Inconsistent parking mode

[Bexx]

Hi guys, would appreciate your thoughts on what's happening with my new A129 please. Bought it a few days ago for use in my second car (we have a Blackvue 900S in the main car). Chose it as it has a time-lapse parking mode without requiring hard-wiring (I prefer to use a USB power bank) and didn't break the bank.

The problem is that is it's very inconsistent with entering parking mode. The first couple of days, it seemed fine. Yesterday I accidentally left the cam on after getting home and it recorded for 3 hours in normal mode just sat in my driveway before finally entering parking mode. Today I did the school run and on arriving home just now found it did not enter parking mode at all for the 20 minutes it was sat in the school car park - this is particularly odd as it worked fine in exactly the same place yesterday.

I understand there is some element of motion detection at work and it is windier today, but this is the first cam I've used (and I've tried a few!) where external motion prevents entering parking mode. This also doesn't explain why it successfully entered parking mode in the school car park yesterday with lots of people milling around constantly, but failed to do so this morning.

I thought that it worked like previous cams I've used - when the vehicle is stationary for X minutes, it enters parking mode. If it does rely on minimal motion as well, surely there are going to be lots of situations where parking mode never kicks in or is significantly delayed - like parking facing a busy road for instance. Then you end up (as I did yesterday) with all your genuine driving footage quickly overwritten.

I have no desire to use a hard-wire based system as my battery doesn't seem to like it - I briefly used an old Thinkware 770 I had spare and it wouldn't record in parking mode for more than 30mins before reaching 12v and shutting down. I really miss how the Blackvue works, but simply can't afford another one of those. I'll be gutted if I can't get the A129 to work properly as it's a really nice cam - lovely image quality and sits so discreetly in the car.

 

[Bexx]

Anyone?

I see that Viofo post here, so I'm surprised they've not commented. Although they did delete my support ticket without any response, so I'm already unimpressed with their customer support.

 

[borik]

Anyone?

I use 2 power banks with my 2 cameras during parking (normal recording) and 128gb (or 64gb) sd cards, during driving I charge my power banks.
get 256gb card and forget about overwritten footage.

 

[Bexx]

I use 2 power banks with my 2 cameras during parking (normal recording) and 128gb (or 64gb) sd cards, during driving I charge my power banks.
get 256gb card and forget about overwritten footage.

Thanks for the alternative suggestion. I do like to review the footage regularly though and the time-lapse makes doing this a breeze. If I was happy to pop the card in and forget about it, that would be a perfect idea.

 

[zs77706]

Viofo is in a different Timezone.
Please wait for them to wake up...

The deleting of your Tiket must be an error, their Support is great. please wait...

 

[Bexx]

Viofo is in a different Timezone.
Please wait for them to wake up...

The deleting of your Tiket must be an error, their Support is great. please wait...

They must sleep a lot as I submitted the ticket and this thread 3 days ago. However, I'll be happy to review my comment if/when they do reply.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

If you want to make sure Viofo (or anyone else) sees a post, you need to tag them, like this @Bexx.

 

[Bexx]

If you want to make sure Viofo (or anyone else) sees a post, you need to tag them, like this @Bexx.

Thank you, I didn't know I could do that.

@viofo please could you reply to this thread?

 

[borik]

Thanks for the alternative suggestion. I do like to review the footage regularly though and the time-lapse makes doing this a breeze. If I was happy to pop the card in and forget about it, that would be a perfect idea.

get a second card and swap them as necessary.
find a player to play the video at 2x or 4x or faster instead of using a time-lapse (that's another alternative suggestion).

 

[Bexx]

get a second card and swap them as necessary.
find a player to play the video at 2x or 4x or faster instead of using a time-lapse (that's another alternative suggestion).

Much appreciate the suggestions. I will definitely take that one into consideration once I've determined whether my camera has a fault, or parking mode just doesn't work quite the way I expected it to. It's a great cam and I'd like to keep it.

 

[jokiin]

it's a recently released feature, I'd say it likely just needs a bit more fine tuning until they get it right, they should get there

 

[borik]

Much appreciate the suggestions. I will definitely take that one into consideration once I've determined whether my camera has a fault, or parking mode just doesn't work quite the way I expected it to. It's a great cam and I'd like to keep it.

if something is wrong with a camera even after you stop the recording it may take a dozen button presses to get in to a Menu (you have to catch that moment), once you in default the settings first.

 

[Harsh]

it's a recently released feature, I'd say it likely just needs a bit more fine tuning until they get it right, they should get there

I think he's using the Parking Mode that's also on the A119 series.

 

[jokiin]

I think he's using the Parking Mode that's also on the A119 series.

yes but it's not a direct port from the single channel to the dual channel solution so I'd expect it will need some further adjustment

 

[Harsh]

@Bexx

If I was in a similar situation, I'd get a new battery for the car and hardwire the camera.

Yet to test it with the 3 wire kit, nevertheless the new version of Parking Mode where switching happens via ACC detection, appears to be very promising. Two different modes (low-bitrate or continuous time-lapse) where nothing is missed and external factors like Motion, GPS and G-sensor don't apply. Totally worth hardwiring IMO.

 

[zs77706]

in my situation viofo answered a few days later, i think abweek or so.

but they helped me.
so please wait, im sure @viofo will contact you

 

[Bexx]

Hi everyone,

Viofo have answered my ticket today and suggested I use the beta firmware with the low bitrate parking mode. I'm not 100% certain if this means I need to hardwire it though - is anyone else using this successfully?

Also, I have been using a temporary workaround by manually enabling/disabling the regular time-lapse recording mode (not the parking mode version) at 200ms when parked. This does exactly what I want, assuming I remember to do it.

 

[DarthMaul]

By reading the change description, it should work with your current setup. Just give that beta a try.

 

[TonyM]

Hi everyone,

Viofo have answered my ticket today and suggested I use the beta firmware with the low bitrate parking mode. I'm not 100% certain if this means I need to hardwire it though - is anyone else using this successfully?

Also, I have been using a temporary workaround by manually enabling/disabling the regular time-lapse recording mode (not the parking mode version) at 200ms when parked. This does exactly what I want, assuming I remember to do it.

You can use the beta FW without needing to hardwire. I tested it with a powerbank and it worked fine. You can choose whether to record in low bitrate or timelapse when parked.

 

[Bexx]

Hi everyone, thanks for all your advice and tips. I've been using the beta firmware for a few days and parking mode appears to be working great!

Very pleased with this little camera.