SG9665GC Firmware Wishlist

[jokiin]

Not sure if it has been discussed before, but would it be possible to add timezone file support? Assuming it runs linux, that shouldn't be too difficult? I'm on US/Eastern time zone and in our day and age I don't see any reasons to keep manually adjusting daylight saving time two times a year.

-albertr

it's not practical to add an automated change just based on timezone as there are locations within the same timezones where one location supports daylight savings but the other does not which would mean having to split timezones and add a location function as well to know whether to accept or ignore the rule

 

[albertr]

Actually, the timezone definition file itself defines whether daylight saving time is applicable and if so, when it starts/ends. For instance, instead of selecting "+5:00" timezone offset from UTC for daylight saving time and then selecting "+4:00" for summer time (and repeating this process two times a year), I can select "US/Eastern" as my timezone and installer will copy the corresponding timezone file to /etc/localtime. This way linux os will automatically control daylight saving time for my timezone without any need for manual intervention.

-albertr

 

[albertr]

I think that change would align with SG concept of "set it and forget it" very nicely. And of course, if anyone likes to keep manually changing timezone offsets for daylight savings switches, you can keep the old "+5:00" and "+4:00" options available in the menu as well.

-albertr

 

[jokiin]

Actually, the timezone definition file itself defines whether daylight saving time is applicable and if so, when it starts/ends. For instance, instead of selecting "+5:00" timezone offset from UTC for daylight saving time and then selecting "+4:00" for summer time (and repeating this process two times a year), I can select "US/Eastern" as my timezone and installer will copy the corresponding timezone file to /etc/localtime. This way linux os will automatically control daylight saving time for my timezone without any need for manual intervention.

-albertr

yeah great for Linux, we don't have Linux though, would be nice to have as it's mind numbing how many people have no idea what timezone they are in and why there is an offset

 

[albertr]

Jokiin, out of curiosity mind if I ask which OS it's running? All the dashcams I was using before were running some flavors of embedded linux...

-albertr

 

[DT MI]

Jokiin, out of curiosity mind if I ask which OS it's running? All the dashcams I was using before were running some flavors of embedded linux...

-albertr

Just an FYI if you want to insure that someone gets an alert when you address them do it like this - @jokiin

 

[jokiin]

it's not an open source OS

 

[albertr]

I'm not familiar with Novatek, are you saying that their SDK is not using linux kernel? Which OS they are using then?

-albertr

 

[albertr]

Found the following boot log from Novatek camera (not the same as SG, but the same SOC and SDK platform). Ouch! So I guess timezone support might be a wishful thinking...

http://www.chucklohr.com/808/C20/

-albertr

 

[jokiin]

So I guess timezone support might be a wishful thinking...

if we could add it that easily we would

 

[albertr]

Ok, I've got an idea.. How about the following? Add a long press event to some button (i.e. 2 seconds or longer). If pressed once, it will switch camera to daylight saving mode (subtract one hour from current UTC offset) and display additional symbol on a screen (let's say "D") to indicate daylight saving time). Press it again and it will return to regular UTC offset and turn off "D" indicator on display. What do you think?

-albertr

 

[jokiin]

What do you think?

I like that you think outside the box, however, this would probably be too easy for someone to change the setting without noticing, it's also a lot of work just to save people entering the menu twice a year

 

[Deacon]

I admit it's a little shocking that GPS units stuck to windshields 15 years ago could figure out what time it was wherever I went in the world but a dash cam with GPS updated for 2017 can't. I'm guessing future products will probably use more modern (or rather "advanced" processors) which might address many of those. Oh well, hopefully the change is quick and easy through the menu

 

[jokiin]

I admit it's a little shocking that GPS units stuck to windshields 15 years ago could figure out what time it was wherever I went in the world but a dash cam with GPS updated for 2017 can't. I'm guessing future products will probably use more modern (or rather "advanced" processors) which might address many of those. Oh well, hopefully the change is quick and easy through the menu

the GPS data used is basically just location co-ordinates and UTC time, a GPS navigation device knows where you are as it also has its own map data overlay and it's much easier to just code in which locations are in which timezone, that only works when there is corresponding map data, it won't set times for regions it has no information about, we don't have map data to interpret locations and as time is only provided as UTC (or GMT 0) the offset to suit local timezone needs to be set, it's a very simple menu adjustment that takes about 10 seconds to do

 

[Deacon]

Yeah, I'm not intending to be insulting. I realize it's not something you're leaving out, that it's just not supported by the hardware you're using. I have other clocks to adjust when the stupid DST changes come around, too. It's just most of them are hanging on a wall

 

[jokiin]

Yeah, I'm not intending to be insulting. I realize it's not something you're leaving out, that it's just not supported by the hardware you're using.

I didn't interpret it as an insult, no issue there, just explaining why things are the way they are, with a GPS navigation device it's not the hardware as such that does it, it's the map software that sorts things out

 

[Q-BiC]

Suggestion:
- let the dashcam issue a notification sound if something's not right after startup.

I formatted my 64GB card to FAT32 using a third party tool on Windows 10, but discovered the SG9665GC wasn't recording after I started the car. The message "cluster size wrong, please format card" appeared for 2 seconds. (And I couldn't get into the menu's after that, so I'm trying to reformat it on my desktop again.). Anyway, I have the dashcam out of my view, behind the rear view mirror, so from my normal driving position I can't see if the Rec light is blinking or not. A warning sound if it doesn't start recording for some reason, would be helpful.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

You should only format the card in the camera. Latest firmware will format cards in-cam up to 256GB FAT32

 

[jokiin]

Suggestion:
- let the dashcam issue a notification sound if something's not right after startup.

I formatted my 64GB card to FAT32 using a third party tool on Windows 10, but discovered the SG9665GC wasn't recording after I started the car. The message "cluster size wrong, please format card" appeared for 2 seconds. (And I couldn't get into the menu's after that, so I'm trying to reformat it on my desktop again.). Anyway, I have the dashcam out of my view, behind the rear view mirror, so from my normal driving position I can't see if the Rec light is blinking or not. A warning sound if it doesn't start recording for some reason, would be helpful.

don't use third party formatting tools, it won't set the card up correctly, use this software to return the card to its default settings in your PC https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/index.html once you've done that when the camera starts up with this card in it you will prompted to format the card before you can do anything else

 

[Q-BiC]

Already did what you just said. It's working again. Thx.
Although I thought that tool you linked would format to FAT32, instead it still makes it exFAT. But then the cam did ask to reformat properly.
Still: 1) couldn't even enter the menu's to reformat when the "incorrectly" formatted card was inserted, 2) a warning sound could be helpfull.