New to the Viofo A119V2

[Tractor]

I believe that there is a battery to maintain the time if you do not have the GPS unit. The GPS unit sync's the time in the DC when active based on GMT (only needs time difference adjusting for BST). So the battery is less important. No time difference from Sunday for the UK.

I have had contact with Viofo support and taking in account of the time difference had quite speedy response. Sorry to hear your experience was different.

 

[BCHobbyist]

It is still steep, so much to read and remember.
I had a look at the Viofo HW kit, in fact one is in my shopping basket, still unsure.
The issue I have is how low the vehicle battery voltage will have to drop before kit switches off while the dashcam is in parking or constant recording mode.
I have had a good look and all the HW kits I found automictically switch off should the battery drop to 11.2-11.6 volts, this is to low for a car battery when trying to start it.
I suppose a lot depends on how the vehicle is used daily and the condition of the battery and the charging.
As I remember a decent car battery at idle should be reading something like 13 .2 volts - 13.8 volts if the alternator is doing its job.
If the vehicle is being used for a long run daily any drain via a dash camera left on at night won't have much affect.
But a works vehicle like mine that does many stop and starts calls daily, canes a battery then parked up over the weekend might have issues starting come the working week if a camera is left in parking or continues recording mode.
I would have thought any HW kit that won't switch off/cut out until the car battery drops to 11.6v means for starting purposes a dead battery, more so during the winter.
I could not find one off the shelf HW kit for sale in the UK that could be regulated/would cut out if it sensed a voltage drop to 12.8v.
I may be misunderstanding things and there are a lot of variables, but a HW kits that allows a drop to 11.6 volts, it is to low in my opinion.
For overnight parking and recording and car battery in good condition, I don't suppose there will be to much of an issue but parked up for the weekend or a bit longer there might be.
It is one of the reasons I considered PBs instead.

Welcome to the DashCamTalk Forum,
Great to read your comments and questions, they help so many others reading these messages.
Any Dashcam powered internally with lithium batteries while mounted on windshield in full summer sun will always fail due to high heat, very bad design.
You have asked and identified the most important reason NOT to use a Dashcam Hardwire Kit with Parking Mode = Winter ! Allowing any accessory to drain vehicle battery voltage under 11.7volts when winter temperatures are below -15C in my opinion is crazy. My old 4x4 Truck always started at -30C without block heater in parking lot for 8 hours, but anytime Dashcam Parking Mode was enabled with "any" Hardwire kit for 8 hours Truck almost didn't have battery power to start, failed few times.
Hardwire Kits are perfect when used with newer batteries (not 5years old) for 18hours or less in temperatures +30C to -5C, beyond those ranges expect issues.

Power Banks are a great alternate Dashcam power source for Parking Mode Protection _if_ Power Bank is high quality and reliable. There are dozens of 5volt Power Bank brands and models to choose from, always read reviews for known issues. One reason I selected VIOFO Dashcams was they use standard 5 volt power. Buy a 5 volt Power Bank from established company, ensure PB has minimum 1 year warranty, select 10,000mAh for 6hour runtime or 20-30,000mAh capacity for extended Parking Mode coverage. Downside to Power Banks is they take 4-6 hours to recharge and the thinner ones don't work well below -5C. I don't recommend charging the Power Bank in vehicle while it powers Dashcam due to excess heat created in lithium cell - unless the PB was designed for that functionality.

My Daily Driver Setup = A119S+MOD-4Vf ((A119+5Rf)) powered by socket adapter then switched to Power Bank for short duration Parking Mode. Here in Vancouver Canada it rarely drops below -10C in winter so Hardwire Kits are acceptable but my compact car battery is tiny with insufficient reserve power.

 

[BCHobbyist]

Thank you Tractor.
Relatively new, yes but I think I had my first DC some 8 years ago so more then enough time to produce a product that won't prevent a car from starting.
Viafo can not be held to account for third party sellers of these HW units but they do put their name to one as an official product that may render a vehicle inoperable for a while.
One of the questions I put to Viofo in my enquiry to them was the A119 was my first capacitor based DC but does their unit indeed contain a small lipo-battery?
I went ahead and purchased anyway but was wondering, if correct what affect this would have on the unit if battery gave out?
I'm sick to death of swapping out batteries in other dashcams I have owned, sick of it! My NextBase 402G is on its 3rd battery including a replacement FOC camera from them.
Great DC but damn batteries, it's a real pain, I have had enough but made up for by their good customer service which admittedly is UK based.
It wouldn't be as far bad when their unit is cracked open and a simple battery, JST or Dupont disconnect/connect replacement but at £35 to return and replace and the inconvenience, it gets tedious and annoying if not costly.
It was time for a re-think as to my DC requirements and budget and a reason why I settled on Viofo.

Once your new VIOFO A119 1440P wide angle Dash Cam is setup and working I hope to see you using and testing both Official and Modified Firmware.
You can always contact any DCTeam member privately by clicking their Avatar to start a conversation.

A119 Modified Firmware Archive thread > https://drive.google.com/open?id=1d47InQ8qHSkZCgVfxersR1gflsd3hQTN
Download A119 Modified Firmware > https://drive.google.com/open?id=1d47InQ8qHSkZCgVfxersR1gflsd3hQTN
Official VIOFO A119 Firmware > https://support.viofo.com/support/solutions/articles/19000019600-viofo-a119-car-dash-camera-firmware

Look forward to seeing some of your UK footage, let @Tractor know if you'd like to contribute in our little DashCamTeam's efforts to improve image quality for all VIOFO Dash Cams.

 

[caf2]

I believe that there is a battery to maintain the time if you do not have the GPS unit. The GPS unit sync's the time in the DC when active based on GMT (only needs time difference adjusting for BST). So the battery is less important. No time difference from Sunday for the UK.

I have had contact with Viofo support and taking in account of the time difference had quite speedy response. Sorry to hear your experience was different.

Thanks for your reply. I should have thought about it, settings, GPS and options, so there will have to be a small battery installed to maintain theses settings.

Do you do any product sample reviews for Viafo on their behalf?

 

[caf2]

Welcome to the DashCamTalk Forum,
Great to read your comments and questions, they help so many others reading these messages.
Any Dashcam powered internally with lithium batteries while mounted on windshield in full summer sun will always fail due to high heat, very bad design.
You have asked and identified the most important reason NOT to use a Dashcam Hardwire Kit with Parking Mode = Winter ! Allowing any accessory to drain vehicle battery voltage under 11.7volts when winter temperatures are below -15C in my opinion is crazy. My old 4x4 Truck always started at -30C without block heater in parking lot for 8 hours, but anytime Dashcam Parking Mode was enabled with "any" Hardwire kit for 8 hours Truck almost didn't have battery power to start, failed few times.
Hardwire Kits are perfect when used with newer batteries (not 5years old) for 18hours or less in temperatures +30C to -5C, beyond those ranges expect issues.

Power Banks are a great alternate Dashcam power source for Parking Mode Protection _if_ Power Bank is high quality and reliable. There are dozens of 5volt Power Bank brands and models to choose from, always read reviews for known issues. One reason I selected VIOFO Dashcams was they use standard 5 volt power. Buy a 5 volt Power Bank from established company, ensure PB has minimum 1 year warranty, select 10,000mAh for 6hour runtime or 20-30,000mAh capacity for extended Parking Mode coverage. Downside to Power Banks is they take 4-6 hours to recharge and the thinner ones don't work well below -5C. I don't recommend charging the Power Bank in vehicle while it powers Dashcam due to excess heat created in lithium cell - unless the PB was designed for that functionality.

My Daily Driver Setup = A119S+MOD-4Vf ((A119+5Rf)) powered by socket adapter then switched to Power Bank for short duration Parking Mode. Here in Vancouver Canada it rarely drops below -10C in winter so Hardwire Kits are acceptable but my compact car battery is tiny with insufficient reserve power.

Thanks for the reply BCHobbyist and the welcome.

Fortunately for us the average winter temperature is around -5C in the UK so a mild time of it compared to what you get hit with in Canada and elsewhere.

Taken onboard everything you write about PBs, still deciding, I have about 6-7 in my shopping basket but dismissed out of hand thin types.

One quick observation, I have noticed none of the PBs I looked at and read their specs', none of them have any vent holes in the cases, all the heat from charging, discharging is contained, this heat can't be good for the batteries within?

I've got my self lost, what is the difference in operation between parking mode and constant recording, is the A119 capable of constant loop recording when parked up for the night?

Is dashcam parking and constant recording/ loop the same thing and can constant be achieved if wired to a HW kit or operated by a 20-25,000 PB?

 

[BCHobbyist]

Thanks for the reply BCHobbyist and the welcome.
Fortunately for us the average winter temperature is around -5C in the UK so a mild time of it compared to what you get hit with in Canada and elsewhere.
Taken onboard everything you write about PBs, still deciding, I have about 6-7 in my shopping basket but dismissed out of hand thin types.
One quick observation, I have noticed none of the PBs I looked at and read their specs', none of them have any vent holes in the cases, all the heat from charging, discharging is contained, this heat can't be good for the batteries within?
I've got my self lost, what is the difference in operation between parking mode and constant recording, is the A119 capable of constant loop recording when parked up for the night?
Is dashcam parking and constant recording/ loop the same thing and can constant be achieved if wired to a HW kit or operated by a 20-25,000 PB?

All Dashcams have the ability to record over the oldest video files once the memory card is full - called Loop Recording, always set to either 1,2,3 mins (I use 2mins unless Beta testing for DCTeam).

The A119 offers a few different Parking Modes - time lapse + motion detection. Suggest you view my Parking Mode video for the A119S its the same feature. Owners that connect Dashcam with constant power via Hardwire Kit or Power Bank will leave Parking Mode enabled. While vehicle is parked it will record based on selected option and can switch to Normal video recording (50sec-2min clip) if impact is detected by G-sensor. When vehicle is driven Parking Mode switches to Normal Mode until ignition is turned off. It isn't complicated and fun to play with indoors to see how it works. I've left mine connected in vehicle and indoors powered with 8000mAh PB and it lasted 8hours, of course it depends on the selected Parking Mode options, I used 5fps but if many impacts or heavy vibrations detected more power will be used.
Suggest skip purchase of PB and use socket adapter for few weeks until you fully understand all features and functions. Later you could buy a cheap low capacity PB like shown in my video for testing your future setup.

 

[Kerberos]

Hey guys, I've noticed my VIOFO sometimes does not turn on when I start my car. It's set to automatically turn on after 5 seconds but it only turns on 8 out of 10 times. Is it a software issue?

 

[Tractor]

Some makes of cars cut the power to any radio etc. when you start the engine. Some take a bit longer to restore power to them that the reason for the delay. It was added to make sure the device did start. The time of the delay required can vary even in the same make Try increase to 10 secs. alternatively try not to turn the ignition on till you are ready to move off. When ignition is turned on the dashcam starts when engine started Dashcam turns off and may not restart without adjusting the delay.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Hey guys, I've noticed my VIOFO sometimes does not turn on when I start my car. It's set to automatically turn on after 5 seconds but it only turns on 8 out of 10 times. Is it a software issue?

How are you powering the camera?

 

[Kerberos]

How are you powering the camera?

Cigarette lighter socket

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Cigarette lighter socket

Are you using all Viofo supplied cables and power supplies? If you are, then I would definitely try a longer boot delay.

 

[Kerberos]

Are you using all Viofo supplied cables and power supplies? If you are, then I would definitely try a longer boot delay.

I am mate. Will try a longer delay and see how it goes.