Thinkware 750 Development

[janal]

ok, different regions have different firmware upgrades so the version numbers look slight different, but the principle is the same, take the F770 firmware I linked to, rename it to F750, copy it on to the SD card and then insert in to the camera.

for example, the F770 v.02 firmware is this in the uk
f770_3_1.00.02
the 3 is irrelevant, and all the versions are 1.00.XX its the last two digits that matter, however so long as you download the v.02 firmware then rename the F770_pkg.bin file to F750_pkg.bin it will work.

DO NOT update the F750 firmware to one newer than V.15, doing so will prevent you from upgrading to the f770. Also, do not download the latest f770 firmware just yet, use the one I linked to, once you have the f770 firmware installed you can then install any further F770 firmware from whatever region you want.

Actually, I did install the latest f770 upgrade and it worked ok.

Maybe, in Canada, the latest upgrade for us is not the latest for U.K. My f750 cam now shows that it is an f770.

Incidentally, no upgrade to the f750 V.15 firmware is available here. Maybe, f750 dashcams shipped closer to the f770 release date had the upgraded firmware to prevent what we have been able to do.

Our big box retail stores are still selling the f750 and do not have any f770 for sale at this time.

Any ideas on changing the coded variables for the "A" option on partition sizing for continuous vs parking within the firmware?

BTW, what language is the firmware using?

 

[Dee_82]

The reason why I suggested to upgrade to an older firmware first is that thinkware have done everything they can to prevent us from getting this upgrade, another simple solution for them to do would be to check the version before hand on the F770 firmware. in the futtue if you try and install it they might prevent you from doing it, so its much easier to tell people to upgrade to a known working version, rather than use the latest version. Does that make sense?

incidentally, was that v.06 you were successfully able to upgrade to? which F750 firmware were you using v.15? if .06 worked directly from .15 then ill update the instructions and files

as for changing the "partition sizes"

Firstly there is no partitioning going on, its all software folder size restrictions, because of that, sometime ago I decided to investigate the possibility to change the sizes of the "partitions" in theory it should easily be doable. In the Default.cfg and setup.cfg files, there are references to the partitions which can easily be modified unfortunately the camera only detects which type of partition setup you want, A B or C, the problem is that those letters just point to some predefined settings on the camera itself which we have limited access too.

I couldn't be bothered to look any further in to this as any changes to the camera would require you to flash a new firmware, whilst I can dump the firmware and separate the partitions and even look at the some of the file systems meaning I can make changes to the bitrate and probably the partition settings, I cant recompile the firmware, all attempts have failed and I haven't had any luck with getting help from anyone who can get around this.

So in answer to your question, yes its probably possible, but unless I can recompile the firmware and successfully flash it back to the camera, it cant be done.

 

[janal]

The reason why I suggested to upgrade to an older firmware first is that thinkware have done everything they can to prevent us from getting this upgrade, another simple solution for them to do would be to check the version before hand on the F770 firmware. in the futtue if you try and install it they might prevent you from doing it, so its much easier to tell people to upgrade to a known working version, rather than use the latest version. Does that make sense?

incidentally, was that v.06 you were successfully able to upgrade to? which F750 firmware were you using v.15? if .06 worked directly from .15 then ill update the instructions and files

as for changing the "partition sizes"

Firstly there is no partitioning going on, its all software folder size restrictions, because of that, sometime ago I decided to investigate the possibility to change the sizes of the "partitions" in theory it should easily be doable. In the Default.cfg and setup.cfg files, there are references to the partitions which can easily be modified unfortunately the camera only detects which type of partition setup you want, A B or C, the problem is that those letters just point to some predefined settings on the camera itself which we have limited access too.

I couldn't be bothered to look any further in to this as any changes to the camera would require you to flash a new firmware, whilst I can dump the firmware and separate the partitions and even look at the some of the file systems meaning I can make changes to the bitrate and probably the partition settings, I cant recompile the firmware, all attempts have failed and I haven't had any luck with getting help from anyone who can get around this.

So in answer to your question, yes its probably possible, but unless I can recompile the firmware and successfully flash it back to the camera, it cant be done.

Thanks for your hard work and help on this. My F750 used v.15. I think that until later f750 firmware versions are verified to work, stick with what does work.

My new install shows:
F770
App v 2.1.8 (599)
Firmware v 1.00.06
Safety guidance v 14.12.19.00
Micom v 6

Hopefully there is an answer to changing option "A" for those of us that cannot connect to our battery source.

I have a 2016 Audi A6 3 litre. Nowhere can I find correct connections for my dashcam. The dealership techies do not have that info available.

BTW, is this thread also showing up on the f770 thread postings? Should we be posting to both?

 

[Dee_82]

Strictly speaking we still have F750 devices so its best that it stays here, of course your more than welcome to post any info you want in the F770 forum.

as to your car, I would suggest you go and buy a multi meter, doesn't need to be expensive, something like https://www.radioshack.com/products/radioshack-15-range-digital-multimeter will do
look for the fuse box inside the car, with a bit of luck it will be in one of the front foot wells.

on each blade fuse you will see there are two metal terminals used for checking a fuse. set the multi meter to read DC 10 volts, take the black probe on the meter and attach it to something metal, make sure its not painted metal.

then using the red probe touch the metal terminals on the fuse, it doesn't matter which one, both will work. it will either register a voltage or it wont. just work through your fuses until you find one that doesn't show a voltage with the ignition off.

then turn on the ignition and see if the fuse is now registering a voltage.

if it is, congrats, you have found an ACC power source.

finding an always on live source is harder than it sounds because cars typically have computers within them that might not turn off for several min, to check for an always on feed open the car door and turn off the ignition, leave it for about 30-45 min. then check the fuses for one that is still on, turn on ignition check to make sure its still on. it important you leave the door open and don't push any buttons, keyfobs or anything, if you have a keyless car do not bring the key with you (proximity to the car might turn things on)

Job done.

 

[janal]

Strictly speaking we still have F750 devices so its best that it stays here, of course your more than welcome to post any info you want in the F770 forum.

as to your car, I would suggest you go and buy a multi meter, doesn't need to be expensive, something like https://www.radioshack.com/products/radioshack-15-range-digital-multimeter will do
look for the fuse box inside the car, with a bit of luck it will be in one of the front foot wells.

on each blade fuse you will see there are two metal terminals used for checking a fuse. set the multi meter to read DC 10 volts, take the black probe on the meter and attach it to something metal, make sure its not painted metal.

then using the red probe touch the metal terminals on the fuse, it doesn't matter which one, both will work. it will either register a voltage or it wont. just work through your fuses until you find one that doesn't show a voltage with the ignition off.

then turn on the ignition and see if the fuse is now registering a voltage.

if it is, congrats, you have found an ACC power source.

finding an always on live source is harder than it sounds because cars typically have computers within them that might not turn off for several min, to check for an always on feed open the car door and turn off the ignition, leave it for about 30-45 min. then check the fuses for one that is still on, turn on ignition check to make sure its still on. it important you leave the door open and don't push any buttons, keyfobs or anything, if you have a keyless car do not bring the key with you (proximity to the car might turn things on)

Job done.

Thanks for the volt meter advice. Might take me a week end. This Audi has 2 large sets of fuses. 1 set on either side of the dash. Also a large set of fuses in the boot (called a trunk over here!).

I think they used to put travel trunks outside on top of the rear of cars back the day (last century). When someone decided to build the rear large enough to hold the "trunk" inside the name stuck. Do not recall why we called it a "boot". Sorry to digress.

It is a pity that each user has to reinvent the wheel finding the right fuse locations. Be nice if this forum had an updatable database by vehicle model and year. We could just look it up and post newly discovered solutions.

 

[Dee_82]

a database would be cool and very helpful but would be epic in nature to create, unfortunately it isn't just by make, model and year, you also have revisions of hardware components and different classes of car not to mention that these all change depending where in the world you are from. For example, the ford focus in the states is different to the ford focus over here, and not just with LH and RH drive. it would be a task and a half to pull that together and although doable I'm not sure it would be worth the effort, id rather teach people how to find out themselves which will help them for every car that person buys going forward.

as for boots, I don't know how true this is but apparently stemmed from coaches and were areas either side of the coach for placing your feet (boots) they were called bootes or bootlets or something like that, anyway, they moved over the years and changed their purpose, ending up on the rear of the coach, ergo, the boot as we know it began life.

who knows! when your talking about hundreds of years of language evolution it could just as easily have come rom the French word for box (boîte)

 

[Dippy]

janal, as Dee advised, you need a voltmeter. Doing any electrical work without one (or preferably a multimeter) can be like trying to push water uphill.

I assume that there are fuse panel diagrams in your owners manual? Maybe you can scan them and post here for us to advise. Also have a read of my installation post. Looking at the fuses I used may help your decision.

 

[janal]

janal, as Dee advised, you need a voltmeter. Doing any electrical work without one (or preferably a multimeter) can be like trying to push water uphill.

I assume that there are fuse panel diagrams in your owners manual? Maybe you can scan them and post here for us to advise. Also have a read of my installation post. Looking at the fuses I used may help your decision.

The car manuals that you get and the ones that the dealership techies use are silent regarding which fuses remain hot when ignition is off. They only tell you what they control. Too many gadgets these days. We are supposed to need them if we can afford them. The dealership could not do an install for me either and this is my 6th new Audi from them in 10 years. So it was not because they would not, they could not. I ran into the same issue with my F750 install in my 2014 Q5. Pity really.

 

[Dippy]

Indeed, my manual does not either. However with a list of your fuses I am fairly confident that I could suggest which ones you use and get it right. As you saw from reading my installation post, I used the lights fuse as permanent. This is because of course when the car is off you still need the various internal (and some external) lights to be on both when leaving and returning to the car. I also chose this because the current draw on that circuit will vary according if doors/trunk etc are open or closed. So I was hoping that the draw from the dashcam will not affect the power management system. This is mostly true, however occasionally when I do a VCDS scan I read some intermittent DTCs which are undoubtedly from when the dashcam power draw is detected. The ACCessory connection is the harder one. Some circuits that you might expect to shut off when the car is off don't, and others stay powered after a delay which is longer than expected and then there are those which stay on for from a few seconds to maybe a minute or so. I reasoned that circuit for the diagnostics has no reason to have power when the car is off so I chose it for my connection.

 

[janal]

Indeed, my manual does not either. However with a list of your fuses I am fairly confident that I could suggest which ones you use and get it right. As you saw from reading my installation post, I used the lights fuse as permanent. This is because of course when the car is off you still need the various internal (and some external) lights to be on both when leaving and returning to the car. I also chose this because the current draw on that circuit will vary according if doors/trunk etc are open or closed. So I was hoping that the draw from the dashcam will not affect the power management system. This is mostly true, however occasionally when I do a VCDS scan I read some intermittent DTCs which are undoubtedly from when the dashcam power draw is detected. The ACCessory connection is the harder one. Some circuits that you might expect to shut off when the car is off don't, and others stay powered after a delay which is longer than expected and then there are those which stay on for from a few seconds to maybe a minute or so. I reasoned that circuit for the diagnostics has no reason to have power when the car is off so I chose it for my connection.

I really like your logic here. Currently, we are going through an extended deep freeze (-40c with wind chill), so too cold to try to employ your process. We should have warmer temps later next week.

 

[Gama7362]

Want to thanks everyone and their in put regarding after market memory card
Samsung evo running straight out a box and is free (on gift card) from best buy as they gave me 16GB when i purchased my dash cam



SALES

10393075 MB-MC32DA/C 19.99
SAMSUNG EVO+ 32 MSD
REG 29.99 WITH 10.00 APPROVED PRICE OVERRIDE DISC
----------
SUBTOTAL 19.99
HST NF 3.00
==========
TOTAL 22.99

xxxxxxxxxxxx4269 S GIFT CARD 22.99
APPROVAL 125086


xxxxxxxxxxxx4269
ORIGINAL BALANCE: 25.00
TRANSACTION AMOUNT: -22.99
REMAINING BALANCE: 2.01

 

[AJ84]

Thanks for the volt meter advice. Might take me a week end. This Audi has 2 large sets of fuses. 1 set on either side of the dash. Also a large set of fuses in the boot (called a trunk over here!).

I think they used to put travel trunks outside on top of the rear of cars back the day (last century). When someone decided to build the rear large enough to hold the "trunk" inside the name stuck. Do not recall why we called it a "boot". Sorry to digress.

It is a pity that each user has to reinvent the wheel finding the right fuse locations. Be nice if this forum had an updatable database by vehicle model and year. We could just look it up and post newly discovered solutions.

I guess there are so many changes between models, it would probably be a slow start but I think eventually it's a good idea and would benefit.
Other issue is the likes of Halfords and what not now fit the cameras in for you so the owner has no idea how they hooked it up.

This may or may not help but I have a 750 currently in the new Audi A6 which will probably be similar/same as yours.
I connected my live to the seat lumbar support fuse and my acc mode one to the windscreen washer (I think). I can double check this for you in the next few days - only frustrating thing is apart from having two sets of fuse boxes just inside the car, there are different fuse sizes (mini and normal). In my case, I'm not using a fuse tap but simply wound the wire up into the fuse and inserted it back - it was meant to be a temp measure until I did it properly but I have not yet gone back to it.

Way I figured out the live was in my case, if you arm the alarm, most of the electronics die after a set number of minutes unlike my old C6 Audi A6 where a lot of them remained on such as the ciggy lighter.
BUT what I found after even 30 minutes of sitting in the car fairly still is that the lumbar motor carried on working. Not sure if this was a fluke but as a result, both sets of wires go into the same drivers side fuse box rather than having to split as I had read apparently the left side fuse box is always on and the right side was ignition only.

I know it does work as the camera lights are still flashing away when I approach the car after 3/5/8 hours (currently set to timelapse)

Hope this helps - if I get a chance, I'll confirm the fuses tonight, just need the rain to stop or get back home under shelter.

 

[janal]

I guess there are so many changes between models, it would probably be a slow start but I think eventually it's a good idea and would benefit.
Other issue is the likes of Halfords and what not now fit the cameras in for you so the owner has no idea how they hooked it up.

This may or may not help but I have a 750 currently in the new Audi A6 which will probably be similar/same as yours.
I connected my live to the seat lumbar support fuse and my acc mode one to the windscreen washer (I think). I can double check this for you in the next few days - only frustrating thing is apart from having two sets of fuse boxes just inside the car, there are different fuse sizes (mini and normal). In my case, I'm not using a fuse tap but simply wound the wire up into the fuse and inserted it back - it was meant to be a temp measure until I did it properly but I have not yet gone back to it.

Way I figured out the live was in my case, if you arm the alarm, most of the electronics die after a set number of minutes unlike my old C6 Audi A6 where a lot of them remained on such as the ciggy lighter.
BUT what I found after even 30 minutes of sitting in the car fairly still is that the lumbar motor carried on working. Not sure if this was a fluke but as a result, both sets of wires go into the same drivers side fuse box rather than having to split as I had read apparently the left side fuse box is always on and the right side was ignition only.

I know it does work as the camera lights are still flashing away when I approach the car after 3/5/8 hours (currently set to timelapse)

Hope this helps - if I get a chance, I'll confirm the fuses tonight, just need the rain to stop or get back home under shelter.

At least you have rain, we have extreme freezing temps. Great to hear back from a similar car owner. The issue of what stays on and what does not means that it takes a lot of time with trial and error as you have mentioned. And I have done that, but no success. Very frustrating. And my wife wants to know if I have a new mistress since I am spending so much time with my "toys". I await your next post with avid anticipation.

 

[AJ84]

Sorry Janal - I have not forgotten - there was not a decent time I could take the pictures the last couple of days and this morning when there finally was time, dry weather and bright...it seems -5 Celsius is enough to seize the lock on my shed door so I couldnt get to the tools to open up the panel.
Hopefully during the day it will unseize and I can grab the info today

 

[AJ84]

janal - please find attached my setup

I'm pretty sure the middle bank one is the lumbar support and the last bank is possibly the horn...you can have a look at your own setup + user manual that has the diagrams for the fuse layout.
Remember this is a UK spec car so for me, it's the drivers side

 

[Shadows]

Hey guys, just as an update, I got the installers to use the hardwire kit with CB and it is working like it should for last week.

The 2nd gen does not have the third cable.

It seems this was the source of the problem. Autoblackbox guys here in Australia advised that I had to ask for 3 wire cable instead of Cig cable that was used in my initial CB install. Apparently the newer packs have the 3 wire cable included but mine did not (or was not used by installers). Once they used the 3 wire cable from one of the 'newer' packs they could correctly connect the hardwire kit and the camera works great.

only as a replacement to using the car battery in parking mode and not as an extension to it.

Now this is a question, as the installers claimed dashcam would continue recording till CB had juice but once it ran out the dashcam would switch off. Going by their track record I am not convinced that they know for sure. I haven't had a chance to leave the car for long enough for CB to discharge fully. Will update once I am able to test this.

 

[janal]

janal - please find attached my setup

I'm pretty sure the middle bank one is the lumbar support and the last bank is possibly the horn...you can have a look at your own setup + user manual that has the diagrams for the fuse layout.
Remember this is a UK spec car so for me, it's the drivers side

Thanks. I will check this out on the weekend. I am hoping the fuse bank is on the left as that is where my current hook up is attached.

 

[janal]

janal - please find attached my setup

I'm pretty sure the middle bank one is the lumbar support and the last bank is possibly the horn...you can have a look at your own setup + user manual that has the diagrams for the fuse layout.
Remember this is a UK spec car so for me, it's the drivers side

My block looks like a mirror image of yours and is on the left (driver) side. I am not using yellow and red wires. You may not see it well in the pic but the darker wire is the red. I will be putting yellow tape on the lighter wire in the red bank of fuses. When all is working correctly I will change the pic to show a better differentiation between the wires.

Unlike your A6 I have no fuse inserted in the centre row where you do, and have additional fuses that you do not. Should I get a spare fuse to insert into the empty slot I am using for the yellow wire?

The good result is that the f750 now goes into parking mode with stop action. During this phase my white LEDs flash as b4. However, the power ceases between 5 and 7 hours, and all LEDs stop flashing. This means, the F750 is no longer drawing continuous battery power, and no longer takes pics. This is the bad result. Before, everything worked on continuous recording for at least 48 hours. What is your battery run down voltage cut off?

Also, parking mode ceases when I open the door rather than when I press the start button. Is this normal?

My other concern is that in parking mode, the time lapse works fine, but recording shuts down after 2 minutes, and then records again 30 minutes later for another 2 minutes and so on. I am wondering if you experience this.

Perhaps it means that it takes 30 minutes at 1 frame per second to fill each recording file rather than 1 minute to fill at 30 fps if that is the speed. What do you think about that?

 

[J-K]

What are the chances of me purchasing a F750 now in the UK and it coming pre installed with an older version of firmware so I can "convert" it to F750? Do they generally come installed with new firmwares?

 

[janal]

What are the chances of me purchasing a F750 now in the UK and it coming pre installed with an older version of firmware so I can "convert" it to F750? Do they generally come installed with new firmwares?

I am in Canada. Maybe a resident Brit can give you an answer.