Looking for a dash cam power bank.

tsobo

tsobo

tsobo

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I am hoping to install a dash cam with parking monitor, and this requires a dash cam with a power bank as don't really want to drain my car battery. Saw some on amazon, the blackvue dash cam and power banks and these cost over £500. Has anyone come across a cheaper dash cam power bank, that charges when the car is driving and generates enough power to then use when the car has stopped?.
 
Not heard of this before but very interested. I have a thinkware f770 with parking protect and it has a battery protection function which monitors voltage before shutting off. Modern lithium Ion powrbanks could be a much less intrusive solution that would likely last longer? The f770 with parking protect still managed to confuse the Jaguar stop start system, which stopped working almost immediately after fitting.
 
dLockers said:
Not heard of this before but very interested. I have a thinkware f770 with parking protect and it has a battery protection function which monitors voltage before shutting off. Modern lithium Ion powrbanks could be a much less intrusive solution that would likely last longer? The f770 with parking protect still managed to confuse the Jaguar stop start system, which stopped working almost immediately after fitting.
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That's my fear as well, to end up killing the car battery. This is the blackvue one https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VRZDM3F/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_Tso6FbRZ9JBG2
 
my set up

Thinkware Q800 pro with a Cellink Neo 9, hardwired in, 2 camera set up , lasts 48 hours in parking mode
good thing is, main battery doesn't get touched for the camera, as it just uses the battery pack
 
ShiWarrior said:
my set up

Thinkware Q800 pro with a Cellink Neo 9, hardwired in, 2 camera set up , lasts 48 hours in parking mode
good thing is, main battery doesn't get touched for the camera, as it just uses the battery pack
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Thanks. The Cellink Neo 9, is over £300?. Looks good though but way beyond my budget.
 
I still think there are cheaper batteriy options with a fast charge - like discussed in earlier thread
.... I've not checked how the market evolved further over last year ?

jpaul said:
yes, ok, it's not usb, but cellink is £250, this has 2x capacity and would charge to same capacity as cellink in 2hrs, versus its 1hr10.
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jpaul said:
I still think there are cheaper batteriy options with a fast charge - like discussed in earlier thread
.... I've not checked how the market evolved further over last year ?
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Thanks, just seen that thread. The anker power bank, mentioned on that thread, I have used this in the past. It's painfully slow to charge. I had to charge it in the house, as the in car charger would never charge it enough. The best option would be a power bank that charges fast, with the slow charging current, from the car. I suppose the only option really is them expensive one's, blackvue and cellink.
 
tsobo said:
I am hoping to install a dash cam with parking monitor, and this requires a dash cam with a power bank as don't really want to drain my car battery. Saw some on amazon, the blackvue dash cam and power banks and these cost over £500. Has anyone come across a cheaper dash cam power bank, that charges when the car is driving and generates enough power to then use when the car has stopped?.
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I might be a bit simplistic, but isn't it a case of getting *any* powerbank and stowing it behind the glovebox then having car plugged into power bank, then powerbank on a long ~2metre USB cable to the camera. Therefore when the car is running, it's charging the powerbank, and when it's not, it stops charging the powerbank, but the powerbank remains active to power the camera.

All you'd need is a USB cigarette charger which is capable of at least 2A to charge the powerbank and it should never really run down unless left for extended periods of time.
 
Gaygle said:
I might be a bit simplistic, but isn't it a case of getting *any* powerbank and stowing it behind the glovebox then having car plugged into power bank, then powerbank on a long ~2metre USB cable to the camera.
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No, because some cars (VW group mainly) will keep trickle-charging the power bank.

tsobo said:
I am hoping to install a dash cam with parking monitor,
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An alternative is to get a device that will stop the camera when the car's battery charge gets too low. I use one that runs of the OBD port

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XS33J2N
 
Yes, you need to charge the dashcam battery fast during your shortish commute to provide supply for these currently high powered dashcams (they never seem to disclose their power consumption accurately - why is that ?) for the long period when the cars just standing.
It's analogous to ev charging, you need, in my case, 90minutes of daily driving to put enough charge in for the rest of the day 22.5 hours, or longer, if you want to survive the weekend.
so 10min drive > 2hrs of dashcam use. ... not sure if many phones re-charge that fast ?

good resume here https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/my-solution-for-parking-mode-power-for-48-hours.39569/

comment in there about agm batteries dropping off a cliff as voltage reaches a threshold is interesting

Solution 1: Buy a 20'000mAh Anker powerbank, use some DIY circuitry so it automatically charges while the engine is running and powers the dashcam when car is parked. A cheap and easy-ish solution, however some DIY circuitry required because most powerbanks don't support pass-through charging (charging while also powering something). That would have made things much simpler but anything that supported pass-through charging was much more expensive. I decided to do a test run before I built the switching circuit, my girlfriend has a new 20'000mAh Anker so I charged it up and plugged in the dashcam (indoors for testing). After a few test runs from full charge to empty, results were in the 24-30 hour range, only 6-12 hours better than the car's battery, not good enough, and this was cool indoor temperatures, inside the car in summer would be worse. Also, the Anker took 6-8 hours to fully charge, this is too slow for my usage, it needs to get most of the way to being charged in 1-2 hours.

Solution 2: Build or buy multiple 3.7V (5V input) charging circuits. Power them via 12V->5V buck converters (DC-DC voltage converter) and use them to charge multiple 3.7V 26650 lithium cells (1 charger for 1 cell). Attach the cells to the load (dashcam) in parallel and use a 3.7V->12V converter. As each cell gets its own charging circuit the total input/charging current can be quite high depending on how many cells I have, and in parallel they are self-balancing on discharge. So basically the same as solution 1 except I can add a large numbers of cells and charge much more quickly. The downside is much more DIY work involved in initial setup.

Solution 3: Buy a 4S (14.4V) LiPo battery pack and a balancing charger that accepts 12V input. Connect the battery pack directly to the load. Benefits here are simplicity, no voltage converters, the cells are balanced automatically during charging so no need for any load sharing during discharge. Probably more reliable than solution 2 and slightly easier to set up but not as easy as solution 1. Slightly more expensive than either solutions 1 or 2.

Solution 4: Buy a Cellink or Blackvue. Extremely simple (not sure about reliability) but also more than double the cost of the other solutions for similar battery capacity. Possibility to add DIY extension batteries but then this solution loses it simplicity.

Solution 5: Upgrade the car battery to an AGM battery. Biggest capacity that will fit in my car is 60AH. They can be charged quite quickly and are generally more durable than normal lead-acid batteries. Just as simple as solution 4 but a lot cheaper, although still more expensive than solutions 1,2,3.

After some internal debating and speaking to friends I went with solution 5 and I'm very happy with my choice. AGM battery cost me £115 delivered, swapping car batteries is pretty simple. I've now set the voltage-cut off in the hardwire kit to 12.2V to protect the battery and I'm consistently getting 48+hrs before it cuts off the dashcam. If I'm planning to leave the car for an extended period (e.g. going on holiday) I will set the voltage cut-off to 11.8V and be prepared to jump-start the car if necessary but those will be on rare occasions. If I decide later I need even more capacity I will revisit solution 3 because it's the simplest that will also allow easy upgrade of capacity and charge rate in future.
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Gaygle said:
I might be a bit simplistic, but isn't it a case of getting *any* powerbank and stowing it behind the glovebox then having car plugged into power bank, then powerbank on a long ~2metre USB cable to the camera. Therefore when the car is running, it's charging the powerbank, and when it's not, it stops charging the powerbank, but the powerbank remains active to power the camera.

All you'd need is a USB cigarette charger which is capable of at least 2A to charge the powerbank and it should never really run down unless left for extended periods of time.
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Yes as others have mentioned, most power banks, take ages to charge. The car running will not charge most power bank efficiently. When I had the anker power bank, it took almost overnight to charge it using a wall charger, in the house, so no chance with the slow car charger.
 
I think unless you are willing to shell the 300 pounds for a proper job, then a blackvue, or in my case a thinkware, with battery protection will keep you sufficiently safe from being stranded. It sounds like there are no more elegant solutions 'in between' one that draws safely from the car battery and the blackvue battery pack solution.

I got over my 'need' personally by making the thinkware give me the peace of mind I needed in a car park, but at home a simple PTZ camera that I can readjust to where my car is street-parked is much more sustainable.
 
tsobo said:
That's my fear as well, to end up killing the car battery. This is the blackvue one https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VRZDM3F/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_Tso6FbRZ9JBG2
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To be clear, I've had the thinkware on a Mercedes C180, Jaguar XF and XE - the only issue was on the Jaguars, stop start was never enabled as the battery had been sipped by the dash camera to never have enough voltage. Nothing ever died, and disconnecting it put me back to normal. The car went weeks without driving, very frequently. Never had an issue.
 
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