When Can We Expect the A129 Pro / 4K?

[Nigel]

Blimey he floored that after the initial engine light beeped on - impressive performance from the Viofo camera there though.

As for the Viofo cams I know they're tight inside but is there anyway something like a Raspberry Pi 5v fan would help get the heat away from the system board? In a hot car I guess you're always fighting a losing battle with heat.

Something like https://www.adafruit.com/product/3368 is pretty small.

No, he didn't floor it, that was the engine drinking all the engine oil instead of fuel while the driver had his foot on the brake!

Fans are not good for audio quality or long term reliability!

 

[reverend]

No, he didn't floor it, that was the engine drinking all the engine oil instead of fuel while the driver had his foot on the brake!

Fans are not good for audio quality or long term reliability!

If there are issues in hot climates though the fan may have to be a trade off for those users (maybe another variant). Have the SoC and microSD slot got a heatsink on and if so how big are they?

 

[Nigel]

If there are issues in hot climates though the fan may have to be a trade off for those users (maybe another variant). Have the SoC and microSD slot got a heatsink on and if so how big are they?

Maybe if you want to use parking mode in Death Valley you will need to use a 12v car fan plugged into the car accessory socket, but for most places they do seem to have succeeded in solving the problems. Unlike some other manufacturers, Garmin Mini thread!

The Gitup F1 4K has also worked fine without heat issues, and that has no fan.

 

[reverend]

Sounds good - I'm off to have a read of the Garmin Mini thread then

 

[Nath]

@viofo I’m desperate with my DR900S, how much do you want for the prototype? It'll not be the first time for me to pay for betatesting (at least this time i'll be perfectly aware of that)

 

[TonyM]

@viofo I’m desperate with my DR900S, how much do you want for the prototype? It'll not be the first time for me to pay for betatesting (at least this time i'll be perfectly aware of that)

You paid Blackvue to test their camera? Or you bought one and feel like you have been testing it for them?

I'd like to get my hands on a DR900S to compare with the A129 Pro...

 

[JohnnyMnemonic]

You paid Blackvue to test their camera? Or you bought one and feel like you have been testing it for them?

Lol, isn't that a running joke concerning BlackVue cams though, that we're basically their paying beta testers? It's one main reasons I decided against purchasing their products after much reading around on here and elsewhere over the years.

 

[Julian23]

I have some questions, maybe someone who got a sample can answer them.

Does the Dashcsm cause problems with DAB+?
Does it decrease the range from keyless?
If the cable is running in the roof, will I have worse LTE/ phone connection ( sim card used directly by the car)
@viofo maybe you can bring some light in the dark.

 

[Nigel]

I have some questions, maybe someone who got a sample can answer them.

Does the Dashcsm cause problems with DAB+?
Does it decrease the range from keyless?
If the cable is running in the roof, will I have worse LTE/ phone connection ( sim card used directly by the car)
@viofo maybe you can bring some light in the dark.

I would assume that with most of the interference coming from the rear camera and its cable, if you are using the same rear camera as on the A129 Duo then the interference will be the same. Might be a little better, Viofo do seem to have been improving radio interference.

It is a question that is impossible to give an exact answer because a lot depends on the quality of your DAB radio and antenna, keyfob radio and antenna and phone radio and antenna, probably mainly dependent on them rather than the camera.

I've not noticed any issue on my car, and I can hear the interference since I use an analog radio.

 

[dctkezz]

In a pinch would it be possible for the camera to under clock it self and record 1080p 60fps till the temp is reduced. I'd imagine most of us turn the AC on when we start to drive on a hot day. Only the first few mins would be would be reduced resolution.

 

[TonyM]

In a pinch would it be possible for the camera to under clock it self and record 1080p 60fps till the temp is reduced. I'd imagine most of us turn the AC on when we start to drive on a hot day. Only the first few mins would be would be reduced resolution.

At 1080p60 or even 1080p30, any camera is going to warm up rather than cool down. The camera can run at a temperature much hotter than you can endure inside a car.

 

[StinkyCheese]

@viofo What would you consider hot weather testing? It easily gets 50C+ (digital thermometer I have stops at 122F) inside my pickup and that's with tinted windows and a sunshade up. Heck it was 109F today inside the cab and it was over cast. Cam is almost certainly subjected to significantly hotter temps being on the windshield and having the reflective sun shade. Running a A119S V2 for a year no problems, just recently installed one of the firmware mods found on this site for it which upped the bit rate. Also does parking mode create more heat than normal running mode? I never use parking mode as I have zero worries about killing my battery so I'm constantly recording if I'm not parked at home. Unless I forget to unplug the power then I'll be recording at home too lol

 

[Nigel]

@viofo What would you consider hot weather testing? It easily gets 50C+ (digital thermometer I have stops at 122F) inside my pickup and that's with tinted windows and a sunshade up. Heck it was 109F today inside the cab and it was over cast. Cam is almost certainly subjected to significantly hotter temps being on the windshield and having the reflective sun shade. Running a A119S V2 for a year no problems, just recently installed one of the firmware mods found on this site for it which upped the bit rate. Also does parking mode create more heat than normal running mode? I never use parking mode as I have zero worries about killing my battery so I'm constantly recording if I'm not parked at home. Unless I forget to unplug the power then I'll be recording at home too lol

50°C inside is not particularly hot, the specification for Viofo cameras says they work into the 60s and they are tested for that. Parking mode should run a little cooler since it will be writing less to the memory card, and the memory card is one of the critical components. Does depend on which parking mode, but low bitrate parking mode writes 1/4 of the data on the A129 Duo, around 1/10th on the A129 Pro, which should make a significant difference to the card temperature. Generally low bitrate parking mode records similar detail to full bitrate so you wouldn't lose much if you did use it.

 

[StinkyCheese]

50°C inside is not particularly hot, the specification for Viofo cameras says they work into the 60s and they are tested for that. Parking mode should run a little cooler since it will be writing less to the memory card, and the memory card is one of the critical components. Does depend on which parking mode, but low bitrate parking mode writes 1/4 of the data on the A129 Duo, around 1/10th on the A129 Pro, which should make a significant difference to the card temperature. Generally low bitrate parking mode records similar detail to full bitrate so you wouldn't lose much if you did use it.

50C (122F) is where my digital thermometer stops, I know it gets hotter than that and that's just the inside temp not the temp of the device. That's 50C+ sitting on the center console, not the dash underneath the sunshade. I have an analog thermometer in the AC vent but it only shows current temp not the highest, I forget to check and see what that one shows.

 

[jokiin]

interior temps will easily go +30°C above ambient temps

 

[evlo]

I think it is li-ion battery less device, so as long as you save settings to memory that is not held by the battery temperatures should not be the issue. I remember graphic cards can run GPU at 120C before slowing down, lot of electrical components are rated to 170, some 300C. Just because water and humans boil at 100C does not mean that electronic does.

I'm more concerned about voice prompts about problem with recording or recording started, in cars with 70mais I got used to that, so it would be great, for me, to have cam that does have voice prompts and 4k, ideally h265 4k.

I wonder what is this temperature scare about rally.

BTW on hot day in south of Czechia gound gets to 70C and we are not even considered sub-tropical country


EDIT: I see memory card is the issue, ok, that makes sense then, ignore my post

 

[Nath]

Damn! Useless for Parking Mode in hot climate. What was the temperature outside?

Sorry, missed your reply. 37°C in shade if i'm not mistaken.

You paid Blackvue to test their camera? Or you bought one and feel like you have been testing it for them?

I'd like to get my hands on a DR900S to compare with the A129 Pro...

Thank god no...

It's pretty common nowadays that you buy supposedly finished product and when you get it you're actually bugs reporter. Don't tell me you haven't noticed it yet.

 

[Nigel]

I wonder what is this temperature scare about rally.

Started when Viofo asked for a tester in a "hot as hell place", so clearly Viofo isn't sure that it will work in Death Valley and a few other uninhabitable places around the world!

Or maybe, because of all the problems that other manufacturers are having with heat, Viofo wants to prove that it will work anywhere, and the brochure will claim "Advanced Cooling System (ACS): Dashcam works perfectly in places that are hot as hell!"

Now everyone wants to improve the camera to make sure it can work in places even hotter than hell, hence the suggestions of fans etc. Maybe there are some good suggestions that will be used, but I know Viofo have done a lot of work on the cooling and have already considered most suggestions.

Of course the heat tolerance of the memory card is not in Viofo's hands, it should work with cards from all card manufacturers, so that is an issue. Although they could say that it can only be used in hot as hell places if using a Viofo MLC memory card, those cards do seem to be rather good.

 

[TonyM]

It's pretty common nowadays that you buy supposedly finished product and when you get it you're actually bugs reporter. Don't tell me you haven't noticed it yet.

I notice this more with dashcams than any other electronic device. I've become used to them not working 100% out of the box.

I don't think I've found serious bugs in any of my DSLRs. Phones and computers do seem to get a lot of bug fixes these days, but I'm not actively finding and reporting them.

 

[dunkdash]

Nigel has started a thread for A129 Pro 4K footage: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/viofo-a129-pro-dual-dashcam-4k-front-1080-rear.40094/