Possible GPS mount failure

[joshh520]

I already sent a message to OCD Tronic who was the seller on Amazon. But thought I’d get some feedback and possible troubleshooting steps here aside from what I’ve already done. Unit didn’t feel hot but while power was plugged into the GPS mount the A129 stopped powering on this afternoon. At first tried a different 12V power unit. Tried removing and putting the A129 back on the mount. It didn’t power back up until I moved the power from the gps to the A129. Its been hot but not too hot (90F at most).


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[joshh520]

I also know it was working shortly before because I pulled a clip off of someone almost backing into me.


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[jokiin]

Has it worked powered via the mount since?

 

[joshh520]

It hasn’t worked powered by the mount since it stopped this evening. It was working right before that stop. I tried again the last stop to power it from the mount before driving off.


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[jokiin]

Are you still getting GPS data?

 

[joshh520]

Just checked, not getting any gps data anymore.


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[jokiin]

sounds like a hardware problem, I'm sure @OCD Tronic will get you sorted out in no time

 

[OCD Tronic]

Responded to your message. Standing by to help.

 

[joshh520]

Responded to your message. Standing by to help.

Just saw it. I’ll send a reply but I think that might be a start. If that’s what you think is easiest. Seems the logical start.


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[viofo]

Suggest to replace the GPS mount first.

 

[joshh520]

Suggest to replace the GPS mount first.

That’s the path OCD Tronic and I were going to start with.


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[joshh520]

Alright the replacement GPS Mount from @OCD Tronic just arrived. I first just removed the A129 from the existing GPS mount and plugged the power into the new one and slide the A129 on. Turned on the car and it started powering up. Thought awesome that was it. Removed the old mount and was going to double check my placement again before removing the film on the mount adhesive and it wouldn't start up again. Took them inside hooked them up to a USB battery pack still wouldn't turn on via the GPS mount. Plugged it directly into the A129 powered right up.

Got curious and grabbed an extra USB to Mini-USB cable and plugged it from the battery into the GPS. Camera went from "No GPS" to "0 MPH" and showing the GPS icon. Tested it on the existing mount again and same result (pics attached). And with the existing mount being that I was outside and it was able to get a clear signal even showed that it had an active GPS connection. Would be odd to have two mounts doing the same thing so I'm leaning towards a connection side failure on the A129 side.

@viofo thoughts?

 

[TCK81]

Can you post some pictures of the pins on the GPS mount and the tracks on the camera?

 

[joshh520]

Can you post some pictures of the pins on the GPS mount and the tracks on the camera?

Here’s the camera side. I took them earlier when I was trying to see if maybe one of the contacts wasn’t out far enough. I’ll get a pic of the gps pins in the morning. But they’re all straight and equal length from what I recall.

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[joshh520]

I think my camera knew I was about to take it down, after test fitting the CPLs I had show up from Viofo today, and send it back to @OCD Tronic for troubleshooting because the GPS mount connectors are transferring power between the camera/mount again (noticed the gps icon was on and had signal again even though power was connected directly to the camera). Not sure what changed as I checked last night's files and there was no GPS data on them. Just to test I moved the power from the camera to the mount and reattached the camera and it powered right up for the first time since starting this thread.

 

[joshh520]

Spoke too soon, after it cooled down a little outside it stopped powering up. My guess is one of the contacts on the receptacle side of the camera is off just enough that the heating and cooling makes it intermittently contact or not. It's only been in the 80s-90s in Seattle not that hot, probably just my unit since I haven't seen any others having the issue. Sending it in, customer service from @OCD Tronic has been great btw!

 

[c4rc4m]

Might be a dry joint.

Personally although I like the A129 overall, I have been slightly concerned by the way the GPS is sandwiched between the glass and body with no airflow. I'm also not so keen on having the adhesive mount direct to the gps. When I had to get mine back off the window, the GPS unit was flexing and bending to quite a severe degree, despite the use of a hairdryer to soften the adhesive pad. I personally feel a better design would have been to have the GPS unit maybe attach to the bottom and have a dedicated mount on the back with both adhesive and suction options. Just my 2 cents and feedback though.

 

[Msan2000]

Use a string of dental floss to take those 3M adhesive mounts off..

 

[joshh520]

Use a string of dental floss to take those 3M adhesive mounts off..

Completely forgot about dental floss, used to use that all the time for removing exterior emblems.

 

[jrock]

I'm having problems with GPS possibly not working on a Viofo A119s. The screen on the camera shows the GPS satellite indicator and 0 MPH in red but when I view the recorded video on my computer, there is no GPS data showing despite have GPS data stamp on. I've had this problem for a few days now. So this morning I reloaded the new firmware v. 2.6 and reset the camera to factory settings then set the camera features that I wanted on. Everything seems to working normally other than no GPS data being recorded even though the GPS feature is on.

Anyone have any ideas?

Another question I have, is does this camera rely on the capacitor to retain system settings? If so, how long can the camera be left un-powered before settings are lost?