Problems with the A118-C from Gearbest

R

runtohell121

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2013
Messages
911
Reaction score
357
Country
United States
Dash Cam
Viofo & Vantrue - too many to list
So I finally received the dash cam after about 1 month of shipping and had it all set up in my car, semi-hardwired with the cigarette adapter, which I should have tested before wasting my time, hiding the wires...

@GearBest Any solutions to my problems?

Problems:
1) Micro SD Card flings out on it's own, but somewhat fixed after taking it apart and messing with the card slot holder. I have not touched the Micro SD Card ever since it's been in the camera, just because I'm worried about it not being able to be pushed back in once I remove it again.

2) The cigarette adapter, I believe it's defective as the A118-C dash camera keeps going on and off when driving. After that one day of it going on and off, I decided to swap out the adapter and use my USB cable I had previously for my VF300W and it seems to be working fine now. So I think I need a new cigarette adapter, as the USB cable I have is short and exposed wiring, which I dislike.

3) The camera seems to be out of focus 50%-80% of the time from what I see when I playback the video, nearly impossible to read the license plate in front of my car during the daytime, not even going to bother with night.

It could be my dash, but I tried adjusting the angle of the camera and same thing.

4) I am not sure if I'm the only one, but the camera performance degrades quite a bit when it is left on running for more than 1 hour. There are a lot of artifacts/pixelated video when it comes to night time. At first, it looks fine, similar to my old VF300W, but after 30 min to 1 hour, the video turns blueish/green with a lot of pixelated/artifacts on the video. Once I turned off the car (to get gas) and restart the car, the video quality seems to return to normal, semi-decent, not so good night video still and out of focus problem along with it to me.

The night video is nearly unusable in my opinion.

I will try to get videos posted (dropbox link), but will take a long time as my internet is really slow.

Those are the problems I think I currently have with the A118-C I received from Gearbest that took more than 1 month to arrive.


Edit: Here are screenshots, since video takes forever to upload...
Somewhat unfocused...
Screen Shot 2015-03-12 at 下午11.29.06.png

Screen Shot 2015-03-12 at 下午11.30.20.png

When the camera first started at night, seems okay quality...
Screen Shot 2015-03-12 at 下午11.31.39.png

Then later when the pixelated/artifacts comes in
Screen Shot 2015-03-12 at 下午11.32.04.png Screen Shot 2015-03-12 at 下午11.32.23.png Screen Shot 2015-03-12 at 下午11.32.58.png
 
Last edited:
Disappointing result. My old Mini 0801 also has dull and dark night scenes, but at least the focus is decent on it. Your A118-c just seems to be out of focus day and night.
 
efoo said:
Disappointing result. My old Mini 0801 also has dull and dark night scenes, but at least the focus is decent on it. Your A118-c just seems to be out of focus day and night.
Click to expand...
Yup, I'm extremely disappointed in this A118-C unit I receive in terms of performance... and probably quality control.
 
Ok.
In my case, no more issue with the SD card slot, it works fine each time after fixing.
And I need this because I have to remove the card to extract files. I do not want to pick up the dashcam away from car.
 
Have you tried recording with HDR setting turned off?
The default on mine was HDR on and turning it off seems to improve video quality. It's still not as sharp as my G1W-C video (I wonder whether the cause might be the 170°lens on the A118) but it works for my purposes, especially given that the A118 was $65 and I like the form factor much better.

You might try repositioning the cigarette adapter in your cig lighter socket slightly, to see if that results in a better connection. I hard wire my dash cams, but I use my own Tom Tom GPS in rental cars, where I have had that same issue many times and simply twisting the adapter in the socket a bit makes it connect.

As for the month long shipping, I've come to expect delays when dealing with China around either Spring Festival or their National Day in October, because businesses in China pretty much shut down during those holidays.
 
Last edited:
I've posted in the other thread of about SD card not locking in.

Well, I somehow got the SD card to stay in for a bit(it popped out 3-4 times in a row while I kept moving the L latch to get it to lock in the card). I put black electrical tape over the slot in case it flies out of the dashcam while I'm driving.

I put it side by side with my G1W-C and have to say, the picture quality is crap for what novatek nt96650 is known for.
Here are a screenshot of the same moment on both dashcam.

G1W-C:
g1wc.jpg

A118C:
a118c.jpg

After driving for 30 mins(45 mins to get to work).
I started to hear the A118C start up sound and realized, it began rebooting.
So I got curious and switched the power cable between G1W-C and A118C.
A118C was then recording fine again while G1W-C didn't start up anymore.

I regret quite a bit getting this A118C after G1W-C has been stable for such a long time.
What won me over was the form factor and seeing that it's one of the newer capacitor dashcam.
However, I can't say it's build as good or as reliable as the G1W-C at this point.

I've spent more time fixing this A118C than actually using it so far.
List of issues:
1. SD card got stuck due to glue on speaker
2. SD card won't lock in anymore after glue is peeled off
3. Power adapter seems unstable at times
4. Don't know when the SD card will fly out(hopefully not at my eye again).
5. Video quality seems subpar vs other dashcam that uses same chipsets
 
balikbayan said:
I have the power adapter problem too, just after 8 days of use.
Click to expand...

Yup.. Mine worked fine the first day I hid the wire.. then the next day, with longer driving times (about 1 hour), the problem started after the car been turned off and then restarted... Then the dash cam started going on and off constantly. But since I replaced it with my own USB cable, it's been fine, but just short cable.
 
wing0 said:
I've posted in the other thread of about SD card not locking in.

Well, I somehow got the SD card to stay in for a bit(it popped out 3-4 times in a row while I kept moving the L latch to get it to lock in the card). I put black electrical tape over the slot in case it flies out of the dashcam while I'm driving.

I put it side by side with my G1W-C and have to say, the picture quality is crap for what novatek nt96650 is known for.
Here are a screenshot of the same moment on both dashcam.

G1W-C:

A118C:


After driving for 30 mins(45 mins to get to work).
I started to hear the A118C start up sound and realized, it began rebooting.
So I got curious and switched the power cable between G1W-C and A118C.
A118C was then recording fine again while G1W-C didn't start up anymore.

I regret quite a bit getting this A118C after G1W-C has been stable for such a long time.
What won me over was the form factor and seeing that it's one of the newer capacitor dashcam.
However, I can't say it's build as good or as reliable as the G1W-C at this point.

I've spent more time fixing this A118C than actually using it so far.
List of issues:
1. SD card got stuck due to glue on speaker
2. SD card won't lock in anymore after glue is peeled off
3. Power adapter seems unstable at times
4. Don't know when the SD card will fly out(hopefully not at my eye again).
5. Video quality seems subpar vs other dashcam that uses same chipsets
Click to expand...

The SD card problem is one of the most often problem for the A118-C so far... And try to avoid touching it once it's locked in place and hope it won't fly out lol.

Yup, the SD card got stuck because of the glue and won't lock once the glue is removed on the card slot from the speaker.

Power adapter is unstable, at least on mine and yours so far.

Video quality is a quite disappointed considering that the device is on a newer chipset than my old VF300W... and my video is mostly out of focus from what I can tell... and extremely grainy/artifact/pixelated at night, making it unusable.
 
The A118 installed in the Prius. Time should've been 600 not 700, which was corrected after the video.
vs
The SJ1000 in the Corolla.

1st camera with a 170 degree lens, don't know if its affecting video sharpness.
 
I think the wider angle does affect the sharpness...

Still haven't had a chance to upload sample clips, at most I can do screenshots because of my slow internet.
 
That looks like normal A118 performance at night - they've never been bright at night time?

For the best night performance you should look at something with the Sony Exmor
 
That pixelated/artifact though? When the camera cooled off/restarted after getting gas, the quality was a little bit better, no blueish/greenish tint all over the video.

Here's a screenshot of the video, when the camera restarted, after cooling down for about 10 minutes.
Screen Shot 2015-03-14 at 上午12.41.09.png
 
The A118 are all like that - mine was / is.

If you want better night performance in total blackness you're better off looking elsewhere to be honest - the best I've seen yet (and I have had installed since October) is the Panorama X2 - maybe take a look at the X1 / G / S or the new Street Guardian one which is the same chassis as the A118 but with the Sony sensor and a better lens.

I'm just testing out a Lukas one which is bright at night time but not as detailed as the X2 - I need to do more testing with this Lukas camera though and have just moved brightness down a peg.
 
Here is some footage with the Exmor sensor at night:


And then the OmniVision OV4689 which is the next step down:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top