VIOFO A329 2CH - Testing / Review - RCG

[rcg530]

HDMI Output:
I have a feeling Viofo brought back the A/V output (HDMI) for the folks who keep asking;
“Can I use the 2.4” LCD screen on the main unit as live view backup camera with the rear camera feed?”
Or commercial applications like bus / truck drivers.
Would you be interested in testing this out?
I thought about testing it out but it would require purchasing a monitor, and a micro HDMI cable;
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B089YSHMYS

I'm not actively planning on spending any additional money for the HDMI feature. Purchasing the two SSD drives was a large enough expense for now.

 

[viofo]

Does this mean different SSD's will have different power consumption rates / parking mode run times?
I was really hoping for Impact Only Parking Mode with sub 1 Watt power consumption.

The Only Parking Mode doesn't save power, as it keeps pre-recording.

 

[viofo]

HDMI Output:
I have a feeling Viofo brought back the A/V output (HDMI) for the folks who keep asking;
“Can I use the 2.4” LCD screen on the main unit as live view backup camera with the rear camera feed?”
Or commercial applications like bus / truck drivers.
Would you be interested in testing this out?
I thought about testing it out but it would require purchasing a monitor, and a micro HDMI cable;
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B089YSHMYS

Most of dashcams don't support HDMI and video out now due to the license issue, the chipset vendor cut this feature.
We added this feature on A329, maybe some users need this with the latest dashcam technology.

 

[rcg530]

I updated post 4 with this additional info:

One thing to note about AED parking mode when the SSD is the primary storage for the A329 is that the A329 does seem to reduce power to the SSD drive while the A329 is waiting for an impact or motion event. Since the A329 is buffering video/audio when the impact/motion event takes place, the A329 has some time to fully power up the SSD to begin writing the video to the SSD file system. Power consumption remains at motion/impact recording levels for approx 60 secs when first starting AED mode or an AED recording completes.

 

[Agie]

Video Storage Options

New video files can be written to the microSD card or to an externally connected SSD drive.

You can select which of the memory storage locations will receive newly created video files:

View attachment 74135View attachment 74136

You can manage the videos stored on the SSD video this menu option

You can backup the video files stored on the microSD card to the SSD if you only wish to use the SSD to archive video files originally stored on the microSD card.

View attachment 74137View attachment 74138View attachment 74139View attachment 74140

You can delete video files currently stored on the SSD drive using the "Delete External SSD Files" option

View attachment 74141

You can send video out the micro HDMI port using this setting (I've not tested this feature yet)

View attachment 74142

Would love to see a more detailed progress panel than just number of files, maybe percentage wise. Or time remaining. But understandable because you can only display so many characters on a small screen ...

 

[GPak]

A329 2CH Power Consumption Testing

Please keep in mind that the A329 2CH dash camera I used for my testing is a pre-production/prototype unit. There may be optimizations made in the hardware or firmware (after v1.0_240830) that may impact the power consumption test results.

The A329 supports writing new video files to an external USB-C memory device (primarily a Portable SSD). The A329 must provide power to the external storage device which of course will increase the power consumption of the A329 when configured in that manner. I have two rows for each video/test configuration so I show the "microSD only" power consumption and when a portable SSD device is configured as the primary storage destination for new video files. I used a SanDisk 1TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD during my power consumption testing with a SSD connected to the A329. Since the SSD draws power from the A329, parking mode times are reduced when compared to the microSD card parking mode time estimates.

Power Consumption Test Results [click on thumbnail to see]
View attachment 74154

Parking mode time estimates based on the power consumption test data [click on thumbnail to see]

View attachment 74155

One thing to note about AED parking mode when the SSD is the primary storage for the A329 is that the A329 does seem to reduce power to the SSD drive while the A329 is waiting for an impact or motion event. Since the A329 is buffering video/audio when the impact/motion event takes place, the A329 has some time to fully power up the SSD to begin writing the video to the SSD file system. Power consumption remains at motion/impact recording levels for approx 60 secs when first starting AED mode or an AED recording completes.

View attachment 74160

Wow, what a big difference in power consumption when parked between MicroSD and SSD!
I wonder if the A329 can be configured to write to SSD while driving and switch to MicroSD when parked

 

[mommam034]

Too bad
The rear camera cable would be great if used with A139 pro.

 

[Panzer Platform]

The Only Parking Mode doesn't save power, as it keeps pre-recording.

I don’t understand what you mean.
Vueroid D21 4K, and Thinkware U3000 have Impact Only Parking Mode with power consumption in the 2 mA - 7mA range (0.1 Watts).
@safedrivesolutions
Do I have this correct?
Can you explain this better?