My E360 arrived

Paul Iddon

Paul Iddon

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Location
Preston
Country
United Kingdom
Dash Cam
Viofo A139 Pro 4K, A129 Pro Duo 4K, A229 Duo 2K, & NB 522GW
Packaged as expected - very neat and tidy.

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Installation simple - standard procedure.

First thoughts:

Front camera feels heavy and is a bit larger than I expected.

Rear camera is wonderfully small.

USB-C connectors - perfect.
 
The dashcam prompted to update the firmware the first time I connected it to the app, so that was downloaded and applied.


First videos:

All loook as good as other examples seen on the forum.

There are however a couple of stutters in at the start of the recording occasionally, and I also saw some pink flashes on the rear camera, at the start of the recordings.

Audio is rather quiet so not picking up much engine noise.


MAIN ISSUE:

@Jeff_Vantrue

Whether connected via 12v aux plug from the cigarette lighter, or hard wired, the camera closed down every 60 second seconds, and then restarted and recorded for a further 60 seconds, and repeated that throughout the drive.

This was with at both resolutions used, and I don't know the reason.








Paul.
 
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It seems that a few people are noting the rebooting issue. I think yours might be the first instance of it happening with the Vantrue provided power supply. Mine doesn't exhibit this behavior.

Nice videos!
 
I have a new and kind of unexpected update: I plugged a X-Dragon XD-USB-7VAC USB tester between my Anker power brick and dashcam connected to GPS (the cycling reboot scenario!), and... it stopped rebooting!
- USB tester is plugged to USB-A connector on Anker
- Vantrue cable is connected as follows: USB-A to USB-A on USB tester; USB-C to GPS module

However, the shutdown still does not work - camera immediately powers up

Starting voltage: 5.03V
Voltage under load: 4.98V-4.97V
Max current observed: 0.91A
 
Plugging the same contraption directly to dashcam:
- Voltage under load: 4.98V (very steady)
- current: 0.85A- 0.93A

Power consumption seems almost identical, albeit does feel a tiny bit higher (same as reported by Anker as well)

No reboots. Shutdown works correctly
 
Interesting findings! I suspect there is some sort of interaction between the specifics of the Anker output voltage regulator circuit and the type of load that the capacitor input on the dashcam that the regulator doesn't like. I've played with other switched mode power supplies for building high-power Class A audio amplifiers (constant high current draw) and what has been well documented is that SMPS power supplies do NOT like directly driving capacitors at all. The idea is that when caps are depleted upon initial power up, they look like a dead short to the power supply, so the safety mechanism inside the SMPS shuts it down to prevent causing yet other problems. After a short timeout delay, the SMPS likely tries again to provide output voltage, but then senses the "short" in the cap is still present, so it shuts down again.

This power cycling can often be solved by adding some resistance (and sometimes a few other parts) ahead of the capacitors in the device so the caps charge somewhat more slowly and don't look like a dead short to the driving power supply. I suspect that adding the USB voltage meter adds this type of "buffering" between the output voltage regulator and the super caps in the camera, thus allowing the voltage regulators to power the camera.
 
Paul Iddon said:
The dashcam prompted to update the firmware the first time I connected it to the app, so that was downloaded and applied.


First videos:

All loook as good as other examples seen on the forum.

There are however a couple of stutters in at the start of the recording occasionally, and I also saw some pink flashes on the rear camera, at the start of the recordings.

Audio is rather quiet so not picking up much engine noise.


MAIN ISSUE:

@Jeff_Vantrue

Whether connected via 12v aux plug from the cigarette lighter, or hard wired, the camera closed down every 60 second seconds, and then restarted and recorded for a further 60 seconds, and repeated that throughout the drive.

This was with at both resolutions used, and I don't know the reason.








Paul.
Click to expand...
Hi Paul,

Could you please try updating the latest firmware for the E360 and check if it resolves the rear camera issue? Additionally, please format the SD card and reset the dash cam to see if it fixes the reboot issue.
 
I experienced the same shutdown every 60 seconds after updating the E360 FW to version VT-EDK271.

However it only seemed to affect the camera when auto starting from power off.

If I checked the camera settings using either the touch screen or the app, the E360 reboot issue went away and the camera recorded normally.
 
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I reset the E360 and formatted the card, then left all settings at default. The camera continues to shut down then restart every 60 seconds.

I tried changing the loop interval from 1 minute to 3 minutes, but the E360 still shuts down every 60 seconds.

I do not have the LTE module attached.
EDIT: The problem goes away when I use the LTE module
EDIT 2: Using the LTE module is only a partial fix. My fault is that I was trying to use a non-Vantrue power cable.
 
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Hmmm…. This is not helping to dispel my general philosophy that updates break stuff. I’ll retain my present firmware version.
 
EricSan said:
Hmmm…. This is not helping to dispel my general philosophy that updates break stuff. I’ll retain my present firmware version.
Click to expand...
I was going to keep the original FW after reading about these issues. The only reason I updated was to enable compatibility with the LTE module.
 
no issues so far with mine using out of the box firmware , think i will not update for a while
 
UPDATE: The power cycling issue goes away when I have the E360 powered via the LTE module

As I understand it, the latest FW was designed to allow the E360 to be compatible with the LTE module. However it appears that this FW introduced an issue with users who do not have the LT01.
EDIT :This may not be the only solution. I might have been too quick to suggest that this is the cause of the restart problem some users have experienced.
EDIT 2: Using the LTE module is only a partial fix. My fault is that I was trying to use a non-Vantrue power cable. See post 19 for further details.

@Jeff_Vantrue @EricSan @Sawyer @sky1111 @Paul Iddon
 
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Awesome! Glad to hear that you’ve found a solution!
 
Just been out for a test drive with the E360 and LT01 and it worked perfectly πŸ‘
 
I just checked with my unit. Firmware: E360_VT-EDK271
No matter which power supply configuration I use, I do not have any restarting issues.
I checked LT01 with the HW kit, Vantrue 12V charger, and random 5V phone charger.
My unit performs as intended. Otherwise, I would have reported this.
 
UPDATE:
After further testing I agree with Jeff's advice to use either the original car charger or a Vantrue hardwire kit. I have tested my E360 with the 12V car charger, a hardwire kit, and a non-Vantrue USB-C cable, both with and without the LTE module.

Here's a summary of my test results, running on FW version VT-EDK271.

Vantrue 12V car charger + E360 = πŸ‘
Vantrue 12V car charger + LT01 + E360 = πŸ‘

Vantrue HW kit + E360 = πŸ‘
Vantrue HW kit + LT01 + E360 = πŸ‘

Non-Vantrue USB-C cable + E360 = πŸ‘Ž(restarts every 60 seconds)
Non-Vantrue USB-C cable + LT01 + E360 = πŸ‘

Sorry for my misleading post above which suggested the LT01 module was part of the solution. The LT01 does seem to allow the E360 to work normally with an non-Vantrue USB-C cable (I have tried a few), but it would not be the recommended option.
 
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That was interesting to read. I had no issue powering my e360 using the USB cable coming off the back of my head unit. All was going great until I applied whatever the latest update was - then it started doing exactly what you described - at the 1 min mark it would boot loop. Interestingly after completely powering down the unit (unplugging it) and bringing it inside, upon returning it to the car (on the same previous power source) the problem hasn't returned even once.
 
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