Viofo A129 BLUETOOTH always ON issue. Will this be addressed in the future Firmware?

[stehanson]

I can't believe that there is no one interested in having an option to switch BT off as manual states.

I am.
Thanks.

Cant see any benefit in having the ability to turn it off its low power and from a health pov negligible, in fact as you drive around other items will transmit EMF at higher levels

stop worrying!

 

[Andy555]

I'm curious how do you go about your daily life if you are that worried about wifi radiation from the dash cam. Almost any building you walk into these days have wifi hotspots, often many.

 

[Nigel]

I'm curious how do you go about your daily life if you are that worried about wifi radiation from the dash cam. Almost any building you walk into these days have wifi hotspots, often many.

You don't need to go near a building, even your car key probably radiates more energy than the A129 Bluetooth, and my car wont move without the key.

Of course it is possible to buy an ancient car where you put the key in the lock barrel to open the door and start the engine, and in some places it is still possible to buy stuff without a contactless credit/debit card, but most of us have several radio transmitters in our pockets that are never turned off.

If you really do manage to get away from it all, you still can't drive your car, those spark plugs in the engine generate a huge amount of radiation, especially in older cars where they used to generate a lot of radio interference.

 

[mollydog]

I think it would be fascinating if one could go out and buy some sort of eye glasses like those night vision goggles,

but these glasses when placed in front of your eyes would show up all the radio, infrared, bluetooth,TV and wifi waves right in front of you

 

[jokiin]

I think it would be fascinating if one could go out and buy some sort of eye glasses like those night vision goggles,

but these glasses when placed in front of your eyes would show up all the radio, infrared, bluetooth,TV and wifi waves right in front of you

you'd never be able to see, would be too much going on

 

[SudoSage]

I'm curious how do you go about your daily life if you are that worried about wifi radiation from the dash cam. Almost any building you walk into these days have wifi hotspots, often many.

😎

 

[DMW]

What about the amount of time your in your home with gas central heating, and in shops with there air conditioning units etc the list goes on and on and your worried about the tiniest amount of BT.

 

[NomadTech]

View attachment 45674
😎

You forgot the grounding wire.

 

[turbo73]

If I remember correctly, then the A129 current version performs a quick look for the remote at startup and if the remote is not found then it stops transmitting Bluetooth, even if the remote is found, the remote will only communicate when it is pressed, for the rest of the time there will be no transmissions.

In any case, it is the low power version of Bluetooth which can run for many years on the tiny battery inside the remote control, it does not have enough energy to cause damage to humans.

As for the wifi, that doesn't do a lot of transmitting either unless you are watching a video, and if you really consider wifi to be a serious problem then you should not be on the roads because quite a lot of cars now have wifi as standard equipment and you will be irradiated as they pass your car! Also don't use the trains since they now have wifi hotspots on them, and don't walk either since you will have to pass houses, and most of them now have wifi systems!

As for the health issues, the World Health Organisation has studied these things and concluded:
"The World Health Organization (WHO) has researched electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and their alleged effects on public health, concluding that such exposures within recommended limits do not produce any known adverse health effect." : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_electronic_devices_and_health

The issue should be taken seriously, and I do know of someone who died 3 days after encountering EMF coming through a wall which he knew nothing about, definitely caused by the EMF, but that was also definitely above recommended limits!

Interesting. Would you know if this also is the case for the a329, that BT automatically turns off if no remote is present?

 

[Nigel]

Interesting. Would you know if this also is the case for the a329, that BT automatically turns off if no remote is present?

Bluetooth Low Energy, as used in the A329 and remotes is designed for battery devices, like the remote. It uses insignificant power unless it is actually transmitting. I think the A329 attempts to communicate with the remotes at startup, then doesn't transmit anything unless it receives something, and listening uses a tiny amount of power compared to general operation.

Viofo does like to keep the wifi turned off if not in use, but that uses a more significant amount of power. It is reduced with Wifi 6 though, so I'm not sure it is that important to keep the wifi off now.