Lukas dashcams: do you have any GPS issues?

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My dealer says he will no longer be carrying Lukas dashcams with GPS capabilities.

In my case, there has been gps sensitivity issues where despite a clear view of the sky, the device would either not hold a GPS signal or it would not typically acquire a satellite lock until 10+ minutes or more despite having a clear view of the sky. My replacement unit exhibited the problem and would not acquire a locked (A) signal despite driving in a "good" area for more than 15 minutes. After about 30+ minutes, it did finally acquire a satellite lock. My device is the 9500 and I feel other models are likely affected too as they probably carry the same GPS chip.

BTW. I have used GPS units for more than 15 years and have a very solid understanding of how GPS signals work.
 
I just got LK-7950WD and seems to get gps signal after around a minute or so.
 
My LK-7900 GPS cuts in and out a fair bit, I can see that in my travel logs. I blame it on the window tint (around the mirror) blocking the signal.
If your backup battery is shot, the GPS does a cold-start everytime and that takes much longer to get a position fix.
Beyond this, I would say radio interference from the camera could be making noise on the GPS receiver and lower its sensitivity, as a design flaw.
I vaguely recall it's a vanilla GPS module.
 
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Does the 9500 have a hardwired cable or is it the cigarette lighter adaptor?

I noticed quite a lot of noise on the AM band when the 7950 is connected via the cigarette lighter adaptor - bizarrely it seems worse as it's first turned on though!
 
reverend said:
Does the 9500 have a hardwired cable or is it the cigarette lighter adaptor?

I noticed quite a lot of noise on the AM band when the 7950 is connected via the cigarette lighter adaptor - bizarrely it seems worse as it's first turned on though!
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The 9500 is hardwired. Interestingly, the original 9500 didn't have the GPS issues at first, it degraded rapidly over several months. The replacement model is much worse.

It might be technically possible the built-in vehicle's car navigation and infotainment system may be causing interference with the gps, the 9500 is quite close to the car's gps antenna. however, using a stand-alone gps in the car on the dash never created issues. i often bring my garmin on long trips because the car's gps mapset is not as current as garmin's.

Since the car's stereo reception has been poor from day one (common complaint due to the integrated antenna in the rear windshield) I can't say if reception is worse now with the cam or not.

The glass or tinting is not an issue since it's OEM and basic. If anything, I think the 9500 gps is either weak or basic interference results in loss of signal....but again, it's not all the time just most of the time.
 
Update: The Lukas GPS modules use a micro-battery, a Seiko Lithium rechargeable MS621FE. Presumably to store the ephemeris. It has a lifetime rating of 100 cycles at 20% usage! Mine measured 2.30V falling to 1.80V overnight. It's a 3.0V cell, so after 1-1/2 year it is wearing out. I think it just means always cold-starting the GPS and a minute delay to getting a position fix?

But I noticed a wire-mesh shield under the GPS module- evidently RF interference from the (nearby) camera's processor is an issue. A person would have to read the raw GPS data to see what signal strength is.
 
Ken said:
But I noticed a wire-mesh shield under the GPS module- evidently RF interference from the (nearby) camera's processor is an issue. A person would have to read the raw GPS data to see what signal strength is.
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The CMOS sensor is normally a bigger problem than the processor
 
Ken said:
Update: The Lukas GPS modules use a micro-battery, a Seiko Lithium rechargeable MS621FE. Presumably to store the ephemeris. It has a lifetime rating of 100 cycles at 20% usage! Mine measured 2.30V falling to 1.80V overnight. It's a 3.0V cell, so after 1-1/2 year it is wearing out. I think it just means always cold-starting the GPS and a minute delay to getting a position fix?

But I noticed a wire-mesh shield under the GPS module- evidently RF interference from the (nearby) camera's processor is an issue. A person would have to read the raw GPS data to see what signal strength is.
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In my case, the ephemeris fix is past 10 minutes, sometimes less that it. It wasn't a constant with my previous cam and it's much worse with the new one. A cold start fix of a few minutes is perfectly acceptable and normal, but not 10+ minutes.

Additionally, my cam has a "V" OSD indicator that means there is a satellite signal but it's too weak. I am not sure how one can get access to the raw data unless one tries to hack their dashcam. RF interference should not be an issue. The antenna is in the rear windshield and the GPS units only receive, not transmit signals so it's unlikely that in my case the factory nav system would be causing interference with the cam. However, if the cam's CPU is causing RF interference, that would be very interesting.
 
I have 2 LK7900s and 1 LK9700. The 7900s have no problem acquiring very quickly, but the 9700 can take up to 20 minutes to acquire, often missing entire drives. I find it takes particularly long if it was parked indoors as if it gets badly confused by the lack of signal present on boot.
 
I have the 9700 Duo and the GPS sucks, My TomTom 730GO will pick up a signal within 50ft of leaving my garage, the 9700 some times over 30 minutes before a signal is received and spotty at that. It is not the mounting position as I use it in three different vehicles and it shows the same problem. One vehicle has the rear view camera and hard wire power cable and the other two use only the camera and the power plug. Same results in all cases. I had two prior cameras from other manufactures they picked up the GPS signal in less than 100 feet from the garage. First camera was a no name brand from Korea at 640 vidio and the second was a GSE 580.
 
@Google,

Just a bit of insight from a Lukas dealer.
We have had to replace a small portion of the lk9X00 Lukas series do to this GPS problem.

We have found that the problems lies in the main body of the camera, and not in the GPS receiver.

However only a small very small portion of our Lukas stock has been affected. We now verify that each Lukas we receive can lock onto GPS in under 2 minute before selling.

Lukas is aware of the problems, and new cameras should no longer be affected.

GOOGLE, can I ask who where you bought your Lukas camera from?
I am quite disappointed to hear they have provided you such poor customer support.
Please let me know if there is anything we can do to help you.
 
I purchased mine from www.finevuusa.com, they have replaced the Camera (LK9700 Duo "B") once arround the New Year and the new camera is no better than the old one, I have E-Mailed them a couple of times since using their contact page since then and have received no reply. I am guessing they are no longer interested in my problems. I originally purchased the Camera about June 14 2014 as a Type "D" which would not work in any of my vehicles this was exchanged for the Type "B" I now have.
 
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CalgaryDashCam said:
@Google,

Lukas is aware of the problems, and new cameras should no longer be affected.

GOOGLE, can I ask who where you bought your Lukas camera from?
I am quite disappointed to hear they have provided you such poor customer support.
Please let me know if there is anything we can do to help you.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update. I'm in Vancouver. My [local] dealer has been really good about everything. They were skeptical at first, but I showed them sufficient evidence. They say they will no longer be carrying Lukas cams with GPS features. They are a Lukas authorized dealer. Lukas [Korea] keeps on denying, denying, and denying any GPS issues. I have emails to prove it.

How is Lukas going to resolve this GPS issue for customers such as myself? Are they going to swap the device? If so, how does one know which versions and batches are fixed that no longer have this issue? Mine is the 9500 duo. I would like this resolved before my warranty runs out.
 
Google said:
Thanks for the update. I'm in Vancouver. My [local] dealer has been really good about everything. They were skeptical at first, but I showed them sufficient evidence. They say they will no longer be carrying Lukas cams with GPS features. They are a Lukas authorized dealer. Lukas [Korea] keeps on denying, denying, and denying any GPS issues. I have emails to prove it.

How is Lukas going to resolve this GPS issue for customers such as myself? Are they going to swap the device? If so, how does one know which versions and batches are fixed that no longer have this issue? Mine is the 9500 duo. I would like this resolved before my warranty runs out.
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I am glad to hear your local retailer has been providing you with great service.

As for Calgary Dash Camera CDC Canada. We providing our customer with first class service. This includes free (including full free shipping to send the camera back to us) camera replacements if this ever becomes an issue with any of the Lukas camera.
We deal directly with Lukas, and visit Korea twice a year personally to bring up camera issues/ return malfunctioned units.
 
CalgaryDashCam wrote "We deal directly with Lukas, and visit Korea twice a year personally to bring up camera issues/ return malfunctioned units."

When you go back next time, suggest they make a portable version of the Lukas Viewer so it can run from a USB Stick or CD. I would like that when the GPS issues are straightened out.
 
I've got 2 Lukas LK-7900 Ace's that are hardwired in with a LK-350 for power management. The front cam mounted in the windshield picks up immediately, no issues. The rear camera takes a while for the GPS to lock in. Both are brand new, just about 2 weeks using them. The rear camera is mounted in the back window of my pickup truck. Basically, as it cant "see the sky" due to the mounting on the inside trim so it can point straight back thru the back glass, I'm assuming that's the reason that it takes longer to pick up the GPS signal. Once it does lock in on the signal, it is accurate and doesn't lose the signal at all.
I did swap it out and mount it on the front windshield and the GPS picked up quickly with no delay....which tells me it's not the camera but the back window position itself.
The only thing I've found is that though both cams are brand new and the settings are exactly the same, the rear camera seems to make a nice bright day look overcast when I review the videos (even when I move it to the front to test it). I'm new to cameras but would assume, same camera, same setting, same video quality. One seems overcast, the other is fine. Other than that...so far, I'm very happy with both of them!
 
Sundancer268 said:
CalgaryDashCam wrote "We deal directly with Lukas, and visit Korea twice a year personally to bring up camera issues/ return malfunctioned units."

When you go back next time, suggest they make a portable version of the Lukas Viewer so it can run from a USB Stick or CD. I would like that when the GPS issues are straightened out.
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The file for PC version of the Lukas viewer should always be on the main full sized SD card.
 
I know the file is there, it just has to be installed on each computer to be played and the local Law Enforcement departments do not want to do that. They just want to play the video and I like to show where the incident takes place on Google Maps. I normally just drop off CD at the department with the two or three videos before and just after the incident so they do not have to go through the whole day of travel to find out the complaint. This has stopped a bunch of people passing in the Yellow Line zones on my way to work and home every day. With the old Secureye program the Under-Sheriff remarked that my camera provided more information than the department cameras did. With Lukas Viewer they have to install the program instead of running it from the CD.
 
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