VIOFO Improvement Wish List 2023

[Eyefivedashcam]

I’m just glad I found this forum. Lots of useful information here.

 

[Panzer Platform]

I'm not sure that discharging the battery pack below 11.8 volts is a good idea. It may go to significantly lower voltage, but there isn't actually much power left in it at that point, and a full discharge will reduce the lifespan of the battery pack significantly more than an 11.8 volt cutoff. Not saying that a cutoff disable option is a bad idea, just that I wouldn't recommend using it for an LiFePO4 battery pack.

Yo Nigel,
Long time no see. lol
Welcome back.

The battery pack's BMS (Battery Management System) has taken this into account.
The battery pack's BMS is designed to completely discharge the battery to "0%".
Maybe @rcg530 can confirm this.
-Chuck

 

[Panzer Platform]

I'm not keen on the idea of the 32GB SD card as I would end up as e-waste for me.

This “small” 32GB SD Card is NOT intended to serve as the main memory card for the service life of the camera.
It is critical to include so the consumer can perform these 4 functions;
1.) Initial set up.
2.) Pre-installation testing.
3.) Recording malfunction diagnosis.
4.) Perform firmware updates.
Number #3 is the most important.
Most consumers buy the cheapest “unapproved” SD Card, and this will most likely cause recording malfunctions.
If the consumer has a “known good card” on hand to help troubleshoot the “bad” card this will expedite diagnosis.
What happens now is the consumer blames the camera, and thinks it’s a piece of junk, and returns it.

BlackVue & Thinware include SD Cards with their cameras.
I have personally purchased $20-$30 dash cams from brands like Crosstour, Apeman, and other “cheap” manufacturers, and even they included SD cards with the camera.
What I'm trying to say is, including some kind of compatible SD Card should be a "minimum requirement".
-Chuck

 

[Nigel]

Yo Nigel,
Long time no see. lol
Welcome back.

The battery pack's BMS (Battery Management System) has taken this into account.
The battery pack's BMS is designed to completely discharge the battery to "0%".
Maybe @rcg530 can confirm this.
-Chuck

The battery pack's BMS may well cut off the power at 0%, but if you look up the technical information for discharging LiFePO4 batteries, it is clear that at 11.8 volts there is not much power left and there is general agreement that although you can go to 0%, it is not good for the battery lifespan. You may want to go to 0% if you don't care about lifespan, but it should probably not be recommended, especially as you should not have much to gain. Did you actually measure how much power was unused at 11.8v cutoff by connecting the IGN and seeing how much longer it lasted for? It appears in your post that you just timed how much longer the battery lasted with the camera powered off, which is obviously going to be a lot longer than if something had been drawing power...

 

[Panzer Platform]

Amazon which has a high return rate, this will cause extra loss when users return the camera. 90% of Amazon returned products are almost new.

If you are having a high rate of returns within the first 30 days of use, the most likely cause of this is the camera’s advertised claims DO NOT match the consumer’s expectations when it gets into their hands.
It’s possible they learn after purchase to fully utilize the parking mode feature with “reliable operation” they must purchase additional equipment that is sold separately for $18, (hardwire kit).
Or the consumer experiences recording malfunctions due to incompatible SD Cards.
If the consumer feels mislead by your advertising, they will be upset and most likely return the camera for a refund.
In order to fix your high rate of customer returns within the first 30 days of ownership I propose three solutions;

1.) Revise your advertising so consumers are fully aware they must purchase the $18 “optional accessory” hardwire kit for “reliable operation” of enable parking mode.

2.) Replace included Cigarette Lighter Adapter & USB Type-C cable with the Hardwire Kit so the consumer has full access to all advertised features, (Parking Mode) without incurring any further additional cost on “optional accessories”.

3.) Include BOTH the Cigarette Lighter Adapter & USB Type-C cable, AND the Hardwire Kit with a $10 price increase.

Your current advertising is not clear to the consumer, and appears to be misleading.
For example the A119 Mini 2 Amazon item description claims IN BIG BOLD LETTERS at the top of the page;
“Buffer Parking Mode”.
It’s not until the consumer scrolls all the way down to the bottom of the item description that it reads in small print:
“Please separately order the HK4 hardwire kit to use three parking modes.”
-Chuck

 

[Panzer Platform]

Did you actually measure how much power was unused at 11.8v cutoff

It looks like i need to perform another test / experiment.
I will measure how much power / capacity / run time is left in the battery pack when the hardwire kit determines 11.8 Volts has been met, and turns off the camera.

but if you look up the technical information for discharging LiFePO4 batteries

I don't think this fully applies in this situation because of the battery pack's BMS.
I think this applies to discharging individual LiFePO4 cells when no BMS has been implemented.
But I've been wrong before. lol
-Chuck

 

[safedrivesolutions]

Definitely want the parking mode events audio readout. It really shouldn't be that hard to implement with a counter in storage and some audio clips. It would be a great advertising feature. I had a car alarm 1 billion years ago that would beep for the amount of times the car alarm went off while I was gone.

I'm not keen on the idea of the 32GB SD card as I would end up as e-waste for me.

A huge percentage of customers will use the SD card in the box. A very low percentage will cast it to the side.

 

[Nigel]

I don't think this fully applies in this situation because of the battery pack's BMS.
I think this applies to discharging individual LiFePO4 cells when no BMS has been implemented.
But I've been wrong before. lol

That is a very reasonable expectation, however from the voltages we see, it seems almost certain that you can use the guidelines for individual cells, remembering that there are 4 cells in series so you need to multiply the voltages by 4, and since the cells are in series and there will be some imbalance, sticking to the guidelines is more important than for single cells. I suspect the developers were more interested in winning the comparison test for camera runtime by at least 1 second, than they were in achieving a 10 year lifespan for the battery pack!

Interested to hear your new test result; if you get significant extra run time then I would agree with requesting the extra option, although I wouldn't use it myself...

 

[Panzer Platform]

remembering that there are 4 cells in series so you need to multiply the voltages by 4

I don't understand what this means.
When I took apart the BBMC PC8 I found it was made up of 20 cells;

BlackboxMyCar PowerCell 8 Test & Review PP

In a previous life, among my responsibilities were maintaining mainframe level comms and software equipment, I also had responsibility for DC power systems that exceed 1500 amps and powered several floors of equipment. So, I know a little something about power, but not everything. I do know...

dashcamtalk.com

Interested to hear your new test result; if you get significant extra run time then I would agree with requesting the extra option, although I wouldn't use it myself...
I'm discharging the PC8 with an A119 Mini 2 in Low Bitrate Parking Mode.
The Cellink Neo APP indicates 67% battery life, 28 hours remaining.
Why does science take so long? lol
Just between me, you, and the fence post I don't use parking mode in my personal life at all.
In the rare time I leave my car unattended I just leave the cameras running in normal recording mode.
But I'm all for improving how parking mode functions for the sake of improving the industry.

 

[speeedy]

Thanks for your so many significant suggestions. We will take them into consideration and please give us time to keep optimizing.

I would also like to add that I would love if parking mode had the feature of geofencing for when the car is at home.

I currently spend a lot of time at home, so discharging the cars battery till the HK4 turns off seems wasteful to me (even when it’s set to the max 12.4v/24.8v)

I would love to have a feature that when I enter a 1mile/1km radius of a designated area, parking mode is automatically not enabled.

 

[Karagandinez]

I would also like to add that I would love if parking mode had the feature of geofencing for when the car is at home.

I currently spend a lot of time at home, so discharging the cars battery till the HK4 turns off seems wasteful to me (even when it’s set to the max 12.4v/24.8v)

I would love to have a feature that when I enter a 1mile/1km radius of a designated area, parking mode is automatically not enabled.

1 km is quite a lot. I have 4 stores with parking lots within a radius of 1 km where I can’t do without parking mode.

 

[Panzer Platform]

I would love to have a feature that when I enter a 1mile/1km radius of a designated area, parking mode is automatically not enabled.

The feature already exists.
Just turn the camera off with the power button.

 

[Karagandinez]

The feature already exists.
Just turn the camera off with the power button.

When I advised this option on another forum, I was told that it is very difficult.

 

[speeedy]

The feature already exists.
Just turn the camera off with the power button.

Wow for real? That’s huge. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Nigel]

I don't understand what this means.
When I took apart the BBMC PC8 I found it was made up of 20 cells;

There appear to be 4 groups of 5 cells, each group has 5 in parallel, the groups are in a series of 4, which will give 4x the single cell voltage.
Here is a chart showing voltage vs %power for a battery with cells connected like that:

At 11.8 volts it is on the steep decline, in the damage zone, with not much power left to find.
The Hardwire Kit is not necessarily capable of working down to 10 volts anyway, the voltage converters to convert to 5V may need more than 10 volts in the battery to work, so you may not be able to run the camera to zero power anyway.
Lets see what the results are...

The Cellink Neo APP indicates 67% battery life, 28 hours remaining.
Why does science take so long? lol

Maybe you should have used an A139 with 3 channels!

 

[Panzer Platform]

Maybe you should have used an A139 with 3 channels!

Way ahead of ya.
You can't outsmart me. lol
I connected my Drok USB load tester, and cranked it up.
See you in 8 hours.

 

[Nigel]

I connected my Drok USB load tester, and cranked it up.

Excellent, although it might be a good idea to remove it at 25% remaining, otherwise the HW Kit will cut off sooner (due to voltage drop caused by the extra load), and the results on how much longer an A119 will run will be inaccurate.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Excellent, although it might be a good idea to remove it at 25% remaining, otherwise the HW Kit will cut off sooner (due to voltage drop caused by the extra load), and the results on how much longer an A119 will run will be inaccurate.

Good idea.
Just to be clear I disconnected the camera, and plugged in the hardwire kit to the USB Type-C input on the Drok.
I think I will drain it at the current level down to 10%, and then switch it back to the the A119 Mini 2.
After the Mini 2 drains the battery down to the 11.8 Volt cut-off, and shuts off the camera I’m thinking about measuring the remaining capacity / run time by connecting the A119 Mini 2 using the plug & play method of parking mode with the CLA & USB cable connected to the CLA Output of the battery pack.
The downside of this method the camera will run in normal recording mode for 5 minutes before it goes into parking mode.
That’s a difference of 3.2 Watts to 2.1 Watts for the first five minutes of operation.
Then I will charge the battery pack to 10%, and drain it back down with the Mini 2 in parking mode to the 11.8 Volt cut-off point.
Then I will measure the remaining capacity again using a 194 bulb as a load to calculate the remaining Wh by seeing how long it remains illuminated.
Sound good?
Btw, why aren't you also performing this experiment with your battery pack?
I imagine you have the UK Power Core Brand.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Dear @viofo & @VIOFO-Support

I found this review on the A119 Mini 2 Amazon listing, it was written 2 days ago.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B0C5MVB7NX
It says;
It intermittently stops recording.
Cant trust it!
Customer service was no help with this matter.
Their only reply was to purchase specific micro USB card.

If only you had included that small 32GB Viofo MLC SD Card so the consumer could test the camera malfunction free, before trying a larger capacity SD Card.
You had a potential future loyal customer, and turned them against you.
You only get one chance to make a first impression.
Most likely the customer returned the camera, and bought a different brand.
If they did, that means you just lost market share.
-Chuck

 

[kamkar]

I am on the cusp of buying my first 512 Gb card, but i am not doing it before i have found a 256GB card that work in the current dashcams i test in the car.
Even if the price today it is not a substantial investment, then my experience from 256GB where 3 out of the 4 last memory cards i have gotten have not worked in some ( viofo ) systems, so i want to play it safe and not add to that trend i have been having with memory cards.
Adding even a smaller than 32 GB card, it would make insane good sense to me, it would be nice for troubleshooting CUZ you know that card should work, and you could call it a firmware update memory card.

You should just probably say on the packaking " including XX GB troubleshooting memory card " CUZ no one should sell dashcams with silly small memory cards for general operation.

When you engage with customers / service like that Amazon above, the Viofo REP should have said " due to compatibility issues with all dashcams it is not guaranteed all memory cards will work " and then maybe a link to the page / picture of memory cards confirmed to work with the product.
It might also be a good idea by viofo to have the QVL ( Qualified Vendor List ) of memory cards right there on the front of a sales listing with the pictures and what not of the product, many simply do not understand this issue, yo be honest even i dont fully understand it CUZ IMO there are standards for memory cards so why dont they all work.

it might even be a good idea to have a "warning" on sales material, letting people know about only certain memory card brands / models with work with this product.
That at least will be there in the face of people, so they have a chance of knowing and so make a informed memory card purchase,,,,, CUZ i bet this is probably one of the most prolific support questions viofo or any other dahscam brand get.

CUZ as it is now people see " O i need a micro SD card " Then thy go looking for those, and i assume quickly learn they come in different sizes and prices, so they settle for a size they can afford and then look for that, and find there are like 50 models to choose from, and what do people do " filter with the cheapest ones first " and then they buy a card.

TBH i have wondered for a long time the memory card issue are not more prominent in any dashcam brands sales material. It is a very real issue after all.