SGDCHW for SG9663DC (3-wire hardwire kit to enable PARKING MODE function) Timed & Low Battery Discharge Prevention

I checked my SD card for Thursday and Friday and noticed something odd:

July 19.jpgJuly 20.png

I park my car at around 6:40am and leave work around 3:30pm with parking mode on between those hours. However, I noticed that some of the videos weren't time lapse videos (but were full videos) and in today's case, I didn't have parking mode for a portion of the day and when I came to my car, the camera was off. Everything ran fine on Wednesday though, so I'm not sure what could have caused this
 
jokiin said:
had you adjusted any settings prior to these?
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I hadn't, my assumption was that between 6:40am - 3:30pm I would have the parking mode time lapse videos, but checking all of the videos shows that some of them (while I was parked) are normal mode videos
 
jokiin said:
did you start the car after installing the hardwire kit?
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Yes I had driven the car to test the camera was working and aligned back and front, I then changed the time delay to 1 hour, formatted the SD card and locked the car.
also if you're a Mac user make sure you format the card when you put it back in the camera
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I am a Mac user and I never trust the Mac format utility on non Mac items, it was formatted in the car.
 
PegasusStrike said:
I checked my SD card for Thursday and Friday and noticed something odd:

View attachment 40185View attachment 40186

I park my car at around 6:40am and leave work around 3:30pm with parking mode on between those hours. However, I noticed that some of the videos weren't time lapse videos (but were full videos) and in today's case, I didn't have parking mode for a portion of the day and when I came to my car, the camera was off. Everything ran fine on Wednesday though, so I'm not sure what could have caused this
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I also experienced a similar oddity when I had the delay set to 12 hours and the framerate at 5 FPS, but not when I had it set to 2 hours at 5 FPS. I now have it set it to 12 hours at 3 FPS (I think -- it's the middle setting between 1 and 5).

At first I suspected that the car periodically energized the Accessory circuit for reasons not known to mere mortals, such as the BCM polling its various sensors for whatever reason. But then I broke out my trusty multimeter and detected a slight voltage of about 0.7VDC to 0.8VDC at the accessory fuse with the HW kit installed and the ignition switch off. There's no voltage at the fuse when I disconnect the battery lead of the HW kit, so apparently there's a slight bleed through the HW kit. Is that normal?

I'm assuming there's a thyristor, triac, or something similar somewhere in the detection circuit, and a bit of leakage is not unheard of. I just mention it for your own troubleshooting purposes. Maybe the trigger voltage needs to be increased.

Richard
 
GeekOnTheHill said:
I also experienced a similar oddity when I had the delay set to 12 hours and the framerate at 5 FPS, but not when I had it set to 2 hours at 5 FPS. I now have it set it to 12 hours at 3 FPS (I think -- it's the middle setting between 1 and 5).

At first I suspected that the car periodically energized the Accessory circuit for reasons not known to mere mortals, such as the BCM polling its various sensors for whatever reason. But then I broke out my trusty multimeter and detected a slight voltage of about 0.7VDC to 0.8VDC at the accessory fuse with the HW kit installed and the ignition switch off. There's no voltage at the fuse when I disconnect the battery lead of the HW kit, so apparently there's a slight bleed through the HW kit. Is that normal?

I'm assuming there's a thyristor, triac, or something similar somewhere in the detection circuit, and a bit of leakage is not unheard of. I just mention it for your own troubleshooting purposes. Maybe the trigger voltage needs to be increased.

Richard
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Interesting...I'm at work and I'll check footage once I'm done. It's still at 12 hours for parking mode and 5 FPS, but I can try 12 hours at 2 FPS on Monday.

I'm not sure about the rest of the info you provided since I'm pretty terrible with car circuitry, but I do know that I set my voltage cut off to be 12.4V. I'll post my findings later today
 
PegasusStrike said:
Interesting...I'm at work and I'll check footage once I'm done. It's still at 12 hours for parking mode and 5 FPS, but I can try 12 hours at 2 FPS on Monday.

I'm not sure about the rest of the info you provided since I'm pretty terrible with car circuitry, but I do know that I set my voltage cut off to be 12.4V. I'll post my findings later today
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Car circuitry is mysterious mainly because so much of it is controlled by the "computers," typically the ECM/PCM that controls all the drivetrain and emissions functions and everything that supports, depends upon, or otherwise interfaces with them; and the BCM that controls things like lighting, entertainment, door locks, climate control, and so forth. Very little happens that the ECM/PCM and/or the BCM don't control or at least know about.

That's why it wouldn't surprise me at all if the reason the camera periodically shifts out of time-lapse mode to regular recording mode turned out to be because the car itself periodically energizes the Accessory circuit to perform some sort of self-maintenance or gather some data. Modern cars are never truly "off" unless you disconnect the battery. They truly do have minds of their own.

The other thing I mentioned about trigger voltage refers to that voltage at the Accessory lead at which the camera determines that the car is running, assuming that it's voltage that it's looking for. I'm getting 0.7VDC to 0.8VDC apparently bleeding through the HW circuitry. That's not necessarily abnormal. Gate circuit devices often have a bit of leakage. Could the bleed voltage occasionally be high enough to trigger the gate and persuade the camera that the car is running? I have no idea. But it may (or may not) be of interest to SG for diagnostic purposes.

My own problem is that I was trained in electronics in the 1970s. Things have changed a bit since then. Where my mind is wandering may be very far off the path. But my measurements were notable enough that I thought I should mention them.

Richard
 
GeekOnTheHill said:
Car circuitry is mysterious mainly because so much of it is controlled by the "computers," typically the ECM/PCM that controls all the drivetrain and emissions functions and everything that supports, depends upon, or otherwise interfaces with them; and the BCM that controls things like lighting, entertainment, door locks, climate control, and so forth. Very little happens that the ECM/PCM and/or the BCM don't control or at least know about.
...
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Many newer vehicles will also 'call home' periodically for OTA F/W updates (or at least notifications), upload telemetrics data, etc. which could also activate accessory circuits.
 
PegasusStrike said:
Interesting...I'm at work and I'll check footage once I'm done. It's still at 12 hours for parking mode and 5 FPS, but I can try 12 hours at 2 FPS on Monday.
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please do, so far it would seem that any odd behavior has been when using the 5fps setting, could be just because that's what people use mostly and it would happen anyway or there's a bug in the 5fps setting, finding any pattern to the problem can help us to resolve it sooner
 
PegasusStrike said:
I hadn't, my assumption was that between 6:40am - 3:30pm I would have the parking mode time lapse videos, but checking all of the videos shows that some of them (while I was parked) are normal mode videos
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what vehicle and which circuits did you tap for permanent and accessory power?
 
jokiin said:
what vehicle and which circuits did you tap for permanent and accessory power?
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Question was not addressed to me; but if it's of any help, mine is a 2016 Kia Soul (Base). Battery lead to door lock fuse. Accessory lead to accessory fuse. Ground to fuse block attachment screw / ground. Battery is brand new (installed six days ago).

Richard
 
GeekOnTheHill said:
Question was not addressed to me; but if it's of any help, mine is a 2016 Kia Soul (Base). Battery lead to door lock fuse. Accessory lead to accessory fuse. Ground to fuse block attachment screw / ground. Battery is brand new (installed six days ago).

Richard
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thanks, interested to know how you go at 2fps, so far the reports of errors have been with the 5fps setting, could be an issue in the 5fps setting or it could just be that it's the setting more people use, not sure yet
 
jokiin said:
thanks, interested to know how you go at 2fps, so far the reports of errors have been with the 5fps setting, could be an issue in the 5fps setting or it could just be that it's the setting more people use, not sure yet
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I just checked, and at 2fps it stayed in time-lapse mode since the last time I started the car early this afternoon. So there's a bit more evidence favoring your hunch about a possible bug affecting the 5fps setting.

The file sizes are a bit larger than expected at ~ 144 MB, but I suppose that's a function of it being on high quality and the scene being rather complex (leaves on trees and such).

As an aside, I noticed with the latest release firmware that the color is noticeably more saturated, especially the blues and greens. That's not a big deal for me because I can tweak or desaturate the color in the editing software if it's a pleasure video, and no one would care about the saturation if it were a courtroom video. I'm just passing it on FYI. That may explain the file sizes being large, too.

Richard
 
GeekOnTheHill said:
I just checked, and at 2fps it stayed in time-lapse mode since the last time I started the car early this afternoon. So there's a bit more evidence favoring your hunch about a possible bug affecting the 5fps setting.

The file sizes are a bit larger than expected at ~ 144 MB, but I suppose that's a function of it being on high quality and the scene being rather complex (leaves on trees and such).

As an aside, I noticed with the latest release firmware that the color is noticeably more saturated, especially the blues and greens. That's not a big deal for me because I can tweak or desaturate the color in the editing software if it's a pleasure video, and no one would care about the saturation if it were a courtroom video. I'm just passing it on FYI. That may explain the file sizes being large, too.

Richard
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thanks for the feedback, when you say there is more saturated colours in the latest version, for reference which version are you using and which prior version was it that you are comparing to?
 
jokiin said:
thanks for the feedback, when you say there is more saturated colours in the latest version, for reference which version are you using and which prior version was it that you are comparing to?
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1.30 Release update 2 versus 1.26 Beta.

Richard
 
jokiin said:
ok, there were no image related adjustments between those two versions, had you adjusted any EV or AE menu options in either version?
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I changed the AE metering to full screen, but then set it back to center-weighted (which I believe is the default). It didn't affect the saturation at all. It did affect the exposure, but I decided I liked the center-weighted setting better.

It's probably fine for urban areas. It's really not excessive except when in heavily-wooded areas or pastures, and even then only slightly. I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

Unfortunately, I formatted the card after I checked the time-lapse, so I have nothing to show you. But it's not horrible.

Rich
 
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