Zenfox T3 Triple channel dash cams free test invitation, limited quantity

[kamkar]

how about you shift some of that weather over here, sub 20 deg again today

 

[HonestReview]

Ok well short of finding a copper sheet, this camera is nonsense. What Zenfox now did was disable the Interior Camera First, when the camera overheats. So the Front + Rear record. Not really a solution....Just some bandaid.

I guess the only solution is to replicate what @EGS did. I could glue down the heatsink, but I DOUBT that'll change my results. Thermal paste is on there enough to make sure that heatsink doesn't move a muscle. I may just try glue just to see, but I give that zero chance of working

What I truly suspect, is that @EGS's option covers the thermal sensor and shields it. Thereby prolonging the camera before it cuts off.

45 Minutes in the hot sun and the camera was Front + Rear only when I came out to check.

 

[Nigel]

Ok well short of finding a copper sheet, this camera is nonsense. What Zenfox now did was disable the Interior Camera First, when the camera overheats. So the Front + Rear record. Not really a solution....Just some bandaid.

I guess the only solution is to replicate what @EGS did. I could glue down the heatsink, but I DOUBT that'll change my results. Thermal paste is on there enough to make sure that heatsink doesn't move a muscle. I may just try glue just to see, but I give that zero chance of working

What I truly suspect, is that @EGS's option covers the thermal sensor and shields it. Thereby prolonging the camera before it cuts off.

45 Minutes in the hot sun and the camera was Front + Rear only when I came out to check.

We shall see what happens.... Sun still out and registers 32C (90) outside and 40C (104) with sun beating on car.

I think you are being unrealistic, 32C outside is going to be a problem with that processor. If you want it to work in parking mode with all three cameras recording in a locked car with the windows closed then you will need to add a fan, and maybe an extractor fan for the car too!

Notes:

• EGS's copper spacer has twice the surface area of yours, that will make some difference.
• EGS's also has a temperature limit, I suspect his doesn't manage much more heat than yours.
• You are comparing it with an A129 Duo with a lesser processor and lower cooling requirements, EGS is comparing with an A129 Pro with the same processor.
• I'm surprised your heatsink doesn't fall off when the paste warms up and becomes less sticky! You really should secure it.

I believe@EGS solution works because it covers the thermal sensor.

I find that highly unlikely, everything under the EMI shield is going to get hot!

 

[kamkar]

I am not expecting any current or older dashcam on the market to be able to do parking modes in a car parked in the sun in +30 deg C weather, to be honest i start to get doubtful around 25 degrees.

Weather forecast for Denmark are still under 20 deg C in the next 10 days, so i am not able to test in summer conditions not even regular driving.
Right now 10:30 in the evening it is 14 deg C and it should drop to 9 during the night, but tomorrow and next 2 days might actually hit a whopping 21 deg C only 4 deg from what constitude a summer day here ( 25 deg C )

 

[HonestReview]

FYI camera ended up completely shutting down after about 1 Hour in the sun. Stopped recording totally. The viofo never skipped a beat.

 

[HonestReview]

I think you are being unrealistic, 32C outside is going to be a problem with that processor. If you want it to work in parking mode with all three cameras recording in a locked car with the windows closed then you will need to add a fan, and maybe an extractor fan for the car too!

Notes:

• EGS's copper spacer has twice the surface area of yours, that will make some difference.
• EGS's also has a temperature limit, I suspect his doesn't manage much more heat than yours.
• You are comparing it with an A129 Duo with a lesser processor and lower cooling requirements, EGS is comparing with an A129 Pro with the same processor.
• I'm surprised your heatsink doesn't fall off when the paste warms up and becomes less sticky! You really should secure it.

I find that highly unlikely, everything under the EMI shield is going to get hot!

Camera stopped recording completely after about 1 hour or 1 hour 15 minutes. So wasn't just front and rear. It stopped all 3 channels. Viofo still recorded entire time.

The larger copper plate is clearly offering better heat dispersion.

 

[HonestReview]

Well here's one for the record books. It appears that the copper shim drew away so much heat from the SOC to the Heatsink, that the plastic housing on my camera is warped. I took things down to do what I hoped was a second layer of Copper under the Heatsink. Brought Camera inside to get work. Well not surprising, when I opened camera to try to make said adjustment, the heatsink was flaming hot . And that heat appears to have been sufficient to melt and reshaped the housing. I can no longer close the case properly or mount camera on my windshield.

Vaya con Dios (Go With God) 2nd camera. So =) my trials are done. FYI: The Viofo never missed a beat.

I'm giving this camera zero stars. Firmware didn't resolve squat and the quality of this thing is very questionable at best.

I'm melting......(Said the Wicked Witch)




Here's what I was attempting and when I went to close up the housing, I noticed things didn't sit right anymore.

 

[EGS]

Well here's one for the record books. It appears that the copper shim drew away so much heat from the SOC to the Heatsink, that the plastic housing on my camera is warped. I took things down to do what I hoped was a second layer of Copper under the Heatsink. Brought Camera inside to get work. Well not surprising, when I opened camera to try to make said adjustment, the heatsink was flaming hot . And that heat appears to have been sufficient to melt and reshaped the housing. I can no longer close the case properly or mount camera on my windshield.

Vaya con Dios (Go With God) 2nd camera. So =) my trials are done. FYI: The Viofo never missed a beat.

I'm giving this camera zero stars. Firmware didn't resolve squat and the quality of this thing is very questionable at best.

I'm melting......(Said the Wicked Witch)




Here's what I was attempting and when I went to close up the housing, I noticed things didn't sit right anymore.

Wow, that is bad. Never thought it could get that hot. Something has to be wrong with that particular camera.

Or could it be that they indeed raised the temperature cutoff threshold in the new firmware and now it is too much? I don't know what to tell you.
At least that shows that the Heatsink did a good job of extracting the heat away from the SOC after your mod, but too much for the plastic to handle it now.
It was a very long day for me doing some work outside and was reading here occasionally in my breaks I was taking, but not enough time for me to jump in to participate. I haven't even flashed the fw to the camera yet. Will do that sometime tomorrow hopefully.
I know I won't be using my cameras in parking mode as in my situation it is not so much needed but still wonder for those that really need the feature.

 

[Sunny]

@Zenfox_Official
Interesting design.
I haven't read all the posts but the front facing lens pretty low.
Is that to reduce heat or to have extra space in the unit for hardware?

 

[HonestReview]

Wow, that is bad. Never thought it could get that hot. Something has to be wrong with that particular camera.

Or could it be that they indeed raised the temperature cutoff threshold in the new firmware and now it is too much? I don't know what to tell you.
At least that shows that the Heatsink did a good job of extracting the heat away from the SOC after your mod, but too much for the plastic to handle it now.
It was a very long day for me doing some work outside and was reading here occasionally in my breaks I was taking, but not enough time for me to jump in to participate. I haven't even flashed the fw to the camera yet. Will do that sometime tomorrow hopefully.
I know I won't be using my cameras in parking mode as in my situation it is not so much needed but still wonder for those that really need the feature.

I disagree and think this result is actually a wonderful proof of concept. Even though I intended to use the 2nd camera as a guinea pig, and had no intentions of trashing it, the results are very informative.

1. We have established the SOC is getting very hot. Causing the Rear, Interior, and then Front camera to eventually cut out. Leading to the ceasing of all recordings.

2. It was 32C (90F) at my car. My Car's Digital Thermometer called it 40C (104) in the direct sun.

3. @Nigel's Hypothesis was right, and your proof of concept bolsters what he theorized. Surface Area.

4. My Camera simply had a single 20x~17mm shim over the SOC. The Second Picture is what I intended to do in order to modify my previous design. I cut a new shim that was larger than 20x15 and instead made it 20x17mm. That failed so I was going to put copper plates under Heatsink, too. Never got that far as camera shape deformed, making it impossible to fully close case or mount camera thereafter.

5. Ultimately, what I think happened is that my 20x17mm copper shim concentrated all the heat into one area of the heatsink. Meaning when I opened camera, the heatsink was as hot as an iron. Your design overcomes that issue by having a larger surface area. Instead of concentrating all the heat into a mere 20x17mm shim, your design has the ability to evenly disperse the heat across a larger surface area. Ergo, your camera performed better and didn't suffer a critical meltdown.

Did the new firmware cause this issue? I don't know. I did update the firmware and initially, it caused the interior to cut out in favor of the front + rear. Eventually the camera cut out in full. Either way, I don't think my unit was faulty. I think what we have here is a 100% answer to the problem.

If @Zenfox_Official wishes to resolve the overheating issue, he needs to create a heatsink that covers a much larger surface area to fit under the emi shield. And utilizing proper thermal paste is crucial.

Now if @Zenfox_Offical appreciated our efforts, he'd mail me out another camera, so I can attempt your test to see if the results are replicated.

FYI: Viofo absolutely did not fail through all this testing in the same conditions.

 

[Nigel]

@Zenfox_Official
Interesting design.
I haven't read all the posts but the front facing lens pretty low.
Is that to reduce heat or to have extra space in the unit for hardware?

It is so that the camera can be mounted behind the mirror with the interior camera looking over the top of the mirror and the front camera still able to see under the dotted area/through the area swept by the wipers. Doesn't work like that in all cars, but when it does it is a neat solution.

 

[HonestReview]

FYI:

The area that melted is where that white crossbar sits above the Heatsink.

 

[kamkar]

The one that seem to hold the GPS antenna in place, i have some stiff foam wedged in there,,,,,, not a wide piece of course but just a little to exert some pressure down on the heat sink.

My heat dink will not come off the EMI shield as it is soldered, but the EMI shield i have just soldered in the 1 place it was from the factory, so to make sure thermal bridge is good i made a little wedge.

My camera have not smelled of melting plastic, but i have noticed it is already pretty loose on the mount, some PVA foam pads like other brands supply will be needed soon.

 

[Nigel]

Here's what I was attempting and when I went to close up the housing, I noticed things didn't sit right anymore.

It no longer fits because you have added 0.8mm of height in the form of copper shims, take them out and it will fit again!

Maybe

 

[HonestReview]

Decided the games not yet over... Retromodding this puppy! It won't be against the windshield any longer, but I really want to test out the design below where the heat is spread out.

This Camera is going through one last test!

 

[HonestReview]

It no longer fits because you have added 0.8mm of height in the form of copper shims, take them out and it will fit again!

Maybe

I tried that thinking that was my problem at first. It is not the issue. Where that white crossbar sits, it got so hot that the houses melted and warped. Now my test I'm going to do may result in a total failure of the camera. It seems the inside got so hot with JUST the shim on the SOC. It drew up so much heat to one area, that as I stated, the car deformed.

Now I am putting copper plates under all areas of the heatsink. See if it'll disperse the heat better and maybe not melt the case to oblivion. Still guessing this result ends in failure.

 

[HonestReview]

The one that seem to hold the GPS antenna in place, i have some stiff foam wedged in there,,,,,, not a wide piece of course but just a little to exert some pressure down on the heat sink.

My heat dink will not come off the EMI shield as it is soldered, but the EMI shield i have just soldered in the 1 place it was from the factory, so to make sure thermal bridge is good i made a little wedge.

My camera have not smelled of melting plastic, but i have noticed it is already pretty loose on the mount, some PVA foam pads like other brands supply will be needed soon.

@kamkar1 You didn't modify your camera though? Did you remove the factory thermal pad and install your own design? Or did you simply solder the EMI shield in place and then solder the Heatsink to the EMI shield?

 

[kamkar]

If you have smaller individual cobber plates in between the heat sink and the EMI shield, then i assume if they do not touch the only place where heat can travel out is thru the thin EMI shield.
If it was one big copper piece the heat had a chance to propagate thru it, and up / down into what ever it could.

 

[kamkar]

Yes took off EMI shield, removed gap filler thermal pad, cut / trimmed EMI shield so it could get down in contact with SOC, used thermal compound like you use between SOC and EMI shield and between EMI shield and heat sink on top.
And i trimmed the lip off the heat sink as it would otherwise rest on the taller connector for the front camera, nd grind a little of a corner on the bottom of the heat sink as it would otherwise rest on the memory card slot too.

Used my Dremel clone to lower EMI shield sides to 1.5 mm so it would be able to get down and touch the SOC that in my camera are 1.8 mm above the PCB.
In order to do that i also have to cut away a little of the EMI shield at the memory card slot and the two camera ribbon connectors.

So mine may be the most modified T3 of them all

I also have not connected the EMI tape on the two camera ribbon cables, i see no AV disturbance, but there might be on audio as i have cut the MIC wires and not yet put those back together.

 

[HonestReview]

Yes took off EMI shield, removed gap filler thermal pad, cut / trimmed EMI shield so it could get down in contact with SOC, used thermal compound like you use between SOC and EMI shield and between EMI shield and heat sink on top.
And i trimmed the lip off the heat sink as it would otherwise rest on the taller connector for the front camera.

Used my Dremel clone to lower EMI shield sides to 1.5 mm so it would be able to get down and touch the SOC that in my camera are 1.8 mm above the PCB.
In order to do that i also have to cut away a little of the EMI shield at the memory card slot and the two camera ribbon connectors.

So mine may be the most modified T3 of them all

I also have not connected the EMI tape on the two camera ribbon cables, i see no AV disturbance, but there might be on audio as i have cut the MIC wires and not yet put those back together.

Let me clarify a bit, sorry. You didn't try another form of cooling. You simply made the EMI shield lay flat against the SOC. But didn't try adding like a copper plate or shim to the SOC or modify how the camera is cooled.