Not a Happy Camper with the A139

jokiin said:
chances of your timer cutout, or voltage cutoff, exactly coinciding with the precise end of a file set are very long odds
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Ya but I'll run further testing to see whats up. Ive got a few weeks before my replacement arrives. And I am very meticulous. I don't want to draw conclusions without verifying results. Science is not about achieving a result. It's about replicating those findings.

So a single event is intriguing. More than once then becomes hard science. We shall see what happens over the coming days / weeks.
 
HonestReview said:
Ya but I'll run further testing to see whats up. Ive got a few weeks before my replacement arrives. And I am very meticulous. I don't want to draw conclusions without verifying results. Science is not about achieving a result. It's about replicating those findings.

So a single event is intriguing. More than once then becomes hard science. We shall see what happens over the coming days / weeks.
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actually science isn't about proving what's true, it's about eliminating what you can prove to be false, what's left is your most likely truth but always open to further scrutiny
 
jokiin said:
actually science isn't about proving what's true, it's about eliminating what you can prove to be false, what's left is your most likely truth but always open to further scrutiny
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Depends upon the study.

1. Coronavirus Vaccines - Companies (Pfizer, Jannsen (Johnson and Johnson), Moderna, etc inoculated 10s of thousands of volunteers, some receiving placebos and other's a live vaccine, to gather results on efficacy. The reason different cohorts are used is to determine whether their or positive or negative variances. And then break these variances into further subgroups (age, health, etc).

2. Science is then about replicating findings. Scientists often run tests multiple times to test whether varying results are achieved. If the same results are replicated over and over, then scientists often draw inferences based upon their findings.

So in my case, I'm still trying to prove or disprove whether my ONE off is luck or chance. By repeating the tests, I want to see if I still get corrupt files. So in a sense, I am trying to disprove my ONE OFF test that looked successful. But hoping that I can actually replicate the result and determine that version 1.2 firmware is to blame and not the camera itself.
 
UPDATE:

So unfortunately, it seems the camera shut off yesterday due to Voltage. I am running firmware version 1.6, and the camera again shut itself down, corrupting files.

For this test I had the A139 set at 2k-FHD-FHD with h.x264. I have setup the test again (not sure I'll have enough daylight / sun for a 2nd round) with FHD-FHD-FHD and h.x264. on firmware 1.6

I suspect this will fail. If it does, I'm going to do a zero wipe on the SD card. And set it up on firmware 1.1 With not very high hopes of success.

Chances are my unit has issues. Although, there seems to be other threads cropping up about overheating, too.
 
Similar to prior test, A139 froze when set to FHD-FHD-FHD and h.x264. On 2k-FHD-FHD unit shuts off. Both cases the file being written is corrupted.

Will try to downgrade to 1.1 and try again. Also going to zero wipe sd card and try again. Doubt it's SD card at fault, but will try to give the 1.1 firmware best possible chance of success.
 
Adjusting to 30 FPS on both cameras ( F&R ) seem to have done the trick, at least the A139 did 6 hours last night as commanded by my settings.
I am attempting the same today, but in the heat of the afternoon to start with, but shadows are creeping up on my parked car with its back to the sun.
but at least the first 2-3 hours the sun should have cooked the car nicely, it sure was cooking when i set off on a short drive before i parked the car.
The camera was also almighty hot setting off today, i felt that putting in the WD purple card as the camera did yesterdays parking session on the Kingston endurance card as i forgot the purple card in my apartment.

cooking.jpg
 
Last few days I was watching my hot air oven and wonder whether we shouldn't try out our cams in one of such testing chambers :D . To have more conclusive results.

Sure, it excludes the Sun part but still, to know the differences across units (if there are any).
 
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I don't think the sun part would much matter as long as the whole cam, inside and out, reaches the intended temperature and stays there for several minutes. IIRC @jokiin said they test their cams for 30 minutes at the specific temp they want info about. That would probably be better but for our purposes I think maybe 3-5 minutes would be sufficient to bring failure if there are problems.

Supposed to reach 91F/33C here today, work got cancelled and I've got a cross-town drive to do which should handle driving recording testing. I may not have time to do my heat-gun parking mode test today as I've got to pick up and begin testing on a new cam this afternoon/evening :)

Phil
 
33 C thats cooking, here it was just 27 when i set off from home on my short drive around town.

But yeah, we can just offer tidbits in this regard, proper testing will have to tell if there is something wrong.

Right now my car is almost on fire,,,,, color wise.
fire.jpg
 
Any overheating like my camera or corrupted files?

I hope my replacement works much better. What SD card are you using?

If the replacement has issues, I may order a Samsung Pro.....I dont think the SD card is at fault in my case, but you never know I guess.
 
No aside for the untimely stop of parking recording some times, everything is fine here.
I will keep experimenting with just the 2 cameras, the rest of this week are pretty cloudy and rainy, so no chance of a "proper" thermal load while doing parking guard.
 
SawMaster said:
I don't think the sun part would much matter as long as the whole cam, inside and out, reaches the intended temperature and stays there for several minutes. IIRC @jokiin said they test their cams for 30 minutes at the specific temp they want info about. That would probably be better but for our purposes I think maybe 3-5 minutes would be sufficient to bring failure if there are problems.
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not 30 minutes, we run them for 8 hours in the oven
 
jokiin said:
not 30 minutes, we run them for 8 hours in the oven
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Or park the car outside in the sun on a Hot Australian Day? I mean wouldn't that be about the same?

I'm encouraged that others aren't seeing my failures, so I truly hope I got a defective A139. As the results I'm getting wouldn't survive an Australian Winter! Let alone summer or 8 hours in an "oven".
 
jokiin said:
they're lab tested long before they get here, if they don't pass lab tests they get sorted until they do
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Lab tested in China or in Australia?

Makes me wonder how a product like the Zenfox T3 could have gotten out the door with all its problems. Guessing they did a half ass heat endurance test if any at all.

Hoping the A139 will be a knight in shining armor, once my replacement arrives. I truly want a fully reliable 3 channel camera. The interior camera gives me a very good 270 degree outside the driver + front passenger + rear passenger + rear window. Something I believe is a lifesaver, especially if an accident were to otherwise occur in the Front + Rear camera blindspot. I.E. Being broadsided.

I know you stated before that the market for 3 channel isn't really all that impressive. However, if any company can design a fully functional 3 channel camera, it'd be you guys. Any camera that can survive an Australian Summer would work in 99.99% of places around the world.

Maybe one day the incentive will come from your R&D team to develop a 3 channel product.
 
I have always argued for camera systems you could daisy chain in some way, maybe add other things to like a alarm module ASO.

That way you could start with a front and rear camera, then add another system for side cameras.
After the break in to my car in January i also want a stealthy driver camera to be able to identify the person sitting in the driver seat, the interior camera of the A139 mounted on the mirror stalk was probably what prompted the person to tear off the entire mirror and be aware of the cameras at least to some degree.
so i would like something very small with a pinhole lens.

The visible interior camera are very fine if i was a uber or similar driver, then i would want people to be aware, but i do not do that kind of side job ( illegal here )
 
@kamkar I can't see getting anything smaller than the K2S cams or the ones used here, and both would be rather easy to spot if someone is looking for cameras. Only a custom through-the-molding pinhole camera can pass that level of discretion :cautious: It seems like the best solution currently available is a cam which sends to the cloud, and that brings powering and heat issues plus is expensive to do and sustain :(

Even that won't actually stop the bad guys, nor does it ensure they'll be caught. The smarter crooks now know to expect there to be cameras at the scene and along the route to and away from it, and that's not hard to defeat. No real solution exists and for every advancement we make something to counter it is quickly made too- you cannot stop any smart and determined attack in anything :rolleyes:

Phil
 
Indeed.
I just want a chance of getting my hands on them, and i would hate going off on some innocent bastard.
I am also finding it hard to see where in my car i could install such a camera, the best position seem to be the right hand side A pillar behind the trim plastic, but there are no room there.
So now i am thinking maybe a slightly oversized toll thingie or something on the windscren, maybe something looking like something car smell container.
 
jokiin said:
market is too small for us to have a place for 3 channel, numbers don't add up
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Plenty of Uber / Lyft / Rideshare drivers in the world? I guess this would be the core market for 3 channel.
 
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