Random recordings being saved in emergency video folder

[fanatic22b]

I recently installed the B1W dash cam in my car and looking in the app I am finding that quite a lot of random recordings are being saved to the emergency videos folder rather than the normal videos folder. Is there a reason for this? Is this related to the G-sensor setting? The G-sensor is set to low and I am on firmware 1.06.180528s. Besides cluttering up the emergency videos tab I'm assuming these recordings will not be overwritten so eventually the memory card will fill up and need to be reformatted.

Just wondering if this is expected behavior or if anyone is experiencing the same issue.

 

[estore009]

These video clips will be stored in the emergency folder: Manually locked files + Automatically locked files by G-sensor impact. These files cannot be overwritten by normal video recordings!

 

[estore009]

Is this related to the G-sensor setting?

Suggest G-sensor level Middle

Besides cluttering up the emergency videos tab I'm assuming these recordings will not be overwritten so eventually the memory card will fill up and need to be reformatted.

The oldest video clip will be overwritten by the next event video clip also when the emergency folder was full!

 

[kamkar]

I find low G sensor are fine for my B1W, trigger rare during driving, and testing it while car was stationary kicking the rear steel wheel as hard as you can wearing snickers i got a event too.
Sound like:
1: American roads are worse then Danish roads, though our roads now are at a all time bad.
2: Maybe a car with a sport suspension or "euro" low profile wheels that i assume can make a ride harder ( never gone down that road myself ) i drive a tiny cheap Suzuki car with stock wheels.

As estore say the B1W set aside a part of the available storage for events, and will recycle event footage within that memory segment just like regular driving files do on the rest of the memory card.
So full event segment or not you still only have so much of the memory card for regular files. and if the events are full you should still be able to easy find what you look for by the time/date names on the individual files.

PS: i cant recall what firmware i am on with my B1W that i use for cabin camera mounted on the mirror stalk.

 

[fanatic22b]

Suggest G-sensor level Middle

Is this more sensitive or less sensitive than the low setting?

Sound like:
1: American roads are worse then Danish roads, though our roads now are at a all time bad.
2: Maybe a car with a sport suspension or "euro" low profile wheels that i assume can make a ride harder ( never gone down that road myself ) i drive a tiny cheap Suzuki car with stock wheels.

You are right that the roads aren't the best around here and I do have a sportier car, so my guess was that the g-sensor was triggering an event and therefore saving the files. Honestly, I'd prefer to not have recordings saved at all except by hitting save button, but I do intend to hard wire the cam in the future to have parking mode enabled with the g-sensor.

 

[kamkar]

Low are the least sensitive setting for the G sensor, sadly the camera don't allow for the owner to enter custom trigger values like it was a option with my lukas way back in the day, and sorely needed with that camera as even low would see me trigger it just by starting to drive in my 3 cyl 65 HP little car.
you can always disable the G sensor with the app, but i think you also disable the option to use it for parking mode too.
I was given the B1W by the maker to test back in the day, and i haven't really messed with it for a while as it is rock steady and just sit there and do its thing.
So i cant recall what options it have in the settings.
Even the unusual long and warm summer of 2018 did not make a dent in the B1W.

In general i don't use G sensor while driving, but that is what i would use for parking mode, that or time lapse recording which more and more cameras seem to have as their main parking mode.
For driving i don't see a reason to use it, i have a button i can press, and if it is bad and i get knocked out, rescuers ( public or actual paramedics ) should turn off the car as one of the first things, so the 64 GB i have for each camera or channel in my car are plenty even in worst case.
My little sister and my one friend have been told to go retrieve the 8 or so memory cards in my car if i get hospitalized in a bad crash.

At home i have CCTV on my car parked in the yard behind the apartment block, so i really just need parking guard for the 30 or so minutes i am parked while shopping, so when i do get to try parking mode with a camera i will also use the timed cut off as i have no use for hours of parking guard.
The battery in my car, match the cars little size in general so i doubt it will last long, also the car was new in 2012 so already have a few years of usage.

 

[SawMaster]

Mine works excellently on medium in the minivan, but my workvan would need low or off with the rotten roads we have here. Each cam design is different with this, and to a lesser degree each cam differs some as well. It's a know problem with all dashcams and if yours works at all you're not doing bad. By design you've got a chance for that with the B1W.

30% of the card space is reserved for locked files only with this cam, and it does not overwrite those files. The effect is less regular recording time than you might expect and the chance that locked files will be full when you need a saved recording the most, although you should still have that moment on regular recordings till it's over-written. So you do need to format the card regularly with this cam, with that timeframe being based on your card size and g-sensor functioning. Occasionally a few users (including myself) have experienced anomalous cam functioning when the locked files filled which makes the regular formatting even more important. Every cam has quirks, but this one has fewer than usual and they're not hard to manage. There's never going to be a perfect dashcam but I still wouldn't trade my B1W for any cam at twice the price which is more than I can say for the rest of the cams I have!

Phil

 

[fanatic22b]

I'm still happy overall with the B1W, especially for the cost, but it looks like I'll just have to switch the g-sensor off for now and not worry about parking mode. Maybe in the future they can figure out a way to have a g-sensor setting while in motion and while parked.

 

[SawMaster]

@estore009 can verify, but I think that g-sensor setting must be the same while driving and parked. There are some alternative factory firmwares for parking mode which you can find out more about HERE which might interest you. You do need the correct hardwire kit for them but it's cheap enough.

Phil

 

[Lloyd71]

I'm having the exact same issue. I've been using the camera for 4 days now and so far about half of my recordings have gone to the emergency folder, including some where I've been in slow moving traffic barely moving and it's decided to lock the file. I'm already discussing this with estore009 on Reddit but I'm very close to returning it and getting something else. Either that or I need to turn the g-sensor off completely.

Are you also hearing the "lock file" voice callout every 3 minutes like I am?

EDIT: After reviewing more of the footage it definitely appears to be the g-sensor being too sensitive that is causing problems. The clips where I'm in traffic have been saved as I've run over a pothole while moving forwards and it was enough to set the sensor off. With the 30% capacity set it was overwriting the files I actually wanted to save making me think they hadn't been recorded.

 

[kamkar]

Maybe they can tweak the firmware a little so the current low are medium and then have a even less sensitive setting.
Or maybe just a firmware where G sensor only work while parked.
I was out on a drive yesterday and parts of it was down a washboard dirt road, and i was amazed to not hear the B1W save a single event, not least that one time where my right wheels really hit a hole.

 

[kamkar]

And just to prove the G sensor are indeed on, here is me blasting thru a round about at a higher than necessary speed, though i have at admit i was amazed in triggered cuz this round about i can go thru faster than what i did here.

O and that uttering of mine i say "foghead" cuz thats my nickname to people that drive with their fog lights on ( illegally ) cuz they think it look cool with 4 headlights, just like many new cars do due to their really bright "position lights as we call them" so their older car dont have those bright LED's, so they put on fog light instead.

 

[Lloyd71]

I switched my g-sensor off completely last night and drove home; no locked files. So it was definitely the over sensitive g-sensor causing my issues. It was already set to "low", so it amazes me that something as simple as driving over a pothole or even, in one case I had, closing the boot can set off the sensor and lock the file.

I'm lucky that I can leave the sensor off as I'm not bothered by the parking mode as my car is barely worth anything but I imagine this is very frustrating for those of you who want to keep using parking mode.

 

[kamkar]

On my lukas just setting off or braking nice and easy set off a event, and that on low too, so pretty much all of my 45 minute commutes was in the event folder.
After tweaking the values as you could on that camera i was down to 1 or 2 events for the same drive.

I always think these triggers and events should be confined to parking only, the camera record all the time anyway when driving so everything are recorded, it would only be if you drive extremely much and / or have a really small memory card that you might run into some issues if you had a event.
you can always stop your camera recording if you had a little fender bender 15 minutes into your day long drive, sure that will leave you with no footage for the rest of the drive, but that's still better than loosing your documentation.
you can also move event to phone on a wifi devise or if you can move memory card to phone and make a copy, or swap in a new memory card if you like many of us in here have a spare in the car.

When i get events on the B1W it is mostly like in the above footage where i also have some lateral forces going, if i just drive in a strait line it have to be a pretty severe pothole or speed bump to set off a event.

 

[Nigel]

And just to prove the G sensor are indeed on, here is me blasting thru a round about at a higher than necessary speed, though i have at admit i was amazed in triggered cuz this round about i can go thru faster than what i did here.

O and that uttering of mine i say "foghead" cuz thats my nickname to people that drive with their fog lights on ( illegally ) cuz they think it look cool with 4 headlights, just like many new cars do due to their really bright "position lights as we call them" so their older car dont have those bright LED's, so they put on fog light instead.

It triggered then because you didn't drive around the roundabout, you drove over it! Here, that would be illegal unless you are driving an HGV that has no choice but to cross the white inner circle line. Mine rarely triggers, except every time I go over a cattle grid.

 

[kamkar]

Hehe yeah i cut roundabouts hard when there are no other traffic around funny thing going the other direction there it is a drain grate just beside the curb that trigger a event, also i think going the other direction i go even faster thru it at times.
I don't think the Danish traffic code prohibit me from going on the inside part of the circle, but it are mainly there to give the trucks a better chance of going around smaller traffic circles.

I always play nice when other cars are around, but leave me alone and i can still get a bit wild.