Specialised Dashcam Battery Vs General-Purpose Powerbank

smartialarts on 12/04/2024 - 10:35

Hey guys,

I want to power a car dashcam off a separate battery to avoid draining the car's battey.

I am considering getting a general-purpose powerbank like this one https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/827860 (24Ah @ $249) instead of more expensive specialised ones like CELLINK NEO8+S (7.5Ah @ $399).

More Ah, less $$$. Anything I am missing here? There seems to be no special "secret sauce" in those dashcam batteries, same LiFePo4 chemistry. Wiring might be a bit more involved, but still manageable.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

Automotive Dash Camera Power Bank

Comments

  • boomramada on 12/04/2024 - 10:38
    +7

    I wouldn't leave a power bank in a car on a hot summer day.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=powerbank+car+fire

    • smartialarts on 12/04/2024 - 10:42
      +1

      If it same chemistry battery as the specialised one there really is no difference.

      • eug on 12/04/2024 - 12:35
        +1

        That's true; if you can confirm the same battery chemistry it should be fine. Plenty of people run far larger LiFePO4 batteries in their 4WDs for camping.

        This small 12Ah one uses LiFePO4 cells, could be worth considering.

        • smartialarts on 12/04/2024 - 12:45

          Yeah, and the 24 Ah one is also "Lithium Iron Phosphate" so seems to be the same.

          • eug on 12/04/2024 - 12:49
            +1

            @smartialarts: Whoops I somehow missed that 24Ah link in your original post! :)

      • Caped Baldy on 12/04/2024 - 15:34

        I had a 20000mah xiaomi power bank expand after being forgotten in a hot car.

  • jugsy on 12/04/2024 - 10:47
    +1

    For that price, I reckon you could get a dashcam with a supercapacitor battery - made for this use, unlike lipos which will die hard and fast under this kind of usage

    • smartialarts on 12/04/2024 - 11:04
      +1

      I don't think you can rely on supercapacitors for parking mode recording - happy to be proven wrong.

      • eug on 12/04/2024 - 12:48
        +1

        Yup a supercapacitor definitely can't be used for parking mode; it's only enough to shut down the OS gracefully to avoid data corruption on the sd card.

  • Jaduqimon on 12/04/2024 - 10:54

    Yeh don't use power bank in car. Better off getting a second battery installed and wire that to the dashcam if your worried about draining battery

  • Jaduqimon on 12/04/2024 - 10:55
    +3

    If your car battery is healthy the dashcam drain shouldn't affect it much anyway if it's in parking mode. It will only record when detecting motion otherwise it runs at like 1fps.

    You can also install a hard switch on the power cable so u can turn it off while at home

    • jv on 12/04/2024 - 12:05

      so u can turn it off while at home

      Lots of car thefts happen from home these days.

      • billy72 on 21/04/2024 - 22:50

        if your dashcam doesn't have wifi/4g & cloud feature, then it's useless with thefts: )
        I think they mean parking in a safe garage when at home, not on the street or driveway

        • jv on 21/04/2024 - 23:02

          if your dashcam doesn't have wifi/4g & cloud feature, then it's useless with thefts: )

          Why?

  • Shadowsfury on 12/04/2024 - 12:52
    +1

    I don't do it in summer because fire but I do use one of my old xiaomi powerbanks in the car (10000mah one) which was just sitting at home doing nothing given I have 3 newer ones now. It's far from perfect and basically I just let it run for however long the battery will last.

    When I turn on the car it'll use quick charge to charge the battery, and then when car is off it might last 30min-X hours depending on how long I've been driving.

    Usually find when out and about its sufficient for my needs, and better than what I had before which would provide nothing when parked.

  • JIMB0 on 12/04/2024 - 14:02
    -1

    The car already has a large battery as standard. It will run a camera for days. Wire in solar panel of some sort to keep it topped up if you don't drive enough.

  • nizzkid on 12/04/2024 - 17:10
    -1

    You can use a battery/power bank sure.
    The only Cellink feature that makes a difference is the power switching when in/not in use from 12v acc power to battery power.
    Someone might even sell this small piece of electronics to add that function to a standard battery. Don't know.

    Don't ever use the cars cranking battery to power a dash cam in parking mode.

    • smartialarts on 12/04/2024 - 18:09

      The only Cellink feature that makes a difference is the power switching when in/not in use from 12v acc power to battery power.

      Do you mean it switches on-board power from car to the camera when the car's on and switches back to the battery when the car is off?

      • nizzkid on 21/04/2024 - 13:56

        Yes exactly.
        There is a problem with this setup though.
        It switches the dash cam to battery power which is great, but if you only drive short trips the battery cant get a good amount of charge in each trip.
        So the dash cam is constantly draining the battery to zero which isn't good.
        To fix the problem I have installed a relay which I can switch from 12v acc or cellink for power supply to the dash cam.
        So if I'm at home or work and don't need parking mode active draining the battery i can switch it to 12v acc. Which is disconnecting the cam from the cellink preserving the charge for when I'm parking in public.

    • billy72 on 21/04/2024 - 22:45

      I use a $10 usb switch :) just press 1 button when at home.

  • billy72 on 21/04/2024 - 22:51

    You should consider the fact that an external battery pack is not enough for overnight parking unless you use timelapse mode.

    • smartialarts on 03/06/2024 - 11:02

      That is not so.

      I ended up installing the 12Ah Kings powerbank for my FineVu GX1000 and it lasts several nights on a single change, in motion-detection & parking event detection mode, recording full-quality vids.

      • billy72 on 04/06/2024 - 15:20

        LOL, of course, those modes consume less energy than timelapse mode. It only record when it detects something

        • smartialarts on 13/06/2024 - 09:59

          That's an interesting assumption, and I was of the same opinion until I actually measured the current consumption.

          Specifically for my dashcam, FuneVu GX1000, this were the standby mA currents:

          • 350mA Motion detection mode
          • 350mA Timelapse
          • 330mA 15fps
          • 350mA Power Save
          • 60mA no parking mode recording

          As you can see there is no significant difference between the modes. Again, N=1, so your mileage may vary, and one should measure the consumption of their dashcam

          • billy72 on 13/06/2024 - 13:59

            @smartialarts: You need to include the duration in your math. There are some misunderstandings here. What I meant in the original comment was recording all night in normal mode or timelapse mode - that's what people often do when they have an external battery. I'm using two Blackvue battery packs and a switch to change the power source to them when parking outside. If you only use the motion detection mode, there's no need to invest in an external battery. It doesn't drain much power and has minimal impact on the car battery. A car battery is also not much more expensive than an external battery pack.

            • smartialarts on 14/06/2024 - 09:54

              @billy72: You can safely assume the current draw is fairly constant. I observed the readings for quite some time and they were stable.

              • czz on 19/08/2024 - 10:14

                @smartialarts: hi boss, in the same shoes… was wondering hows it operating? Anything you would change about the setup?

  • idd on 21/05/2024 - 14:07
    +1

    A dashcam that is hardwired with votlage protection (nothing lower than 12V) should prevent the car battery from draining whilst giving you several hours of parking mode - a lot of the customers I've installed dashcam, don't opt for a battery, and it'll operate perfectly fine (you will get some extra wear and tear on the battery, but nothing major)

    One of the featuers that make dashcam batteries different would be the ability to tell the dashcam, whether the car is on/off - because whilst in parking mode, the dashcam will use less power, where as a normal battery will keep the dashcam in "normal" mode and you'll get significantly less parking mode time.

    • eug on 21/05/2024 - 14:15

      One of the featuers that make dashcam batteries different would be the ability to tell the dashcam, whether the car is on/off

      The camera senses car on/off with the ACC wire on the hardwire kit; couldn't you just share the ground, connect the ACC wire like normal, but pull the constant 12V from the secondary battery instead?

      Alternatively adding a small relay on ACC can fully isolate the hardwire kit from the car battery to avoid sharing grounds.

      • idd on 22/05/2024 - 09:44

        I can definitely see this working - have you tried it? if so, any unexpected complexitites?

        • eug on 22/05/2024 - 11:33

          I haven't as I don't use parking mode; it just seemed reasonably straightforward to implement if I did.

          I'm probably waiting for my car to get hit in a car park before I set it up!

      • JIMB0 on 23/05/2024 - 07:32

        It depends on the dashcam. Blackvue only have one input and it senses that the car is stopped to automatically enter parking mode.

        Viofo has a constant 12v wire as well as one fed from accessories to tell it the car is running. When it loses accessories power it enters parking mode.

        • eug on 23/05/2024 - 09:24

          Blackvue only have one input and it senses that the car is stopped to automatically enter parking mode.

          That's even easier then. I wonder why other manufacturers don't just do that. I'm guessing when the G sensor detects no movement for a while, it assumes the car has parked. Wonder if it's a patent thing.

        • idd on 23/05/2024 - 09:48
          +1

          Blackvue definitely has an 12V and ACC wire, to trigger parking mode. But, it can also use its G sensor to detect if the car hasn’t moved for 5min to trigger parking mode - it will trigger based on whatever happens first.

          • JIMB0 on 23/05/2024 - 10:40

            @idd: Looks like they changed it for the newer models. My older model only had a ground and 12v wire going to the plug.

            • idd on 23/05/2024 - 11:50

              @JIMB0: If you have the old 2-wire hardwire kit, its should be wired to ground and ACC - not 12V, as it does not have voltage protection. You should be using the Blackvue Power Magic Pro to trigger parking mode for the older models.

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