Feature request: microSD card health monitoring

[SP777]

A dashcam is a kind of insurance in case of some unwanted incident. To be useful, it should guarantee that all the action is captured and reliably preserved. It’s not a secret that microSD cards are subject to wearing out under a high load as in case of use in dashcams. Therefore write and read errors might occur which is a critical obstacle for the purpose, because every minute of the footage is potentially valuable.

In these circumstances it would be useful if a dashcam would monitor microSD card’s health and report immediately in case of errors. The most comprehensive way of monitoring would be to read previously written data and compare it against the original, e.g. by comparing checksums. Implementation may look like this: at every start of the drive mode a temp file with e.g. 1 MB of random data shall be written along with its checksum. Then the file shall be read, checksum recalculated and compared to the original, temp file deleted. In case of a mismatch, an error message shall be displayed along with an audible alarm. All this shall be done in the background without interrupting normal video recording and other operations. These checks should be repeated every 10/20/30/60 minutes during the drive mode. The temp file location on the card will be random each time, thus this procedure would gradually check all parts of the storage space over and over again during lifetime of a card.

This feature would ensure timely warning to the user about a faulty microSD card (including those when data seems to be written but actually cannot be read), reducing the risk of a valuable footage loss, which can occur with any card even special high-endurance types as no equipment can be 100% guaranteed from manufacturing defects or other faults.

VIOFO, please comment on this idea. Is there a chance for it to be implemented in A129 Duo in the proposed (or maybe some other?) form? I’m sure the users would be much grateful for such a feature, and it would also give you a competitive edge.

 

[benkar]

A dashcam is a kind of insurance in case of some unwanted incident. To be useful, it should guarantee that all the action is captured and reliably preserved. It’s not a secret that microSD cards are subject to wearing out under a high load as in case of use in dashcams. Therefore write and read errors might occur which is a critical obstacle for the purpose, because every minute of the footage is potentially valuable.

In these circumstances it would be useful if a dashcam would monitor microSD card’s health and report immediately in case of errors. The most comprehensive way of monitoring would be to read previously written data and compare it against the original, e.g. by comparing checksums. Implementation may look like this: at every start of the drive mode a temp file with e.g. 1 MB of random data shall be written along with its checksum. Then the file shall be read, checksum recalculated and compared to the original, temp file deleted. In case of a mismatch, an error message shall be displayed along with an audible alarm. All this shall be done in the background without interrupting normal video recording and other operations. These checks should be repeated every 10/20/30/60 minutes during the drive mode. The temp file location on the card will be random each time, thus this procedure would gradually check all parts of the storage space over and over again during lifetime of a card.

This feature would ensure timely warning to the user about a faulty microSD card (including those when data seems to be written but actually cannot be read), reducing the risk of a valuable footage loss, which can occur with any card even special high-endurance types as no equipment can be 100% guaranteed from manufacturing defects or other faults.

VIOFO, please comment on this idea. Is there a chance for it to be implemented in A129 Duo in the proposed (or maybe some other?) form? I’m sure the users would be much grateful for such a feature, and it would also give you a competitive edge.

 

[benkar]

A dashcam is a kind of insurance in case of some unwanted incident. To be useful, it should guarantee that all the action is captured and reliably preserved. It’s not a secret that microSD cards are subject to wearing out under a high load as in case of use in dashcams. Therefore write and read errors might occur which is a critical obstacle for the purpose, because every minute of the footage is potentially valuable.

In these circumstances it would be useful if a dashcam would monitor microSD card’s health and report immediately in case of errors. The most comprehensive way of monitoring would be to read previously written data and compare it against the original, e.g. by comparing checksums. Implementation may look like this: at every start of the drive mode a temp file with e.g. 1 MB of random data shall be written along with its checksum. Then the file shall be read, checksum recalculated and compared to the original, temp file deleted. In case of a mismatch, an error message shall be displayed along with an audible alarm. All this shall be done in the background without interrupting normal video recording and other operations. These checks should be repeated every 10/20/30/60 minutes during the drive mode. The temp file location on the card will be random each time, thus this procedure would gradually check all parts of the storage space over and over again during lifetime of a card.

This feature would ensure timely warning to the user about a faulty microSD card (including those when data seems to be written but actually cannot be read), reducing the risk of a valuable footage loss, which can occur with any card even special high-endurance types as no equipment can be 100% guaranteed from manufacturing defects or other faults.

VIOFO, please comment on this idea. Is there a chance for it to be implemented in A129 Duo in the proposed (or maybe some other?) form? I’m sure the users would be much grateful for such a feature, and it would also give you a competitive edge.

great idea For example, in my case the SD card is often mistaken: https://www.viofo.com/community/index.php?threads/problem-with-transferring-files-to-pc.26520/#post-36251

 

[GilesP]

This does seem like a good idea, I know there is an option to set reformat reminders, which is a step in the right direction, however something a bit more measured could give a more tailored response, and a warning if the card doesn't meet requirements.

It may also be helpful in spotting fakes (class 4 cards branded as class 10 perhaps?)

 

[SP777]

reformat reminders

This is an overkill, as formatting destroys all the recorded footage. In this case one need to be fully sure that there is nothing useful recorded even most recently, which may be quite challenging. So a non-destructive approach (as proposed above) would be more appropriate. On the other hand, reformatting rewrites/tests only a small area of the file system root, which would occupy the same place on the card (if not to take into account remapping), while the proposed approach potentially tests all the card space.

 

[GilesP]

This is an overkill, as formatting destroys all the recorded footage...

Typically if there was anything of interest, I'd be pulling it off the card at the first opportunity anyway, as forgetting may leave it open to being overwritten anyway.

I don't agree with scheduled reformatting as SD cards have a limited number of read-write cycles anyway, and reformatting is just chewing through them for no apparent reason, I'll reformat if I get errors or think there's a need for it, but usually I just leave alone.

 

[SP777]

@viofo your reply would be much appreciated

 

[SP777]

@viofo Any reaction on this feature request?

 

[Don_Perrignon]

Keeping this thread alive. Viofo, everyone would like this. I don't think there's a customer who would refuse.

 

[viofo]

Thanks for your suggestion.

Currently while the camera is not recording, it will keep beeping.

 

[bloo890]

OP wants a more reliable way of checking the SD card health itself not whether its recording or not

 

[SP777]

@viofo , bloo890 is right. The request was about a more general case than just "the camera is not recording". Please take a moment to respond to the original message.

 

[Ban]

Great idea! The whole purpose of using the dash cam will be defeated if the SD card is not storing the data properly. I fully support this feature request!!