VIOFO T130 Review

[rcg530]

During my testing today, the T130 started to randomly stop recording and begin beeping and then start recording again and then stop and then beep. I've been using a VIOFO 128GB high speed MLC microSD U3 memory card and then I tried another card (SanDisk Extreme Pro 256GB V30 U3 A2 card) and the problem continued.

It appears the T130 unit that I have has a problem writing to any microSD card.

I'm reporting this to VIOFO now.

More info on this issue.

I gathered video footage of the problem, created a video that I uploaded to my Google Drive to send to VIOFO when I noticed something as I was writing the email to VIOFO support.

I had the T130 powered up and it began a continuous beeping event while is was in "Normal" recording mode and the power draw dropped down because it was not writing to the memory card.

I then noticed that if I moved anything into the field of view of the interior camera (only one pointing in my direction on my test bench), the beeping would stop and it would start recording for a about a minute and then start the continuous beeping until I moved something into the field of view of the interior camera again. The parking mode selection was set to "Time lapse 1 fps" at that time.

I decided to use the app and go into the firmware settings screen for the T130 and use the "Reset Camera Setting" option and set them back to the default values. That rebooted the dashcam and I then used the app to select my preferred firmware settings again.

The T130 has been happily writing to the memory card ever since.

I was using the VIOFO app to update the parking mode setting to test power draw amounts for each parking mode type. There may be a problem when you update the firmware settings of the T130 several times, but at this point I can't tell for sure.

Now back to gathering more power consumption details after that multi-hour detour....

 

[rcg530]

I reran my power consumption tests accounting for one big power demanding feature, the IR LEDs. After I was able to get through the multi-hour detour I went through with what looked like a memory card issue, I returned to the power consumption tests I had planned for today. There's a home construction crew across the street and it was time to pour the cement so, no video recording for me today...

As part of the memory card investigation, I restored the T130 to its default settings using the "Reset Camera Setting" feature in the VIOFO app. I went through and selected what I had adjusted from the default values before, but I apparently made one additional change with regard to the "IR LED" setting. The default value for that is "On", so the IR LEDs are on 100 percent of the time and thus drawing power day and night. This time I selected "Auto" and that resulted in the IR LEDs being off during my testing since I'm running the tests in my home office / filming studio.

I was seeing lower milliamp values than I had observed and posted. It took me a few minutes to figure out the difference in the settings. That made it obvious I needed to run a set of power consumption tests with the IR LED setting set to "Auto" (effectively off during the day) and then compare those results with the previous results with the IR LED setting set to "On".

On average, the IR LEDs consume 52 mA. I tried several of the power consumption tests with it set to "On" again just to get a good running average of the difference between "On" and "Auto" (off during the day). In my spreadsheet, I use the "IR LED Off" milliamp value and I add 52 mA to it to get the "IR LED On" column value. Using 52 mA in my calculation resulted in values that was either spot on or within 1 to 2 millamps of the observed value.

The T130 power draw with the IR LEDs off is more consistent with (still a bit higher) other 2-channel cameras I've reviewed.

I also ran the HK4 low voltage cutoff test to see how many milliamps the HK4 hardwiring kit continues to draw after cutting off the power to the camera when the low voltage threshold has been breached. That number is 4 mA which is the same value as just plugging the HK4 into the vehicle's two power sources, but not being connected to the T130.

 

[SawMaster]

Ah, that sounds better Odd that Viofo defaults the IR LED's to 'on", as most cams default that to 'auto'. And HWK idle at 4mA sounds a lot more in line with my expectations.

Thank You for all the effort to find and document this for us And now one more request: Can you send me the winning lottery numbers please? As good as you are with numbers I figured I might as well ask

Phil

 

[Nigel]

I also ran the HK4 low voltage cutoff test to see how many milliamps the HK4 hardwiring kit continues to draw after cutting off the power to the camera when the low voltage threshold has been breached. That number is 4 mA which is the same value as just plugging the HK4 into the vehicle's two power sources, but not being connected to the T130.

After low voltage cut off, does the HK4 still have the internal power LED lit?

I assume that is where almost all the 4 mA goes, so when it is off the current should drop to more like 0.4 mA, but maybe it doesn't turn off on the current versions?

 

[LateralNW]

@rcg530 raise’s an interesting point.
Constant loss when you think the HWK has switched off the power from the battery.

A mechanical relay will be the only way to stop current.
Even with the most efficient circuits it will still draw current.
It may be in the uA but it will still be drawing current.

A mechanical relay I believe is the only way to stop any current draw.

Surprising that they aren’t in the current devices.

Worth thinking about.

 

[SawMaster]

Cost and reliability are involved. And what we've got now is acceptable to the average dashcammer who drives more or less regularly. The car itself is going to have more losses while parked keeping it's computers on standby. Is this extra current draw enough to make dashcams a real concern, or is it a small percentage being added to what's already happening? I don't know but as long as it's in the single-digit mA range I don't think it's a big issue. Not hard to DIY a relay solution for those truly concerned about it.

Phil

 

[rcg530]

After low voltage cut off, does the HK4 still have the internal power LED lit?

I assume that is where almost all the 4 mA goes, so when it is off the current should drop to more like 0.4 mA, but maybe it doesn't turn off on the current versions?

The HK4's internal LED does turn off when the low voltage cutoff takes place. I ran another test this morning and it continued to consume 3 mA after the cutoff.

 

[Nigel]

A mechanical relay I believe is the only way to stop any current draw.

But mechanical relays use a lot of power when they are on!

It is normal to switch these things using Mosfet transistors, which will effectively consume nothing, especially when off. They are switched by voltage rather than current like standard transistors.

Cost and reliability are involved. And what we've got now is acceptable to the average dashcammer who drives more or less regularly. The car itself is going to have more losses while parked keeping it's computers on standby. Is this extra current draw enough to make dashcams a real concern, or is it a small percentage being added to what's already happening? I don't know but as long as it's in the single-digit mA range I don't think it's a big issue. Not hard to DIY a relay solution for those truly concerned about it.

Phil

I'd rather it was less than 1mA, but you are correct, the car will be using several 10s of mA for various purposes, which is why car batteries typically go flat after 3 to 4 weeks of no use, even with no dashcams installed. I measured 40 mA in use by my car, but it is hard to measure accurately since it has pulses of high use for things like ultrasonic transmitters/receivers for intruder detection. The car's computer is on all the time, you can plug into the CAN bus and ask for the battery voltage at any time, updated continuously.

 

[Harsh]

I'd have to locate my older VIOFO A119 series dashcams and run a series of tests on them to see of they consume similar amounts of power, but I don't currently have the time in my schedule to do that.

The values I remembered seeing were using a USB doctor adaptor, which displayed current draw at 5V.

 

[LateralNW]

But mechanical relays use a lot of power when they are on!

Not all relays require high current to function.
I don’t think ~1mA energised relay can be considered a lot of power @2A contact rating.
The relay would be off when the circuit is off, so no load in off mode. And therefore no drain at all on the car battery.

MOSFETS have Idss - Zero Gate Voltage Drain Current

So some loss is still going to happen. Granted at very low values.

 

[LateralNW]

average dashcammer who drives more or less regularly.

While I generally agree I have read more than one person on this site who don’t use their car everyday.

Having the HWK completely shut down is important.
If it still has a small current drain then the HWK is not really off and could drain the car battery completely flat.

I think @rcg530 has introduced an interesting question.

Perhaps purely academic but good food for thought.

 

[rcg530]

While I generally agree I have read more than one person on this site who don’t use their car everyday.

Having the HWK completely shut down is important.
If it still has a small current drain then the HWK is not really off and could drain the car battery completely flat.

I think @rcg530 has introduced an interesting question.

Perhaps purely academic but good food for thought.

This HWK (HK4) drawing 3 mA or 4 mA when it has cutoff off the power to the camera is not a large draw, but given the scenario of the HWK module turning off the power to the dashcam because the low voltage level has been breached it's somewhat of a concern. That's another reason I'm not a fan of having the HWK module set to any voltage below 12.2 volts. At least at 12.2 volts, there should still be sufficient battery power to start the engine again. Most modern vehicles will have a 10 mA to 30 mA load on the vehicle's battery when all of the modules go fully to sleep when parked.

The one that was a bit more surprising was when I used the power button to turn "off" the camera. The T130 and the HK4 combined were drawing 11 mA after it reached its steady state draw level. I'm a dashcam user that will turn off the dashcam while the vehicle is parked in my garage to conserve battery power and file system writes / space on the microSD card. For me, it makes no sense to record the inside of my garage.

If you've watched any of my BlackVue dashcam review videos, you know I've been asking BlackVue to add a power on/off button for some time now. Given they don't have a power button, I ended up adding a DPST power toggle switch to the power feed wiring which allows me to fully cutoff the power to the dashcam (or to the 12-volt to 5-volt power adapter if the dashcam I'm testing uses that type of device). If the dashcam is equipped with a supercapacitor, the supercapacitor in the dashcam allows the dashcam to power down gracefully and fully since absolutely no power is being provided to the dashcam (accessory or constant battery) when I turn off the power using the power toggle switch I added to the circuit. My way of protecting the charge level of the vehicle's battery or the dashcam battery pack's charge level - depending on how the dashcam is being powered.

If the vehicle is driven on a daily basis (to/from work) and the vehicle's battery is sufficiently charged by the drive time of the vehicle, then the power draw of the dashcam is not a big issue. If the vehicle is driven infrequently, then the dashcam / HWK power draw becomes something that needs to be monitored and/or addressed. I'm a fan of using battery maintainers for vehicles that are driven infrequently to give the vehicle's battery the best chance at a long and productive service life. With the vehicle battery being fully charged by the maintainer, it gives the dashcam the best chance to have the highest battery charge level available for longer parking mode recording sessions when the vehicle is driven, especially if the trips are short ones and the vehicle may be parked for several hours during the trip.

 

[rcg530]

I rearranged the dashcams in my car yesterday to make room for the T130 3-channel dashcam. Given the fact that the interior camera is part of the main unit, it greatly limits the locations that I can use for that camera and still have it see the inside of the car and not get in my direct line of sight while driving. The T130 is currently located just to the right of the center rear view mirror. The T130 interior camera can view most of the interior of the car, but the center rear view mirror gets in its way a bit. I could not find that "just right" spot for the T130 so it had full visibility of the car's interior and it was out of my line of sight. That's one of the negatives of this configuration.

I have a BlackVue DR900X 2-CH Plus front dashcam in the center of the windshield out of sight because the center rear view mirror hides it and it's also my main dashcam for this car including the CM100LTE connectivity module. I have a BlackVue DR750X 2-CH Plus front camera on the left side of the center rear view mirror right at the top of the windshield. The DR750X is as much out of my line of sight as possible, but it is not the best location for it. I'm tracking an issue with the BlackVue X series rear cameras right now, so that's why I need both of those in the car in addition to the VIOFO T130.

The T130 has the VIOFO CPL filter for the A139 / T130 installed. The video quality from the front camera is very good. The camera has a consistent focus quality across the full view range.

The T130 interior camera so far looks good during the daytime. The rear camera also looks decent most of the time, but there are select times the sky and some objects at ground level are a bit over exposed, but overall not bad.

I have the T130 powered by the Type-C HK4 hardwiring kit. The T130 enters / exits parking mode as expected when the ignition switch is turned on/off.

I have the T130 parking mode configured for "Low Bitrate" recording. A couple of times during my trip when the car was parked, I walked up to the front windshield and tapped on the windshield to trigger an "event". In the low bitrate video, you can hear the T130 announce "Video Protected". All three low bitrate video files were moved to the DCIM\Movie\RO directory. I'll test the "Auto Event Detection" and "Time Lapse" parking configurations in some future tests.

Here are some example snapshots from the three video files as a fire engine was passing my car.

 

[rcg530]

This video contains sample daytime footage from a VIOFO T130 3-channel dashcam. It has a license plate detail comparison at the end of the video.

 

[rcg530]

I've been trying to gather some nighttime driving footage with the T130, but the weather has not been cooperating. This winter in Northern California, we've been getting spurts of intense rain and then dry for a long time. Right when I'm trying to gather nighttime driving footage with the T130, it's been raining or foggy. This week looks like another full week of rain. I hope to start wrapping up the gathering of video footage for the review this week.

 

[Dadi_T]

I don't know why everbody looks for perfect weather to test a dashcam. Natural weather conditions involve bad weather too and a good dashcam should handle that too.

 

[rcg530]

I don't know why everbody looks for perfect weather to test a dashcam. Natural weather conditions involve bad weather too and a good dashcam should handle that too.

I'm not looking for perfect driving conditions, just ones that won't endanger my car or myself while driving around consuming $4.50 per gallon gas to gather dashcam footage.

 

[rcg530]

The dense fog stayed away long enough after sunset for me to get a test drive in to gather nighttime footage with the T130 3-channel dashcam.

Front Camera:

I made one pass on this route with the CPL installed on the front camera and one without the CPL installed. You can definitely see a difference in the brightness level.

Left Side = CPL Installed / Right Side = No CPL


Rear Camera:

The rear T130 1080p rear camera seems a bit more grainy (higher ISO setting?) than I expected at night:


Here's the BlackVue DR900X Plus rear camera screenshot:


Interior Camera:

During my power consumption tests, I found the interior camera's IR LEDs had their on/off/auto setting set to on causing them to be on 100 percent of the time. I changed that setting to "Auto" so the IR LEDs don't consume power during daytime parking mode recordings.

During this test drive at night, I found the IR LEDs were on for about 2 seconds, turned off for about 2 seconds and then the IR LEDs were being activated again with a large "flash" in IR mode. That pattern repeated every 6 seconds during the entire trip.

I reported the issue to VIOFO support and about 20 minutes later I received a response saying they would correct that in a future firmware release.

Thanks @ogzogz for the suggestion about the aiming of the interior camera.

One of the biggest issues I had installing the T130 was to find a place on my car's windshield that will not block any other dashcam already installed, position it so it won't block my line of sight and still have the interior camera get a decent view of the interior of the car.

I went out and tested if rotating the camera down would stop the cyclical pattern I noted in this post. I found that rotating the interior camera downward so the roof headliner was just out of sight made the 6 second repeating pattern stop. I cannot move the T130 any further right to get the center rear view mirror fully out of sight, but it does not appear to be necessary.

 

[ogzogz]

During this test drive at night, I found the IR LEDs were on for about 2 seconds, turned off for about 2 seconds and then the IR LEDs were being activated again with a large "flash" in IR mode. That pattern repeated every 6 seconds during the entire trip.

I reported the issue to VIOFO support and about 20 minutes later I received a response saying they would correct that in a future firmware release.

View attachment 59390

View attachment 59389

View attachment 59388

There is no software problem for this. camera positioning is incorrect.
IR lights hit the mirror and roof of your vehicle.
For this reason, it gets into the confusion of whether it is day or night due to the light hitting very close objects. And this will continue as it is in automatic mode.

As a solution, it is necessary to move the camera to a position where the mirror and ceiling do not enter the frame.

@VIOFO-Support

Exposure values reset when the camera is turned off and on.If the exposure setting is selected - or +,
if the camera is turned off and on,
the last exposure you selected will appear in the settings,
but it will save as 0.0 when recording.
resets whenever it is turned off and on.

 

[rcg530]

There is no software problem for this. camera positioning is incorrect.
IR lights hit the mirror and roof of your vehicle.
For this reason, it gets into the confusion of whether it is day or night due to the light hitting very close objects. And this will continue as it is in automatic mode.

As a solution, it is necessary to move the camera to a position where the mirror and ceiling do not enter the frame.

I revised my previous post to note that rotating the interior camera downward stopped the 6 second repeating reset cycle. Thanks again!