Question B40/ A118C. Recording fails sometimes.

[Dutchydriver]

Hello,

I am new here. I have used the search button. Not quite found yet: my B40/ A118C ( if I am right) quited recording like it used to. It misses footage randomly. I have two cams. One is ok. The other one does not like power off and on. At that time it fails and produce not readable footage. Random size. Up to 400-500 mb. After a long drive I misses 30% from the footage. Also after no power on and offs. Cams are 6 yrs old.

It is powered by a mini- USB and mounted by the dealer. Tries: cards (64g, A-grade) are renewed and formatted in the cam. No luck yet. I have never tried firmware or so.

Any idea? Are there affordable models ( same mounts) if I have to renew? Offers welcome.

Ideas welcome.

I may switch to 4k if affordable. But no hurry. I do like my cams. I do take my cards out sometimes to safe my (mountain) trips for example.

Thx in advance.

 

[kamkar]

Welcome to the forum Dutchydriver.

That flaky system is by chance should not be on a long USB cable from the front of the car ? or maybe some creative power source.
At least random behaviour like that is often power based / starvation for power.
Also the memory cards, they do not last forever, so if one is going sour you might also see these kind of problems, modern systems will most often warn if they have problems saving a file, where as old systems even if the memory card completely died would just sit there on the windscreen and look as if they was working.
Hence why we for so many years have recommended people to regularly look over their footage to look for irregular behaviour, like drive sessions starting / ending in strange places.

You can test memory cards on PC with little free programs like H2testw, this will test the entire memory space on the card.

You will not find any new system that will fit on the old mounts, the power source today in most cases are also USB C plugs and not the mini or micro USB your old systems are.
Also newer systems are more power hungry as they do higher quality 1440p or 4K footage.

Modenr systems even stand a chance of capturing the plate on a on coming car,,,,,,, at night, though this depend if your headlights throw enough light into the oncoming lane, mine do not so to get these captures i had to cheat a little running high beam but then adjusting my headlights very low so i do not blind oncoming drivers.

 

[Dutchydriver]

Thank you Kamkar. Appreciated. I have news: the cams I have use capacitors which do leak after 5-6 yrs. I found it online. If possible, ny friend may change them, I will repair my cams. I did renew my MSD cards. No luck. Plans now: Frontcam goes to rear and vice versa. To check powersupply. No luck: 1 cam is down. Time to repair or replace. I also have problems with licenseplates in the dark or bright sunlight. And a low fps sometimes. The Viofo A329S looks a good cam to me. I will also read here: what is a good replace cam? One thing I do not have now is a working / waking up cam when the car is parked. I miss that now. But: we drive 8000 kmyr. So a cam my drain my battery. That is an issue I have to figure out. I have read about extra batteries to power the cam itself.

Anyway: I keep this thread informed. Wish me luck. 🙂

 

[Dutchydriver]

New plan: It seems to be the internal capacitor. Later this week I will take camera apart and a friend of mine will solder a new capacitor in the cam. It all looks like a powerproblem like Kamkar mentioned. Thank you. Your reply was the solution. I first focust on a card issue. I will keep you all informed. When Santa is hete the A329S is still on my list. Wow. I love that cam system. Maybe larer. Not now.

 

[Dutchydriver]

Solved! Thank you all. Special thanks to Kamkar. The capacitors where renewed. It took a while. My friend was busy. Anyway: last weekend it’s all tested. No more damaged files!