Viofo A119 v3 and A129 directly plugged onto battery car

[bilolid]

Hi guys,

I want to buy both Viofo A119 v3 and Viofo A129 as I read that installing 2 separated cameras with 2 SD cards and 2 energy access was better than an A129 duo pack regarding reliability of recording the right videos at the right moment.

I want them to be installed on my new Renault Zoe R110 ZE 50, but as I read somewhere that a cigarette lighter energy supplying or even a fuse box supplying was not possible in parking mode considering that the car stops all energy supplying while being locked, I want both of cameras directly plugged onto the car battery.

So here are my 2 questions :

- do you guys confirm me that this installation is good (with that 2 separated viofo cams) ?
- is it possible to direct plug both of the cams on the car battery so they can register during parking ?

I want that cameras to be installed, furtives, and operatives 24/24 without never having to light it, plug it or check it.
Firstable, I bought Nextbase 322GW duo but I realized that this solution is not reliable as the one I now want to install.

Thank you for your advices

 

[kamkar]

Salut bilolid.

It is not recommended to use dashcams to record regular all the time, doing this they record at their best quality and so also generate the most heat ( also use a little power but that is not the biggest problem )
Heat are also not that much of a problem right now as it is winter, but in summer it can well force the camera to shut down due to heat sooner than if you used parking guard.

Parking guard require a hard wire kit to power the camera, and tense days also tell the camera what mode to be in ( regular or parking guard ) at the same time the hard wire kit have a low voltage cut off, and you will want that cuz running your car battery too low ( under 11.8 volt ) will soon ruin it, and also give startup problems, in general 12.2 volts are the recommend cut off voltage, this is regarded as a 50 % discharged battery.

You can buy 2 female 12 V sockets loose and wire them to the battery just fine ( remember fuses ) but i can not recommend this.

Also you can not run 2 cameras for all that long after all, a day or so and you are probably way down on the battery voltage.
Using parking guard is a 2 way street, you can not use parking guard for 23.5 hours of the day and then only drive 30 minutes every day, even if the car charge much faster than a dashcam will use power.

Now parking guard itself can be done in a few ways these days.

There is motion detect, but this is often too sensitive, and then you also need to be parked in a place with some light so the camera can see motion,,,,, though some light you need in all cases for the camera to see anything no matter the mode.
Some also have the option to record time lapse, this is often with 1-2-3-4-5-10 frames every second, this save work for the camera and so generate less heat, which is a factor in summer at least ( if you are parked in the sun ) if you park in the shade or in a parking garage sun are not so much a problem in summer and you should be fine in regard to camera temperature.
Third there is my preferred parking guard mode, and that is regular video, and sound which time lapse do not have, but the camera record at a much lesser bitrate, and this in turn too generate less heat.
For instance my camera recording in 3 minute video segments, it generate 350 MB large files in regular mode, but in parking guard mode the files are only 128 MB in size, this mean also that there can be more files on the memory card VS if the camera recorded in regular mode.

And recording in regular mode while you drive you should always use the best possible bitrate / image quality, but for while parked it is fine to make do with a much lower bitrate as there are no fast movement to resolve.
My camera use 20 mbit for regular recording but only 4 mbit for low bitrate parking mode.

It is perfectely fine to use a 2 channel camera VS 2 single channel systems, i would never go back to single cameras unless it is a system extraordinary good at something,,,, low light recording for instance, but no such camera around, they are more or less build with the same hardware.

Also remember if there is rain / snow / dew on your car glass, a dashcam will not see anything, if your problem is at home, and it is possible i strongly recommend using CCTV cameras instead of dashcam.
In my case the back year are very dark at night so a dashcam would not see anything but darkness, my CCTV camera on my 2 floor apartment balcony door is just fine in 0 light as it have build in IR light

My camera are also a zoom camera and pan and tilt so i can use it to look around.

My system ( IP cameras ) also have smart motion detect, so only human or vehicle shaped movement in areas i designate will trigger a alarm to my phone and tablet on my bedside table.
and i am zoomed in as you need that to be able to identify a person doing wrong to your car.

 

[bilolid]

First of all, thank you very much for sharing so many informations with me.

I didn’t think about my needs the way you describe it so precisely. It appears that I must reconsider the situation.

I think what would be perfect for me is :

- not to record anything while parking at home during nights and weekends because I live in a very quiet and sure place ; it would be OK to have nothing plugged in as it seems to be more reasonable, but it also would be OK to only set the parking mode that lights on and records when some inner movement is detected by the gyroscopic sensor (not with light sensor as you say that is not reliable)

- record automatically everything with enough FPS and details when I drive my 20 minutes way to work / come back, with both front and rear cameras ; it would be nice if I don’t have to light on (automatic lightning and recording when I start the electric engine) and don’t have to light off (automatic shutdown and stand by mode when I end)

- set a more sensitive temporary parking mode when I park in a crowded street where non-cautious people are used to strike vehicles while they park or ride (every regular week day)

The question now is what kind of cam should I buy and install for such needs. In addition with what I said before, my priorities are : small and discrete cameras, not-so-perfect-picture but reliable if there is a car hurt, the less human operations every day to use the system.

The A129 duo + the HK3 kit seems to be good.

I already have a Nextbase 322GW front and rear + the fuses and cables kit, but I find the front camera very large and visible, while I read that the parking mode is not reliable.

I think about returning Nextbase kit so as to buy the Viofo A129 kit.

What do you think about that ?

 

[kamkar]

Cameras like the nextbase ones that hand strait down off the windscreen are more visible i think, the wedge shaped cameras work good in my car as i can install them on the dotted area on top of the windscreen and just have the lens peek out below the dotted area.
But a new car like your Zoe probably have some sensors at the middle of the windscreen and so you will have to mount a bit offside to that, that is also fine just be sure to turn on the camera so you can hold it up to the windscreen and move it around so you can be sure it will be in a good place when you install it.
I can not remember if the A129 have wifi, if it have using the live preview in the app are good to use lining the camera up

The wedge cameras often come off as another sensor.

you can browse the picture thread of peoples installs to get a feeling for what is possible in cars with a windscreen layout similar to the one you have to work with.
Start with the newest posts and work back in time thru the thread.

Where did you mount the camera? Post your pictures

Cameras are good, it is for sure the short cable. Used the long cable to test both cams and they are fine. When using the short cable on both cams, neither worked. If these plugs are standard, what are they called? I can try to find some locally (highly doubtful though). I wouldnt mind making it...

dashcamtalk.com

My last posts there are on page 54, i am fortunate the way my cheap Suzuki car is made, give room for many cameras on the windscreen, which i some times need when many send me cameras to test.

Where did you mount the camera? Post your pictures

A nice install (y) Might want to aim the lens down a notch if you get washout in bright sun ;) And Welcome to DCT :cool: Phil

dashcamtalk.com

I am not 100 % sure what parking mode the A129 support, the regular motion detect are not good in any cameras, it tend to be too sensitive and so if you park in a place with lot of activity it will record all the time.
Granted the low bitrate i prefer also record all the time, but the much lesser bitrate generate less heat and use less space, and it is fine for anything at slower speeds.

At first trying low bitrate i was nervous it would not be good enough quality to resolve a plate on a passing car, so i did a test as soon as i could and was pleasant surprised.

Of course you still need light, i would not be able to capture plates on passing by cars in the same spot at night,,,,,, but that is the same for any dashcam you can buy, simply a limitation in the hardware that is in use in current dashcams.

This is recorded with the SG9663DR system, but a viofo system should be much similar in its abilities,,,,, if the A129 support the low bitrate mode.
I also only use parking guard for 1 hour on the timer in the camera as that cover all my shopping, i do not park at work as i do not work ( retired ) i can always up the timer to get a longer parking guard duration, but i want to go easy on the small battery in my car, the battery are just 45 Ah so it dont last as long for parking guard as a 60 or 90 Ah battery would do, but no room for such a large battery in my little car.

There is also dedicated power banks for dashcams, but these are not cheap and you will have to add several to get "long" time parking guard.

You can most often change motion detect sensitivity, but it never work good in dashcams, and generally they are much too sensitive no matter the setting.

 

[kamkar]

Generally if you use parking guard, and say you have a garage, then you dont need parking guard there, all you have to do is turn off the car, it then change to parking guard, then you just long press the power button and it turn off.
Everything will then be back to normal on your next drive, it is only temporary you disable it, some brands viofo among others are now experimenting with geo fencing, so you can tell the camera to use parking guard in some places and not use it say at home.
But i am not quite aware on how far things have come in this regard, but it is a nice feature that might be useful to some people, so far though i think it is still in testing stage.

 

[kamkar]

This is parking guard footage from my side cameras ( well 1 of them ) it is motion detect. ( cut short in post production )

But now we ( i ) am into a whole other level of dashcam addiction,,,,, just showing that that is possible too, even if it is hard as dashcams are not really made for use on the side of the cars, but my little car have some fixed glass on both front and rear doors, so i choose to install on that on my rear doors.

 

[kamkar]

I forgot to tell, as i use low bitrate parking guard the camera record all the time, so if my car have been parked a long time and something have happened, i dont know when and so would have to look over all the footage.
So to not do that i have the G- sensor on too while parked, this mean if the car get hit a event will also be locked away in the read only folder.

This is the only sane use of G sensor to me, it should not be on while driving as driving over bumps ASO might also trigger false events, and really you will want as few false events in any way, parked or while driving, as they just use up memory card space, and as events are read only the camera can not overwrite them to make more room.
Or that is i think many new cameras will also overwrite the read only files but there are room for a lot of them, so only if your system generate a lot of false events or you look at your recordings rare will that ever be a problem.
Same go for using the manual event / emergency button, i use that myself to save little things in traffic, and i only go for footage once a month, and then i still have event files going back several months as manual events pressing the button is all the events my car see as it do not get hit while parked.

Main thing, not least wanting to use parking guard is get a big memory card, and really today and using parking guard, that card should be 256GB in size,,,,, 128GB at the very least if money are a problem.
I dont drive much myself ( 30 min daily on average ) and only using parking guard for 1 hour every time i stop, so with 256GB cards in my cameras i have footage going back more than a week, this of course change if you drive a lot, maybe have the camera in a work car.

 

[bilolid]

Kamkar, thank you for your help and all the details you provide.

I don't read so much about battery car plugging. Do you guys recommend to supply energy directly from that battery ?

My mechanic proposed me to deal with all the hardwire stuff, having all cables hidden inside the interior the best way till the car battery. But this is a 250 dollars cost, so I want to be absolutely sure about the cam system I chose before setting any Rendez-vous with him.

Is there a way of plugging onto the battery car, but I can chose my parking mode easily ? For instance, pushing one button would be recording 100% of the time at a low bitrate on a 256 Gb SD ; but pushing another button would just set low sensitive parking mode that would only record one picture each second, with G sensor activated to record normally if something is detected ; pushing a third button would turn it off while parked at home. And normal recording in both front / rear cams begins every time I light ON the engine, without pushing any button.

On the contrary, do you recommend to install an external battery that would be linked to the fuse, instead of the car battery ?