Power failing to camera when using GPS mount

[OCD Tronic]

You should have a spare adhesive pad in the box to remount.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

What about a 90 degree USB adapter?

 

[LateralNW]

What about a 90 degree USB adapter?

@viofo

Link? I had a look for these mid last year and I could only find the reverse angle to what you have displayed.

The ones that looked like they would work turned out to be mini to micro so useless.

On another note don't discount the supplied cable outright. I just broke my cable ridiculously easy. I had to remove my road toll counter (flat battery after 17 years!) and bumped the dash cam and it just snapped. I had it plugged in to the side of the dash cam as I have been having problems with corrupted files/missing files and screen flicker and poor gps speed/response.

While the cable supplied has a good girth it may not be using the best mini USB end. The mini USB connector metal finished where the plastic started with just a little tab to hold in to the plastic.

And I'll be starting another thread about the flat battery in the GPS unit! really surprised it even has one.

Here's a photo of the broken cable connector. It may have been slightly damaged and causing my intermittent power problems. It could also be a few other reasons which has been mentioned on many occasions on this site.

I will be repairing this cable as I don't have one as long as this. Might be time to use the power in the roof from my electric rear view mirror and ditch the cigarette lighter.

 

[budster]

Have been recently running into problems with my A119 (V1) losing power intermittently, which is connected to and powered by the GPS mount. At first, I thought there was a problem with the 12V USB plug, but after replacing this, I still had the problem. Then took off the dashcam and brought it inside to power on from a USB power bank, and it never lost power while recording. Then found this thread, which confirmed my suspicions of a connection problem between the GPS mount and dashcam.

@viofo, are you sending out EVA foam pads for users with this issue? Send you a private message about this so would appreciate if you can respond to it.

I saw it mentioned that a workaround would be to power the dashcam using its own mini USB input instead of thru the GPS mount and that the GPS function would still work. I don't understand this though. If there's a loose connection issue between the GPS mount and dashcam, then wouldn't the GPS function be lost even if the dashcam is working because it's being powered directly? Wouldn't it only be if the dashcam is connected solidly to the GPS mount that the GPS function would work, in which case, it wouldn't matter if power is going to the GPS mount or to the dashcam.

 

[jokiin]

if you lose power the camera will have issues, if you lose GPS you have a few seconds with no GPS data

 

[GTA Driver]

I have been running my A119 for a year now, with the power directly to the unit, not the GPS. No trouble whatsoever. I did buy the EVA foam but never bothered using the direct and zip tie works so well.

 

[adimw]

been running power direct to camera for a very long time with no issues. (had plenty of issues powering via GPS). was sent the foam pads - these did not resolve the issue on either A119 v1.

 

[budster]

been running power direct to camera for a very long time with no issues. (had plenty of issues powering via GPS). was sent the foam pads - these did not resolve the issue on either A119 v1.

Is it that the foam pads are too thin so there's still a gap between the dashcam and GPS mount that prevents a solid connection?

 

[jokiin]

the V1 version of the camera had different connection pins that weren't as solid a connection as the ones used in V2 and later cams

 

[budster]

Has anyone been able to contact @viofo and get the EVA foam pads from them for their A119 V1? After a week and sending a couple private messages to them, I have not gotten a response. It seems they are not monitoring this thread either despite being tagged by me and others. Also tried to contact the ebay seller (foxoffer1) who I bought the A119 V1 from and ask them about the pads, and they didn't bother responding either.

It really seems to me that anyone who bought a A119 V1 with GPS mount should be able to get complimentary pads from @viofo or their seller to workaround the mount issue. It should not cost them much to send out such pads to anyone who can provide a copy of the purchase receipt. Doing so would show that @viofo stands behind their products despite this product defect and be a gesture of goodwill.

For now, I'm just powering my A119 using its own power input. I checked that although video is being recorded consistently fine now, it's not capturing GPS data unless I push the front of the dashcam up from the bottom towards the mount to get a better connection between the two.

 

[jokiin]

foxoffer is Viofo

 

[budster]

foxoffer is Viofo

Oh really, that's interesting to know. Looks like Viofo is not known for their post-sale customer service then. I think I will look elsewhere for my next dashcam. Probably will go with another Street Guardian as my SG9665GC V2 has been rock solid and I had excellent after sales support for it before.

 

[Gibson99]

Has anyone been able to contact @viofo and get the EVA foam pads from them for their A119 V1? After a week and sending a couple private messages to them, I have not gotten a response. It seems they are not monitoring this thread either despite being tagged by me and others. Also tried to contact the ebay seller (foxoffer1) who I bought the A119 V1 from and ask them about the pads, and they didn't bother responding either.

It really seems to me that anyone who bought a A119 V1 with GPS mount should be able to get complimentary pads from @viofo or their seller to workaround the mount issue. It should not cost them much to send out such pads to anyone who can provide a copy of the purchase receipt. Doing so would show that @viofo stands behind their products despite this product defect and be a gesture of goodwill.

For now, I'm just powering my A119 using its own power input. I checked that although video is being recorded consistently fine now, it's not capturing GPS data unless I push the front of the dashcam up from the bottom towards the mount to get a better connection between the two.

they sell a v2 conversion kit for about $20... i know, that's not free, and requires a little technical skill (it's not that difficult), but it is a proper fix for the issue. the foam pad won't fix the issue with the pins being stuck down in the gps mount on the v1 cameras (which i also have). that said, not all v1s misbehave - i power mine thru the mount and have no problems with it.

 

[budster]

they sell a v2 conversion kit for about $20... i know, that's not free, and requires a little technical skill (it's not that difficult), but it is a proper fix for the issue. the foam pad won't fix the issue with the pins being stuck down in the gps mount on the v1 cameras (which i also have). that said, not all v1s misbehave - i power mine thru the mount and have no problems with it.

I'm confused. I thought from what's mentioned in this thread that the foam pad was supposed to fix the issue so that there's a more firm connection between the GPS mount and A119 V1. Can you explain why it doesn't fix the problem?

This must be the conversion kit you're referring to, https://www.amazon.com/gp/B072HFTPZR. But I don't see it available for sale by anyone on amazon or on ebay. Where can one get it?

 

[CaptureYourAction]

I'm confused. I thought from what's mentioned in this thread that the foam pad was supposed to fix the issue so that there's a more firm connection between the GPS mount and A119 V1. Can you explain why it doesn't fix the problem?

This must be the conversion kit you're referring to, https://www.amazon.com/gp/B072HFTPZR. But I don't see it available for sale by anyone on amazon or on ebay. Where can one get it?

Not sure, but the conversion kit may be only available through Viofo.

 

[Gibson99]

my understanding is that the foam kit is just to prevent vibration that happens as the mount loosens with age. the pads can be used with or without the gps mount. i did something similar on my old a118 camera with adhesive felt to eliminate vibrations caused by a loose mount. street guardian includes the foam pads in their GC and DC cameras for the same reason, and street guardian doesn't have a gps mount - their gps is a small external box that isn't intended to be mounted anywhere near the camera.

yes, that's the conversion kit i was talking about. maybe @OCD Tronic or @viofo can tell us who currently sells it (if anyone). i'm sure the details of the v2 kit are on the forum here somewhere - it's where i learned about it.

 

[budster]

Wanted to give a big shout-out to @CaptureYourAction who mailed me a couple foam pads to try even though I did not buy my A119 from his store. He also suggested that I cut about 1/4 or 1/3 of the pad that's for the opposite side of where the GPS mount contacts go into and only apply that portion of the pad to get a better power connection to the GPS mount (picture he sent me for this suggestion is below). I followed this suggestion and haven't had the power connection issue after several hours driving the past few days. So it looks like it's solved my issue, but I'll continue to monitor it. I don't know if I would have had the same result had I applied the entire foam pad to the dashcam.

Thanks again @CaptureYourAction. I'll be keeping your store in mind the next time I'm shopping for another dashcam.

Also, @viofo finally did respond to my private message and said they would mail me some pads from China. I don't need them anymore now. But just FYI that they seem to be willing to offer pads upon request, although they may take awhile to respond.

 

[Prodigy]

Flick and dimmer on screen to mine A119s also. No trust to this video recorder camera. Im driving and check if they works or not.
After i read this threat i decide to open the camera and the GPS device. Also i have contact the support of viofo, but i did not remember when i take my camera or from where. Any way, i just add some tin-copper with my soldering and all works great now.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Flick and dimmer on screen to mine A119s also. No trust to this video recorder camera. Im driving and check if they works or not.
After i read this threat i decide to open the camera and the GPS device. Also i have contact the support of viofo, but i did not remember when i take my camera or from where. Any way, i just add some tin-copper with my soldering and all works great now.


View attachment 61591

Plug power direct to the camera and you won’t have to worry about it. GPS will still work.

 

[Prodigy]

Plug power direct to the camera and you won’t have to worry about it. GPS will still work.

No thanks. I just did what i have to do. This way my camera works superb. Thanks