Overheat in parking mode

sharpsicle

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Aug 21, 2017
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Location
Florida
Country
United States
Dash Cam
DR650S-2CH
I've been very happy with the dash cam thus far, however it seems that every day while parked at work, the camera overheats and locks up around 1pm without fail. I have to unplug the cam and let it die, then plug it back in and boot up. Catching something on camera isn't the concern I really have (there are security cameras on the building facing my car anyway), the big problem is the GPS clock freezes when it locks up, and when I restart it the timestamps are all off because of it (and we all know how long it takes these things to refresh the GPS date/time).

BlackVue customer service has told me that this is apparently expected when you park outside and it's sunny. To me, though, that seems asinine. It defeats the whole purpose of the camera, especially when I park somewhere public over the weekend or something. I do understand that I live in Florida, and it's summer, but there are so many others who have no issues in areas that are even hotter than it is here (Texas, Australia, etc), and yet this is a daily occurrence for me.

I'm currently trying to convince BlackVue to do an RMA on the cam, but until then, is anyone able to shed any light on this situation? Searches seem to be very empty on overheats.
 
are they battery powered as opposed to capacitor?

battery powered cams suffer A LOT in hot climate
 
but there are so many others who have no issues in areas that are even hotter than it is here (Texas, Australia, etc), and yet this is a daily occurrence for me.
.

reports of the same here in Australia as well, in car temps can easily be 30°c to 40°c above ambient temps when parked, sometimes it's just too hot for it to work out
 
My blackvue has a temperature monitor and it will turn off when it hits the limit. You actually want this instead of the camera burning up inside. I have avoided this by covering with shades the front window not letting my front camera get direct son and trying to park in a way that the camera on the back doesn't get direct light from the son. But still sometimes it just get too hot inside the car.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
I'm not so much angry that it locks up when it hits that point, if it truly is that hot then so be it. The bigger complaint is that when it happens, it screws up the timestamp every single time. After a few days of this happening it stamps videos at 22:00 as being 08:00, and nothing makes sense anymore.

Most electronics I've worked with simply shut down, but this cam seems built to do the opposite as all the led indicators turn on and remain solid until I restart it.

jokiin, when this happens for you, what do you do with the 650? Do you start unplugging it or taking it down every day, or do you just come back to the car and see all the lights are on and know that it's frozen up in the meantime?
 
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Well I do not have a 650. I got the newest one which is the DR490L-2CH. I actually thought it was the new version of the 650 but it wasn't. Like it doesn't have cloud and wifi. It has a night vision and that's one thing i wanted.

Back to your question. When this happens, mine works as if the battery of the car ran out. So it turns on normally and it keeps on going. I personally don't check the times hehe i check every detected event that happened while in parking mode and if anything is worth saving, either while driving or in parking, ill get the memory out when i get home and save it on my pc.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
jokiin, when this happens for you, what do you do with the 650? Do you start unplugging it or taking it down every day, or do you just come back to the car and see all the lights are on and know that it's frozen up in the meantime?

I don't have one, just pointing out that others have had the same issue with it not handling the heat, the time resetting is likely a firmware problem though, it shouldn't do that
 
Thanks for the info. I have made some more adjustments to the settings in the hope that it will keep the camera just below the threshold, as I'm just barely going above it based on Pittasoft's operating range, and I'll also be disabling the rear camera when I park there since I don't really need it at that location. Normally I'd just unplug the unit, but with it being hardwired into the car and high mounted, it's really a pain to do. I may have to end up installing a switch somewhere if none of these ideas work. That or install a micro fan inside the case just to promote a little air movement (but that would void my warranty).
 
no, it's a live circuit with a programmed logic chip in line for low voltage protection. Acts the exact same way, only there's no timeout option like PMP.
 
no, it's a live circuit with a programmed logic chip in line for low voltage protection. Acts the exact same way, only there's no timeout option like PMP.

might be worth thinking about getting a Vico Power Plus, aside from low voltage and timer cutoff it also has a thermal cutoff option, set correctly you can avoid the problem altogether
 
Unfortunately the size of that unit makes it unusable with my configuration. That is a nice unit though....
 
650S and 650 are both made with a tiny capacitor inside. They do not run on batteries as such. The capacitor only has enough power to shut down the cam safely when it gets a power-cut or user cycles the cam.

I've meassured around 50°C in my car mid-summer, it's not a problem with my 650S-2ch.

You DID remove the plastic around both front and rear, right?
 
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Yes, all the plastic is removed. I kept track of the car temperature today, it's currently at 121F (50C) and the cam has locked up. At 111F (44C) it was still functioning.
 
I believe the 650S is without the temp-cutoff feature unlike it's sibling 490L and 490, 470 or 430 that has this temp-cutoff.
Although the operating temp can be between -20℃ – 60℃ (-4°F – 140°F ), it's about to max the limit of the camera when it hits the 50C-mark inside the car.

https://www.blackvue.com/dashcam-comparison-table/
 
Interesting stories about temperature problems. My 650S-2 essentially stopped working for me last spring and is useless to me. First my proximity sensor stopped responding about 6 weeks ago. Then I noticed, the clock settings were changing at random. Now I get frequent restarts. I've tried all kinds of reformatting and firmware updates with no luck. I downgraded to the oldest version of the firmware I could find and I think it may be a little better on the random clock settings. The only help I've received from Blackvue/Pittasoft is the typical "turn it off and turn it on again" method of diagnosis and repair.

Currently looking for a replacement camera that is actually supported by the manufacturer.

...Rev
 
Brian, have you tried replacing the microSD? They don't last forever, and crashing problems is one symptom of a failing microSD. And that's the only diagnostic you didn't mention in your post. :)

Brad.
 
I believe the 650S is without the temp-cutoff feature unlike it's sibling 490L and 490, 470 or 430 that has this temp-cutoff.
Although the operating temp can be between -20℃ – 60℃ (-4°F – 140°F ), it's about to max the limit of the camera when it hits the 50C-mark inside the car.

https://www.blackvue.com/dashcam-comparison-table/

There's a difference between a cut-off feature and overheat circuit protection. While the 650S doesn't have the feature, the circuitry will still protect itself in the event of an overheat. The difference is how this is done. Otherwise the unit would keep functioning up until the point it caused damage to the circuitry, which is not the case.

Interesting stories about temperature problems. My 650S-2 essentially stopped working for me last spring and is useless to me. First my proximity sensor stopped responding about 6 weeks ago. Then I noticed, the clock settings were changing at random. Now I get frequent restarts. I've tried all kinds of reformatting and firmware updates with no luck. I downgraded to the oldest version of the firmware I could find and I think it may be a little better on the random clock settings. The only help I've received from Blackvue/Pittasoft is the typical "turn it off and turn it on again" method of diagnosis and repair.

According to BlackVue, this isn't the typical function of the camera in the instance of an overheat. It does sound like an SD card failure though, based on experiences in other threads. If a new SD card of the proper quality doesn't solve it, though, you'd need to warranty replace the camera as it sounds more like an issue with the logic circuit.

Now, back to what I discovered, the ambient car temperature maxed out at 52C with the external air temp of 35C and near-constant sunlight. With thermal imaging, I was able to find that the camera, when recording, will increase from ambient air at an amount of +15C to +20C depending on conditions (test was done at about 25C). This means that, although it's impossible to confirm exact temps, it's likely the camera internal is in the 65C-70C range at peak heat, above the stated specs from BlackVue. Considering the camera functioned when the car was at 44C, but failed just before 50C, it seems like it's shutting down exactly when expected. It looks like generating a small amount of airflow in to the unit might be enough to get it operational at those temps, but it's something I'd need to rig up and test. BlackVue has still offered to do an RMA exchange on the unit if I want, so we'll see how added airflow affects it.
 
Brian, have you tried replacing the microSD? They don't last forever, and crashing problems is one symptom of a failing microSD. And that's the only diagnostic you didn't mention in your post. :)

Brad.


Brad, Thank you for your reply. Yes, I have tried swapping out the microSD card. I have a 128GB 'Lexar High-Performance microSDXC 633x 128GB UHS-I Card' that I read on this board that it should be compatible. Right now, I'm running the 16GB card that came from BlackVue. I get the same behavior with both SD cards. In my current configuration, I'm using the 16GB BlackVue card with older firmware version 'v.1.004_2016.11.25'. This configuration appears to be the most stable I've gotten the camera since I started having problems. I run the video at low resolution and low frame-rate to minimize the burden on the SD card. Right now, every morning when I start the car I get a message sequence to the effect of 'starting normal recording', and then about 30 seconds later I get messages for 'resetting the time' and then 'restarting'. Then the camera seems to work better throughout the day with the exception of a inoperable proximity sensor. While running the latest version of the firmware, the time setting appeared to be jumping around randomly with no error messages about the time being off. Just a few 'restarting' messages periodically. Nothing I have done has been successful in getting the proximity sensor to work again. It worked when I first bought the camera, but stopped working completely after a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I bought the camera through OpenSky.com and have no way of getting support or a receipt from them. Unfortunately, BlackVue doesn't seem to enjoy a great reputation with respect to RMAs so I'm thinking I'm stuck with this camera until I find a different one.
 
Have you tried using a Class 10 card? Class 10's are specifically designed for high-demand repeated read/write use like our dashcam's demand, and have solved issues for others in the past (although the prox sensor isn't going to be tied to it at all)
 
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