wolfbox g840S mirror dash cam front image upside down

[sfttac]

Call me crazy, but I know this worked at one time. The rear image is fine and can be selectively flipped upside down or mirrored in the settings. However, the front camera cannot be adjusted. You can mechanically move the lens, but only up and down. It does not rotate. All of my front facing videos are upside down! Any ideas? I have contacted wolfbox support and got what they said was the latest firmware. I asked for this because the gps wasn't working. This turned out to be a gps antenna issue, not a firmware issue. Regardless, the firmware they gave me matched the version I had.

I did find an older version of the same firmware on another forum (not here), and I downloaded it and tried it. The font changed slightly and I see that the firmware is 3 months older than what I originally had. The front image is still upside down.

On this site I found it mentioned that there is a config.ini file.
I located this file on the SD card (it was in a hidden directory) and it contains the following:

LcdPWMOffset=20 ;
PRMOffset=208 ;
ScdOffset=340 ;
BcScdOffset=538 ;
RecordWithAudio=0 ;
TimelapseByWd=0 ;
BacklinePts=0,190,250,0,650,0,900,190 ;

The reverse lines are adjustable, and I suspect that is what BacklinePts is. The other offsets may be where in the frame the screen shows you the video when in drive or in reverse (the camera remembers the position chosen when you put it in reverse, which is a nice feature).

Perhaps there is another variable I can set that will flip the front camera image?

I've tried resetting the settings, formatting the SD card, removing config.ini and holding the reset button in. Nothing seems to affect it.

 

[sfttac]

update: in true "what is going on here?" fashion, I took the mirror down and rotated it 180 degrees. The image is still upside down. Therefore, something in the camera is detecting orientation and doing the wrong thing.

 

[jokiin]

If there is a G-Sensor setting in the menu try turning it off

 

[SawMaster]

Welcome to DCT @sfttac

Don't want you to feel like you're being ignored, but mirror cams aren't popular here as most of them have issues which discriminating experienced dashcammers will not tolerate. And "Wolfbox" isn't a well-known brand; in fact this is the first time I've heard of them and I've been deep into dashcams for over 5 years. But to try to help you...

Some cams have a sensor inside which does "auto-rotate" so that whichever way the cam is turned, "up" is always on top of the video when viewed. Apparently yours is supposed to be doing this but is getting it backwards. The cause will be an improperly assembled component in the cam (unlikely but possible) or a firmware (FW) "bug" affecting all the cams using that FW version (very likely and often encountered in developing new cams).

So you're best bet will be to contact the seller or manufacturer and see if they can resolve this for you. There are also some FW modders on this forum who might be able to help you alter the cam FW yourself to fix this, but that is a subject far beyond me.

If that doesn't work then you can use one of the video viewing platforms which allows you to rotate the view 180 degrees. It doesn't fix the problem but at least it makes things appear as they should while viewing. Good luck!

Phil

 

[sfttac]

Thanks for the replies. I tried turning off the g-sensor and it didn't affect it. If I had access to the firmware code, I'm sure I could fix it as well. I've tried github. Perhaps there are users on here that can point me to code repositories so I could give it a shot.

I have contacted the vendor and I have not heard back. Initially I had a defective GPS antenna and they were responsive and sent me a new one, which fixed the GPS problem. "Wolfbox" appears to be a re-branded Akaso. I have found their manuals and screenshots and they look the same.

I know I can post-process the video to invert it. It would be nice to just have it be correct. Thanks again for your replies!

 

[kamkar]

Yeah. Also new to my ears.
But any little tidbit of info we can get on anything will be good, we are like the NSA of dashcams

Welcome to the forum sfttac

 

[SawMaster]

If it's an Akaso clone then there should be deeper info on programming tweaks on the Russian 4PDA forums, as that brand was popular there for awhile. The language will be Russian, and some of their members can be a bit hostile to outsiders not posting in Russian, but act respectful and you'll find they have some real FW wizards there who know programming and coding like no others. Some of those guys are members here too and their work is often amazing.

Phil

 

[sfttac]

Update: when the vendor sent me a new firmware image to address the GPS failure (which ended up being a bad antenna), they sent me the wrong one. It was compatible, but obviously inverted the front display. They sent me the correct one, and it fixed it.

Side note: I'm curious as to why the folks on here disparage the mirror devices. The reason I got it is I have a pickup with a shell on the back. I wanted a permanent display to use as a rear-view mirror, as the one on the windshield is made useless by the shell. That said, I have another car, a small 2-seater mercedes that has a smart mirror I don't want to mess with. I would like to have front/rear dash cameras for it, but I don't want anything obtrusive that would take away from the car's interior.

 

[kamkar]

I think at least for starters it was the image quality of them, if you have a hard top on your truck then yes that is a pain, i had that too on a ext cab Mitsubishi pickup i had about 20 years ago.
A reversing aid would indeed be nice with a setup like that.
I am also looking for a reversing camera as the state of my back would like for me to not flex it so much when i turn to look out back in my little JAP 5 door hatchback.

We have the show us pics of your camera install thread in the general sub forum, if you browse that backwards from the newest posts and back you might get some ideas what is possible in cars with a layout along the lines of what you have in the small car.
It is often that people misjudge the size of some cameras, it most often seem to happen with the wedge shaped cameras, even if they are often the ones with the smallest footprint if you can mount most of it on a dotted area on the windscreen, then its just the bottom 1/3 of a already very small system you see.

 

[SawMaster]

There have been very few mirror cams made with anywhere near the performance and quality available in regular dashcams. Even then, the few good ones still lagged in performance, such as being 720P when most regular dashcams were 1080P, or by using LiPo batteries for cam functioning instead of supercaps. Build quality is usually bad with them, cheap processors, lenses, and dodgy firmware prevail. Few features are offered. Most will not take large cards, and use outdated vid formats like .avi too.

There are also some inherent issues involved; they are not made of tempered or safety glass like an OEM mirror and could shatter in a crash. That actually renders them illegal in many places. They often catch a lot of sunlight and as cams run hot, being able to keep them shaded helps a lot. Anytime the mirror gets moved, the cam has to be re-aimed. Given the mirror is angled both sideways and vertically in use means the lens must be adjustable in 2 directions as well, which isn't easy to do while keeping the lens housing rigid enough to prevent loss of aim from driving over bumps or rough roads. The extra weight is sometimes more than the factory mirror can bear, again losing aim on rough roads, They don't 'dim' for night-time driving. The cam display may block an area of view the factory mirror saw. Some mirror cam displays don't turn off; again a legal problem in many places. The mounting straps are prone to stretching and breaking. If a reversing cam is added, the display is really too small to offer the details needed for that job. But most of all, not a single high-quality cam manufacturer makes a mirror cam, and most advanced dashcam users will not accept anything less than that.

Of course not all of these things applies to every mirror cam and some of these issues occur with some of the regular dashcams too. I think a mirror cam could be a great dashcam, but to achieve that it would have to replace the mirror and it's mount to overcome the inherent issues, and the many cars hacing many different mirrors and mounting stems renders that idea commercially nonviable.

If you like what you cam does for you and it's reliable than that's all that matters. Just know that if you are ever involved in an incident where you need detailed footage (which is more often than not) then you need a cam which can deliver that for you- and no mirror cam can.

Phil