Dashcams!

I just got the Viofo A119 v2 and a hard wire kit for the other car. I've got a F770 in mine.
The cameras don't really have batteries in them rather than super capacitors which just allow the camera to finish writing to sd card or other house keeping tasks when you take the main car battery power away. They don't charge up and then run the cam when the main power is cut off.
If you have an always live power socket you can use that to power the camera in parking mode. With a hardwire kit (and maybe a voltage monitor box like the power magic) you can set the cameras to shut down at a certain voltage on the main battery to stop it being flat in the morning.

The cellink batteries just offer something else to power your dash cam by instead of your car battery. Great to protect your car battery, but you still have to get power into it at some point to charge it back up again.

Simon
 
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yeah, the Thinkware F770 i set it to lowest voltage setting, 11v i think it is, that will only last 1 night, as said its not a battery, its a capacitor
if you set it higher, the dashcam will turn off after a few hours, rending it pointless
 
So there isn't really anything stopping anyone from using a power magic and the car battery, it will never kill the battery because the power magic will cut off the power. I think I'm either going to take this route or forget about parking mode all together as the cellink adds too much to the total cost. I cant see that many people having a dedicated battery either, surely most people who want parking mode run it off the car battery and have no issues

I'm just playing devils advocate in an effort to understand all the possible setups and whats right for me I'm not saying anythings a bad idea
 
Relentless81 said:
So there isn't really anything stopping anyone from using a power magic and the car battery, it will never kill the battery because the power magic will cut off the power. I think I'm either going to take this route or forget about parking mode all together as the cellink adds too much to the total cost. I cant see that many people having a dedicated battery either, surely most people who want parking mode run it off the car battery and have no issues

I'm just playing devils advocate in an effort to understand all the possible setups and whats right for me I'm not saying anythings a bad idea
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Exactly. If it was such a big problem with dead batteries it would be all over the place. I depends on the battery in your car. A small light weight one for a petrol engine maybe doesn't last all night, a big beefy one for a diesel 4x4...
 
So an incident I mentioned in the cycle rage thread (https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/32889696) almost happened to me tonight in exactly the same spot!


Dark clothing and a single not properly working red light on his head did not help the situation either.

(Also had another vehicle closing quickly behind me in the same lane which made slowing down quickly a bit dicey as well).

Funny thing is it was a BMW coming up fast in lane 2 in the incident I saw coming the other way once as well.

I kind of understand how the incident I saw happened now - if you've driven that road before you know there is an exit on the right coming up so vehicles ahead indicating out to go around the cyclist you first assume are people about to turn off not going around an obstruction that is hidden from view.

The incident I saw before at this same spot was an Audi (I think) in my position and a BMW doing the same thing in lane 2 and the Audi pulled out making contact with the BMW (though fortunately nothing serious) and the cyclist in fear of their life (wasn't hit by the cars) made an unceremonious dismount into the verge getting out the way. Not sure if the Audi driver didn't check their mirrors in the moment before pulling out or just didn't have enough space to stop and choose to hit another vehicle rather than the cyclist.
 
Relentless81 said:
So there isn't really anything stopping anyone from using a power magic and the car battery
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this is the battery guard I was considering https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kemo-M148A-Battery-Guard-12V-Black/dp/B004AUJ002
which would protect dashcam (and potentially hifi) from taking out the battery, and if I need an auxiliary battery one of these (from earlier thread)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071JWNQ8Y 2x the cellink capacity and as quick charging at <£100

open question - for the thinkware f770, for example, how much power is it drawing in parked mode versus the 60/70A/h capacity in a typical battery

edit answer f770 takes about 10Ah out for 8 hour continuous parking use
 
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Quartz said:
The cut-off device was me pulling out the plug. Unfortunately sometimes I forgot...
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Why would you need to manually pull the plug, the car kills power to those when the key is removed?

I've done a bit of googling on Parking Mode and I think I'm out, the answer is a cellink as ShiWarrior states and its too expensive with no local installers and a bit past what I'm willing to do in terms of installing. The cut off devices seem to be hit and miss from what I've read, you're still straining the battery and there is risk in it failing and not being fitted correctly
 
Relentless81 said:
Looks like some Vantrue models come with battery protection as standard
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As does the Thinkware so not sure why people are having problems. Unless you have wired it up wrong it will not drain the battery. Mine lasts at least three days in parking mode before the camera shuts itself off. It does however make a huge difference if your car battery is on the way out.
 
Finglonga said:
As does the Thinkware so not sure why people are having problems. Unless you have wired it up wrong it will not drain the battery. Mine lasts at least three days in parking mode before the camera shuts itself off. It does however make a huge difference if your car battery is on the way out.
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Out of interest if protection is integrated into the camera its not possible to wire it up wrong or is it not integrated and just comes with the wiring kit in the box?

Can you elaborate on what you mean if its on its way out? It should still cut the power regardless of the battery performance?
 
Relentless81 said:
Out of interest if protection is integrated into the camera its not possible to wire it up wrong or is it not integrated and just comes with the wiring kit in the box?

Can you elaborate on what you mean if its on its way out? It should still cut the power regardless of the battery performance?
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It is possible with the hard wire kit to wire it wrong if you put the switched feed onto a permanent live feed as then the parking mode can not monitor the car voltage.

As for on the way out, if your battery is ending it's serviceable life it does not hold charge as well as it used to and any parasitic drain seriously impacts it's performance.
 
So I bought and installed one at the weekend now I'm paranoid about leaving it in the car overnight

Not sure it's a good idea leaving it in but also it's a hassle removing it and refitting it. You can see it as it's had to go on the passenger side of the sensor shroud

What's everyone else do?
 
ShiWarrior said:
I leave mine in as mines hard wired in for parking mode

What did you get in the end?
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Ok thanks, still a bit worried as there tends be a fair bit of opportunist car crime round here but it's more of the opening unlocked door type than smash and grab

I got the Nextbase 422gw for the gps, WiFi and 1080p 60fps for £103 in Ithe end. I just run the cable to 12v in arm rest, cables are hidden and will look into a battery at some point as not hard wiring it.
 
conversely if the cameras too discrete a preventative angle is lost .....
given some of the recent post oif roundabout abuses/near collisions I do wonder whether the dash cam will effectively capture them, or,
accurately show wing mirror clipping incidents, which are the only accidents I've had over past years.

witth recent thread on jump-start battery pack, wonder if one of those could dual-purpose as a parking dash came battery
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TACKLIFE-Portable-Car-Jump-Starter/dp/B075HBDN95/
 
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