Wifi connection to a Viofo A139 pro dashcam

[GroovyGeek]

Installed a Viofo A139 pro into a 2023 BD this weekend and ran into a slight problem with wifi connectivity to the camera.

The Bronco has wireless Android Auto, which automatically launches a wifi connection to the phone when the car powers up. That precludes establishing a wifi connection to the camera. You can tell the camera to connect manually, and it does for a few seconds, but then Android Auto reconnects and that kills the wifi connection to the camera.

The only workaround I have found so far is to manually tell AA wifi to not reconnect automatically and then ignore a few prompts. This works but is very kludgy. Is there a more elegant solution?

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[jayr1959]

An option would be to activate the Broncos AT&T Hot Spot but that comes with a monthly cost. I use the Hot Spot to connect an iPad.

 

[Hopeless Diamond]

Yeah, the only way I have found is to disable the wireless connections to the Bronco, then you can connect to the dashcam. I rarely connect to my dashcam though, typically just pull the card and download it my PC if there's anything interesting. Keep a pretty big card in there so I have a little time to get to it.

 

[da_jokker]

Yeah I have 2 of these cameras (1 in each car). Their app is crap so aside of messing with it to initially set up the camera...you are better off just popping the SD card out when you want footage. (With the camera off of course)

Even if you could connect the app, downloading any video is painstakingly slow. Using the included SD card/USB adapter is the way to go.

I'm curious: did you wire up power for the Parking mode? (And how so). I just plugged mine into the rear view mirror dongle and called it a day but it shuts off with the Bronco

 

[GroovyGeek]

Yeah I have 2 of these cameras (1 in each car). Their app is crap so aside of messing with it to initially set up the camera...you are better off just popping the SD card out when you want footage. (With the camera off of course)

Even if you could connect the app, downloading any video is painstakingly slow. Using the included SD card/USB adapter is the way to go.

I'm curious: did you wire up power for the Parking mode? (And how so). I just plugged mine into the rear view mirror dongle and called it a day but it shuts off with the Bronco

Yes, I wired for parking mode with this
https://a.co/d/1HAECS5

Comes with 5A add-a-fuse taps. Ran it along the driver side A pillar to the in-cab fuse box. Yellow wire to permanent power, red to accessory power, black to ground. I set the dongle to turn off the camera at 12.2V or 3 hrs, whichever comes first. For parking mode the camera is set to low bitrate, high G sensor sensitivity.

The only problem I had was that all 5A permanent power fuses on the Bronco are the "double combo" variety, so I used a 7.5A fuse for the red wire tap. That turned out to be the side mirrors, and tapping into this circuit disrupted side mirror adjustment. Fortunately there are multiple single fuses with permanent power that are just spares, so I tapped into one of them.

Oh yes, also had to remove the ferrite choke because it is too bulky to hide behind the trim. Just crush it with pliers and the. Cut away the plastic sheath. Viofo apparently has a version without the choke and offered to send me one for free but it is easy to remove so I did not bother.

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