Which battery pack for parking mode with Viofo?

[Anthropos]

I used the 12V output of the battery connected to the HK-4 hardwire kit from Viofo. Set to the lowest voltage setting.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPLY, I ordered 70mai Parking Surveillance Cable Adapter and VIOFO Type-C HK6 ACC Hardwire Kit for A329S Series to connect 70mai battery pack with A329S using it myself της 12V output of the 70mai battery

 

[onkasongbi]

I used the 12V output of the battery connected to the HK-4 hardwire kit from Viofo. Set to the lowest voltage setting.

Perfect! This is exactly what I'm planning to do when the parts are delivered. I opted for the cigarette lighter port to charge the 70mai battery since the vehicle is still new and under warranty and don't want to mess with the fuses/electrical system just yet. Thanks for the reply!

 

[onkasongbi]

I used the 12V output of the battery connected to the HK-4 hardwire kit from Viofo. Set to the lowest voltage setting.

Hello, super basic and dumb question here but I just wanted to double-check to be safe. I connected the Viofo cable from the 12V output port of the battery to the hardwire kit which then connects to the camera. When connecting the 12V output cable to the hardwire kit, I did the following:

(left side = 12V output cable <---> right side = hardwire kit)
GND = GND
VCC = Battery+
ACC = ACC

The hardwire kit had some kind of metal ring at the end of the ground cable which I cut off since the 12V output cable and the hardwire kit were spliced together with a snap-on wire connector that was already on the 12V output cable. I lightly tugged on each end to make sure that the connections were proper and secure.

 

[rcg530]

Hello, super basic and dumb question here but I just wanted to double-check to be safe. I connected the Viofo cable from the 12V output port of the battery to the hardwire kit which then connects to the camera. When connecting the 12V output cable to the hardwire kit, I did the following:

(left side = 12V output cable <---> right side = hardwire kit)
GND = GND
VCC = Battery+
ACC = ACC

The hardwire kit had some kind of metal ring at the end of the ground cable which I cut off since the 12V output cable and the hardwire kit were spliced together with a snap-on wire connector that was already on the 12V output cable. I lightly tugged on each end to make sure that the connections were proper and secure.

Your connections look correct. The thing to be careful of is making sure which wire is BAT+ or ACC since VIOFO has the red wire for BAT+ and the yellow wire for ACC power. Other manufacturers will use yellow for BAT+ power and red for ACC power. The wires on the VIOFO hardwire kit should have had a tag/label on them identifying them, but sometimes that is overlooked or they get removed by the installer.

 

[onkasongbi]

Your connections look correct. The thing to be careful of is making sure which wire is BAT+ or ACC since VIOFO has the red wire for BAT+ and the yellow wire for ACC power. Other manufacturers will use yellow for BAT+ power and red for ACC power. The wires on the VIOFO hardwire kit should have had a tag/label on them identifying them, but sometimes that is overlooked or they get removed by the installer.

Just a hypothetical question, but what if the two cables were connected together incorrectly? (In other words, the yellow and red wire were mixed up ...VCC gets connected to ACC and ACC gets connected to Battery+). The fact that parking mode is triggered in the first place (i.e. you can hear the voice saying that it has entered parking mode) is proof that the hardwiring was done correctly, right? (A misconfiguration could not trigger parking mode, right?)

 

[rcg530]

Just a hypothetical question, but what if the two cables were connected together incorrectly? (In other words, the yellow and red wire were mixed up ...VCC gets connected to ACC and ACC gets connected to Battery+). The fact that parking mode is triggered in the first place (i.e. you can hear the voice saying that it has entered parking mode) is proof that the hardwiring was done correctly, right? (A misconfiguration could not trigger parking mode, right?)

If the hardwire kit's ACC / BAT wires were connected to the vehicle power as you just asked [backwards], the dash camera would power down when the ignition is turned off instead of going into parking mode.

 

[onkasongbi]

If the hardwire kit's ACC / BAT wires were connected to the vehicle power as you just asked [backwards], the dash camera would power down when the ignition is turned off instead of going into parking mode.

Great, so I at least know that the wiring was done correctly because it enters parking mode every time I turn off the ignition (it even includes the voice that says parking mode has been activated). I wanted to rule the wiring out because I'm having an issue of the dash cam not recording any footage for either parking mode or just regular mode when driving. I will say that I'm not using a Viofo micro sd card (I just ordered a 512GB one earlier today which will take some time to arrive) but a SanDisk 128GB max endurance instead which was recommended by Viofo on their website. I need to rule out the battery being the issue so I will temporarily connect the dash cam directly to the cigarette lighter port and see if it at least records in regular mode when driving. If that works, then I will try to reset all the settings in the dash cam and try again with the battery. I'm not sure how the battery can be faulty ...it either supplies power or it doesn't. In my case, it definitely is supplying power to the dash cam because the camera turns on when I start the engine (or even in accessory "ACC" mode). I do know that the wiring between the battery and the dash cam requires proper configuration in order to communicate to the camera that parking mode should be initiated when the ignition is turned off. (I know this communication is occurring because it enters parking mode whenever the ignition is turned off as stated earlier). Any ideas? I have to wait until I get the Viofo card delivered so that I can rule out the card as being the issue or not.

 

[rcg530]

Great, so I at least know that the wiring was done correctly because it enters parking mode every time I turn off the ignition (it even includes the voice that says parking mode has been entered). I wanted to rule the wiring out because I'm having an issue of the dash cam not recording any footage for either parking mode or just regular mode when driving. I will say that I'm not using a Viofo micro sd card (I just ordered a 512GB one earlier today) but a SanDisk 128GB max endurance instead (which was recommended by Viofo on their website). I need to rule out the battery being the issue so I will temporarily connect the dash cam directly to the cigarette lighter port and see if it at least records in regular mode when driving. If that works, then I will try to reset all the settings in the dash cam and try again with the battery. I'm not sure how the battery can be faulty ...it either supplies power or it doesn't. In my case, it definitely is supplying power to the dash cam because the camera turns on when I start the engine (or even in accessory "ACC" mode). I do know that the wiring between the battery and the dash cam requires proper configuration in order to communicate to the camera that parking mode should be initiated when the ignition is turned off. (I know this communication is occurring because it enters parking mode whenever the ignition is turned off as stated earlier). Any ideas? I have to wait until I get the Viofo card delivered so that I can rule out the card as being the issue or not.

I've used SanDisk Max Endurance cards with VIOFO [and many other brands] without problems. I would use the dash camera to format the memory card to eliminate any issue [if any] on the memory card's file system. If the dash camera can't format the card, it should complain that the format request was unsuccessful. I've not encountered a failure to record any videos on the memory card with a VIOFO dash camera.

 

[onkasongbi]

I've used SanDisk Max Endurance cards with VIOFO [and many other brands] without problems. I would use the dash camera to format the memory card to eliminate any issue [if any] on the memory card's file system. If the dash camera can't format the card, it should complain that the format request was unsuccessful. I've not encountered a failure to record any videos on the memory card with a VIOFO dash camera.

I always formatted the memory card through the app. Does it make a difference to format it through the dash cam itself? I'm beginning to wonder if the issue is with the camera itself because I have used both a 128GB SanDisk Max Endurance and a 512GB SanDisk High Endurance (yes, I know the second one is not recommended) and the end result is the same for both. I'd hate to think that it will be a similar result with the Viofo card when it arrives as well.

@Anthropos , how is your A329S Pro with 70mai battery setup working so far, especially with the parking mode? Have you encountered any issues so far?

 

[rcg530]

I always formatted the memory card through the app. Does it make a difference to format it through the dash cam itself? I'm beginning to wonder if the issue is with the camera itself because I have used both a 128GB SanDisk Max Endurance and a 512GB SanDisk High Endurance (yes, I know the second one is not recommended) and the end result is the same for both. I'd hate to think that it will be a similar result with the Viofo card when it arrives as well.

Whether you use the on screen menu or the VIOFO app to invoke the dash camera's format function, it's still the dash camera that is formatting the memory card.

Does the A329S state the number of channels "started" when it begins normal or parking mode? Is the HK6 USB-C power connector plugged into the GPS module's USB-C port?

After running a test and powering down the dash camera, when you remove the memory card and view the memory card contents on a computer, are there any files in top level "Movie" directory [normal mode recordings] or "Movie\Parking" directory [parking mode files]?

What parking mode are you using? If you're using Auto Event Detection [AED] you may not find any files in the "Movie\Parking" directory unless motion was detected or an impact occurred.

Have you tried setting the parking mode type to "Low Bitrate" which will continuously create video files while in parking mode?

 

[onkasongbi]

@rcg530 I actually have the A229 Pro with HK4 hardwire kit. It does say recording in 2-channel mode when it is powered up (hoping it will say 3-channel in the near future when I install the interior camera after it arrives).

What parking mode are you using? If you're using Auto Event Detection [AED] you may not find any files in the "Movie\Parking" directory unless motion was detected or an impact occurred.

I actually used low bitrate from the beginning because it records audio as well. Research tells me that the nightvision 1fps time lapse uses the lowest power, but losing out on the audio is a large tradeoff for me.

After running a test and powering down the dash camera, when you remove the memory card and view the memory card contents on a computer, are there any files in top level "Movie" directory [normal mode recordings] or "Movie\Parking" directory [parking mode files]?

I haven't tried this yet, but I believe the issue I was having earlier was due to privacy mode being enable. According to the manual, "When the privacy mode is on, the dashcam only saves the latest 2 (for single-channel camera) or 4 (for dual-channel camera) or 6 (for three-channel camera) normally recorded video files." This may explain why I thought the camera wasn't recorded when in fact it may have, but only saves the latest four recorded video files (and the front/rear pair counts as two so that would just mean two different time points for the pair's recorded videos). This makes me wonder what the point of privacy mode is in the first place (the vortex radar youtube video led me to believe that it doesn't record all of the audio in the video or obfuscates some of it so that private conversations in the car aren't recorded ...I guess not!)

@VIOFO-Support , what is the true purpose of privacy mode?

 

[rcg530]

@rcg530 I actually have the A229 Pro with HK4 hardwire kit. It does say recording in 2-channel mode when it is powered up (hoping it will say 3-channel in the near future when I install the interior camera after it arrives).


I actually used low bitrate from the beginning because it records audio as well. Research tells me that the nightvision 1fps time lapse uses the lowest power, but losing out on the audio is a large tradeoff for me.


I haven't tried this yet, but I believe the issue I was having earlier was due to privacy mode being enable. According to the manual, "When the privacy mode is on, the dashcam only saves the latest 2 (for single-channel camera) or 4 (for dual-channel camera) or 6 (for three-channel camera) normally recorded video files." This may explain why I thought the camera wasn't recorded when in fact it may have, but only saves the latest four recorded video files (and the front/rear pair counts as two so that would just mean two different time points for the pair's recorded videos). This makes me wonder what the point of privacy mode is in the first place (the vortex radar youtube video led me to believe that it doesn't record all of the audio in the video or obfuscates some of it so that private conversations in the car aren't recorded ...I guess not!)

@VIOFO-Support , what is the true purpose of privacy mode?

I believe the privacy mode feature is for locations {E.U.} that have data privacy requirements to not retain the conversations / video of the vehicle occupants except for the most recent 1-minute recordings.

 

[onkasongbi]

I believe the privacy mode feature is for locations {E.U.} that have data privacy requirements to not retain the conversations / video of the vehicle occupants except for the most recent 1-minute recordings.

That's a rather unfortunate setting to have in the options menu because it initially led me to believe that my camera was not recording! Anyways, I keep notes of the settings configuration for future reference, and I made sure to highlight that the privacy mode should ALWAYS be off.

 

[VIOFO-Support]

@rcg530 I actually have the A229 Pro with HK4 hardwire kit. It does say recording in 2-channel mode when it is powered up (hoping it will say 3-channel in the near future when I install the interior camera after it arrives).


I actually used low bitrate from the beginning because it records audio as well. Research tells me that the nightvision 1fps time lapse uses the lowest power, but losing out on the audio is a large tradeoff for me.


I haven't tried this yet, but I believe the issue I was having earlier was due to privacy mode being enable. According to the manual, "When the privacy mode is on, the dashcam only saves the latest 2 (for single-channel camera) or 4 (for dual-channel camera) or 6 (for three-channel camera) normally recorded video files." This may explain why I thought the camera wasn't recorded when in fact it may have, but only saves the latest four recorded video files (and the front/rear pair counts as two so that would just mean two different time points for the pair's recorded videos). This makes me wonder what the point of privacy mode is in the first place (the vortex radar youtube video led me to believe that it doesn't record all of the audio in the video or obfuscates some of it so that private conversations in the car aren't recorded ...I guess not!)

@VIOFO-Support , what is the true purpose of privacy mode?

That feature is added for obeying policy in some countries and for users who do not want to save many videos on the cards.

 

[onkasongbi]

That feature is added for obeying policy in some countries and for users who do not want to save many videos on the cards.

Ahh okay. It just seems to defeat the purpose of using a dash cam in the first place. For those of us who did not understand the feature before (like me), it made me think that my dash cam was faulty because it seemed that it wasn't recording and making videos.