VIOFO A119 (production) feature requests and bug reports

[wryliewhiley]

Motion Detection feature is my only real gripe with this camera and the lack of transparency about it reflects badly on Viofo. Otherwise Viofo are an excellent example to manufacturers by the way they answer queries directly, monitor and respond to relevant posts to Dashcamtalk and provide firmware upgrades.

Wherever they list the the A119 Specifications, Motion Detection should have an asterisk ( * ) alongside referring to
* For a Parking Mode, Motion Detection feature requires A119 to be powered e.g. by hard wiring or extra power device.

As for the inconvenience of activating and de-activating Motion Detection it requires 6? button presses and peering at the little screen. I'm pretty confident they will do a firmware upgrade to change the Menu to list it at the top at least, or enable a button (or combination buttons) press.

 

[Mtz]

You can use the camera only in Detection Mode if it is always powered. It will record always when you are driving.
I consider normal the camera to be always powered because it have a super capacitor instead of battery, but for people with no knowledge about dashcams is better to be written in manual what you asked.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[wryliewhiley]

You can use the camera only in Detection Mode if it is always powered. It will record always when you are driving.
I consider normal the camera to be always powered because it have a super capacitor instead of battery, but for people with no knowledge about dashcams is better to be written in manual what you asked.

enjoy,
Mtz

Yes Mtz. Motion Detection mode will record while you are driving but you are recording everything then anyway, with or without M.D. on, so what is the point? The Manual also states "Please do not turn on motion detection unless your vehicle is parked. If motion detection is enabled while driving, the camera may not continuously record." Having said that, someone on this thread said they use M.D. 24/7 with no problems. Having a M.D. feature with the A119 is a great selling point, but only if you know the cam needs an extra source of power to the usual installation which is through the cigarette adapter. Viofo could include an addendum on a piece of paper with the packaging until they do a reprint of the manual.

To be perfectly clear, I have confirmed directly with Viofo that the super capacitor only provides enough power to record the last file at the time when the camera is turned off. It is of NO use for power after turn off.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Yes Mtz. Motion Detection mode will record while you are driving but you are recording everything then anyway, with or without M.D. on, so what is the point? The Manual also states "Please do not turn on motion detection unless your vehicle is parked. If motion detection is enabled while driving, the camera may not continuously record." Having said that, someone on this thread said they use M.D. 24/7 with no problems. Having a M.D. feature with the A119 is a great selling point, but only if you know the cam needs an extra source of power to the usual installation which is through the cigarette adapter. Viofo could include an addendum on a piece of paper with the packaging until they do a reprint of the manual.

To be perfectly clear, I have confirmed directly with Viofo that the super capacitor only provides enough power to record the last file at the time when the camera is turned off. It is of NO use for power after turn off.

This is not exclusive to the A119. Most dash cameras offer some kind of motion detection. To use motion detection/parking mode in any camera, you will need a power source after turning off the engine unless yours cars ports are live all the time.

 

[Mtz]

Viofo doesn't know if the buyer car have continuous power on at cigarette lighter or it is powered only when the engine is running. So if you have continuous power and you will park the car in your garage the camera will not record anything, but will stay on. When you will drive the car outside of the garage the camera will record again because of motion detected.

I don't need Viofo confirmation that the super-capacitor is only to save correctly the latest video, this is valid for any dashcam in the world.

The manual part of enabling MD during driving is not correct because of the word "driving". The correct word is "recording". So, they are trying to say that if you manually stop the recording of the actual MD video recording, another video will not start automatically when motion is detected. If you manually stop a MD video the best is to restart the dashcam.
The manual is just a quick starting guide.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[wryliewhiley]

Thanks for your tolerance and explanations everyone. I have been posting as a newbie with incomplete knowledge. As the A119 has a "super capacitor" I had thought that would mean it would have a large store of power that would keep it powered for a few hours or even overnight. That was "my bad" as they say. I have read up on parking modes (motion detection and G sensor) and now realise that even dashcams with re-chargeable batteries in them are very limited too and rely on extra power.

Now and finally, thanks to yourselves, you can consider me an expert ha ha

 

[Mtz]

OK now you are the motion detect expert.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[dervin]

Let me get this straight... If I have the a119 with Spytec power adaptor, https://www.amazon.com/gp/B01N0GR4ON , which promises not to drain my battery. And attach it to a always on power source. I should then always use Motion Detection mode to get continuous recordings while driving and a parking mode Motion Detection while parked?

I haven't wired this in yet, it's -3F outside and just a bit warmer in my garage, and was planning a "power on only" fuse port. This information being true would change my plan and I would find an "always on power" in the fuse box.

Thanks,
dervin

 

[jokiin]

this type of hardwire kit is better for accessory switched installs, the low voltage cutoff point will stop you destroying your car battery but it will still run it down low enough that your car won't start, particularly in winter

 

[dervin]

Well, that's too bad. Is there a power adaptor designed to reserve me enough power to start the car? I could still use this adaptor connected as you suggest since one of my cars only gets driven occasionally, and when I do drive it I always have the service light due to low battery just from sitting too long without being locked.

 

[jokiin]

better to use the supplied adapter along with something like a Multisafer, Vico Power Plus etc, they have selectable voltage and timed cutoff points, the Vico also has an over temp cutoff as well

 

[Bart Goossens]

I tested my a119 with motion detection powered from a pineng 20000mah (at 3.7v) powerbank and it worked great. It ran for 15 hours and the powerbank was down to 35% so about 23 hours is possible. It uses about 300mah with screen off. It was in subzero conditions so it should run even longer in normal temps.

Motion detection worked well, it even picked up small movements from leafless small trees 15 meters away. It reacts quite fast to movement.

I have had no problem driving with motion detection on so i will leave it like that. When i park somewhere riskier i change the usb to the powerbank and record only movement for almost a full day.

I can only wish for a pre and post file lock when you push the lock button in a future update. And maybe a shutterspeed setting. Better to have more grain at night then too much motion blur but these tiny little sensors can only do so much.

 

[dervin]

I tested my a119 with motion detection powered from a pineng 20000mah (at 3.7v) powerbank and it worked great. It ran for 15 hours and the powerbank was down to 35% so about 23 hours is possible. It uses about 300mah with screen off. It was in subzero conditions so it should run even longer in normal temps.

So this is interesting... I like it except I would like to remove the need to switch between power sources. Has anyone tried to put a power bank inline? So Spytec Power Adapter charges the power bank when the car is on, and the dash cam is fed by the output side of the power bank. This way with the car off all the dash cam is doing is draining the power bank until it's dead. But car on and the power bank, now receiving a charge from the car, turns on the dash cam. I would assume the draw to the power bank is less than the "on" draw from the dash cam. I just don't think my short trips will be enough to ever charge the power bank to full, so maybe this isn't such a great idea...

 

[borik]

I use (only) a power bank (26.8A) to power my 2 A119's. it provides enough power to continuously record for over 33 hours with about 25% of amperage left. the problem is 128gb card holds only 13 hours 52 minutes of recording. and it recharges overnight easily. with a short trips it won't recharge much, but it will recharge from a car and provide a power for the cameras at the same time.

 

[Yooshaw]

So this is interesting... I like it except I would like to remove the need to switch between power sources. Has anyone tried to put a power bank inline? So Spytec Power Adapter charges the power bank when the car is on, and the dash cam is fed by the output side of the power bank. This way with the car off all the dash cam is doing is draining the power bank until it's dead. But car on and the power bank, now receiving a charge from the car, turns on the dash cam. I would assume the draw to the power bank is less than the "on" draw from the dash cam. I just don't think my short trips will be enough to ever charge the power bank to full, so maybe this isn't such a great idea...

Pass through charging, which is what you are deacribing, is not recommended. See this long thread: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/index.php?threads/7751/

 

[Bart Goossens]

I tried to charge and power the dashcam at the same time but it did not work with 2 different power banks. It's charge or discharge but not at the same time unfortunately.

 

[Bart Goossens]

I use (only) a power bank (26.8A) to power my 2 A119's. it provides enough power to continuously record for over 33 hours with about 25% of amperage left. the problem is 128gb card holds only 13 hours 52 minutes of recording. and it recharges overnight easily. with a short trips it won't recharge much, but it will recharge from a car and provide a power for the cameras at the same time.

I have motion detection on all the time, it proved to be reliable for me. That way the card only records if there is movement. I only use 32gb cards and that is enough for me, with your 128gb card there has to be movement almost half the time with your battery which is unlikely.

 

[borik]

I guess we drive in different environments.

 

[Mtz]

the problem is 128gb card holds only 13 hours 52 minutes of recording.

You can try to use the lowest value from time lapse.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[borik]

I better move to a 200gb card.