Not a Happy Camper with the A139

Dashboard reflections tend to become worse as you move the lens away from the windscreen....
That's actually not the case. This post shows the difference with some specific testing I did after having 2 cameras in the same vehicle at the same time and the reflections being worse with the camera mounted closer to the glass. I've since confirmed this by mounting the same 'wedge' camera first on the glass and then moving it slightly further back by mounting on the underside of the sensor housing.

 
There are heatsinks which are able to cool down even hundreds/thousands of watts of TDP... And since there is such big difference between ambient and chip temperature in A139, the heatsink could have been bigger...


Fan could be solution in case of overheating(if manufacturer thinks it's necessary). Don't know about you but I would rather have a dashcam which turns on a fan from time to time to cool it down during parking in summer, rather than shuts down and does nothing until driver return.


They make micro cpu fans, too (Image I found online). I'm not sure why these aren't utilized in dash cameras. Power Consumption? The fact Dash Cameras operate in extreme heat and long periods? I guess a dash cam manufacturer needs to chime up on this one.

We're in full agreement, and I am not sure the reasoning behind fanless cooling.

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Oh so you finally acknowledged the Viofo's 65°C, ok then.

Never disputed this fact. Everyone here said they didn't suffer overheating issues. So while Viofo claimed 65C, and my cameras seemed to shutdown at or around this temperature (give or take a few C), no one else has/was replicating these results.

Also, the corrupt file issue is problematic. Again, something I've mentioned on both cameras, but has gone unnoticed by others.


Well, that's well expected since h264/h265 needs a "proper end" of the file... So in case of segmentation into smaller files the last gets corrupted, in case of one big file the whole file gets corrupted. That's why it's advantage to have dashcam footage divided into smaller files (to eventually corrupt only the last ones).

Correct. Segmentation is the solution. Versus one large file corrupted, you just got a single file set corruption (last files being written). Viofo asked me to test it without loop. So I complied and reported the results.

That's why it's an example. But "it's not that hard" to add a third de/serializer combo into A139 to make the front sensor remote as well. The point is, there is such solution...

I wonder what do you think it's the limiting factor to not be able to use MT1 in car.

Again, I'm not disputing you. I merely sad the MT1 was designed for motorcycles and is 2 channel. Such a setup can be upscaled to a 3 channel option.

I thought your A139 were shutting down at around 70+°C. At least I remember questioning myself why you are dissatisfied with a camera not able to withstand 70+°C ambient despite the manufacturer claimed from the beginning it's for 65°C max...

Somewhere around 63-70C if I recall my measurements. I'd have to scroll back but think they were more in line with 65-70. Per the above, no one else has mentioned experiencing the problem. So this was the whole basis of my concern. Plus, the end files being corrupted.

If everyone else is saying things are fine, then you begin to wonder whether there's a problem. Because even if Viofo stated 65C, you'd think others would see same issue, which hasn't been the case.

My point is that all thermometers have a characteristics, and meat thermometer is not the kind which has to be accurate... So despite you see 65°C on the meat thermometer, it could be even 60, 70, 75°C or even something else. You know, cooking is not science...


Well, these I said several post before, so yeah... :unsure: But still, 70°C ambient in a white car is the same temperature as 70°C in a black car.

Correct. My measurements are a guestimate. Without a Thermal Gun, I don't know if the camera's thermal temperature. Merely that the area in and around the camera hit a specific temp. Being that I am not going to invest money in a thermal gun, I have no concrete measurements of the exact shutdown temperature. However, being the housing / casing of the A149 is black, one can surmise this exacerbates the problem. Remember, black absorbs heat.

Nath:


Well, these I said several post before, so yeah... :unsure: But still, 70°C ambient in a white car is the same temperature as 70°C in a black car.

You missed the point here. A white car or a car with larger cubic interior takes longer to heat up. @SawMaster's van will heat up much slower than a sedan. Also, a black car and a white car will not reach 70C at same rate, because white reflects heat and black absorbs.
 
In my testing, dark tinted windows absorbed more heat, and the temperature next to the glass where the dashcam is was hotter, the temperature of the seats was lower as less sunlight reached them, but that doesn't help the dashcam.

It is very likely the ceramic tint is a contributing factor to my front windshield reaching higher temperatures than others. As my front windshield has an 80% Ceramic Tint.

A side by side test of like colors / same model cars using a thermal gun would be an exact science. However, not all tint materials are created equal. My window tinting is ceramic. You appear to be right concerning the tinting I use

Most of the different types of tinting will reduce the heat in your car, but the best ones are probably hybrid, metalized, and ceramic. The hybrid tinting uses a metal layer to reflect the sun, and can absorb heat with the dyed layer. Metalized tinting reflects light, more than it absorbs it. They are very shiny, but still reduce heat. Ceramic tinting is considered one of the best out of the three because it has very high heat absorption, but still seems light in color.

I think probably it is mainly that the van is taller. The hot air collects in the top few inches of cabin space, in a car that is where the camera sits, in a van the camera is down in the cooler air.

As for the fan, fans work well when they blow cool air over a hot heatsink, they don't work well when they blow warm air over a warm heatsink, which is what would happen in a dashcam, also fan life would not be great working in 65 degree plus air, they are all designed for 20 degree air, so they would add an unreliability problem. And as always, fans consume power, and that generates heat, and when they are not making much difference because the incoming air is already hot, adding heat from the fan makes them even less effective!


If you have to park in direct sunlight, park facing north, problem solved.

I think your answer above may actually be a significant contributing factor. However, more cubic interior space also is a major factor, too. Since a larger vehicle doesn't heat up at the same rate as a smaller car. Color of the vehicle is again a contributing factor.

The fact all my windows have ceramic tint, my car is dark in color, and is a sedan probably isn't helping the situation.

But it does allow me to test the camera and find flaws on "Cooler Days" for good or bad. Since my front windshield will heat up faster with the ceramic tint absorbing sunlight.

Yes, but not always possible to park away from sun.
 
Dashboard reflections tend to become worse as you move the lens away from the windscreen. Plus, the windscreen is a nice stable thing to mount a camera on.

I have this problem, and I'm sure the tinting doesn't help. My front windshield has the worst glares. I've seen anti glare mats one can place on the dashboard to help resolve the issue. Not sure how well these work.
 
In my van, the roof-to-windshield relationship is about like a car with the cam sitting in the hottest part. The light color of mine does help, but the air volume inside versus a car is only affecting a time factor; it takes longer to fully heat the larger airmass but there's also more surface area to collect the sun's energy so after an hour or two I believe all vehicles will be similar in temperature at the cam. I've had small cars and while I haven't measured these things it does sem to work this way.

As to the temperature limit of the A139 it does seem to meet it's listed specs so I can't see how anyone can argue that this is an issue. The problem in this is that most people do not know or understand just how hot a car gets inside and they are presuming that it won't be a problem when it might be. My 'beef' here is that the cam shuts down at any temperature limit by design; I do not find this desirable. I've overheated every cam I've tried, even the vaunted original Mobius which is arguably the most heat-tolerant dashcam made, yet I have never had a cam suffer permanent harm from this abuse (save for those having a LiPo which is irrelevant in this discussion). If my cam stops recording because the limits of it's electronics have been exceeded I can chalk that up to simply being the limit of the technology, and thus unavoidable. But if it shuts down any sooner that is unforgivable as that can cost me a recording I need. Yes it may extend the life of the cam to have overheat protection but a cam which does not record when that is possible is worthless to me. I can buy another cam every year if need be, but I cannot buy a missed recording. The real reason behind overheat protection is to save the manufacturer from having to deal with irate customers with dead cams who abused the product and thus violated the conditions of the warranty. It protects against stupid while limiting the intelligent to that same stupid level. Nothing in this world pisses me off more than that erroneous concept :mad:

I covered thermal management in the T3 thread extensively so I won't do that here, but we do need to understand a few things. First is that without active refrigeration nothing can be cooled below the ambient temperature of it's environment. So if a car is 100 degrees inside and has been that way for awhile, neither the cam or any part of it can possibly be cooler. Heat-sinking in any fashion cannot change that even with moving air or liquid cooling. The purpose of heat-sinking is to transfer a higher heat to somewhere else where the heat is lower. Dynamic air or liquid movement can help this to happen more efficiently, but that takes energy and itself produces some heat. We're generally limited with the availability of energy for this on a parked car where no battery charging is occuring, and with the amount of energy needed to do this dynamically it's just not a good trade-off unless you've got a large battery or are needing only short parking time coverage. So for practical reasons we're limited to passive cooling schemes here. More to the point is the question of whether the A139 has an adequate heat-sink design? I believe it does. Of course anything can be improved but given that we can't get below the ambient temp anyway it seems to be doing about all we can expect of it. As a 3-channel cam it's doing a lot of work, making a lot of heat, and it doesn't seem possible to do any better in the realm of practicality.

If parking recording in high heats is a necessity for you then you're probably going to be better served with a different cam or cams which generate less heat and thus need less cooling. Nobody makes a 3-channel dashcam which does any better than the A139 regards high-heat functioning. Every cam choice is a compromise and you can't always get what you want, but you never will get that if you are not making your choices well and sometimes what you want is simply more than is currently available. IMHO the A139's better qualities are far greater than it's issues, and as long as you understand it's potential issues I can still recommend it as being the best 3-channel dashcam currently made; your opinion may vary.

Phil
 
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That's actually not the case. This post shows the difference with some specific testing I did after having 2 cameras in the same vehicle at the same time and the reflections being worse with the camera mounted closer to the glass. I've since confirmed this by mounting the same 'wedge' camera first on the glass and then moving it slightly further back by mounting on the underside of the sensor housing.


I had my cameras originally mounted on Arkon Bt010 suction mount. Since removing cameras off the windshield is a pain in the butt. I've scratched my tint up getting stuff off and losing patience. Anyway, my cameras are now mounted direct to windshield since I plan on the A129 and A139 being permanent fixture.

I will 100% agree that mounting on the Arkon Mount vs. Direct to Windshield produces far less glare. Thinking the only solution may be an anti reflection mat...But my results were similar to your findings.

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In my van, the roof-to-windshield relationship is about like a car with the cam sitting in the hottest part. The light color of mine does help, but the air volume inside versus a car is only affecting a time factor; it takes longer to fully heat the larger airmass but there's also more surface area to collect the sun's energy so after an hour or two I believe all vehicles will be similar in temperature at the cam. I've had small cars and while I haven't measured these things it does sem to work this way.

I'm not sure this is entirely true.

1. Light Colored vehicles reflect heat vs. Dark Colored vehicles absorbing heat
2. A Larger interior takes longer to heat up. Think of heating a house or cooling a house. A smaller one heats and cools faster.
3. Angle and size of windshield plays a factor as to the amount of light that can enter.
4. Vehicles are not airtight, so a larger vehicle will still take longer to heat up. But this will not happen at an equal rate. So my Sedan (S60) might take 3 hrs to hit an interior of 70C and your Van 4 Hrs to hit 70C. So the time frame in which the camera overheats may be extended.

@Nigel point out another factor. I have ceramic tinted windows. A quick google seems to state Ceramic tint absorbs a LOT of heat. Making my front windshield heat up even faster. So this probably isn't helping the situation either.
As to the temperature limit of the A139 it does seem to meet it's listed specs so I can't see how anyone can argue that this is an issue. The problem in this is that most people do not know or understand just how hot a car gets inside and they are presuming that it won't be a problem when it might be. My 'beef' here is that the cam shuts down at any temperature limit by design; I do not find this desirable. I've overheated every cam I've tried, even the vaunted original Mobius which is arguably the most heat-tolerant dashcam made, yet I have never had a cam suffer permanent harm from this abuse (save for those having a LiPo which is irrelevant in this discussion). If my cam stops recording because the limits of it's electronics have been exceeded I can chalk that up to simply being the limit of the technology, and thus unavoidable. But if it shuts down any sooner that is unforgivable as that can cost me a recording I need. Yes it may extend the life of the cam to have overheat protection but a cam which does not record when that is possible is worthless to me. I can buy another cam every year if need be, but I cannot buy a missed recording. The real reason behind overheat protection is to save the manufacturer from having to deal with irate customers with dead cams who abused the product and thus violated the conditions of the warranty. It protects against stupid while limiting the intelligent to that same stupid level. Nothing in this world pisses me off more than that erroneous concept :mad:

Couple issues here:

1. I believe the Viofo A139 is shutting down around the stated 65c. Give or take from all my prior testing.

2. I agree that shutting down to "preserve" itself is problematic. I would gladly replace a cam more frequently to capture events as needed than to have a thermal shutdown that costs me pertinent video. Thus, I would rather a dash cam shut down at it's max operating temperature, than a few degrees or more under to extend shelf life.

3. The big issue here is the corruption. The A139 dash camera shutting down spontaneously is corrupting the last files being written. This is definitely a major problem, since that video could cost you evidence. Viofo has said they're working to resolve this issue. We shall see.

I covered thermal management in the T3 thread extensively so I won't do that here, but we do need to understand a few things. First is that without active refrigeration nothing can be cooled below the ambient temperature of it's environment. So if a car is 100 degrees inside and has been that way for awhile, neither the cam or any part of it can possibly be cooler. Heat-sinking in any fashion cannot change that even with moving air or liquid cooling. The purpose of heat-sinking is to transfer a higher heat to somewhere else where the heat is lower. Dynamic air or liquid movement can help this to happen more efficiently, but that takes energy and itself produces some heat. We're generally limited with the availability of energy for this on a parked car where no battery charging is occuring, and with the amount of energy needed to do this dynamically it's just not a good trade-off unless you've got a large battery or are needing only short parking time coverage. So for practical reasons we're limited to passive cooling schemes here. More to the point is the question of whether the A139 has an adequate heat-sink design? I believe it does. Of course anything can be improved but given that we can't get below the ambient temp anyway it seems to be doing about all we can expect of it. As a 3-channel cam it's doing a lot of work, making a lot of heat, and it doesn't seem possible to do any better in the realm of practicality.

Which is why a main unit sitting under the Dashboard or Out of Sunlight, where all 3 cameras feed to, would be the only remedy as of now. The Main Unit is not only processing the video, but capturing video itself. Generating a lot of heat that ultimately results it the camera shutting off.

FYI: My Ceramic Tint isn't helping. @Nigel is right when it comes to ceramic tint. It will absorb a lot of heat and that's probably making my windshield MUCH hotter Much Quicker. Which is why I am able to easily replicate my problems.

If parking recording in high heats is a necessity for you then you're probably going to be better served with a different cam or cams which generate less heat and thus need less cooling. Nobody makes a 3-channel dashcam which does any better than the A139 regards high-heat functioning. Every cam choice is a compromise and you can't always get what you want, but you never will get that if you are not making your choices well and sometimes what you want is simply more than is currently available. IMHO the A139's better qualities are far greater than it's issues, and as long as you understand it's potential issues I can still recommend it as being the best 3-channel dashcam currently made; your opinion may vary.

Phil

I agree. The A139 is a great cam. With one caveat. The final file being corrupted 100% needs resolved. This part is unacceptable.

The rest of my issues have been thoroughly tested and vetted. You know me from the T3 thread, I put Dash Cams through VERY VERY rigorous testing.
 
I don't think it is that much, if it operates up to 65 then 65 + 40 would be 105, which is too much for reasonable reliability, even supercapacitors die quickly at that temperature.
It is. I'm not the only one who reported 55-60°C through vents in 20-25°C ambient, not to mention it's measured on a silver heatsink... Yeah, we will see about the supercaps since the used ones are rated for 65°C.

Remember the camera only uses about 4 watts of power when using 3 channels, so adding a 1 watt fan is a significant power increase.

And how much cooling is a 1 watt fan going to provide with a ΔT=20°C ? Not very much, computer fans normally have a ΔT=60°C and use more than 1 watt if the computer is doing much.
We are talking about something like a 25x25mm fan which mainly consumes about 0.5W. (1-2W fans are used for ultrabooks with 15-25W TDP)

Computer fans also cope with much higher energy, not to mention in most cases there is almost no mass of the heatsinks and high density of fins, exactly to let do the main work for fans (it needs power to be able to even push the air through the fins).

Not sure it can receive three remote video streams, and even if it can, the local (front) stream uses a different communication method which allows higher resolutions than FHD, these days dashcams need higher than FHD resolution on the front. So you need a higher specification processor and remote transceivers including power transmission, and the extra remote camera, all of which makes them uncompetitive as general consumer cameras.

If you only want FHD resolution then no problem, the Viofo MT1 and SG9663DR do that, and presumably the upcoming generation of processors will be able to manage 2K remote cameras, at the cost of using the latest, greatest, most expensive processor for an unspectacular result compared to the 4K+2K resolution others will be using it for.
I'm almost like HonestReviewer by now to repeating it over and over :LOL: but the remote A139 cameras are nothing special to the regular ones. The magic behind this is only by adding de/serializers which convert parallel communication into serial to make it work through the coaxial cable. So for IMX335 at 1440p/30fps you only need to add something like a TI DS90UB953-Q1 and you are good to go even with A139 hardware (no additional processing power necessary).

You missed the point here. A white car or a car with larger cubic interior takes longer to heat up. @SawMaster's van will heat up much slower than a sedan. Also, a black car and a white car will not reach 70C at same rate, because white reflects heat and black absorbs.
I haven't missed anything, I never was talking about @SawMaster's van. Actually since I mentioned my car is white I though you were refering to my car instead, which is definitely not a van size inside and I measured the temperatures next to the camera (at the very top of the roof it was slightly higher).

But since you accepted the 65°C Viofo's limit, now is only the time to ask Viofo for a Mars grade model :LOL:. But isn't a bit strange that it doesn't work in Sweden but, I think, we have here at least one guy from Australia who doesn't have heat issues? :unsure:
 
Computer fans also cope with much higher energy, not to mention in most cases there is almost no mass of the heatsinks and high density of fins, exactly to let do the main work for fans (it needs power to be able to even push the air through the fins).

Would a mini fan simply be blowing hot air from inside the car over the heatsink and cpu, if a mini fan were added? Resulting in a counter productive process of making the chip hotter versus cooler?

I'm almost like HonestReviewer by now to repeating it over and over :LOL: but the remote A139 cameras are nothing special to the regular ones. The magic behind this is only by adding de/serializers which convert parallel communication into serial to make it work through the coaxial cable. So for IMX335 at 1440p/30fps you only need to add something like a TI DS90UB953-Q1 and you are good to go even with A139 hardware (no additional processing power necessary).

Are you referring to the suggestion where I stated the way to prevent overheating would be to have only the cameras mount on the windshield and the main unit sit under the glove box and out of the sun?

I haven't missed anything, I never was talking about @SawMaster's van. Actually since I mentioned my car is white I though you were refering to my car instead, which is definitely not a van size inside and I measured the temperatures next to the camera (at the very top of the roof it was slightly higher).

I never once mentioned your car. I mentioned a conversation I had with @jokiin regarding cubic interior space and overheating. And the fact that a light color car reflects heat where as a dark color car absorbs heat.

But since you accepted the 65°C Viofo's limit, now is only the time to ask Viofo for a Mars grade model :LOL:. But isn't a bit strange that it doesn't work in Sweden but, I think, we have here at least one guy from Australia who doesn't have heat issues? :unsure:

Well I never disputed the 65C operating limit. Again, if you read my thread closely, I disputed the fact I AM THE ONLY ONE with a camera overheating and no one else is suffering a similar failure. I had Viofo send me a second unit, and once again, verified the camera overheats, corrupting the last files being written. Or if loop record is disabled, the entire SD card.

So the problem is and Viofo is now aware of the problem, that there needs to be a firmware updating to initiate a successful exiting of the last file being written before reaching the thermal max of 65C.

FYI: No user on here has tested the A139 3 Channel in Australia. The thing would die in a moment's notice. Australia hits 50C. The 3 Channel wouldn't survive an hour in parking mode before overheating.

Again, you failed to follow along. @Nigel pointed out the root cause why my car is BETTER EQUIPPED at getting the camera to overheat. I have Ceramic Tinting. Ceramic Tinting absorbs ALL THE HEAT to prevent the interior from getting as hot. Although, at some point, the car basically becomes an oven anyway. Meaning the sun shining on my front windshield causes the surface area of the windshield to get MUCH HOTTER. As my front window has 80% ceramic tint (blocks 20% light).

Here's what I found after @Nigel made his point:

Most of the different types of tinting will reduce the heat in your car, but the best ones are probably hybrid, metalized, and ceramic. The hybrid tinting uses a metal layer to reflect the sun, and can absorb heat with the dyed layer. Metalized tinting reflects light, more than it absorbs it. They are very shiny, but still reduce heat. Ceramic tinting is considered one of the best out of the three because it has very high heat absorption, but still seems light in colo
 
Would a mini fan simply be blowing hot air from inside the car over the heatsink and cpu, if a mini fan were added? Resulting in a counter productive process of making the chip hotter versus cooler?
No, the air in the car is always going to be cooler than the camera, so a mini fan (external to the camera) will help, and if your tint is warming your glass significantly, which may be true, then the fan may help a lot. You can get cheap USB powered fans which might make it easy to try, if it is fairly close to the camera then it can probably be quite a small fan and still work.

Leaving a window slightly open would also help since that will cause some air circulation inside the car, moving the warm air away from the windscreen, I know my windows only need to be slightly open to cause enough air movement inside the car to set the alarm ultrasonic motion detector off!
 
No, the air in the car is always going to be cooler than the camera, so a mini fan (external to the camera) will help, and if your tint is warming your glass significantly, which may be true, then the fan may help a lot. You can get cheap USB powered fans which might make it easy to try, if it is fairly close to the camera then it can probably be quite a small fan and still work.

Leaving a window slightly open would also help since that will cause some air circulation inside the car, moving the warm air away from the windscreen, I know my windows only need to be slightly open to cause enough air movement inside the car to set the alarm ultrasonic motion detector off!

Sorry I think I might have stated my response in a way that might have been confusing. I was referring to a mini fan similar to ones mounted on a raspberry pi as being mounted onto the fins of a Viofo A139 for added cooling. Wondering if an actual fan + finned heatsink setup with thermal paste would cool an A139 better than simply using thermal paste with a finned heatsink.

I.E. was Curious of a separate unit wasn't an option for Viofo for whatever reason if active versus passive cooling would help keep the chip and supercapcitor from overheating.

1628832741917.png 1628832766029.png
 
Sorry I think I might have stated my response in a way that might have been confusing. I was referring to a mini fan similar to ones mounted on a raspberry pi as being mounted onto the fins of a Viofo A139 for added cooling. Wondering if an actual fan + finned heatsink setup with thermal paste would cool an A139 better than simply using thermal paste with a finned heatsink.

I.E. was Curious of a separate unit wasn't an option for Viofo for whatever reason if active versus passive cooling would help keep the chip and supercapcitor from overheating.

View attachment 57733 View attachment 57735
An internal fan will do nothing useful unless it can draw in cool air, so I suspect that an external fan blowing the hot air from your tint away from the camera would be more effective, it would also solve the problem of the fan overheating.
 
Would increasing the air from the dashboard top vents help. Or even pointing the face vents as far upwards as possible.
 
Would increasing the air from the dashboard top vents help. Or even pointing the face vents as far upwards as possible.
Yes, but how are you going to do that while parked? Normally there is nothing to circulate the air while parked, especially in smaller vehicles, the hot air gets trapped against the roof.
 
Would a mini fan simply be blowing hot air from inside the car over the heatsink and cpu, if a mini fan were added? Resulting in a counter productive process of making the chip hotter versus cooler?
As @Nigel pointed out, since A139 is a heat source, its heatsink will "always" be hotter than ambient and therefore there is place where you can dissipate the heat (with fan, it will speed up a bit the process).

Are you referring to the suggestion where I stated the way to prevent overheating would be to have only the cameras mount on the windshield and the main unit sit under the glove box and out of the sun?
Nope

I never once mentioned your car. I mentioned a conversation I had with @jokiin regarding cubic interior space and overheating. And the fact that a light color car reflects heat where as a dark color car absorbs heat.
Yeah, I was a bit overthinking it, sorry about that. But that doesn't disprove the fact that 70°C measured in a white car is the same temperature as 70°C measured in a black car...

Well I never disputed the 65C operating limit. Again, if you read my thread closely, I disputed the fact I AM THE ONLY ONE with a camera overheating and no one else is suffering a similar failure.
You don't dispute it but call it a failure/problem when it turns off in unusual/abnormal way when it's in higher temperature than manufacturer stated as the max working...

For example what about this?
@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.
Maybe your units perform worse than others but they "failed" within the specs (as you confirmed). But yeah, I noticed few posts above that you shifted the measured temperature to 65°C, which means then it could be a problem if it fails at that temperature...

FYI: No user on here has tested the A139 3 Channel in Australia. The thing would die in a moment's notice. Australia hits 50C. The 3 Channel wouldn't survive an hour in parking mode before overheating.
That's why I've said "I think", I was unsure...
 
Would increasing the air from the dashboard top vents help. Or even pointing the face vents as far upwards as possible.

Issue is never a problem when the vehicle is turned on and driving. Never once experienced an overheat. It's when the car sits enclosed and the sun beats onto the Ceramic Tint. The Tint is apparently absorbing the heat, making the windshield much hotter. And of course this heat transfers to the base of the camera, which elevates the camera's temperature.

So this is why I am able to run these heat tests much easier than others. Everyone will eventually experience the problem on a hot day, but it seems my ceramic tint doesn't help.

However, my testing (as I'm a thorough tester) has revealed a flaw in Viofo's firmware. Where the camera will not exit the last file being written properly, and corrupts them on overheat shutdown. If loop record is on, entire SD card becomes corrupted/
 
As @Nigel pointed out, since A139 is a heat source, its heatsink will "always" be hotter than ambient and therefore there is place where you can dissipate the heat (with fan, it will speed up a bit the process).

That's what I suspected. Internal fan probably would be blowing hot air over a hot heatsink.
Yeah, I was a bit overthinking it, sorry about that. But that doesn't disprove the fact that 70°C measured in a white car is the same temperature as 70°C measured in a black car...

No one said 70C varies from car to car. Overthinking again! It just takes a white car longer to hit 70C than a black car. As white reflects heat from sun and black absorbs the heat from the sun. At some point, both cars will reach 70C.

You don't dispute it but call it a failure/problem when it turns off in unusual/abnormal way when it's in higher temperature than manufacturer stated as the max working...

For example what about this?

Actually, I have stated from the original post, there are two problems.

1. See Post #19 on page one. I state that an overheat shutoff does not exit the last file being written, resulting in corruption of those files (Front, Rear, Interior).

2. Later on I tested without loop. Same problem, but instead the entire SD card is rendered corrupt. As Loop creates one large file.

3. Viofo admits there's a problem when the Camera is reaching its designed maximum operating temperature. See Post #57. I stated the camera is shutting down around 65-67C. Remember, this is a maximum heat rating, not a shut off rating. Here's @jokiin comment from Post #56 on Page 3.

Maybe your units perform worse than others but they "failed" within the specs (as you confirmed). But yeah, I noticed few posts above that you shifted the measured temperature to 65°C, which means then it could be a problem if it fails at that temperature...

See @jokiin comment. 65C is maximum operating temperature, but not a shutoff point. If it was a shutoff point, then the camera would exit properly and end the last file being written.

Viofo acknowledges that at hitting 65C, the camera is shutting down without properly exiting. I imagine their fix might include a temperature limit to shut down prior to overheating. So the last file can exit properly.

Note: I tested two units. Remember I had unit #1 and then the unit I'm using now (#2). Both exhibit same behavior. And both cameras came from way different batch numbers. So it's safe to say this isn't an isolated instance. I again defer you to my ceramic tint absorbing heat. So my cameras are sitting on a hotter surface. Making this testing possible.
65°C is a rating, not a shutoff point, if it was a shutoff point it would close the file and shutoff

Ultimately, I think I was wrong with a an Asterisk. The camera is shutting off at the "rated temperature", but not working within spec by corrupting the last file written. So this appears to be a problem best rectified by a firmware fix, but was only able to be verified after I confirmed both cameras exhibited the same behavior.
 
My NVR for my CCTV cameras, it had a internal 40 mm fan, granted in a perforated case, i did not have much fate in it and it was also loud meaning i had to close the door to the living room where the NVR is, and also my bedroom door.
So as i in some cases at least are a fan of a open door policy, i made a huge hole in the top of the NVR case and put a low noise 120 mm fan on the outside of the box, so now i dont have to close any doors, and the 1 fan i hardly hear over the 7 other fans in my computer case on the opposite side of my monitor.
IMG_20210813_183107.jpg
Now thats cooling worth doing.
 
That's what I suspected. Internal fan probably would be blowing hot air over a hot heatsink.
The same inaccurate description as @Nigel's, it depends on what you consider as hot. It will blow "hot" air over "hotter" heatsink to make the heatsink only "hot"...

As long as there is a temperature difference, you can make the heat dissipate. And since "quite accurately" 30-40°C difference was measured, there is a room for improvements (larger area/faster flow).

No one said 70C varies from car to car. Overthinking again! It just takes a white car longer to hit 70C than a black car. As white reflects heat from sun and black absorbs the heat from the sun. At some point, both cars will reach 70C.
No, now you don't get the point. If in a black car A139 fails at about 70°C and doesn't fail in a white car at the same temperature, then colour effectively doesn't matter at that point (not to mention the tint which, according to your description, should shield part of the energy and thus make the camera to not heat that much from Sun as in other cars). One only could point out that the black one needs less time to heat up which could lead to a "heat shock", compared to a white car which heats slower and gives a dashcam more time to "sync the temperature".

Don't you have a something like hole in ozone layer over Sweden, that more energy leaks to heat your dashcam more? That's why I suggest we should rather bake our dashcams in ovens to finally get to some accurate conclusion, instead of temperature and Sun hunting. :D

Actually, I have stated from the original post, there are two problems.

1. See Post #19 on page one. I state that an overheat shutoff does not exit the last file being written, resulting in corruption of those files (Front, Rear, Interior).
If the temperature was higher than 65°C, anything is possible. Unfortunately that was still the time before the meat thermometer.

2. Later on I tested without loop. Same problem, but instead the entire SD card is rendered corrupt. As Loop creates one large file.
I'm not sure why you're still pulling this out. Why is it so important? Nobody doubts that your files are getting corrupted.

3. Viofo admits there's a problem when the Camera is reaching its designed maximum operating temperature. See Post #57. I stated the camera is shutting down around 65-67C. Remember, this is a maximum heat rating, not a shut off rating. Here's @jokiin comment from Post #56 on Page 3.
#57 You had the thermometer sticked into your car's housing, if I recall correctly, and you yourself doubted about the proper placement. That's why I haven't got that measurement into account.

See @jokiin comment. 65C is maximum operating temperature, but not a shutoff point. If it was a shutoff point, then the camera would exit properly and end the last file being written.
I wouldn't except less.

Viofo acknowledges that at hitting 65C, the camera is shutting down without properly exiting. I imagine their fix might include a temperature limit to shut down prior to overheating. So the last file can exit properly.
Ok then, if even Viofo admitted it, you managed to improve their product. Let's hope it won't be "killing" too soon the units which happen to be capable to run at even higher temperatures. I still have PTSDs from my DR900S...

I hope they will also implement a recovery measure when it cools down.

Note: I tested two units. Remember I had unit #1 and then the unit I'm using now (#2). Both exhibit same behavior. And both cameras came from way different batch numbers. So it's safe to say this isn't an isolated instance. I again defer you to my ceramic tint absorbing heat. So my cameras are sitting on a hotter surface. Making this testing possible.
Remember, I have two units as well, both run simultaneously in one car. One is exposed to sun, the another is not. Both were exposed to 70+°C ambient temperature inside the car. Never encountered the same behaviour as yours.
 
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My NVR for my CCTV cameras, it had a internal 40 mm fan, granted in a perforated case, i did not have much fate in it and it was also loud meaning i had to close the door to the living room where the NVR is, and also my bedroom door.
So as i in some cases at least are a fan of a open door policy, i made a huge hole in the top of the NVR case and put a low noise 120 mm fan on the outside of the box, so now i dont have to close any doors, and the 1 fan i hardly hear over the 7 other fans in my computer case on the opposite side of my monitor.
View attachment 57738
Now thats cooling worth doing.
Well, the fan should be only for emergency purposes while parked in case of overheating, not as a permanent and all the time solution. Not to mention you will probably be irritated by the 65+°C more than the noise of small fan. :p
 
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