Intermittent rear camera

[Brian (with an i)]

Yeah I just have the new cable strung loosely before I commit, but it does the same thing with the original cable I have tucked within the moldings. I didn't put it in a box but I did drive around a bit this evening and messed around with it some more when it was dark. Interestingly it did not cut out at all looking through the back window with it being dark outside. It only seems to do it when it's light outside.

 

[nickop]

Hah time to shine a torch at it or get a big white sheet of paper... this is getting weird.

 

[LateralNW]

@Brian (with an i) @nickop
Hi guys, I've read your posts and was wondering if you both could post the exact setting your Dashcam have.
If possible also your friends settings.

Outside of your units being a faulty batch from viofo I'm wondering if the newer firmware is the cause.
Viofo seem to overwrite fixed firmware when they release later updates. Not all the time but it does happen.

Could you both identify exactly your firmware version.

I'm wondering if you both try a older firmware whether this might resolve the issue and help viofo identify any errors in the latest firmware.

Here is a repository of other firmware versions.

Index of /downloads/viofo

Credit:

I'm moving my repository (due to host allocation limits)
old address: http://www.xiongguoy.com/downloads/viofo/
new address: https://xsocam.com/downloads/viofo/

new repository is live, old will be down soon.
please update your external links.

 

[nickop]

I'll double check later if I can... but generally nothing too odd apart from low bitrate parking mode, low sens on motion/bump sensors, motion off, gps on, whatever highest res is with rear camera, medium bitrate, 1 min loop, longest screensaver (to help me see what's happening). Hardwired in my case for parking on/off with 90sec parking timer (had a thought maybe quick cycling by mistake could mess it up).

Let me know if I missed anything important.

Firmware is the latest from Viofo, re-flashed in case it had bitrot.

A129Plus: V18 Build2: 20220706
Rear: V18_20220615

That old firmware link seems to be for the Pro, not plus? Plus is named like FWA129SN for front not FWA129P.

 

[LateralNW]

Firmware is the latest from Viofo, re-flashed in case it had bitrot.

A129Plus: V18 Build2: 20220706
Rear: V18_20220615

Thought it also had plus.

Another post that may shed some light on it.
This person resolved the problem it seems by accident running rear firmware of Lower revision.
Might be worth a try downgrading the rear firmware,

nd no issues with different front and rear camera versions. In my case front is "A129Plus: V1.8 Build2: 20220706" and rear was "Rear: V1.7_20210416". Everything worked fine. I had no time to update rear camera with V1.8 from Viofo support yet

Here are the files for the rear camera.

A129_Duo_RearCam.zip

drive.google.com

From the same thread from above.

 

[nickop]

Thanks will give 1.7 a try. Yes, for me 1.5 on rear cam was overall less glitchy than 1.8 on rear cam (with 1.8 on front in both cases). It's intermittent though, haven't had an error in 24 hours but sometimes it just goes bananas. I think once it gets started it's more likely to keep happening.

 

[Brian (with an i)]

I am running the same version firmwares as nickop. As far as settings, I am running 1440/30 & 1080P. No motion settings, parking mode low bitrate (hardwired with hk3 kit) , no parking delay timer, GPS off, 3 minute loop, 3 minute screen saver.

Thanks for the link. I will also try downgrading the rear and see what happens.

 

[Brian (with an i)]

Another post that may shed some light on it.
This person resolved the problem it seems by accident running rear firmware of Lower revision.
Might be worth a try downgrading the rear firmware,


Here are the files for the rear camera.

A129_Duo_RearCam.zip

drive.google.com

From the same thread from above.

Well, at the risk of jinxing myself, it seems as though downgrading the rear camera to V1.7 "may" have fixed my problem. I put the rear cam back on the rear windshield facing out like it was and I drove around all day as well as trying the same locations in my driveway where it was previously consistently disconnecting. It never disconnected all day!! Thanks again for the link to the previous firmware! Viofo has been responsive and trying to help but never suggested downgrading. Sounds like maybe there's a bug in 1.8? I am cautiously optimistic and fingers crossed, we'll see how it goes!

 

[nickop]

Well, at the risk of jinxing myself, it seems as though downgrading the rear camera to V1.7 "may" have fixed my problem. I put the rear cam back on the rear windshield facing out like it was and I drove around all day as well as trying the same locations in my driveway where it was previously consistently disconnecting. It never disconnected all day!! Thanks again for the link to the previous firmware! Viofo has been responsive and trying to help but never suggested downgrading. Sounds like maybe there's a bug in 1.8? I am cautiously optimistic and fingers crossed, we'll see how it goes!

Yeah same... they never once suggested it, only trying to reapply 1.8 again. When I went to grab it to update, it had actually stopped recording (flashing red light) after it swapped to parking mode when coming home so that was odd.

But I changed the rear cam to 1.7 keeping front at 1.8 shortly after my last post, and I haven't seen the dreaded beeps since, and haven't returned to my car and seen it having a fit like I did fairly often. It could be early days but it's way better than it was. I'd want to pull the SD card and run a script I wrote to check for <1min videos and check they are legit, but I'm scared to touch it and ruin a good thing.

At this stage I think there's a problem with 1.8 too, but it'd have to be in combination with a hardware factor (swapped part?) or use case or something, or else it wouldn't work for anyone.

 

[Brian (with an i)]

That's great yours seems to be working ok now as well with the rear 1.7 downgrade. I'm afraid to touch or unplug anything for fear of it acting up again as well, but so far so good! I've got two full days in now with 1.7 on the rear and it hasn't cut out once. I still have a new rear camera on the way from Viofo but looks like I may not need it. I will advise them of the 1.7 situation though so maybe they can take a look at it. At any rate, things appear to be working now so yay for that!

 

[LateralNW]

That's great yours seems to be working ok now as well with the rear 1.7 downgrade. I'm afraid to touch or unplug anything for fear of it acting up again as well, but so far so good! I've got two full days in now with 1.7 on the rear and it hasn't cut out once. I still have a new rear camera on the way from Viofo but looks like I may not need it. I will advise them of the 1.7 situation though so maybe they can take a look at it. At any rate, things appear to be working now so yay for that!

@nickop it will be interesting to see if there is a change in components causing the problem.

Great to hear your cameras are working again.

@viofo might be able to work out what they changed in the later firmware version and hopefully fix it.

@Brian (with an i) I can understand your concern of touching it as it seems like smoke and mirrors to what seems like a counter intuitive solution.

Thanks guys for trying it out and I'm glad your getting use out of your devices now.

 

[Jesse-H]

I opened a ticket to VIOFO official support, and technical support provided me with a new beta firmware of rear cam.

After flashing the beta firmware, it solved my issue, and I have feedback the test results.

Please wait for the official release of the new rear camera firmware.

 

[Brian (with an i)]

When did they send you the new firmware? They sent me a link for new rear firmware a couple weeks ago as well, but it made no difference. I wonder if they updated it again since then? All I know is the downgrade to V1.7 is still working perfectly for me with no more problems.

 

[Jesse-H]

When did they send you the new firmware? They sent me a link for new rear firmware a couple weeks ago as well, but it made no difference. I wonder if they updated it again since then? All I know is the downgrade to V1.7 is still working perfectly for me with no more problems.

rear cam, v1.8_20230201

 

[Brian (with an i)]

That's great news. Looks like they may have fixed it!

 

[Tetracyclic]

I opened a ticket to VIOFO official support, and technical support provided me with a new beta firmware of rear cam.

After flashing the beta firmware, it solved my issue, and I have feedback the test results.

Please wait for the official release of the new rear camera firmware.

I just bought the A129 Plus Duo and ran into the same problem straight away. Viofo sent me the beta firmware, however I haven't been able to get it installed, presumably because of the intermittent disconnects.

I've tried three times and each time the update screen gets to "Tx Start Update FW..." and then freezes, I left it ten minutes each time, but it doesn't goes beyond that and the "REC" light isn't flashing while this happens, which was shown in the upgrade video they sent me.

I copy the files to a formatted SD card, boot the camera and then press the rightmost WiFi/display button. "Send FW to Tx..." appears on the screen for less than a second before changing to "Tx Start Update FW...", at which point the screen freezes.

In their video it pauses on "Send FW to Tx..." for about a minute before proceeding to "Tx Start Update FW...", so I assume the disconnect is happening before it's finished transferring the firmware, stopping it from going any further.

Did you manage to get it installed straight away following their direction, Jesse?

 

[Jesse-H]

I just bought the A129 Plus Duo and ran into the same problem straight away. Viofo sent me the beta firmware, however I haven't been able to get it installed, presumably because of the intermittent disconnects.

I've tried three times and each time the update screen gets to "Tx Start Update FW..." and then freezes, I left it ten minutes each time, but it doesn't goes beyond that and the "REC" light isn't flashing while this happens, which was shown in the upgrade video they sent me.

I copy the files to a formatted SD card, boot the camera and then press the rightmost WiFi/display button. "Send FW to Tx..." appears on the screen for less than a second before changing to "Tx Start Update FW...", at which point the screen freezes.

In their video it pauses on "Send FW to Tx..." for about a minute before proceeding to "Tx Start Update FW...", so I assume the disconnect is happening before it's finished transferring the firmware, stopping it from going any further.

Did you manage to get it installed straight away following their direction, Jesse?

Yes, I followed the document "A129PLUS R-Update-steps.doc" included with the beta firmware zip.

My rear cam will not auto disconnect and reconnect at night, so I update the firmware in the evening, rear cam firmware update process completed in less than 3 min.

1.Insert the SD card into the front camera, then shortly press the rightmost button.


2.Update firmware.


3.Auto reboot.


4.Auto enter recording mode after reboot.


5.Confirm firmware version.

 

[Tetracyclic]

Interesting, when I first got the camera I had a couple of short test journeys where it worked fine, but ever since then it disconnects and reconnects every 20 seconds or so. I've tried the firmware install five times now, but it always just hangs on the "Tx Start Update FW..." screen. The latest attempt I gave it half an hour, but clearly it should be much quicker than that.

Not sure what to try to get it to stop disconnecting long enough to perform the upgrade.

 

[Tetracyclic]

5.Confirm firmware version.
View attachment 64049

Notably the firmware for my rear camera has always been V1.0_20200807, despite the front camera already being on V1.8.
The rear camera was a replacement because the rear camera that shipped with the front camera came with a broken USB port.

 

[nickop]

@Tetracyclic did you try updating using power from a wall adapter or battery pack? Mine was more stable on non-car power.