A219 Pro video drop follow up post (previously: New A129Pro occasional double beep , doubt it is due to overheating)

JoePGM

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Dash Cam
Yi Smart DashCam, Vicovation MF3, Boscam S1
Hi Folks, I give some testing on my new A129Pro these days and find that my unit have double beep during recording.

My SD card is a Samsung EVO+ 128GB card, 100% genuine, formatted inside the dash cam. Recording spec is WDR-OFF, 1440p 60FPS+ 1080p 30FPS, bitrate high, no parking mode, no wifi, firmware v1.3. The sd card has running hwtest is 100% ok and checked with crystal disk at around 65 Mb/s write speed. Dash cam is powered through the original viofo USB cable to the GPS unit.

The unit have occasional double beep during recording, especially when running under direct sunlight. The unit keep recording onward, that's no shutdown no freezing. The double beep didn't occur (so far through these test days) during evening and night time. Taking out the SDcard and put it into my pc, the video is interrupted and missing about 3-5 sec during the double beep period.

The dash cam goes really hot after 10-15min running, the sd card and the rear camera cable plug (the end that plug into the front camera body) also goes very hot when unplugging. I doubt it is an overheat issue and causing the double beep with record interruption.

Any idea?
 
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Samsung EVO+ is an old card which Samsung stopped producing in 2017 and was replaced with EVO Plus.

EVO+
UHS-I U1 10 MB/s minimum write speed

EVO Plus
UHS-I U3 30 MB/s minimum write speed

The EVO+ just isn't fast enough.
 
Samsung EVO+ is an old card which Samsung stopped producing in 2017 and was replaced with EVO Plus.

EVO+
UHS-I U1 10 MB/s minimum write speed

EVO Plus
UHS-I U3 30 MB/s minimum write speed

The EVO+ just isn't fast enough.

Sorry I mean mine is Evo Plus , just a quick typing
Crystal marks shows write in speed reach 65MB/s
 
Samsung EVO+ is an old card which Samsung stopped producing in 2017 and was replaced with EVO Plus.

EVO+
UHS-I U1 10 MB/s minimum write speed

EVO Plus
UHS-I U3 30 MB/s minimum write speed

The EVO+ just isn't fast enough.
Btw: I thought according to this even 10MBps should be fast enough (the first paragraph though). :geek:

But to my experience A129Pro at max (3840x2160, 30fps, max) can peak up to 100Mbps (front only). I’m not sure about 1440p 60fps.
 
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Btw: I thought according to this even 10MBps should be fast enough (the first paragraph though). :geek:

But to my experience A129Pro at max (3840x2160, 30fps, max) can peak up to 100Mbps (front only). I’m not sure about 1440p 60fps.

at 1440p 60fps + 1080 30fps, the clips size are around 250mb+130mb every minute consistently (1min loop time), so that is something about 400mb/min writing, or ~7mb per second
 
But to my experience A129Pro at max (3840x2160, 30fps, max) can peak up to 100Mbps (front only). I’m not sure about 1440p 60fps.

100Mbps is only about 10MB/s.

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On beeping issue, try repartition your card using https://www.partitionwizard.com.

Delete the existing partition and create a new one. Make sure to leave 16MB free in front. This will make the partition starts at 0x8000. Also make sure to use exFAT. On my 512GB Samsung EVO Plus, it seems to resolve the beeping issue during drive and parking modes but I'm still testing.

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Sure is, that's 12.5MBps to be precise. :) Do you think it's low?
I do think that it's low. That's why I don't understand why we need faster cards. However, we do need cards which writes at constant speed. The problem is, we are not writing to card with raw data that come from the video encoder. There's a file system that need to be handled. The allocation table need to be updated, sectors to be recovered and etc. So code efficiency for the file system is also important. Additionally the flash driver need to be efficient too. Usually people just use free open source code found in the internet and mix them and viola! we got a new product. Then if there is write problem, umm, your card is not fast or good enough.

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Part of the problem is it's the minimal sequential speed and video recording isn't sequential (if we copy already recorded file, it's a different story).
So we should keep in mind we need "high" speeds even in case of "small" files and sufficient IOPS - and in most cases the faster the card is in sequential read/write, the faster are other stats.
 

Joe is related to heat but I can't explain exactly how, I would say is the card as the camera is usually rebooting when is overheated. But, checking the temperature with my hand...I was able to leave my hand on, however there were situations when I couldn't keep my hand on because of the heat on and no beeps...!!!

So, after using the camera for almost 6 months...those 2 or 4 beeps are almost random...if is not hot you get it but very rarely.

At one point I changed the G-sensor sensitivity to low, as I said is some combination of potholes/heat/contact/trying to lock files :) but still got it!

I had firmware 1.1, 1.3, 1.7 and for 2 months or so I'm on 1.6...on all of them I got those 2-4 beeps at an interval of 1-2 hours when hot/sunny, when cold I had 4-6 hours continuous recording (4K+1080) without beeps at all...but other times I had beeps :) with both of the Sandisk Extreme PRO 256 and Extreme 128, always using maximum bit-rate; formatted FAT, exFAT, in camera, outside, etc.


Don't know if this comment is helpful but you are not alone.
 
At 12.5 MB/sec you are writing 750MB/s per minute or 45GB per hour so that gives you a full write every 2.8 hours, that's a lot for a SD flash card that is not meant to be used in a dashcam, Samsung will deny any warranty on that card if it's used in a dashcam, they do give warranty for their long endurance cards if used in a dashcam.

For the Sandisk Extreme PRO 256 and Extreme 128 => same story, you loose all warranty if you use them in a dashcam unless you take the long endurance.

I'm not saying that these are "bad" SD cards, i'm saying it's completly different to make a fast SD card for normal use and a SD card that will write, write an keep writing.

That is also the reasons why we have pretty damn expensive rotating hard drives for enterprise and cheaper drives that are way faster for normal use. The difference is that if you run them with continious load, continious writing, even if it's not that much, it will even destroy a non flash rotating disk in less then 5 years and a modern flash drive even faster. But i've seen 10 of those expensive slow drives doing it without issue for 10 years.
 
And the point of the story is? A129Pro has only SDcard slot and requires "fast" storage so what else can we do about it..? Cripple the paid IQ to decrease a load?
Anyway, one can buy cheap fast SDcard and replace it every year. Or buy a bit expensive one and have it for two years... (i don't see a problem)
But OP "complains" about beeps and nobody knows what it means. Some users fixed them with aligning partitions, i "fixed" them for some time by better power supply - God knows what the actual cause is.

Btw: WD Purple are fast, cheap, high endurance, including about 1000x writes of used capacity and it's meant to be 24/7.
 
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The point of the story is that you are using the wrong tool for the job.
And yes, the issue may not be the SD card itself but you make it a lot more difficult.

If you know the technicals background, a cheap SD card is going to get fried, fast. An expensive one that's not fit for the job will last longer but it will start having issues faster then you think because it's using the wrong kind of flash memory chips.

They give 10 years of recording on those long endurance cards and claim that they have 25 times more lifespan then any other cards.
That sounds like you can buy a cheap one and replace it every 2 year but their is a catch, it's 10 year on 1080P with a very low bitrate in perfect conditions and temperature.

If you go recording 24/24 7/7 on that high endurance card on 4k max bitrate then you are writing 5 times more data meaning that high endurance card will last for 2 years, if you are lucky.

And then you start complaining that a non endurance cards sometimes has write errors after 6 months, perhaps giving it more stable power will help, optimizing structure may help but you are working with volatile flash memory that's not fit for the job, in fact flash memory it's biggest weakpoint is endurance in writing but it's shockproof. Without wanting to point a finger,but that's asking for trouble.

And those endurance cards are still consumer, go to Dell, 16GB sd card for Idrac, will cost you 60 euro. HP asks 120 euro for an enterprise 32GB variant.

WD purple are cheap because they are targeted at home NAS usage where they don't really get a continious load, go look up the WD ultrastar rotating disk prices and that price will be a lot higher but still they are very cheap, that's because enterprise lost interest in rotating disks so you would need to go look for a WD Ultrastar DC SS530, that's 1680 euro for a 960GB flash drive.

If you think that's just enterprise being stupid, I had a colleague who tought it was a good idea to use 12 normal popular consumer flash drives because those enterprise were way to expensive just because they are targeted at enterprise. After 6 months not a single one survived and he sended them all in for warranty, all denied, they worked as designed and have been used for the rated life expectancy. Then you can calculate how much it costs on troubleshooting because you start to get weird glitches all the time you cant always pinpoint and then waking me up in the middle of the night because suddenly multiple drives fail at the same time and thus losing redudancy and having impact because of systems going down and losing data between the last backup and moment of complete system failure. Those consumer drives ended up costing a lot of money while they were replaced not by 1680 euro for a drive but at around 800 euro for a drive (depends on the exact load)

So if you want to use the wrong tool for the job, go ahead, but the manufacturer will deny any waranty the moment you start using those in a dashcam because they know what kind of trouble you will get.
 
There isn't a "catch" if you are able to look and understand of specs in datasheet. I knew i had to specify "WD Purple SDcard". Believe me it has nothing to do with NAS. ;):p And it's odd, i thought WD Purple HDD lineup is intended to be for surveillance and RED for NAS (not the SMR though).

Btw: Don't be silly, most of the these "pricy highend enterprise" stuff are just the same HW with modified firmware, locked to specific components. (i don't even need to think and e.g. Dell Cheetah HDD enteprise storage are EXACTLY the same drives as non-enterprise Seagate Cheetah with DELL's firmware, to be "compatible" with their RAID cards).
You can even use non-enteprise stuff in enterprise enviroment but you need to know what are you doing... But don't get me wrong, sure there still are specific cases, but it's less "enteprise" than you think(as in the past). These days it's more about support, warranty and licences.

Again, we are not talking about the SDcard lifespans or whether or not is good manner to use a card which will die in days with such load. The OP's card clearly works Ok so it should work in the dashcam (even if only for a few days).


EDIT: Anyway i think we should stop spamming this thread. It's not helping whatsoever. :coffee: Sure, the OP's card is not the best for long-therm usage but it's usable and once it fails it's easily replacable.
 
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I agree with Nath. Most different varieties of drives are just marketing gimmick with added support plus different config or firmware. Perhaps some failed QA and thus made it into the "low standard" consumer lines.

Any storage when made, will have bad sectors all over. The manufacturer need to set the standard on how much good one is there. That is why you'll never get 2 hdds or sdcards with the same exact actual capacity.

For example, the Pentium and the Celeron. The Celeron is the Pentium which didn't pass the QA.

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