Not a Happy Camper with the A139

@jokiin said he suspects a hardware issue. Reason I asked for an RMA. I wouldn't say it's working within "spec". No one else is experiencing these problems. You've got @SawMaster who says his unit can sit outside and not have problems. Along with others who are not reporting their unit seizing up.
I don't remember anybody else who actually measured temperature in his car where A139 was. Outside temperature is just a starting point which at the end of the day alone means nothing...

For example my car yesterday, 25°C, A139 exposed to Sun for 7 hours. Guess temperature in my car...
 
I don't remember anybody else who actually measured temperature in his car where A139 was. Outside temperature is just a starting point which at the end of the day alone means nothing...

For example my car yesterday, 25°C, A139 exposed to Sun for 7 hours. Guess temperature in my car...

So I'm thorough and meticulous....Others not so much. However even @mentadent's less than scientific hot camera experiment doesn't have his unit shutting down with a corrupt file unless wifi is enabled.

Long story short, my camera seems to behave in a manner others aren't experiencing. I trust @jokiin who thinks this may be hardware related. But yes, without people setting controlled experiments like mine, I am speculating my hardware is bad without definitive proof.
 
Last edited:
I don't remember anybody else who actually measured temperature in his car where A139 was.
Mine was measured- I edited my post as the 34.4C was a typo- it was 54.4C as measured about 8mm above the cam inside my van, not outside.

My thermometer is at least 6-7 years old and has never been checked for calibration. It is meant for HVAC and plumbing use but is like a 'meat thermometer' which reads in Farenheit up to 200 degrees. It's a professional tradesman's tool, not a cheap bargain-store type meant for home use and it's always been stored carefully so it should be fairly accurate- it seems to be.

I can't control the weather or sometimes even where I park, but if I can't find high temps reasonably soon I have a small electric heater which I will put in the van that will certainly push things where I need to go and I might be able to get a vid of the testing from my B2K; it will be a good test for that and my other cams too. Just need to find the time and energy to do it- I'm being pressed for deadlines on 3 jobs ATM and it's taking all I have to barely keep up with them.

Phil
 
Mine was measured- I edited my post as the 34.4C was a typo- it was 54.4C as measured about 8mm above the cam inside my van, not outside.

My thermometer is at least 6-7 years old and has never been checked for calibration. It is meant for HVAC and plumbing use but is like a 'meat thermometer' which reads in Farenheit up to 200 degrees. It's a professional tradesman's tool, not a cheap bargain-store type meant for home use and it's always been stored carefully so it should be fairly accurate- it seems to be.

I can't control the weather or sometimes even where I park, but if I can't find high temps reasonably soon I have a small electric heater which I will put in the van that will certainly push things where I need to go and I might be able to get a vid of the testing from my B2K; it will be a good test for that and my other cams too. Just need to find the time and energy to do it- I'm being pressed for deadlines on 3 jobs ATM and it's taking all I have to barely keep up with them.

Phil

So did you get sunshine? How did your test go with thermometer?
 
Yeah i dont think it is low battery cut off that make the A139 stop early when it do parking guard.

On my SG9663DR i ran 12 hour parking guard ending at 6 yesterday morning, then a little later i got up drove to my friends place to do the friend thing, and that is a 35 minute drive.
Then the DR sat there again for 12 hours ( from noon to midnight doing parking guard it a pretty darn hot car )
So in essence i did almost two 12 hour parking guard sessions on the DR yesterday, and of course no beat was missed :cool:
It is even hotter today ( 29 deg C ) but i will not be doing any parking testing today, but tomorrow i have a new angle on the A139 i want to try, but probably first in the evening as tomorrow is slated to be another hottie of a day.
SGDRstartp.jpg
SGDRstopp.jpg

I know the front DR camera fell off the windscreen during testing, it do so every day as i am using some dual sided tape that should work, and it also do so fine IF ! the sun dont shine.
 
Viofo is trying to claim what's happening with my camera is "Normal". I don't buy it.

We have checked the videos you took,

there is overheat protection and the cam will restart when overheats,

please understand this is 3CH cam and consumption is relatively higher,

if you have any other problem, you may contact us.
 
Viofo is trying to claim what's happening with my camera is "Normal". I don't buy it.

We have checked the videos you took,

there is overheat protection and the cam will restart when overheats,

please understand this is 3CH cam and consumption is relatively higher,

if you have any other problem, you may contact us.
We don't seem to have confirmed what normal is yet, so how can you be sure that it is not normal?

Seems that leaving the files unterminated on an overheat shutdown is normal, the files need repairing (terminating) if you want to view them.

The lockup should not be normal, but you don't want to use 3xHD anyway?

They are correct that it is a 3 channel camera, but the maximum temperature specification is similar to most 2 and 1 channel dashcams, so it seems to be doing quite well.

I'm convinced that you would do better to put your efforts into keeping your car cooler, a little ventilation could make a huge difference. You could check that by leaving the front windows open 1cm and checking with your thermometer again...
 
Well my A139 do things its not supposed to do at night when it is not thermal reasons, granted i have not driven very long trips while i have had the A139, but with that rreasoning my camera should shut down after 4 - 5 hours, and TBH i dont think it would do that even on the hottest summer day in my none air conditioned car.
 
3 X 1080p did not make any change in my case just looking to get the camera to record for the set time.

I am pretty sure there is some gremlin / gremlins in the A139 code for some things, general operation seem to be okay for me, but the parking guard aspect are lagging for me.
 
While my SG9663DR have been rock steady in its parking mode, i am pretty sure that if i took the main unit and put it up on the dash, it too would do a thermal shut down in the daytime.
But since i started to troubleshoot on the A139 and its parking mode, and finding i cant even get the selected hours of parking guard at night with 10 degrees temperatures, then thermal throttling / shut down became secondary to me,,,,,, and i think it also should be for viofo if they look at things.

The DR win in parking guard as it dont have to sit in the sun and cook, it just have to deal with the high temperature in the car, and so far it seem to do well with that for me.
So in my eyes SG put their hat in just the right place with the DR, it is to me the only viable route if you want any chance doing parking guard in the daytime.
 
Would be nice if it restarts after cooling when overtemp protection is activated. But apparently nobody has seen this function yet, and that is not how some cams with overtemp protection work.

Improperly closed files is abnormal in every way, even with overtemp shutdowns. It is not acceptable under any circumstances. On this matter I also note another thread concerning file corruption at loss of power. Knowing that bad supercaps can exhibit high electrical resistance which generates heat, it seems plausible to me that both these issues may be due to bad supercaps, or that they at least contribute to the problem. Unless there is a current-limiting design in the supercap-charging circuit, then excess power draw at the supercaps could leave the cam with insufficient power for normal functioning. Normally such limiting is not necessary; by their nature caps are self-regulating, the caps will draw current till charged and then 'float' allowing essentially full current flow afterward. I doubt there's any such current-limiting in any supercap equipped dashcam.

If Viofo got a batch of bad caps, or the caps being used vary in value at their high-temp range, that would explain why some here have problems and some don't.

@viofo Given the timing involved, I believe Kamkar and I may have cams from the same (first) production batch. He's seeing issues at heats similar to or less than mine as I'm not seeing any kind of issues at all. This leads me to suspect that the supercaps being used lack good quality control, and are marginal at the heats found in this cam.

Hardly any way for us owners and testers to check out my theory, maybe Nath has the equipment needed but I doubt that any of the rest of us do.

Tomorrow or Saturday I will use my electric heater to push this cam to it's limits and beyond. I hope I don't kill it or the other cam I'll have showing the A139 and hopefully the thermometer will be readable too. Full report here then.

Phil
 
A debug log file would be nice.

SawMaster to heat mine up I just put it in a zipped case, and it got up to 75C which is hotter than a car should ever get.
 
I prefer to test things in as close to real-life conditions as is possible- my way will also be heating the HWK, cabling, and the other 2 cams too ;)

Phil
 
I saw some nasty temperatures in the US weather forecast :eek:, but in the south west of the country.
Funny thing only a few days ago, a town here almost dipped below freezing at night, and right now at 4AM no place here is under 12 degrees and a lot of places are at 20 or even a little above that.

They are issuing a heatwave warning, meaning the daytime temperature for 3 days in a row is over 28 degrees.
My town it seem are slated to drop down to the more normal 20 deg C soon, which is also fine as there dont seem to be much in the way of rain on the radar.
The mid summer feast here, usually with bonfires,,,,,, well the fires might be banned again this year
 
We don't seem to have confirmed what normal is yet, so how can you be sure that it is not normal?

Seems that leaving the files unterminated on an overheat shutdown is normal, the files need repairing (terminating) if you want to view them.

The lockup should not be normal, but you don't want to use 3xHD anyway?

They are correct that it is a 3 channel camera, but the maximum temperature specification is similar to most 2 and 1 channel dashcams, so it seems to be doing quite well.

I'm convinced that you would do better to put your efforts into keeping your car cooler, a little ventilation could make a huge difference. You could check that by leaving the front windows open 1cm and checking with your thermometer again...

3 x HD? The camera on 1080p Front 1080p Rear 1080p Internal (FHD-FHD-FHD) is locking up and not shutting down. The camera then corrupts the file being written at the time of locking up. Only way to reboot camera is yank the power cord. Camera is unresponsive.

In 2k - 1080p (FHD) - 1080P (FHD) camera shuts itself off. And corrupts the file being written upon spontaneous shutdown.

I'm convinced that my camera isn't acting normal. How do I know or make this assumption. No one here is reporting any similar failures to the ones I described. And I tried a Sandisk High Endurance and Sandisk A2 Extreme, which both ended in corrupted files. So not the Memory Card either.
 
but it doesn't do that when running 3 x 1080p

Agreed. But that's what Viofo support emailed me. And I told them I do not accept that response. Either they replace my camera or I'm going to get a refund. My camera is absolutely not restarting after overheating. On 2k - FHD - FHD the camera remains permanently off after overheat. Only coming on upon restating my car or manually turning on. On FHD-FHD-FHD the unit freezes solid, and restarting car or manually pressng power button doesn't work. Only solution is yank out power cable.

I'm not going to argue with Viofo too much. If they don't want to replace my unit, I'll dispute charge on my credit card. As by their own admission, my camera is not working as described. And not a single person can replicate my failures.

On an aside note, I've tested both the Sandisk A2 Extreme and Sandisk High Endurance. Both work perfectly in the A139...until the unit overheats and I get corrupted file. Again, no one else is getting a corrupted file it seems.

We have checked the videos you took,

there is overheat protection and the cam will restart when overheats,

please understand this is 3CH cam and consumption is relatively higher,

if you have any other problem, you may contact us.
 
Would be nice if it restarts after cooling when overtemp protection is activated. But apparently nobody has seen this function yet, and that is not how some cams with overtemp protection work.

Improperly closed files is abnormal in every way, even with overtemp shutdowns. It is not acceptable under any circumstances. On this matter I also note another thread concerning file corruption at loss of power. Knowing that bad supercaps can exhibit high electrical resistance which generates heat, it seems plausible to me that both these issues may be due to bad supercaps, or that they at least contribute to the problem. Unless there is a current-limiting design in the supercap-charging circuit, then excess power draw at the supercaps could leave the cam with insufficient power for normal functioning. Normally such limiting is not necessary; by their nature caps are self-regulating, the caps will draw current till charged and then 'float' allowing essentially full current flow afterward. I doubt there's any such current-limiting in any supercap equipped dashcam.

If Viofo got a batch of bad caps, or the caps being used vary in value at their high-temp range, that would explain why some here have problems and some don't.

@viofo Given the timing involved, I believe Kamkar and I may have cams from the same (first) production batch. He's seeing issues at heats similar to or less than mine as I'm not seeing any kind of issues at all. This leads me to suspect that the supercaps being used lack good quality control, and are marginal at the heats found in this cam.

Hardly any way for us owners and testers to check out my theory, maybe Nath has the equipment needed but I doubt that any of the rest of us do.

Tomorrow or Saturday I will use my electric heater to push this cam to it's limits and beyond. I hope I don't kill it or the other cam I'll have showing the A139 and hopefully the thermometer will be readable too. Full report here then.

Phil

Well I've tested my supercapacitor under "Normal Conditions". When camera hasn't overheated, I pulled the power cord, and camera stays active a few seconds. Properly exiting out of the file being written.

When the camera overheats at (2k-FHD-FHD) and shuts down, or overheats and freezes (FHD-FHD-FHD) where FHD = 1080P, the file being written to is corrupted.

Why this is happening is uncertain. I know my supercapacictor is working under "normal conditions". Not sure how the heat is affected unit, but my guess is if it's overheating, it's similar to a computer crashing. Meaning everything being worked on at the time of the crash is "lost". Not giving the supercapacitor a chance to activate as all other hardware is frozen.

Either way, I'm not very happy with my testing results. I ripped out the Zenfox T3 for overheating. I spent a good amount of money on my A139 camera ($270 USD / 227 Euros). Even Viofo's answer that the unit should restart is bullsh*t. Either my unit shuts down and only restarts after manually activating or turning on the car (2k-FHD-FHD) or only works again after yanking power cord (FHD-FHD-FHD)) overheat and freezing.

I want them to mail me another unit and replace out one I have so I can see if the problem persists. If they refuse, I'll contact my credit card I paid with
 
Back
Top