Losing time setting since upgrade to v1.8 firmware

[nav2004]

I have not had the cam for long to narrow it down to firmware 1.8, but I upgraded to that few days back. I noticed this morning that it was losing the time. I have it set to GMT+4 as I am in EST and then manually set the date and time. I saved and get out to the main screen via the cam and I see that after few seconds, it changes time back to something that is 8 hrs ahead of my current time. I tried this 2 times. And then 3rd time, turned Wifi ON and used the Time Synchronization with phone option and same thing. It kept it for sometime and then lost the time again.
4th time I did with camera again and it held time this time, atleast for few hours as I drove and then checked again. Don't know the current state as my wife drives this car. I contacted my reseller Blackboxmycar as I am fed up with unreliability of this dash cam. All this happened after skipped recordings, for which I even got the expensive Samsung PRO Endurance card and now even before I can check if this card is recording fine(been only 3-4 days since I got the card), I notice this time losing issue.

Blackboxmycar has offered to replace the main unit under warranty as I just got it 5-6 weeks back. But I have to pay for shipping from Ontario to BC. Don't know how much that will cost, but was wondering if this is really a hardware failure on my unit or a more widespread problem.

 

[Capture Your Action]

Ontario is -4 not +4.

 

[nav2004]

True. But what is the impact of first selecting time zone and also setting current time to true time ? Do I not select any GMT offset and just set true time.
I just selected GMT-4 and set correct date and time. Put the cam back in car which is parked overnight. Will see if it retains true time by morning. If it does then try it out for few driving sessions before deciding availing RMA and paying for shipping.

 

[Capture Your Action]

If you have the GPS mount (and GPS is on), then you just need to set the time zone offset. Once the GPS locks, it will set the time automatically, you do not need to do so manually.
Missing/skipped recordings is almost always card related. What card where you using before?

 

[nav2004]

Yes, I have GPS Mount. I was using Adata Premier card and packaging of that card showed dashcam, so I am assuming it was high endurance.

 

[Capture Your Action]

I don't believe the Adata Premier cards are High Endurance. High Endurance is not needed/required though. However, I have seen/heard quite a few users who experience issues with the Adata cards in dash cameras.

 

[nav2004]

My reseller recommended Sandisk Ultra A1 and Samsung PRO Endurance. As Sandisk one was not warrantied for use in Dashcam, I went with Samsung which was double the price for 128gb. After spending time and money on dashcam purchase and install, I wanted an install and forget it is running experience.

 

[Capture Your Action]

The SanDisk Ultra A1 cards (must say A1 on the card) have been reliable in the A129 DUO. I use the 256GB version in both of my DUO setups. The Samsung EVO Select (from Amazon) has also been reliable. I know other users are using the Samsung Pro Endurance, but can't speak to their reliability in the DUO, but it's probably fine.
Unfortunately, no dash camera is going to be set and forget. While endurance cards are usually warrantied for use in dash cameras, they can fail for any reason just like the non endurance cards. I always recommend checking the dash cameras operation often to be sure everything looks OK. Check footage at least once a month after initial file/footage inspection. Also, it's always good practice to format the card inside the camera any time the card has been removed and placed in another device.

 

[nav2004]

All good tips. Once a month checking is fine as my wife is primary driver. But I have had to spend way too much time checking it in last 2 months. Have now even enabled all audio notifications. I did check the time and glad to report it was still correct. So it was likely getting it from Gps mount based on timezone setting which I had wrong and hence overriding the manually set correct time. Will check again in the evening.

It just sucks that some cards are liked by a particular brand and model of dashcam and not others when all have been designated by card manufacturer as suitable for dashcam use. Manufacturers of dashcam should publish on dashcam info page which sd cards they recommend and maybe have a tieup with the card manufacturer to sell it as a discounted bundle price.

 

[Don_Perrignon]

Samsung Pro Endurance is the way to go.

 

[nav2004]

Just want to close this thread by reporting my findings, so others searching will find it usefull. The Time Synchronization and TimeZone settings don't go well together or atleast I did not understand. If you have timezone set for your local area, then Time Synchronization means nothing. I had wrong time zone offset set (GMT + 4 for EST instead of GMT-4) AND after that I was either synchronizing the time with my phone when connected to cam over wifi or manually setting it using the Camera onscreen menus. What this did was that as soon as it locked to the GPS satellites, it was getting time I guess and adding the GMT offset to it, causing my camera to show a time that was 8 hours ahead of my local time. Thanks to @Capture Your Action in pointing to incorrect Timezone and that once I fixed that, camera now shows correct time.