VIOFO A129 non-IR 1080p Modified Firmware MODs Archive

[jokiin]

With my car appends one strange thing: if i drive then park the car the camera records all night but for some reason if i need open the doors on something that use the battery the 3HK controller shuts down the camera.
I think the voltage drops when i open the car door.

check the circuit you're connected to, voltage has to drop for 100 seconds before the cutout takes effect, your interior lights alone should not cause enough of a voltage drop by themselves

 

[Jonro2009]

Hi. I’m going to update the firmware I’m currently running on my A129. At the moment I’m using a modded version of the v1.5, I believe it is .4uh

Outdoor temps are between 2 and 13degrees, my rear window is tinted and allows aprox 20% of light through. I have the narrower coated lens, I drive at all times of the day/night as I am a shift worker. I do have a CPL filter on the front lens. I use the 5fps Time Lapse for parking mode and have a modified inline switch for easy control of the camera. I also have the BT remote button and keep WDR and WiFi off.

What is the best mod firmware for me to use? There are so many to choose from and they all offer different advantages. I have tried to decide myself and I’m sure I read somewhere about the difference between the ‘Up’ and ‘Uo’ versions but can’t find it now.

Thanks to @BCHobbyist and the team for all the hard work you guys do, it’s much appreciated.


So, I was going to go with Mod-6Up would this be a good choice?



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[DMW]

There's a wide amount of choice of mods to go for which will please different users, what I would do if I was you would be to use the first version for a few days and then use the last version again for a few days which the results will then give you something around the lines of 1 is too bright/not focused enough and at the other end of the scale the opposite and take it from there rather than starting in the middle, even though you might end back up in the middle

Meaning the 1 I go for could be the wrong 1 you would go for in your setup

 

[kernelp]

Hello,

Can you put the source code of the .bin on github or give us some info how we can edit it?

Thanks

 

[BCHobbyist]

Hi. I’m going to update the firmware I’m currently running on my A129. At the moment I’m using a modded version of the v1.5, I believe it is .4uh

Outdoor temps are between 2 and 13degrees, my rear window is tinted and allows aprox 20% of light through. I have the narrower coated lens, I drive at all times of the day/night as I am a shift worker. I do have a CPL filter on the front lens. I use the 5fps Time Lapse for parking mode and have a modified inline switch for easy control of the camera. I also have the BT remote button and keep WDR and WiFi off.

What is the best mod firmware for me to use? There are so many to choose from and they all offer different advantages. I have tried to decide myself and I’m sure I read somewhere about the difference between the ‘Up’ and ‘Uo’ versions but can’t find it now.
Thanks to @BCHobbyist and the team for all the hard work you guys do, it’s much appreciated.
So, I was going to go with Mod-6Up would this be a good choice?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

If you disable Parking Mode setting but instead enable regular Time-Lapse Recording setting it will work in all MODs.
If you install older MODs then enable Parking Mode with Hardwire kit and get it to work with 5 fps keep that firmware. The new Bitrate adjustments on MOD series Uj , Uk , Um , Un , Uo , Up interfere with Parking Time Lapse Modes. I'm waiting for next official firmware v1.60 for possible fix.

All MOD descriptions, downloads, tips and reviews are now on my Blog > https://viofo-dash-cam-modified-firmware.blogspot.com/p/download-a129-mod-file.html
Uq = in Beta testing (enhances vivid color saturation more than Uo).
Up = enhances color balance plus a tiny brightness increase.
Uo = boosts color saturation slightly, lowers Sharpness slightly, increase Edge detection.

 

[BCHobbyist]

Hello,

Can you put the source code of the .bin on github or give us some info how we can edit it?

Thanks

Viofo Firmware is not open source. My MODs only adjust hex code of released official firmware binary file versions.

 

[rvcjew]

Running 5up for the Duo and so far it is great, afraid to push it further as it can get 100F here. Any recommendation on whether I should have WDR on or off, I have it off currently. Here is some footage that youtube compressed a bit but still looks better then the stock for sure.

 

[BCHobbyist]

Running 5up for the Duo and so far it is great, afraid to push it further as it can get 100F here. Any recommendation on whether I should have WDR on or off, I have it off currently. Here is some footage that youtube compressed a bit but still looks better then the stock for sure.

Thanks for sharing the A129 Duo 5Up footage, your front Lens has perfect focus and the Lens angle brightens the roadway for better detail, color looks great, if you want to dim bright sky angle up slightly. That Rear camera has very good focus, I had to refocus mine by 1mm twist towards sensor (tighter) to improve center focus.

Excellent decision to stay with 25 Mbps MOD, this is exactly why it was created. 100F temperatures require disabling unnecessary features, don't leave Parking Mode recording in hot sun all day, change 60fps to 30fps and disable WiFi , each create more heat than my 30 Mbps MOD.
Usually I suggest leaving WDR off, for A119 owners driving at night it helps, but Sony Sensor doesn't really need it unless the goal is to brighten shaded areas during the day. WDR really looks horrible in very dark areas with trees/bushes.
MOD-5Up works well with your A129, the only thing I'd suggest is attaching the larger CPL Filter which doesn't dim as much as other smaller original CPLs.

 

[rvcjew]

Thanks for sharing the A129 Duo 5Up footage, your front Lens has perfect focus and the Lens angle brightens the roadway for better detail, color looks great, if you want to dim bright sky angle up slightly. That Rear camera has very good focus, I had to refocus mine by 1mm twist towards sensor (tighter) to improve center focus.

Excellent decision to stay with 25 Mbps MOD, this is exactly why it was created. 100F temperatures require disabling unnecessary features, don't leave Parking Mode recording in hot sun all day, change 60fps to 30fps and disable WiFi , each create more heat than my 30 Mbps MOD.
Usually I suggest leaving WDR off, for A119 owners driving at night it helps, but Sony Sensor doesn't really need it unless the goal is to brighten shaded areas during the day. WDR really looks horrible in very dark areas with trees/bushes.
MOD-5Up works well with your A129, the only thing I'd suggest is attaching the larger CPL Filter which doesn't dim as much as other smaller original CPLs.

Mine did not come with a filter for the lens that snaps on if that is what you mean, it just has the lens that's in the housing. Where the cam sits in the front if I angle it higher its not on a gear point and will flop up and down unless i point it higher at the sky and lose the hood and below. I don't use parking mode as hard wiring to my edge is a PIA so don't want to deal with that at the moment. I'm actually about to go pick up some meds so will have some night footage. My back window is quite tinted so i'm wondering how it will turn out. I do not have wifi on as I know that degrades the quality and unless the phone is on airplane mode and you specifically pick 2.4ghz band it wont stay connected, it was great help placing the cameras though.

 

[rvcjew]

Update: Night footage is up

go to the middle to see the rear cam, i'v also ordered a CPL to see the difference on head lights at night. Might need to boost the cam exp on the rear so the night is better, also what is the edge detection like what does it do to the picture, it just bumps contrast of the edges? Also I do not have sharpness or video format settings in my menu am I supposed to like in the recommended settings on this page? https://viofo-a129-duo-dash-cam-review.blogspot.com/2019/02/suggested-a129-menu-settings.html

 

[BCHobbyist]

Update: Night footage is up

go to the middle to see the rear cam, i'v also ordered a CPL to see the difference on head lights at night. Might need to boost the cam exp on the rear so the night is better, also what is the edge detection like what does it do to the picture, it just bumps contrast of the edges? Also I do not have sharpness or video format settings in my menu am I supposed to like in the recommended settings on this page? https://viofo-a129-duo-dash-cam-review.blogspot.com/2019/02/suggested-a129-menu-settings.html

The Front camera night footage is excellent, you must have the wide angle uncoated Lens which produces brighter image.
CPL Filter on Front camera non-tinted windshield is a must have item. Tinted rear windows are a pain, any increase in Exposure will increase motion blur, especially at night. The Edge Detection adjustment is a minor form of sharpening and was important for older firmware versions suffering from Sharpness issues. The current A129 FW v1.50 has very good image quality and color, it benefits from higher Bitrate and minor adjustments. We'll see what the new FW v1.60 produces later this month.

My Blog lists the already released image controls from other models, very soon the A129 and other models will all have new image control settings added to the Menu. The A119S already has Video Format and Sharpness settings but I still think there is a bug in the .TS video format option which could be why it's being held back for A129.

 

[BCHobbyist]

My Wishlist for next official VIOFO A129 Firmware changes are :

Add 5 second Buffer to all Parking Modes capturing video prior to event detection for better protection.
Change Bitrate from Normal / High in single camera mode ==> Normal 24Mb/s + Medium 26Mb/s + High 28Mb/s (use same levels for 1080P 60fps and 30fps)
Change Bitrate from Normal / High in dual camera mode ==> Normal 20Mb/s + Medium 22Mb/s + High 24Mb/s
Change Sharpness from Strong 3 / Normal 2 / Soft 1 ==> Stronger 5 + Strong 4 + Normal 3 + Soft 2 + Softer 1
Change Boot Delay default from Off ==> 5 seconds
Add Power Off Temperature ==> 85C to 60C , Off
Add Color Saturation option ==> Neutral + More + Vivid
Add Brightness option ==> Auto / Low 1 to High 10
Add Contrast option ==> Auto / Low 1 to High 10
Add Beep Volume ==> Low + Medium + High
Add Beep Sound ==> Button Beeps Off
Add Front Camera Mirror ==> On / Off
Add Bluetooth ==> On / Off

 

[vvs49]

BCHobbyist!!
When recording, writes sound with a strong buzz.
And not only me ....
As I think, very large microphone sensitivity.
Put on headphones and listen !!!

Ночь.MP4

drive.google.com

 

[Jonro2009]

Thank you @DMW @BCHobbyist for your replies. I wasn’t aware that the latest updates mess with the parking mode so thanks for the heads up. For that reason I will stick with the firmware I currently have, until such a mod comes out that doesn’t cause clashes.

Out of interest is it just the time lapse parking that is affected, does low bitrate parking mode work as it should?


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[BCHobbyist]

Thank you @DMW @BCHobbyist for your replies. I wasn’t aware that the latest updates mess with the parking mode so thanks for the heads up. For that reason I will stick with the firmware I currently have, until such a mod comes out that doesn’t cause clashes.

Out of interest is it just the time lapse parking that is affected, does low bitrate parking mode work as it should?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We are all waiting for the new Buffered Parking Firmware.
The bottom of 7 listed Parking Mode options = Low Bitrate Recording works perfectly with MODs and Power Banks, - but - it's designed for recording sound in 30fps 4 or 8Mbps as continuous MP4 video, the same as driving, filling up the memory card.

 

[BCHobbyist]

BCHobbyist!!
When recording, writes sound with a strong buzz.
And not only me ....
As I think, very large microphone sensitivity.
Put on headphones and listen !!!

Ночь.MP4

drive.google.com

You are correct about the new A129 huge microphone with red & black wires. Where it is attached inside camera using black tape can cause vibration issues or proximity to memory card or chips that can generate static such as Bluetooth or WiFi. The position of those red & black thin microphone wires can also pickup hum/buzzing static interference. In my next Tips video will be showing where to move those wires away from hottest area and reposition microphone. The red & black wires and tape really ruins the nice clean and professional look of the new silver shielding/heatsink plate.
All Viofo camera models produce hum when testing indoors. Usually caused by power source + unshielded cable + human super power conductivity.

 

[vvs49]

Thanks, the microphone wires are really very long ....
We are waiting for a decision !!

 

[jokiin]

BCHobbyist!!
When recording, writes sound with a strong buzz.
And not only me ....
As I think, very large microphone sensitivity.
Put on headphones and listen !!!

Ночь.MP4

drive.google.com

if your mic is positioned on top of the memory card like the picture above move it away, the mic will pick up electrical noise from the memory card

 

[BCHobbyist]

All VIOFO A129 Dash Cameras leave the factory with microphone taped over microSD card reader.
The end user shouldn't have to open the camera and fix it.
But I'll create another DIY video anyway.

 

[vvs49]

Yes, I'm solder, without wires and rubber damper on top, like that.
This is a microphone from dvr V747W

But I'll create another DIY video anyway.

Fine!!