SG9663DC with external waterproof rear cam.

[cameo]

The way it was described with lockups frozen behavior it sounds like a bad connection to the rear camera or faulty memory card. Did you add the included long black shielded sticker wraps around the connectors to the rear camera in the back? (shields against EMI) Test with the rear camera cable left unplugged for a while and see what the results are in single-channel mode. Test with another memory card as another confirmation test. If you're using the 3-wire hardwire kit, it could be sub-optimal fuse slots were chosen for ACC/BAT wires. CANbus causes havoc like that if wrong ones were used. If you have 3-wire SGDCHW hooked up let us know your year make model vehicle, and we can run it by our global installer for advice. Also confirm you are connected to a factory ground point. Start with all this and we can go from there.

Yes, I installed the rear camera cable in a supplied sleeve.
I don't have another memory card of a suitable size. After all, you shipped this unit with what was called "a high reliability card".
There were two working fuse set choices for a 3-wire connector kit as confirmed on Mustang forum. As described extensively earlier in this thread, I had to shave off the tabs from fuse connectors that you sent me because they were incompatible with Ford Mustang GT Convertible. In the process of trying to fit them, I ruined one set of possible fuse sockets in the the fuse board so I ended up using the other set. Again, there is back-and-forth between me and you about this issue at the beginning of this thread, as Street Guardian wasn't aware at the time that Ford used incompatible fuse sockets in some of its cars do to a leeway in the format. In the end modified connectors seemed to work - at least every time the unit experiences a fault, the power box pilot light is always on. (If you actually have the proper connectors that don't require modification and can send them to me, I would be grateful since it would eliminate one potential problem point.)

I will try to run the unite without the rear camera. Do you think a BIOS update would be useful?

 

[kamkar]

Yeah a high reliability card / endurance card, that is what i recommend these days as unlike not too many years ago these cards do not cost 5 X more then regular memory cards.
But that no matter the brand is still not a iron clad investment sadly, also why i recommend people to buy at a local source where they are fairly sure they can get a good RMA experience if needed, and the endurance cards do have warranty for in dashcam use which most regular memory cards do not have.

Years ago i had two brand 64GB cards die fast on me, this was back when U3 cards in that size cost more than a 256GB card do today, the one card i dident even get to fill one time, the other card barely filled up 2 times.
Fortunately the Amazon.de seller and the other card sold by and fulfilled by amazon was a pleasure to RMA, almost had new cards before i got to ship out broken cards.
And i have "just" gotten a 256GB Adata endurance card, but its read / write speeds was just 1/10 of what they was supposed to be, so i had to run over that card with sdformatter, which did also restore the speeds to what they was supposed to be.
Just go to prove that even right out of the blister pack you can run into problems that you should not really have.

As i recall SG also honor the warranty on the packaged memory cards, so people dont have to "fight" with the card brand on RMA.

A broken cable for the rear camera are not uncommon and a source for irregularities for sure, TBH i dont know why i have not experienced it myself, i have been using 2 channel systems for many years now, and cameras come and go in my car, so installing a new camera some times mean i have to deal with wires already there for a older camera, but so far i have not managed to mess any up.

But unplugging the rear camera in a 2 channel system having problems is a primary item in fault detection on dual channel systems.

A bios update or just re-flash of the same firmware you have will not harm, this have fixed a camera for me years ago, dunno what happened there but somehow the camera backed itself into a spot it could not get out off.
flashing same firmware fixed the problem then, and many subsequent newer firmware's never did the same in the following 2 years or so i used that camera.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

You’re already on the latest firmware 1.49 for the SG9663DC
Test with rear camera unplugged first.
There is no compatible fuse tap, still needs to be shaved down a bit for select vehicles. It fits 90-95% all other vehicles.

 

[kamkar]

The shaving of the fuse tabs i think are unique to a select bunch of US made cars, i cant recall hearing that was needed on any EURO or JAP cars.

 

[cameo]

You’re already on the latest firmware 1.49 for the SG9663DC
Test with rear camera unplugged first.
There is no compatible fuse tap, still needs to be shaved down a bit for select vehicles. It fits 90-95% all other vehicles.

Starting the car with the rear camera disconnected worked. I plugged it back in after the unit booted. Thank you!
But what is it indicative off and is there a more permanent solution behind the symptoms?

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Sounds like it was a bad connection. Keep monitoring.

 

[cameo]

Sounds like it was a bad connection. Keep monitoring.

I will. (Working from home kind of limits the experimentation and saves the environment. )

 

[cameo]

So the the problem continues to happen. I am speculating that there is more that one cause behind them. Though disconnecting the rear cam and then plugging it back fixed the issue on several occasions, on others it did not. I ended up pulling the black voltage regulator box from under the carpet. While I twisted it, it the light went off a few times resulting in the unit restart. But time and again it was impossible to figure out the specific position at which disconnection occurred. An obvious conclusion would be that the problem is due to loose fuse box connectors, but they seem to be sitting pretty tightly in their sockets. So I taped the fuse connector wires to the car's carper at the end that closer to the fuse box, so that any wiggling of wires would occur at the wire ends closer to the voltage regulator. And I observed several times as I was driving the pilot light on the regulator momentarily go off causing the dashcam to restart. Could the voltage regulator be damaged? Street Guardian, could you send me another regulator to test? Aside from that, I see only one alternative - to buy a set of fuses and to solder wires to them, but since current shaved fuse connectors seem to sit tightly in their sockets, I would like to test with a replaced voltage regulator first.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Send a private message or email with your details. Is this the the included 2-wire cigarette power supply or 3-wire SGDCHW hardwire kit?

 

[cameo]

Send a private message or email with your details. Is this the the included 2-wire cigarette power supply or 3-wire SGDCHW hardwire kit?

Three-wire hardware kit for which I had to shave connector tabs.

Should I send the email with details to support@streetguardian.cam?

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Yes that works email that or send a private message here.

Please confirm you’ve also tested with the original 2-wire cigarette power adapter as well. Long press and continuously hold down the power button again. That will confirm or rule out the SGDCHW 3-wire power supply being the cause.

 

[cameo]

Yes that works email that or send a private message here.

Please confirm you’ve also tested with the original 2-wire cigarette power adapter as well. Long press and continuously hold down the power button again. That will confirm or rule out the SGDCHW 3-wire power supply being the cause.

I'll do it, but it's still possible that there is something wrong with rear external camera connection in addition to the power supply. Intermittent problems are the hardest to troubleshoot.

 

[cameo]

So yesterday I made a 4 leg trip, with each leg lasting about 15 minutes. During the first 3 legs the car was shut off for about 5 minutes in between. Before the 4th leg, the car was shut off for about 3 hours. The cam functioned as expected during first two legs. During the third leg it restarted once. During the 4th leg it never turned on. I pulled out the rear cam cable and reinserted it without shutting down the car to no effect. During this time the pilot light on the power supply staid on. I made the video of the cam and power adaptor after I arrived at my garage with the engine still running and have just uploaded it to your file server. Please let me know if you can make any conclusions from it.

 

[cameo]

Street Guardian has sent me a replacement main unit and a three-wire adaptor. While I am waiting to receive them, I'll be posting what I learn during various trouble-shooting steps that I am taking to identify the root cause.

At this point I am testing the unit with rear cam disconnected. The unit manifested a new behavior yesterday on Saturday. There were no issues on Friday. So on Saturday morning I am starting the car. I have previously puled the three-wire adaptor from under car upholstering on the passenger side so that I can observe it. The light on the three-wire adaptor turns up and then turns down before the unit has a chance to boot. My girlfriend moves three-wire adaptor with her foot, but the light doesn't come up. We drive somewhere for 30 minutes with the unit still off, leave the car for 2.5 hours, come back and start the car. This time three-wire adaptor pilot light stays on and the unit boots normally. Then in the middle of the trip back home the system reboots. Since I was driving, I was only aware of the main unit rebooting, but my girlfriend told me that she saw the pilot light on the three-wire adaptor go off and back on.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

A new replacement camera and 3-wire power supply is on the way to help troubleshoot faster.

 

[cameo]

Upon receiving a new kit I realized something crucial that I have forgotten. The fact that the 3-wire kit voltage regulator box was not designed to be disconnected from the cable that feeds power to the camera. Since I have glued this power cable along with the rear camera cable under the windshield's rubber lip, I wasn't too keen on the idea of having to replace it. So I took off the fuse box cover and kept twisting the cables until I identified one of the the two fuse box connectors which was making the pilot light on the voltage regulator go on and off. It turned out that while that fuse connector seemed to sit firmly inside the fuse socket, one end of it wasn't fully pushed into the socket causing an OCCASIONAL disconnect. Because the rear camera was one of the suspects on the list of malfunction contributors, I was testing without it being plugged into the main camera unit. So at that point I plugged it back in and hoped for the best. During the next few days with a limited amount of driving that I did, I didn't notice any issues. But last night I drove somewhere, left the car for 15 minutes, came back to it and headed back home. In about 2 minutes after I started the car, I realized that the front camera unit came alight with a live feed. First I thought that the unit has rebooted again due to a disconnection or some other fault. But then I realized that I didn't hear the usual booting sound before it lit up and that I also didn't hear the booting sound when I started the car. Could it be because turning the car off for 15 minutes resulted in unit not shutting down? I think it was set for 30 minutes of monitoring after the car engine is shut off. That would explain why there was no booting sequence when the car has been restarted 15 minutes after. The camera would still be in the recording mode with red light slowly flushing. But why would the unit suddenly begin to show life video feed two minutes into the driving rather than continue flashing red? Just to be clear - this was tested with old hardware.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Sounds like you figured it out so far. I'd still connect the new replacement parts if you haven't done so yet, you mentioned the test was with the old hardware. If you don't see any gaps in the recording the screen turning on briefly isn't a problem but not very common to see.

 

[cameo]

Sounds like you figured it out so far. I'd still connect the new replacement parts if you haven't done so yet, you mentioned the test was with the old hardware. If you don't see any gaps in the recording the screen turning on briefly isn't a problem but not very common to see.

Replacing the power cable would mean having to rip the old cable from under the windshield lip. This is not something that I want to do. If I suspected that the black voltage regulator was at fault, I would probably try to cut it from the cable and connect the one that you have send me. Hopefully, this is not the case. I will continue to test for another two weeks as I do very little driving these days. If I discover problems, I will replace the old camera unit with the one that you sent me and continue testing with it. After I am done, I am going to send the parts back.

 

[cameo]

Street Guardian - you have recommended that I test with the replacement camera that you have sent me. If the problem turns out entirely due to poor fuse connector and everything works with old camera, do you still recommend that I keep the new camera and send you back the old one? Have there been any updates to the hardware? Do these units age rapidly enough so that the replacement unit would have longer remaining service time? Thank you.

 

[kamkar]

The waterproof cameras are pretty new, so it is a virgin market so to say, but if the waterproofing is up to par i cant see why they should fail earlier.
My personal feeling towards the outside cameras is that frequent car wash could damage / scratch the lens and so the image quality, so it would have to be pretty bad if i was to resort to a outside mounted camera.
It is plenty just seeing my windscreen, and even rear window on a 2012 car, which look as if someone have been sandblasting near my car and shown very little care.