ch user selectable. Having a wi-fi switch is already an unexpected bonus.

Sounds like you'll need to experiment.
If your handy you could make a switch to enable disable the camera.

The cameras that connect to the A139 use different technology to the usb C type cameras and the beauty of this is you have less wires to switch. ( @Panzer Platform
usb C connected cameras are different internally)

The reboot time will be about 3-5secs based on the T130 that's what time you lose in the recording which I think is ok.

The loss on the switch will depend on the quality of the switch and how sensitive the signal is.
If you have digital radio you may here a little interference but you'll only find this out when you do it.

I don't know if the A139 will change its settings on reboot this shouldn't be hard to find out. I don't have a A139 so I can't help you on that but others might be happy to test what happens.

Oh and a footnote the T130 has the ability to disable the IR camera from the buttons so if not implemented in the A139 may be possible if @viofo gets enough request and it's actually possible.

Cheers

 

[Dimson75]

Дополнительную камеру можно подключить и отключить в горячем режиме. Когда это происходит, запись останавливается и возобновляется с новыми параметрами.

 

[DoubleDawg]

The A139 has an option to enable/disable the interior camera with a long press of the emergency lock button. I believe the A139 Pro has the same option.

 

[SPL15]

The A139 has an option to enable/disable the interior camera with a long press of the emergency lock button. I believe the A139 Pro has the same option.

I wonder if disabling the interior camera via this method opens up the higher bitrate & frame rate option for the front camera, as if the interior camera was unplugged / didn't exist.

That'd probably sell me on buying the interior camera, as the only reason I didn't purchase the 3 channel package was because there're only a few situations I can currently think of where I'd want the interior camera recording. In addition, the bitrate & frame rate hit turned me off towards purchasing the 3 channel package.
I've never had a Dash Cam before, so I'm a little leery of having cameras pointing at my face, recording me pick my nose & singing along to music that a guy who looks like me would be embarrassed to admit to friends

 

[LateralNW]

I've never had a Dash Cam before, so I'm a little leery of having cameras pointing at my face, recording me pick my nose & singing

You know you could always place the camera on the back window and point it in to the cabin so it only see the back of your head.

An advantage of doing this is you will capture everything that happens in the cabin behind you and any car that sideswipes you or anything else that passes beside the car.

 

[SPL15]

I purchased & installed the interior camera recently. I originally bought the 2-Channel bundle w/ rear camera.

When disabling / enabling the interior camera via holding the lock video button, front camera resolution stays at whatever it's set at; however, the refresh rate for all 3 cameras will adjust to 24Hz if front camera is set to 2160P.

Works pretty seamlessly; If the extra $60 USD isn't a big deal to you, I'd recommend purchasing the 3-ch bundle if you're on the fence about having an interior camera, as you can very easily toggle it on / off.

Couple Notes / Observations:

If you have the front camera set to 2160P 30Hz w/ the interior camera disabled, toggling the interior camera ON will set the front camera to 2160P 24Hz, as well as set the other two cameras to 24 Hz.
Likewise, if the front camera is set to 1600P 30Hz w/ the interior camera disabled, it will stay at this res & refresh rate with the interior camera enabled; interior & rear cameras will be 30 Hz has well.

It would be nice if the front camera could automatically switch to different resolutions between 2 ch & 3 ch operation, but it's really not a big deal to me to have 1600P front camera res when in 2 ch mode.
I thought I recall someone posting that the bitrate per pixel is actually higher at 1600P vs 2160P, but I could be mistaken.

The interior camera state is persistent w/ power cycling & parking mode. When you disable it, it's as if the camera is physically disconnected, even the app settings menu changes to reflect that no interior camera is present.
Interior camera does not automatically re-enable by itself under any situations that I've seen so far.
There is no obvious way to tell if the interior camera is enabled/disabled unless you open the app to see if it's providing video, or toggling recording on / off to hear how many channels are being recorded.

Parking mode power draw increases significantly w/ the interior camera enabled.
Being able to quickly disable the interior camera on the fly if my car will be parked for an extended period is a really nice feature to extend parking mode runtime.