Screen freeze issue on 2.4 firmware

[ajw1100]

You probably know this but be sure to press the "!" emergency/confirm button to change the menu selection once selected. Pressing the Menu button to exit the menu does not change the setting.

I thought I had but will make sure of positive push in future!

it's a simple USB multimeter. I provide the link because it's related to the picture and there are tons of them available, I have one connected in my car and another one at home. useful to find out exactly how much power your USB devices draw, and under different conditions, like at home from a wall/phone charger, or in a car.

Thanks, I'd never come across one before, one will be ordered ASAP!

Yeah, I have some cheap short USB cables that cause power cycling on the A119 series cameras, but seem fine with other brands.

Everything you guys have said and what I have experienced all point to a lack of power problem. When you have 4 power supplies available; my car and its 5v usb, a 1.0 amp phone charger, two 12v to 5v adapters one 2.0amp and the other 3.1amp, the supplied leads and others but nothing seems to work gives the impression the fault is either the camera or software/firmware as the chances of all 4 power sources failing is very small. The card tested, formatted and structure verified and up until the split screen error was working for months without any problems all pointed to a camera or setup error.

I will order the volt checker and see what the actual output of each adapter is.

Ordered, should arrive sometime next week, will check volts and report back. Thanks for all your very helpful advice.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Have you ever opened the camera to check that the capacitors are OK? If they are bulging on the bottom, they are junk. One bad capacitor could cause power cycling.

 

[5Cowbells]

Everything you guys have said and what I have experienced all point to a lack of power problem. When you have 4 power supplies available; my car and its 5v usb, a 1.0 amp phone charger, two 12v to 5v adapters one 2.0amp and the other 3.1amp, the supplied leads and others but nothing seems to work gives the impression the fault is either the camera or software/firmware as the chances of all 4 power sources failing is very small.

Agree. Seems like you've tried everything within your available resources without spending money (always the last option for me). It may be time to contact your seller to start the return process for the whole camera. He may want you to try some things or send you new cables or something. Meantime, you can continue troubleshooting if you wish until we run out of ideas or you run out of patience. Be sure your screensaver is set to OFF when testing so that the screen stays on all of the time that the camera is operating.

So can you confirm that your current status is - that when you power up the camera, the red RCD button light comes on, then in a few seconds the Viofo logo appears for 1 second and you hear the startup sound, then the full screen live picture appears on the screen, red dot on the screen begins blinking indicating recording has started, then a few seconds later the screen goes out and the whole process repeats...on and on? A normal boot up takes about 10 seconds from power applied to recording.

And confirm this happens regardless of the cable and cig adapter configuration in use?

If you pull power when the live picture first comes up on the screen first, how long does the red REC button light stay ON? This is related to CYA's question about the capacitors. I would get permission from the seller before opening the case so as not to void the warranty.

 

[ajw1100]

I gave up on everything I had tried and left the camera sitting in its box until my new power tester arrived.

Well, my new USB power tester arrived today. Rigged up my 12v power unit and plugged the camera into the tester and the tester to my 12v supply. The running voltage varied between 4.95 and 5.04v current 0.25~0.46. The camera booted up as usual but this time it did not keep cycling . I left it running for around 5 minutes then turned off the Rec and hit Menu, changed the date and time and a couple of other settings then saved them. Camera kept recording with corrected Date & Time. I then removed the tester from the circuit and started it up again. Again it worked as it should which I am delighted with but am wondering what was the cause of the failure and problems earlier were. When I shut it down a few days ago it was giving me all sorts of errors, now perfect.
I removed the card and checked the recordings, todays were fine, both movie and photo. However the ones taken on the last attempt a few days ago were all corrupted.

So, while it sat quietly in its box the VIOFO Fairy Godmother came down with her magic wand and removed the nasty witches spell. Nope, I don't believe it either but I cannot come up with a better answer.

In case you were wondering I have not taken it apart to check the capacitors.
I will put it back in the car tomorrow and see if it is still behaving itself, fingers crossed......

 

[borik]

Well, my new USB power tester arrived today.

which one did you get?

 

[5Cowbells]

So, while it sat quietly in its box the VIOFO Fairy Godmother came down with her magic wand and removed the nasty witches spell. Nope, I don't believe it either but I cannot come up with a better answer.

Could be an connector or cable issue, intermittent problems are the worst. At least you know the camera and microSD card will function at times, a good starting point.

When convenient, please check the time it takes for the red REC button light to go out after disconnecting power. This may give a clue about the state of your capacitors. FWIW, I timed my working A119S at 6-7 seconds..

 

[borik]

Could be an connector or cable issue, intermittent problems are the worst. At least you know the camera and microSD card will function at times, a good starting point. .

could be something else. I recommended @ajw1100 to get a multimeter for a reason, details below.
I got some pictures of that multimeter connected to my Bestek 3-socket adapter and each of the 2-ports adapters I have connected to a Bestek. I drove today for about 40 minutes 5 hours ago, outside is ~70F. I connected a multimeter to each adapter right after I started the engine and kept it connected for about 5 seconds while taking pictures. the pictures below are in the order taken and it took under a minute to get 7 pictures (took 2 doubles), I started from the left to the right and then back to the left:
on the first picture a multimeter connected to a 2-port adapter that came with A119 camera:



on the second picture the multimeter connected to a RAVPower iSmart 2-port x 2.4A 24W adapter:



a second reading from iSmart adapter:



and the last reading from the original Viofo adapter:


within a minute after the engine start a voltage on the original Viofo adapter increased from 5.15v to 5.23v, and on a iSmart adapter from 5.20v to 5.23v. the voltage on both adapters ended at 5.23v, but a minute ago the voltage was 0.08v - 0.03v lower when the engine just started.
I think the battery of my 2 years old car is in a pretty good shape therefore it took less then a minute for a car to figure out no charge for a battery needed.
if you have older or less charged battery it might take longer for a car to stabilize the voltage for any "extra" equipment, and if you get from an adapter only 5v (like my previous Bestek, that one provided exactly 5v on its USB ports, the "upgraded" version fixed the "problem"), for a couple of minutes you might get up to 1A less, that would be 4.9v for a camera during start up when it needs the most amperage (up to 0.76A on A119 Pro until Screen Saver turns the screen off) from a car and that would create a problem for a camera forcing it into a reboots which can damage SD card, for example - I had exactly this problem once with Samsung Evo+, it died right on an engine start (it was recording just fine about 1 hour ago and on the next engine start the first file got corrupted and the SD card went in to a "read only" mode).

 

[ajw1100]

which one did you get?

The name on the instructions and I use that word loosely, says it is a Powerjive.

Could be an connector or cable issue, intermittent problems are the worst. At least you know the camera and microSD card will function at times, a good starting point.

When convenient, please check the time it takes for the red REC button light to go out after disconnecting power. This may give a clue about the state of your capacitors. FWIW, I timed my working A119S at 6-7 seconds..

Just tried the 119S in the car, started up okay and record led came on fine, restarted it a couple of times without problems. The Powerjive stated USB output voltage as 5.19 off load and 5.08~5.10 with camera connected and running. I did not get a chance to check the record led time alight after disconnect but will check this later. I used the same cables today that worked fine as I did when I had the errors, it could well be a connector error so I will keep a daily drive check that the camera is working as it should.

I think the battery of my 2 years old car is in a pretty good shape therefore it took less then a minute for a car to figure out no charge for a battery needed.
if you have older or less charged battery it might take longer for a car to stabilize the voltage for any "extra" equipment, and if you get from an adapter only 5v (like my previous Bestek, that one provided exactly 5v on its USB ports, the "upgraded" version fixed the "problem"), for a couple of minutes you might get up to 1A less, that would be 4.9v for a camera during start up when it needs the most amperage (up to 0.76A on A119 Pro until Screen Saver turns the screen off) from a car and that would create a problem for a camera forcing it into a reboots which can damage SD card, for example - I had exactly this problem once with Samsung Evo+, it died right on an engine start (it was recording just fine about 1 hour ago and on the next engine start the first file got corrupted and the SD card went in to a "read only" mode).

The battery in my car is 3.5 years old but seems to be fine, my Micro Sd card is a 64gb Samsung Evo+ but it has not died so far even with the number of formats and FW install over the last week!

 

[ajw1100]

Camera working as it should today, when disconnected the red led stays on for about 6 seconds, that judged with counting one thousand, two thousand etc as I did not have my watch on!

All seems okay again so fingers crossed.....

Thank you all for all your help and suggestions, very much appreciated I can assure you!

 

[Mtz]

... a multimeter connected to a 2-port adapter that came with A119 camera:

Can you please post 4 pictures with your multimeter when it is connected to each port of the adapter?
- with free slots: 1 picture for left port and 1 picture for right port
- with one port connected to A119 which is recording, connect multimeter to the other port. Then reverse the A119 and the multimeter into the ports.
I am interested about Voltage and Ampers too.

Thanks!

 

[borik]

Can you please post 4 pictures with your multimeter when it is connected to each port of the adapter?
- with free slots: 1 picture for left port and 1 picture for right port
- with one port connected to A119 which is recording, connect multimeter to the other port. Then reverse the A119 and the multimeter into the ports.
I am interested about Voltage and Ampers too.

Thanks!

"here we go." (c)
each USB port of Viofo adapter connected directly to my car's cig lighter socket without any load gives 5.20v:
top USP port:



bottom USB port:



A119 camera (rear in this case) connected through a multimeter to my car's cig lighter socket, Screen Saver (3sec) On, that's the lowest voltage captured:



A119 recording from a top USB port of Viofo USB adapter connected to a Bestek adapter (should be the same as connected directly to a car's cig lighter socket), a multimeter connected to a lower USB port:



I didn't make the picture of A119 camera recording from the bottom USB port while having a multimeter connected to a top port (the result should be the same), but if you're interested I''ll make more pictures tomorrow.
I have 3 original Viofo USB adapters, two of them (by voltage) are the same while one provides lower voltage (5.07v in a car). since I have my cameras connected to Bestek's USB ports - no adapter fall out somewhere a highway.

 

[borik]

4 more pictures. I have a 12v power source at home and can test car's adapters. I plug those adapters into a (old) Bestek as they fit better in it.

original Viofo adapter, came with A119, this one provides the lowest voltage on both USB ports:



another original Viofo USB adapter that came with A119, I have 2 identical by voltage, keep one of them in a car:



this one came with A119 Pro and I just opened the plastic, this one has a very tight fit (the best fit of all the adapters I have) and a good voltage too:



and the last USB adapter with a display I have at home:



each USB adapter provides 0.05v less in a car than at home.
as you can see USB adapters are not made equal and provide a different voltage which may be very significant in a dash cam world.

 

[Mtz]

Thank you for the pictures. So the Ampers remain the same even if to the charger is connected another camera; which means in theory the adapter can work with 2 cameras and for sure it have no problem to charge a smartphone when the camera is On. The charger is rated as 3.1A as total output by 1.55A+1.55A. Some old post from @viofo contains the info that one port is 2.1A.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[borik]

So the Ampers remain the same even if to the charger is connected another camera; which means in theory the adapter can work with 2 cameras and for sure it have no problem to charge a smartphone when the camera is On.

correct. I will double check it by using 2 multimeters and 2 cameras connected to one Viofo adapter and post the picture.

The charger is rated as 3.1A as total output by 1.55A+1.55A. Some old post from @viofo contains the info that one port is 2.1A.

as I remember one port is 2.1A, another one 1.0A, but don't remember exactly which (top or bottom one) is 2.1A.
the only way for me to verify it is to connect one of my power banks I have to it for charging, when any of them about 50% charged, they take up to 1.97A during charging, unfortunately all my power banks are charged at >95%. just in case.

 

[borik]

more pictures.

multimeters without the cameras connected to a new Viofo adapter (came with A119 Pro). note a difference in reading between them of 0.03v.



A119 Pro = top multimeter = bottom USB port on Viofo old adapter (came with A119)
A119 = bottom multimeter = top USB port








both cameras connected to a new Viofo adapter that came with A119 Pro:







tried to capture the lowest and the highest voltage and amperage.

the Viofo old adapter in first 3 pictures used one of the best of 3 old adapters (1 of 2 with the highest voltage).
during cameras start and during recording the voltage may drop by 0.12v;
the voltage of the battery on an adapter with a display 14.8v.