David Markham

Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2017
Messages
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Location
Blue Mountains, NSW
Country
Australia
Dash Cam
Thinkware Q800-Pro
Good evening / morning folks - wherever you are.

Now those of you who have been following my more recent posts will, no doubt, be well aware of my ongoing frustration with the U1000 and the extreme sensitivity of its accelerometer, but events this most recent Friday surrounding its ongoing unreliability was the last straw for me, and I took it back to the dealership under warranty this morning Sydney Time.

Now my decision to effect an exchange this morning was not influenced solely by its sensitivity: While that was a major contributing factor, the following defects combined to ultimately force me to take action:

1. Sudden and complete inability to search for a mobile hotspot, in spite of repeated attempts to activate hotspot searching;
2. The unit's increasing inability to maintain a WiFi connection, requiring repeated connection attempts through the ThinkwareCloud App;
3. The unit's increasing tendency to lose whatever settings that were saved through the ThinkwareCloud App, and thus revert ostensibly to factory default settings - including the unit's SSID.

Now this does not mean, however, that I ditched the U1000 altogether in favour of some other make or model. In this case, I simply exchanged the defective unit for a brand new U1000, such that I am hoping now, that my run of bad luck with this model is over at last. Luckily in this case, I was able to simply take the new unit out of the box, attach it to the pre-existing windscreen mount, plug in the leads from my F770 and power it up as usual.

Having said that, however, my replacement U1000 is still appallingly prone to record parking impacts that never occurred: Even when set at its least sensitive level, just the loud exhaust notes from a Honda dirt bike in front of me this afternoon, for example, was enough to trigger a false positive.

Forgive my French, but such extreme sensitivity from an AU$850.00 dash-cam is complete Bull**** - no matter how one looks at it.
In comparison, neither the F770, nor the F800 which I purchased recently for my girlfriend, are anywhere near as snowflake-sensitive as the U1000.

Seriously now, Thinkware really does need to get off its backside and release a credible firmware update to address the issue with its G-Sensor - and quickly.
Three months after hitting the Australian market, I really don't think my thoughts and feelings are unwarranted, or unreasonable.

Please do support me here and voice your displeasure as well, such that some apparatchik or techie nerd within the corridors of Thinkware may finally sit up, wipe the sleep from their eyes and actually support their products, like they're supposedly paid to do.

David.
 
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Sounds like you have been using G- sensor while driving, and that can of worms i have warned against almost all my time on this forum, and in all the time i have only seen or heard of few cameras that get the G-sensor close to working while driving.
And here i am only talking about not triggering for nothing all the time, there might also be the issue of not triggering in a crash event at all, but reports from people along those lines i cant recall, but it could well be a issue too, just one you dont know off before its too late as we testers cant crash our car to verify functionality in that regard ( driving )
It is pretty much impossible to get that to work, even on a camera that allow you to set a custom trigger values for all 3 axis, but on my lukas i did finally get it down to like 1-2 triggers for each 40 minute drive.
Though it took me a couple of days of trail and setting change as my Lukas camera ( LK-7500 ) was one you could only make changes on using a computer.
But then i ditched that stuff all together, cuz i figured the camera record all the time anyway so anything that happen i will capture, and if it is small i can secure it with the manual event button, and if it is really bad and i am incapacitated rescuers should turn off my car as one of the first things.
In which case the event footage are safe and sound, and in case of a big crash the event you don't really have to look for as it will probably be the last thing recorded.

IMO the up and down axis you need to do something about as that axis is what get triggered by potholes ASO, and then the forward / backward axis, which in my lukas on low sensitivity was so sensitive that me "accelerating" in my 1000 CCM - 65 BHP car triggered constantly.
The side to side axis i did not do much change to as looking at the graphs in the lukas player it was not the most active channel.

With a proper sized memory card i see no reason what so ever to use G-sensor while driving, only case i could see it being nice to have is if you are alone on the road and crash really big and you and your car land wayyyy off the road in the bush or down a ravine where no one can see you.
And then even when / if they find you and your car, chance are that the crash recorded at best they will be able to say why it happened ( solo crash or your hand forced by a outside factor )
But it is doubtful you will have gotten a plate capture of another vehicle that might have caused you to crash that big.
Regarding the smart stuff,,,,,,, well i would never recommend that in any brand camera at the moment, i have little faith in it, and on the grand perspective i personally see little reason to use it.

For now my vote are still on simple dashcams, and the smart i can see that being nice too it just are not there yet IMO, and i have even requested for a long time other smarts,,,,, you see i would still like dashcams to have licenceplate recognition, so i could enter the plate on all undercover cop cars here into my dashcam, and get a warning when one drive behind me, and my long gone criminal sharpness have missed it ( cuz i can still "smell" them, but not a mile away anymore cuz those days are long gone now )
 
@David - As you know I added my comments to your sensitivity issues on the U1000 a little while back. On Friday last week, my U1000 also lost its settings and again this Sunday - which brought me back to this forum.

I can live with the over sensitivity of the unit as its not as problematic on door closing as your first unit (mine still triggers with the occasional speed bumps), but the loosing of the settings is really problematic. I run an in car LTE WiFi hotspot and occasionally do live streaming from the vehicle, but when the unit looses it configuration, this is no longer possible.

I have had around 2 trouble free months and the unit has been fine with retaining its settings, but all of a sudden its suffering acute amnesia. The only factor that has changed is the weather - we have moved from spring into summer (with heatwaves) and the internal temperature of the vehicle has risen substantially.

Regretfully, I do not have the luxury of returning the unit without inuring shipping fee's worth more then the cost of a new U1000, so I have to find another solution, hoping the the unit I have has not developed a memory fault.

Gary
 
eriously now, Thinkware really does need to get off its backside and release a credible firmware update to address the issue with its G-Sensor - and quickly.

V1.00.09 was released today 2 December 2019 - maybe, just maybe
 
I've had the U1000 in my Smart Car for about 6 months now and have never suffered with an oversensitive G sensor and a Smart doesn't have great suspension either. I have parking mode set to High and have to say it's identical to my Q800 when i had that as in i get an Incident when i close the car door. In the very early days i have 1 'Factory Reset' happen for no apparent reason but at the time i was running 'Pre Release' firmware, i've never experienced one since.

I will see if i can get some more details on what the latest software version addresses.....
 
@David - As you know I added my comments to your sensitivity issues on the U1000 a little while back. On Friday last week, my U1000 also lost its settings and again this Sunday - which brought me back to this forum...

I have had around 2 trouble free months and the unit has been fine with retaining its settings, but all of a sudden its suffering acute amnesia. The only factor that has changed is the weather - we have moved from spring into summer (with heatwaves) and the internal temperature of the vehicle has risen substantially.

Regretfully, I do not have the luxury of returning the unit without inuring shipping fee's worth more then the cost of a new U1000, so I have to find another solution, hoping the the unit I have has not developed a memory fault.

I’m really sorry to read of your unit’s recurring memory loss Gary. Already I’m beginning to suspect that the U1000 is not entirely robust in the heat – certainly not as hardy as the F770 in any case.

Now I have yet to test the everyday operating temperature of my U1000 with a laser thermometer, but the case is certainly hot enough to singe the top of my fingers if I leave them there. I would not be at all surprised if the massive heat generated from processing 4K footage is too much for the CPU to handle. Then again, for the amount of money it cost, you’d bloody-well expect some sort of heat sink to be engineered into the unit, and clearly, Thinkware haven’t done that.

Thanks though for the advice concerning the update: I’ll get on to it the moment I get home.
Crossed fingers it’ll be of benefit.

@Maddog1974, I look forward to hear what you find on the update. Cheers.

David.
 
I updated my U1000 yesterday evening with the latest version and it went pretty seamlessly. There does not seem to be any obvious changes - but I would not expect to see any visible / additional features as the Android App is still the same version I had prior to the update. The interesting thing is that it seems that they have gone from release V1.00.07 to V1.00.09, so they must have had a 'limited' non public release of V1.00.08, which must still have had some issues. Hopefully they will let us know what has been fixed or changed in the latest revision at some point.

@David - I have not measured the in car temperature but the outside ambient temperature here at the moment is between 36 ~ 38°C from around 11am to after 3pm. My vehicle only really stands in the sun on weekend when I am out, but during the weekday its parked under cover. As for the memory, I am not sure the settings are stored. If they are stored in the unit itself (which would be my first guess) or if they are stored on the SD card. If it the former, then there may be an issue with the non volatile memory when it gets hot, however if the setting are stored on the SD card, then that can easily be replaced. I am currently using a Western Digital Purple series 128Gb which is rated for high endurance / high speed, but possibly its unhappy with the high temperatures.
 
I've had the U1000 in my Smart Car for about 6 months now and have never suffered with an oversensitive G sensor and a Smart doesn't have great suspension either. I have parking mode set to High and have to say it's identical to my Q800 when i had that as in i get an Incident when i close the car door. In the very early days i have 1 'Factory Reset' happen for no apparent reason but at the time i was running 'Pre Release' firmware, i've never experienced one since.

I will see if i can get some more details on what the latest software version addresses.....
Hello All,

The recent Firmware Update for the U1000 Dash Cam (version 1.00.09) has altered the G-Sensors Sensitivity. This has lessened the sensitivity of the G-Sensor, mainly in Parking Mode. The sensitivity has been reduced by half.
 
Hello All,

The recent Firmware Update for the U1000 Dash Cam (version 1.00.09) has altered the G-Sensors Sensitivity. This has lessened the sensitivity of the G-Sensor, mainly in Parking Mode. The sensitivity has been reduced by half.

I’m glad to hear it. Here’s hoping we can all relax and enjoy it now.
Cheers for the heads-up.

David.
 
I do hope new firmware/ thinkcloud app could be able to link my carpark wifi which does not require password...

It is a joke that it must link to my smartphone using hotspot( means I must be around) so that it could send me impact notification. I totally feel I have been deceived
 
I do hope new firmware/ thinkcloud app could be able to link my carpark wifi which does not require password...

It is a joke that it must link to my smartphone using hotspot( means I must be around) so that it could send me impact notification. I totally feel I have been deceived

I understand your frustration Ken, I had to go through the same rigmarole to get a stable connection with my in-car LTE WiFi hotspot dongle, just like Gary has in his car. Keep persisting with it though. Ultimately, you'll nut it out.
I don't know how successful you'll be with your attempts to hook up with free WiFi. In my experience of using shopping centre WiFi hotspots, the proxy popup still asks me to enter my name and email address for marketing purposes, so I suspect that might the barrier to your connection.

Let us know how you get on.

David.
 
My situation is that I park my car in a underground carpark, which has no mobile phone and data plan signal.

The property provided free wifi for us for seeking help purpose, the wifi is not password secured. If we connect the wifi using my Android, there is no proxy pop out requiring me to click OK or Accept and I could go to all website without restriction or time limit.

I thought the Thinkware cam was able to connect this very simple and unlimited WiFi while I parked my car, and me access the dashcam while I go upstairs and away of the car, like:
1) send me impact notifications
2) live view
3) access recorded video
But the fact is that it could not, one of the most expensive dashcams on the market!!!!

I need a device which is able to receive the free and unsecured Wifi, and broadcast another SSID with password for the Thinkware to connect. I made a rough search and don't see such silly products available, because it just doesnt make sense.
 
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Anyone has issue with ADAs alert being overly inaudible compared to regular (and annoying loud) voice?
 
i think the thinkware u1000 has been rushed out in the uk to keep up with blackveiw dash cams,il stick with my q800 pro until i here some positive threads about this in the uk,
 
I also feel regret to have bought the U1000, although it comes with 4K+2K video, it does nothing more and never worth USD560 in my region...

all the cloud features, remote notifications or remote access are joke and rubbish
 
i think the thinkware u1000 has been rushed out in the uk to keep up with blackveiw dash cams,il stick with my q800 pro until i here some positive threads about this in the uk,

I think you’re very wise in reverting back to the Q800 for the moment, and in hindsight, I feel I should’ve bought that, instead of the U1000.

Yesterday morning, I noticed that my replacement U1000 again lost its memory. To say that I was pissed as a consequence would be an understatement, since I’ve only had it for a fortnight.

Upon consulting the outlet from which I bought it, I was told – rather reluctantly– that they feel guilty selling certain dash-can makes and models which have a track record for unreliability. Here, the Blackvue DR900S was singled-out in particular for its habit of failing due to extreme heat buildup. Witnessing my ire yesterday, they began to hint at similar issues with the U1000 as well.

By this point, I have pretty much concluded that the U1000 – what with its ongoing sensitivity and memory-loss issues – is not currently fit for regular service: it is most certainly not the dependable unit that I expected it to be, compared to the F770 or F800, both of which I have used within the past 12 months.

I feel now that sustained consumer pressure ought to be exerted on Thinkware to either:
1. Release a combined firmware and App update that allows users to configure footage at 2K or 3K resolution, thereby resulting in cooler, more dependable operation;
or
2. Offer a guaranteed buyback scheme under their own 2-year factory warranty.

This ongoing debacle with the U1000 – compounded by a certain ’F**k You’ corporate hubris – will only result in Thinkware destroying its public goodwill if they don’t take these matters seriously.
On that note, I hope that they do.
 
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