The Viofo a139 camera freezes and gets hot when it's sunny

sanhwy

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The Viofo a139 camera is set to parking mode: Auto Event detection and uses the "Kingston Canvas Go Plus MicroSDXC 256 GB UHS-I CL10" memory card. When it is sunny outside, the Viofo a139 heats up very much inside the car and it restarts until it freezes. I contacted the people from viofo but I received the following answer
"We have consulted our technician,
There may be overheat issue when parking in sunny days for too long,
we hope you can try to avoid this when using, try to park under some shadow or do not keep the cam working for too long under sun.
Most SD card in the cam can not sustain too much heat and shall casue malfunction in the cam,
Even brand new cam can’t get rid of the problem at present.
We will be at your disposal. "
Sometimes I really can't park in the shade.

You have such problems with this camera, can you advise me with a solution?
 
Park facing North, not South, so that the camera is not in direct sun.

First time I have heard of a heat issue with the A139, but few people seem to be using Kingston cards and we are getting close to mid summer, so I wonder if it is the memory card having difficulty with the heat. Can you try another brand?
 
Mine has seen several days of 26C degrees (81F) using all the parking modes while parked in the full sun with the workvan closed, and I've not had any kind of issues with that. Others have done similar in higher heats, also having no problems. This cam does run quite warm in use, as do all the newer high-resolution multi-channel cams, but the A139 seems to handle it well.

As best I can remember, all of us who have tested in higher heats have used either Samsung or SanDisk cards ranging from the Samsung EVO Plus (EVO Select) to large high-endurance cards from both companies. My guess is that the Kingston card is the problem here, as cards are susceptible to overheating too.

Phil
 
I am currently testing a Kingston canvas select plus card ( 256 GB ) in the A139 and it work well, also for the parking guard, which i granted only use for 1 hour on the timer.
And i get the 1 hour of parking guard, but the weather in Denmark is also nothing summer like, so far the average temperature for May is 10 degrees and it is shaping up to be the wettest May month since 1875.
 
Ok, maybe the MicroSd card is the problem, i will try with a Samsung Pro Endurance but i see that they do not have on 256GB card
 
I am working on a thread with memory cards working for the A139.

But a card must work for at least a month, so take time to expand on the thread.
 
And i get the 1 hour of parking guard, but the weather in Denmark is also nothing summer like, so far the average temperature for May is 10 degrees and it is shaping up to be the wettest May month since 1875.
We have got some more rain here, with 100 km/h winds, should arrive over you in a couple of days :)
Ok, maybe the MicroSd card is the problem, i will try with a Samsung Pro Endurance but i see that they do not have on 256GB card
The proper, long lifetime, endurance cards are always half size because they use cells twice the size. If you find a really big endurance card, be suspicious and check the actual write count limit!
 
I tried with a 128gb samsung card and left the car in the parking lot. Today it was a bit sunny and the camera reached almost 60 degrees. When I left the parking lot, the camera didn't block, but after a few minutes it started to restart until it blocked. I managed to make a video that viofo a139 did not respond to any buttons. I had to unplug the power to restart.
 
I think maybe something is wrong, as i understand it the weather in your country are not even as summer like as it can be, so it would probably only get worse.

If / when summer get up here to Denmark i will try and up the timer and see if i can replicate the issue.
 
I tried with a 128gb samsung card and left the car in the parking lot. Today it was a bit sunny and the camera reached almost 60 degrees. When I left the parking lot, the camera didn't block, but after a few minutes it started to restart until it blocked. I managed to make a video that viofo a139 did not respond to any buttons. I had to unplug the power to restart.
I had similar problems using a SanDisk endurance card in mine. It didn't seem to matter how hot it was and it happened at random. Someti8mes the power button worked to re-boot and sometimes not. Formatting the card always got things sorted out till the next time it happened, which could be hours to days later. But with my Samsung EVO select cards (same card as EVO plus) there's no problems. Until now I believed this was a card problem, but I'm not so sure now.

I know others are using SanDisk Endurance and Samsung EVO plus without issue in this cam so I can't work out why we would both experience the same issue but with opposite cards. Both card specs are fast enough with plenty to spare. I didn't try my SanDisk card till the next-to-last FW update so FW version may or may not be involved. The latest FW update hasn't changed this behavior and all the functions seem to be working properly so I doubt a FW reload will help.

@viofo this is strange behavior indeed and I hope you can look into it or help us resolve it.

Open to thoughts and suggestions from anyone!

Phil.
 
After some fiddling and just guessing with DR900S/X and A129Pro, this time I'm prepared for the next summer. :p

Btw (two channels, around 20°C ambient)
188520709_758484404850754_4811561173489684205_n.jpg
 
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After some fiddling and just guessing with DR900S/X and A129Pro, this time I'm prepared for the next summer. :p

Btw (two channels, around 20°C ambient)
View attachment 56795
Nice image :)

The paint for the logo is quite good insulation!
And the vent does almost nothing to cool the camera, maybe it is just a speaker grill?
 
The viofo camera also reached 78 degrees in the sun in the parking mode. I sent it under warranty. Now I am waiting for their answer.
 
I think that was the best move, you did not expose it to unreasonable high temperatures, i am hoping i will be able to replicate, but summer still hiding from Denmark, though the next few days will be sunny only 20 deg C daytime temperatures.
But sunday and Monday my car will be parked in a wide open field, where i will be working my old ass of with the scale train and what else we can come up with, probably also need to move on dam projeckt in the new "lake" we made a few weeks ago.
 
We've had a few days of 90F (32C) temps here and I've had no problems. That includes using both motion-detect and low-bitrate parking modes with the van all closed up. The cam mostly sits behind a moderate tint band and gets no shade where I'm parking, so it's getting more 'direct sun' on the cam body than it would behind a frit or dark aftermarket tint. Don't know when we will get hotter temps, only sure they are coming as usual.

Phil
 
Summer officially start here next Tuesday, i am very much looking forward to that.
Though i already enjoy how early it get light outside, even if it to some degree also mess with my sleep problem, and at night the light also last well into the evening instead of turning dark in the middle of the afternoon.
 
The device was sent for service but without the 2 separate viofo cameras and the service stated that it has no errors. I received the product back and yesterday I also mounted a recommended viofo card "SanDisk High Endurance microSDHC 256 GB memory card" and today it is about 30 degrees outside and sun. I got out to the car and the temperature of the viofo device was 86 degrees. The device no longer responded from the buttons and was locked. To restart I had to unplug the power cord. These problems only occur when the sun is out.
 
The device was sent for service but without the 2 separate viofo cameras and the service stated that it has no errors. I received the product back and yesterday I also mounted a recommended viofo card "SanDisk High Endurance microSDHC 256 GB memory card" and today it is about 30 degrees outside and sun. I got out to the car and the temperature of the viofo device was 86 degrees. The device no longer responded from the buttons and was locked. To restart I had to unplug the power cord. These problems only occur when the sun is out.
Since you've mentioned "locked", was it in parking mode? Because Viofo doesn't make this testing easy due to locking buttons in parking mode (not working until you switch to normal mode - and sometimes this lock bugs through even to normal mode :D ). And do you have voice notifications turned on?

The interesting part is that your camera loops in reboots and then freezes. In the other thread, posted by @HonestReview, his camera turns itself off (but I think we don't know what is happening prior the shutdown in his case).

The reason I'm asking those questions above is, and because you've sent Viofo only the front unit, that reboots and freezes could be caused also by the additional cameras or due to bad cable (could be working correctly until gets hot).
 
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For me, the viofo doesn't turn off, it just crashes, the LEDs stay on. Viofo no longer responds to buttons while driving, nor does the "3 channel started" start sound
Today I removed the cable from the inside car camera and I will test only with 2 channel to see what happens.
 
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