Reviewing and Testing the 3-ch Viofo A329T

Hack_man said:
I asked Viofo in this post
sadly the answer was no
Click to expand...

Ooops, I did get around to testing that (I have 2 bluetooth remotes), and reached the very same conclusion. I was skeptical from the start, but wanted to try anyhow...
 
EricSan said:
…boots that cover the alligator clips on the supplied test leads to be ENORMOUSLY slippery,
Click to expand...
YES!! I thought the very same….
I think it’s some kind of rubberised form of Teflon until now otherwise unknown to mankind…! 🤣

I was thinking to get the Fluke clips, they look good (and I’m sure are good), but they were part of one of their Lead accessory sets…and were about as expensive as some of their base multimeters…!
I probably will at some point, but can wait for now….
 
LeeShadow said:
the boots on the clips are also annoyingly slippery. I removed the one on the tester I use most often and am just careful not to let the clip touch anything other than my ground point when in use.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I want to remove both of the boots because they are terrible, but I can't find a suitable replacement yet. Using uninsulated boots is just not an option for me, it's far too easy for the leads to contact one another and cause problems. With a 300w power supply, that's a recipe for disaster...
 
EricSan said:
Ooops, I did get around to testing that (I have 2 bluetooth remotes), and reached the very same conclusion. I was skeptical from the start, but wanted to try anyhow...
Click to expand...
Yes, was going to chase up if you had tested or not….
But as @Hack_man has confirmed, it seems not….Shame.
 
EricSan said:
Yeah, I want to remove both of the boots because they are terrible, but I can't find a suitable replacement yet. Using uninsulated boots is just not an option for me, it's far too easy for the leads to contact one another and cause problems. With a 300w power supply, that's a recipe for disaster...
Click to expand...
How about some large diameter heat-shrink tube, placed half way back over the clip and then partially shrink down….Might work, as long as there’s not too much shrink force to impede the action of the clip mech……?
 
Finnegan said:
Can you please point to the method used to obtain this data? Or is it only available through a
separate supply battery? I have the A329S 3CH and HK6.
Click to expand...

The voltage measurements that I posted above are two separate screen caps that I combined into a single graphic image for comparison purposes. The image on the left from the new Viofo App (in the app store) combined with the HK6 hardwire kit. The newer app is quite a re-write of the code, it's 96MB in size, the "original" Viofo app is only 32MB in size.

The image on the right hand side is from the battery management system in my DIY LTO parking battery.

If you want to compare in your own car, you can use a DMM to directly measure your car's battery and compare to what the HK6 + new Viofo app reports.
 
SC@AU said:
Yes, was going to chase up if you had tested or not….
But as @Hack_man has confirmed, it seems not….Shame.
Click to expand...
I was planning to use a second BTR-200 located inside my garage to automatically detect the presence of my car and Turn OFF the A229 Pro when I get home. That way I wouldn't have to hit the Power OFF button from the BTR-200 mounted in my car (yea lazy!).

It would have required a trigger circuit interfaced with BTR-200 but also requires the ability to pair two remotes to the camera. Unless of course I eliminate the one from my car.

And I would have earned my "Hack_man" designation 🙂
 
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Hack_man said:
I was planning to use a second BTR-200 located inside my garage to automatically detect the presence of my car and Turn OFF the A229 Pro when I get home. That way I wouldn't have to hit the Power OFF button from the BTR-200 mounted in my car (yea lazy!).

It would have required a trigger circuit interfaced with BTR-200 but also requires the ability to pair two remotes to the camera. Unless of course I eliminate the one from my car.
Click to expand...
Hopefully the upcoming Geofencing setting will serve this function for you instead…?

Still think it would be nice to have x2 remotes linked though…Just think the programmable side buttons are incredibly useful….
 
Hmmm I'll have to look into that Geofencing idea.
It's a shame the bluetooth remote does not support pairing two devices. The latest protocol does support it.
I can communicate via Bluetooth with my Powercell 8 Battery pack from multiple iPhones.
 
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Agree that a single BT remote that can control more than one cam would be a useful option for those in that situation. I currently have an A329TC setup in front and use my original A329 as my rear cam. I have two BT remotes on the dash immediately to the right of my steering wheel column and they are small enough that having two doesn't bother me. Also, there's a potential advantage with separate remotes in allowing different selections for the two side buttons.
 
EricSan said:
At some point, I had calibrated the BMS reported voltage to match my DMM, so I'm assuming the HK6 is a pinch off. I need to double check again with my meter tonight. I have the capability to measure the direct output of my LTO battery pack that feeds the HK6.
Click to expand...

I double checked the actual voltage output of my LTO parking battery and compared it to the voltage reported by the BMS in my LTO battery pack. The voltage reported by my BMS matches the actual output voltage of the parking battery while the engine is off. I didn't compare again while the engine is running, I'll get to that on another day.

My previous measurement (Post #77) showed the HK6 reports a voltage level that is high by 0.12v. This seems to be the same 0.12v error level when the HK6 turns off the camera when I was powering it with my bench top power supply as shown in Post #66 above.

Today, I compared again the voltage reading made by the HK6 to the actual voltage level of my parking battery and found that the HK6 regulator is reporting a voltage level that is high by 0.08v.
 
I made a few more videos last night and looking through them, I found it amusing to come across this capture with the 4x Telephoto lens: Not only can I read the plate on the Honda directly in front of me, the plate of the NEXT car up is clearly visible, too! Pretty cool! 👍

A329T Full Frame Night.webp
 
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Here are three captures along the same street as I was moving about 20-25mph. This is the entire frame as captured by the A329 camera along with two inserts.

The smaller insert is a 300% zoom from the A329 main 4k camera and the larger insert is a 300% zoom (reduced in size a bit) from the 4x telephoto 2k camera.

In all cases, I selected the single best frame from the video stream which resulted in both cameras capturing a completely readable plate number, even the state is clearly discernible! Overall lighting for the scene looks pretty good as well. These are great results from a high contrast situation involving a substantial speed differential.

A329T 4k main camera, HDR enabled, polarizer lens installed on both cameras:
A329 #1 7p Full Frame Insert.webp



A329T 4k main camera, HDR enabled, polarizer lens installed on both cameras:
A329 #2 7p Full Frame Insert.webp



A329T 4k main camera, HDR enabled, polarizer lens installed on both cameras:
A329 #3 Full Frame Inserts.webp
 
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Also want to say that I REALLY appreciate the linearity of the front telephoto lens. Check out the left and right edges of this screen capture (it's a bit squished due to my screen resolution). Vertical portions of buildings on the left and the downspout on the right are perfect. There is no visible pincushion effect or barrel distortion at all. The roof line on the building on the right is also nice and straight with no curvature. This is very nice geometry for the 4x telephoto lens!

Tele Linearity.webp
 
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EricSan said:
Also want to say that I REALLY appreciate the linearity of the front telephoto lens. Check out the left and right edges of this screen capture (it's a bit squished due to my screen resolution). Vertical portions of buildings on the left and the downspout on the right are perfect. There is no visible pincushion effect or barrel distortion at all. The roof line on the building on the right is also nice and straight with no curvature. This is very nice geometry for the 4x telephoto lens!

View attachment 87175
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What is the resolution in camera settings?
 
Telephoto lens resolution setting is 2K 16:9 2560x1440. Confirmed file resolution and aspect ratio with MediaInfo app. The problem is my laptop screen resolution maxes out at 1920x1200. I need to get a 4k display for my desktop computer...
 
EricSan said:
Also want to say that I REALLY appreciate the linearity of the front telephoto lens. Check out the left and right edges of this screen capture (it's a bit squished due to my screen resolution). Vertical portions of buildings on the left and the downspout on the right are perfect. There is no visible pincushion effect or barrel distortion at all. The roof line on the building on the right is also nice and straight with no curvature. This is very nice geometry for the 4x telephoto lens!

View attachment 87175
Click to expand...
ogzogz said:
What is the resolution in camera settings?
Click to expand...
EricSan said:
Telephoto lens resolution setting is 2K 16:9 2560x1440. Confirmed file resolution and aspect ratio with MediaInfo app. The problem is my laptop screen resolution maxes out at 1920x1200. I need to get a 4k display for my desktop computer...
Click to expand...


As I understand it, the resolution, previously 4K 21:9 + 2K (telephoto) 21:9, was later updated or added to 4K 21:9 + 2K (telephoto or rear) 16:9.

@EricSan
In the telephoto view you shared above, I see that the cropped area is actually 21:9. However, the frame was saved as 16:9.

In short, the cropped area is not 16:9. I see that it was cropped to 21:9 and then stretched and expanded to 16:9, which is why the vehicles appear narrower than their actual size.
1762236605674-01.webp


@viofo @VIOFO-Support
This is a bug and needs to be fixed.
 

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ogzogz said:
As I understand it, the resolution, previously 4K 21:9 + 2K (telephoto) 21:9, was later updated or added to 4K 21:9 + 2K (telephoto or rear) 16:9.

@EricSan
In the telephoto view you shared above, I see that the cropped area is actually 21:9. However, the frame was saved as 16:9.

In short, the cropped area is not 16:9. I see that it was cropped to 21:9 and then stretched and expanded to 16:9, which is why the vehicles appear narrower than their actual size.

@viofo @VIOFO-Support
This is a bug and needs to be fixed.
Click to expand...
Yes, I mentioned this in the Beta v2.0 firmware thread.
speedingcheetah

Post in thread 'V2.0 Firmware for Public Testing'

Updated my A329T 3CH. and Downloaded the new VIOFO app for iOS.

Observations.

The new Resolution setting (4K 21:9 +2K 16:9 + 2K 16:9) only shows on the camera, not in the app.

This setting is not implemented properly.
The front cam is proper 21:9 crop, BUT, the Tele and Rear is also 21:9, but the cam is stretching it vertical to be 16:9, so it highly distorts/squishes the picture.
EDIT: Confirmed. I used MKVtoolnix to set the video metadata to aspect ratio of 21:9, and the remuxed 16:9 video is proper 21:9 cropped look.

The cam factory reset to Setup prompts after rebooting after...
  • Like

speedingcheetah

Post in thread 'V2.0 Firmware for Public Testing'

speedingcheetah said:
The new Resolution setting (4K 21:9 +2K 16:9 + 2K 16:9) only shows on the camera, not in the app.

This setting is not implemented properly.
The front cam is proper 21:9 crop, BUT, the Tele and Rear is also 21:9, but the cam is stretching it vertical to be 16:9, so it highly distorts/squishes the picture.
EDIT: Confirmed. I used MKVtoolnix to set the video metadata to aspect ratio of 21:9, and the remuxed 16:9 video is proper 21:9 cropped look.
Click to expand...

This is rather useless a setting if implemented this way.
It is not what i had asked for.

The cams are still cropping to 21:9, image is...
  • Like
 
speedingcheetah said:
Yes, I mentioned this in the Beta v2.0 firmware thread.
speedingcheetah

Post in thread 'V2.0 Firmware for Public Testing'

Updated my A329T 3CH. and Downloaded the new VIOFO app for iOS.

Observations.

The new Resolution setting (4K 21:9 +2K 16:9 + 2K 16:9) only shows on the camera, not in the app.

This setting is not implemented properly.
The front cam is proper 21:9 crop, BUT, the Tele and Rear is also 21:9, but the cam is stretching it vertical to be 16:9, so it highly distorts/squishes the picture.
EDIT: Confirmed. I used MKVtoolnix to set the video metadata to aspect ratio of 21:9, and the remuxed 16:9 video is proper 21:9 cropped look.

The cam factory reset to Setup prompts after rebooting after...
  • Like

speedingcheetah

Post in thread 'V2.0 Firmware for Public Testing'

speedingcheetah said:
The new Resolution setting (4K 21:9 +2K 16:9 + 2K 16:9) only shows on the camera, not in the app.

This setting is not implemented properly.
The front cam is proper 21:9 crop, BUT, the Tele and Rear is also 21:9, but the cam is stretching it vertical to be 16:9, so it highly distorts/squishes the picture.
EDIT: Confirmed. I used MKVtoolnix to set the video metadata to aspect ratio of 21:9, and the remuxed 16:9 video is proper 21:9 cropped look.
Click to expand...

This is rather useless a setting if implemented this way.
It is not what i had asked for.

The cams are still cropping to 21:9, image is...
  • Like
Click to expand...

I noticed this years ago in another model. Unfortunately, such errors can go unnoticed. It's possible that you noticed them later.
 
Ah, I was assuming this was an artifact of my screen resolution... I need to keep up with the other threads a bit better. Most of the time, I barely have time to add to my own thread 😉
 
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